Disclaimer: Primarily A Staff Review after Addressing our Dining Visit
In all fairness, one star less only due to the seriousness of addressing quality control.
Passing through this area of AZ, we had an impromptu lunch catching up with friends here, as they selected the venue based on a previous enjoyable dining experience. Really open dining area, bright, upbeat, and with attentive service. My experience here, I admit, can NOT be about the food per say. Hospitality in Arizona is very consistently positive. Despite our unfortunate experience here, my review will display how the treatment from the venue staff really affects a customer's dining experience in its entirety. I chose a light appetizer of the mango salsa ahi poke on tortilla bites to share, as we had just had a huge breakfast earlier in the day. Our friends highly recommended the tacos and the mushroom enchilada. There is a trio of salsa and chips to accompany our meal. I felt festive and ordered a summer sangria and it was delicious. On the first bite of the ahi mango appetizer however, my guy immediately stopped chewing and pulls out a metal item. It shocked all of us... As it was the tip of a knife or some blade of a food processor maybe, but the size of his thumbnail. It is by far the scariest dining incident I have ever encountered. Immediately, he excused himself to the restroom to remove anything else he had in his mouth still and came back assuring us he was okay. By that time, our server already addressed us, removed our appetizer without hesitation, asked us if we may want something else. Within moments, the manager approaches us to ensure everyone's safety. Initially, before this review, I was hesitant to report on this Yelp forum vs their corporate site, what happened, as I really did not want to make it any more unfavorable as the situation was addressed thoroughly , but in hopes that other diners may ever encounter something like this, gosh forbid, they also will have the management be as attentive and professional as we encountered. In the end, the staff did their best to remedy this unfortunate experience. We can see how absolutely sorry they are. They immediately addressed needing to remove any processed food items necessary or already been prepared with similar tools, and all inspection of their kitchen tools in use. I'm confident they are inspecting each item thoroughly and continuously even after this particular incident. I ordered up a cup of chicken tortilla soup in the meantime and still enjoyed my cocktail. My guy insisted he was okay and while his appetite, understandably enough, went away, he did not dwell on it any further. We have both worked in the dining industry and while we have never encountered something like this, we genuinely feel it could have happened to anyone, maybe even in my own kitchen. Maybe exaggerated, maybe not. Scary, nonetheless. The staff addressed the situation very professionally. I don't know myself, what further they could have done. The manager hands me his card, even after learning we were from CA, and insists that if we ever do return, to be certain to ask for him. He notes that he hopes we will return for another visit in the future and give them a chance again. Without our asking or expectations, yes they ended up comping our meal in its entirety, still pologizing profusely. We made sure to leave a generous gratuity because I can't deny our server was anything but awesome and displays genuine pride in his job, even prior to the incident at hand. He had even suggested a new brunch place to check out since we commented earlier how we loved Cracker Barrel in AZ, engaging in conversation with us. I truly feel they wish they could have done more for us. But, we really couldn't press the issue any further as we were all safe from what we could see. Made for an interesting lunch topic, though! Relieved no one was hurt, more than anything. Angry, no. Would we return? I feel we may. My only wish is that they continue to check their kitchen tools and I hope nothing like this ever occurs again. I think we all learned something invaluable from this situation.