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I ACTUALLY ATE THERE LAST NIGHT!! - Unlike 99% of the "reviewers" here!
(Check the photo album for a pic of my receipt)
(I ate there Tuesday, May 21-- The Grand Reopening night)
We were invited to the grand reopening and got the first reservations at 5:00. We were the first two parties seated when they opened the doors.
Yes, Samy was there working the front of the house and Amy was doing the cooking. There was a crowd waiting but you had to be on "the list" to get in. It seemed like they sat 2 tables every few minutes so they didn't get slammed with 100 orders all at once.
There were reporters and gawkers all over outside but also Scottsdale police, security and the PR people guarding the door. They also had a professional video crew and photographers inside. We had to sign waivers to get in..
We were the first seated. It was obvious that the staff was probably all brand new and understandably quite awkward with their first very customers.
We ordered the infamous "truffle oil" bacon burger and a pizza. After ordering, just like on the show, the servers were grouped behind Samy, looking over his shoulder, waiting for him to enter their orders into the terminal.
The food came out in a fairly reasonable amount of time and was actually quite good.
The pizza was perfectly cooked and the nice thick burger was tasty and moist but not at all "soggy". The burger was $14.50 and didn't include fries, but did have a small garnish salad on the side of the plate. It looked hand formed and was more than an inch thick. The pizza was quite good and a pretty darn reasonable value.
Samy came over a few times to ask how things were and when he saw us all typing into our phones and taking pictures of our food, he just asked us only to think for ourselves, be fair, and tell the truth.
We were there for just about 2 hours but that was mostly because they were slow getting started after being closed for days, had a brand new crew and were also managing the circus there.
We asked about Amy. Samy said she personally cooks every single meal and could not step out of the kitchen. We did spot her a few times and sure enough was speeding around working her butt off in the kitchen.
As we were leaving, I began to think the drama on the show was actually real.
Samy was nice enough, but clearly the stress was building and that's not good for someone who doesn't seem to handle stress well.
As the place began getting more full and the flow was going, there were 15 or so tables in play. They were in various stages of being seated, ordering, eating, paying and waiting to be bussed, the wheels began to come off.
He politely asked us how everything was but as I briefly responded he began to loudly clap his hands together, as you would at a bad dog, and yell at a bus boy about not doing his job and his need to listen for the bell.
So bottom line, the food was much better than it looked on TV but I saw enough to believe the volatile personalities, and subsequent trainwreck, were very real.
I've received a few questions about the waiver:
There were a bunch of TV stations and newspaper reporters there but they were being chased away from the door by the security guards and actual Scottsdale police.
Inside was a photographer and a video crew taping everything.
The waiver was a pretty standard "You know we're taping this, we're not paying you and we can do whatever we want with the tape" type deal.
I'm not sure what the taping was for, but they weren't intrusive.
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