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13 reviews for Kokopelli Winery
13 reviews in English
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Review from Jessica P.
Phoenix, AZ
5/30/2009
I love wine and trying a bunch of different wines. I have seen Kokopelli wines in Sedona and wanted to try them so I was highly enthused to see they were within a couple miles of my house!
So I'm going to be honest... since shaving my head, I test people's ability to not judge a book by its cover, especially when I'm a customer. I watch carefully how I am treated to see if there is any change that's different from what I was normally get with my longer hair.
This place was NO ISSUE at all. I could have walked in with purple skin for all they cared. That was a plus right up front.
We were seated promptly on a Thursday night to some really nice live music. He was enjoyable, talking with the other patrons and with us. His music was excellent to listen to while eating also, not too loud or anything.
Waitress was fine... she was attentive, no issues with her.
We ordered the crab and artichoke appetizer and it clearly wasn't what I expected. It actually had a texture and taste of an excellent chunky soup that I could have had, rather than a dip. It was slightly bland but good, just totally against what I expected that it kinda threw me off.
I was hoping my food wouldn't turn out like that.
I had the pasta Danielle which was very good, although again slightly bland. Had the spice it needed, but didn't have taste behind it.
The key here... add salt. I hate adding salt as typically most dishes have enough to begin with, but these clearly didn't. As soon as I added salt, it was great.
The wines are awesome... love the Sweet Lucy, which is a sweet red. I also had the Merlot which is awesome also. I'm not one for Chianti's, but my partner had a Chianti and it was better than some german chianti's I've tried.
The decor of wine barrels on the wall is nice and comfortable, a bar in the center of everything with a tv which appeared to have a good selection of alcohol.
There was a good number of people in there for a Thursday night, which surprised me. Most of the patrons were of senior age, which may explain the food.
I will go back though to try some more. -
Review from Melissa H.
Surprise, AZ
8/30/2008
It's finally open!
After months of delays the Surprise Kokopelli Winery is finally open. I am a fan of Kokopelli and their wine. The best wine ever, no, but I enjoy sweeter wines on occassion and they have a decent selection to chose from.
The new bistro is huge. It has a separate tasting room that can be reserved, a little gift shop set up behind the hostess stand, and a huge half circle bar that opens up to the two dining areas. The menu is about 3 times bigger than the chandler location, which is nice, everyone needs more variety. My husband has tried the fish and chips (tilapia and sweet potato fries) and enjoyed them. I have had their cordon bleu pasta and their pot roast, both were tasty.
Wine will run you 6-7 dollars a glass, but they do have happy hour 3-4, and 8-close most nights. Live music is offered thursday- saturday.
It is not going to win everyone over, but it is just so nice to have variety in Surprise, that they are going to do well, especially since wine + "active adults"= cash flow. -
Review from Tony S.
El Mirage, AZ
Updated - 1/28/2009
This place had interesting food. But upon a new recent visit, and some time to think about it, I have to state loudly and for the record, beware of the service here!
All through our meal I kept trying to decide if the service was bad or just slow. The waitress just didn't appeal to my sense of fine dining and she started off by literally hollering at our table "SO WHO'S READY FOR A DRINK?" like we are a bunch of lushes or something...it just seemed odd that she hadn't even introduced herself yet, and we had been waiting for a bit.
I'm going to have to pass on these guys and think that if you are looking for a fine dining experience, keep looking.1 Previous Review: Show all »
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12/24/2008
I had the fish & chips and the wife had something that was quite the concoction. Overall, it was… Read more »
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Review from John M.
Surprise, AZ
10/19/2008
My wife has been looking to try this place out since they opened a short while ago. I didn't have a good feeling about it. It's in a strip mall, and I never think of Surprise as a wine connoisseur town. We went on a Friday and had to wait about 10 minutes to be seated. When we were being seated we were brought to a room off to the side of the main entrance, not the main dining area. We were the only ones in this room. We couldn't hear any of the live music from the dining area and there was a stainless steel sink on the wall about 4 feet from our table. There were also several boxes in various spots in the room......I think this may have been a temporary storage room that also served as overflow seating. As soon as I sat down, it felt totally awkward and asked to sit in the dining room. We were told that it would be a long wait. We told the hostess we were leaving. She found a table in the dining room for us before we reached the door.
