Fox Restaurants is part of my portfolio of good eats, however Culinary Dropout in Tempe is not 1 of them. First off; the make up air system for the exhaust grease hoods is waaayyy off, when you enter the building you experience the "wiff" of a back alley Japanese teppanyaki grease fryer-smoke sensation, I had to drop off my clothes at the dry cleaners the next morning to rid this odor. If your not familiar with make up air its the air that is pumped in from the roof to provide the exhaust grease hood to make up for the air its exhausting, sometimes too close to an HVAC unit on the roof it gets pumped in for the patrons to breathe and smell. Second; the layout feels like a junior high school cafeteria with tables lined up in parallel, with all the "cool kids" having fun tossing bags of beans back and forth in the adjoining Yard. Third; our server was pleasant, speedy, but lacked a smile, maybe had a bad day who knows? Fourth; we ordered the "36 hour pork ribs", mistake, they were cold, apx. room temperature or just below, I felt like a cave man chewing the hard to separate meat off the bone, after which we asked where the restrooms were so we could wash our hands from all of the bbq sauce, our server pointed the way down a dreary hallway, why don't they provide a wet nap at minimum, for the $25 plate they should provide a hot towel!
Culinary Dropout is a great matching name for the restaurant, I think every one staffed there may just be Drop Outs...