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| - I'm having a hard time reviewing San Tan.
There are things that I like A LOT. Namely, the supremely soft and tasty HUGE pretzels served with beer cheese (yum) and mustard. The winter dessert - an amazing Sex Panther Brownie (seriously wonderful) topped with incredible peanut butter ice cream and chocolate fudge sauce. Their chicken fingers are surprisingly delicious, and the battered thick cut fries are completely addictive.
I love the look of the interior, how open and comfortable it is, the little remnants of the bank that once inhabited the space (safe deposit boxes comprise the base for the benches in the waiting area, the safe behind the hostess' stand).
I really like that almost every time we've visited, a manager will pass by and touch the table, checking to see if everything is good.
I love that it is located in Downtown Chandler and just feels like a quintessentially local place - it isn't trying to be anything else, it has it's own identity and that is so great and very different than many other trendy spots in town.
There are also lots of things that are just hit and miss.
I want to be able to say "the food is really good" ... except that there are so many inconsistencies. My first attempt at an entree was the Buffalo Chicken Sandwich. When I think bar food, I think Buffalo, and I love a good Buffalo anything! Unfortunately, instead of the breaded goodness soaked in spicy buffalo sauce that I was expecting, I got a weirdly grilled chicken breast that had some watery sauce on it.. I tasted more char from the grill than buffalo sauce flavoring. On another visit, I had temporary amnesia (or just bad decision making) and opted to try their wings, again expecting a more traditional buffalo chicken wing and getting ... not that. It was equally disappointing for many of the same reasons. Then, I finally thought I'd found my dish: the brisket macaroni and cheese with barbeque onions ... the thing was huge (basically a family-size platter of mac) but so delicious that I had to stop myself so that we could have some leftovers. On our next visit, I could not WAIT to dig into that dish.. until I got it, and there was no brisket to be found and chunks of undercooked onion littered throughout the pasta like little bombs of unpleasant texture and over pungent flavor. Subsequent experiments have included Pepperoni Pizza (completely adequate) and the Pulled Pork Sandwich (pretty okay) ... nothing has really blown me away and that's too bad. The summer dessert - a blondie with coconut icecream - is pretty disappointing, although I can't determine if that is because I actually don't like it or because the two times we've ordered it, it has been served to us as a melted puddle of mess by the time it reaches our table.
I really like the atmosphere inside. I'm probably going to sound like an old person now, but it is way way way too loud. The actual cacophony of stuffing lots of people into the space is not the problem, it is the way too loud and poor quality sound from their speaker system that takes it to a totally unpleasant level. Whether it is the typical piped in music or the (sometimes questionably talented) live musicians, the speakers placed to either side of the main dining alcove to the right as you enter makes any of the adjacent tables completely uncomfortable for any extended dining experience, let alone trying to have a conversation with your dining companions.
We've tried to remedy this by sitting outside and often this does help (even though it is often a bit on the too hot side, or the too wet side when the misters get crazy) however they apparently allow smoking on the patio as we've been overwhelmed by clouds of smoke from adjacent tables on multiple occasions.
Service is generally passable, but sometimes not very good. The servers are young and seem pretty inexperienced. In the aforementioned dessert debacles, both times I brought it to our server's attention and each time they just shrugged and walked away. You often need to wait longer than you probably should, and the attitude is just a little bit too bothered on a consistent basis.
Pricing is also pretty expensive for what this place is - basic, pretty alright bar food in a very casual setting.
I definitely think you should check it out and it is very likely you will love it. I want to love it and keep hoping that my experiences will start an upward trend sometime soon.
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