As for the food. I had the Roast Beef, wife had the Penne with Sun dried Tomatos/shrimp. The Roast Beef wasn't as tender as I hoped it would be, but I wouldn't call it tough. Good flavor. The veggies and mashed potatoes were also good. Meals were reasonable priced, and service was excellent. Neither of us had any wine, but I'm thinking that the next time we will. Curious to see what Arizona wines are all about.
Oh.....live music, a jazz duo was playing, very nice touch.
Being so close to Sun City Grand, the crowd was mostly retirees. If they can win over the SCG crowd, they'll be here for a long time. -
Review from William R.
Surprise, AZ
11/19/2009
Kokopelli wines - just a step or two above Boone's Farm. Anybody that can sell a "Wine-A-Rita" with a straight face (a margarita favored wine? What's the point?) can't actually be called a winery in my book.
The food? Well, my wife and I visited one night, and ordered the Prime Rib, medium rare (the only way to eat Prime Rib in my opinion). The waitress told us that they only had medium left (this was only 7pm). We said that would be fine - just a slight bit more cooked.
Well, apparently, the cooks here don't understand the difference between medium, and WELL BURNT. What we got was what most people refer to as BURNT ENDS. The meat was like 3 day old pot roast, and the edges were burnt on everything. A really disgusting piece of meat. The baked potato? Save yourself some money and time, and go through Wendy's drive-through.
All in all, a very dis-satisfying visit. We won't be back. -
Review from Matt H.
Surprise, AZ
12/10/2008
Me and the wife tend to get around the valley despite our westside digs, one of these places was the kokopelli winery/bistro in chandler, I wouldn't call us connoseurs but we have an appreciation for wine and aren't afraid to invest in a few bottles when we find a nice wine shop. Kokopelli has been one of these consistent wines, we tend to lean towards sweet whites and find they offer some derivation of almost all or our favorite varietals (reisling, muscat, sauvignon etc) The food has always been consistently good and we were thrilled when we heard we were getting a Kokopelli in surprise, after visiting the surprise location, we were pleased to find that the same consistency and quality carries over from the chandler location, at my last visit I ordered the fish and chips, which were severals strips of tilapia wiht crunchy tasty panko breading. the atmosphere is casual especially with the sun city crowd, they usually have live music a few nights a week.
We'll definitely be visiting this place more often now that they're in our neighborhood -
Review from Bri D.
Seattle, WA
3/11/2009
Like a few other reviewers, I was less than satisfied with the service here. Our friends brought us here one weekend and told us it was one of the places they liked to go. We went in for lunch and were presented with the lunch menus. Unfortunately, nothing looked particularly interesting except for the mac and cheese wedge. WTF is that? Out of curiosity and because of my long standing relationship with mac and cheese, I ordered it. For those of you wondering what it is, it is pretty much mac and cheese that is baked in a square dish, then cut into wedges so it is a big congealed triangle of cheesy pasta. I give this place credit for the presentation of my food. However it was less than average. Between everyone's mediocre food and our terrible/rude/impatient service, we will not be going back.
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Review from Jake A.
Surprise, AZ
Updated - 7/9/2010
Another one bites the dust. Kokopelli in Surprise has closed. Disappointed.
Listed in: The Places I Go Out
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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9/27/2009
Finally made it to Kokopelli's. Had been going to Vogue, but we had been wanting to try something… Read more »
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Review from Beth S.
1/27/2009
I've been to Kokopelli a couple of times now and I've held off writing a review because they are kinda new. I feel now at this stage of the game, they are due for their review.
Each time I've gone to Kokopelli, I've gone with a group of at least 8 people. The first time was for my husband's birthday. I made a reservation for my group, but we didn't get seated for more than 30 minutes after our arrival time and our reservation time had gone by. It wasn't until I complained and said we were going to walk did a table for 8 suddenly open up. This last time when we went, we were seated promptly and our table was ready and waiting for us.
The service at Kokopelli is very laid back. When I say laid back, I mean in the "just a sec, hon" kind of way. First off, I'm not your hon, sweetie, darling, or any other condescending monicker that rolls off the tongue of someone who isn't really up to the task. It irks me to no end when I am called this by a server and it seriously drastically takes away from your tip. So, when our server walked by and made eye contact with me while our party of 9 was being seated, I got the "be right there, hon" and I knew it was gonna be a wild ride.
Said server came back a few minutes later and took everyone's drink orders, promptly calling each person in our party, sweetie or hon. *insert eye roll here*. When she returned, she had forgotten one of our party's drinks so she had to go back for it. She then took our salad and appetizer orders again to a barrage of sweetie and hons. When the apps and salads came out, she had forgotten our Crab and Artichoke dip. When I asked her about it, she got the "oh yeah!" look and went to check it out immediately.
I should note in this part that it's not actually crab in the Crab and Artichoke dip, but Krab. This was disappointing but we were hungry so we dealt. The dip itself was blah. I imagine it's supposed to be served hot, but ours was luke warm at best. It was just eh.
The kitchen staff the past couple of visits has appeared sparce to me. And when I say sparce, I mean I only see 2 guys working the kitchen...and that on a busy evening service isn't necessarily a good thing. On both visits to Kokopelli, it has taken more than 20 minutes from the time we were FINISHED with our apps to the time we receive our dinner. This particular time, we didn't get our dinner until 30 minutes after we had FINISHED our apps and salads. This to me is very slow service. For this, I blame the kitchen, but I have to wonder if it's possible that the server doesn't tell the kitchen to fire the dinners until she sees we are done. Either way, it's way too long to sit there waititng for dinner to arrive. I don't expect it dropped in front of me as I take my last bite of app, but within 10 minutes seems reasonable...not 30.
So, yet again, said server didn't bring a couple of items that my companions had ordered so she had to go back for them. This was getting annoying, but we barreled forward. I had ordered the Pasta Danielle with Crab....er I mean KRAB and Shrimp. This was supposed to have a creole sauce in it but it was more like alfredo with a few red pepper flakes. It wasn't even a red sauce! Sorry. That's not creole. But by this time, I was hungry and ain't no way was I sending this one back for fear that we would never see it again. My hubby had the fish and chips which he loves. The chips are sweet potato fries which are delish. 3 of my guests had the ribeye cooked to varying degrees. One companion ordered it with bleu cheese and apparently it was the bleu cheese that made the dish because the others said it was just blah at best. In fact, they ordered a side of bleu cheese just to make the steak go down a little easier. Another companion had the pasta cordon bleu which she enjoyed but there wasn't any chicken in it. Apparently you had to order the chicken separately which she didn't realize. I couldn't see what the others had but they seemed to enjoy it.
We all also ordered dessert. We had the apple crisp, pecan pie, and bread pudding. Of course server AND kitchen forgot one of the bread puddings so when it was finally brought out to our companion, most of us were finished. On top of that, when he took his bite, it was SO HOT that he burned his mouth. Nice. Thanks for over-nuking the dessert. He didn't bother to finish it but decided to take it home.
I have to wonder if the service is better with smaller parties, but honestly, I don't think I'm going to go back to find out. It's hard to expect an establishment to treat it's parties of 2 any better than it's parties of 9 because it's all in the skill of the service staff. The wine is nice at kokopelli so buy a bottle and enjoy at home. At least you'll be free from the sweetie and hon saga. -
Review from Krista B.
3/21/2010
This place has spotty service. it took almost 2 hours to get our food one night. the food is o-kay, although nice to see a somewhat original menu here in surprise. the wine? meh. it's nothing special.
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Review from Mike O.
Peoria, AZ
Updated - 1/16/2009
Thought I should tell you. My wife and a bunch of the neighborhood gals went there last nite on the "Girls Night Out" and raved about the food and the service. My wife recommended the Reserve wines and those who ordered wine likede the Reserve. They got the front group room and thought it was just perfect - they could talk without the noise of the main dining room and they had a great waitress. Definite (Return To).
1 Previous Review: Show all »
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1/13/2009
First visit, and on a Friday night, and it was a very good experience. We had reservations that got… Read more »
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Review from Kimberly C.
San Jose, CA
1/25/2009
Good food, good wine. Great bartenders. I'm not from the area but it was a nice relaxing place to go while visiting friends in Surprise.
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Review from Heather R.
Surprise, AZ
6/20/2010
Called us on Father's Day, an hour before our reservation, to tell us they were going out of business! Horrible!
