john "Haltse" p.'s Profile

From a couple of months back.

No coffee ready took quite a while because they didn't have cups clean. NO ,really.  No chipotle wings because they are out of sauce. Server walked off before wife could order. 10 plus mins to return so you can guess how this review is going to add up.

Wife got angry with me because my surprise was quite audible re the cup excuse.10-15 mins to locate and clean a cup but at that point I was just hoping to get the meal over with.

Maybe it's my own fault but the service kinda changed from dismissive to not quite hostile but with a degree of contempt usually found  on staff at  tow yards. If you have a gluten free family member it's really really hard to find places to go  but at near $80 bill for 3 GF pizzas, 1 app and no real drinks  it just doesn't have the service to cover  the cost for "ok" pizza.  Really not doing a food review because if you have any reason at all to eat real pizza you don't need to come here:)

This is very much a review of this location and not the chain.

It would be nice if the busy periods where they have an order taker outside was done with a bit more courtesy,"what do you want"  wouldn't be it. Small enough to ignore but add in the fact diet soda has never been root beer, my kids hamburger with only ketchup/tomato now = cheeseburger.Nice one.

Also these have to be the worst travelling burgers re their heat retention. I live pretty close and it wasn't remotely as good as eating it right there, e.g, 3 minutes is a long time in the desirability of this food.

So that's 1 order, 3 things wrong it's like they think they are fricking Wendy's or something:)

For me it's a straight out five but when you go with others that may not be plane-crazy there really isn't much in the way of education going on here that may make them change their mind. The space part is weak and like most of the exhibits  I know, duh biased to the US in a way that flight museums tend to be within the USA, it's ok you guys made the most beautiful plane,ever,the DC3 and pioneered powered heavier than air flight so there's no need to be scared just tell the whole story you come out great :)

As an aside I get the feeling that the helicopter is the red-headed stepchild of the lot,little inflation in the tires now again would give them back some dignity.

Anyway back to the good stuff : Some of the best museum food,and staff,  I've found are on the on-site grill and the prices were pretty reasonable given the location. A big plus is they are dog-friendly for the  hangers and the main grounds.Free parking  and a pretty good giftshop, usual plastic kid crap to some nice art and history books of the museum.Well worth a return visit.

They tried to kill me, and I love them for it.  

When a company posts a wing challenge usually covertly by  using terms fire, insanity,suicide or death wings I have to try it.Nearly every place using those terms in the valley are liars. If it's a chain restaurant Suicide wings =  a penguin's dangly bits.

I am one of those idiots that frequents hot-sauce forums, sites and other places where my legal high can be obtained or discussed with those similarly afflicted so I took them up on the $15 challenge to eat 10 in 10 minutes, prize for 2 hours of speaking in tongues and humming a Johnny Cash tune?  Picture on wall and T-shirt plus not having to do it again:) The wings are caked in a habanero reduction that is more a  volume of heat eaten rather than insanely hot. Try it.It's awesome way to spend  20-30 minutes:D

Thankfully they have more affordable, livable, Zombie wings for those times you have enough T Shirts in your wardrobe but still need that kick. Their Hellzapoppin burger is rather good too.  Nice people,been in several times and orders have been quick, hot, correct and the food is a great value for money. 5/5  purely on heat  4/5  on food..5/5 value  So 4.7 stars rounded up:)

From a couple of weeks back we were more looking for a place that did beer first and then the food would be "nice to have"  

Early Oktoberfest seemed to be the theme as they were stuffing kraut onto, into and around everything on the fly out menus but it was pretty much just the shape of kraut and,unsurprisingly,nowhere near what passes for it when it's been made by people that care.

I had their 2am burger which, is  described as having crispy hash-brown and an egg atop the burger which sounded like a good idea 3 hours prior to 2am. Problem is the crispy hash-browns were in the form of a patty that wouldn't be out of place at McD's in the am:(   Seriously why bother getting the rest of the ingredients together , steakburger, egg and bacon then just shoving a frozen potato turd atop it?   Treated as a bar with food gets it a low 3 , treating it as a restaurant .. yeah let's not go there.

Been here twice and had a great experience both times.

Good wings, a decent heat from the hot sauce and a decent bottle of hot sauce on the table, TY Tabasco is not the only fruit:)

The appetizers are large, sharing big plate with kid wasn't an issue and realistically your kid needs a big appetite to get through the normal offering.

Entrees are also hearty and probably not the place to attempt their ribs or chicken before any exercise ( plan your dates accordingly )

I just can't get a 5 when the  famously advertised chili beer isn't being made , and the blue moon had ran out.  Bar's selling out of beer when there's not a celtic family reunions just shouldn't happen.

Will return a few more times and I'm betting I can get them up to a 5

It's cynical beyond belief re the food and not that well thought out re the games.

The games are not really well thought out in relation to the ages they cater for. Our six year old  couldn't see  above the modded "gun" games,nor reach pedals on the couple of race games there were. There are no steps/ accommodations for that and  he's too old for the simple games. Ergo.. not a lot to keep a kid used to Gameworks or Jillian's busy.  

Staff were friendly,helpful and attentive, the place was clean but  that's not really a selling point,that's meant to be a given. Our son still had fun so when you are aiming at kids without standards fun can be had.

They have the audience, we're already paying over the top for the food so seriously spend the extra $ or 2 on the pizza and add it into the price. $17 for edible vs $15 for 3/4 left would be a nice thing. I can't reconcile  their website's "fresh"  ingredients with the pizza motif floor-tiling we received.

:update. Letter to their Corp office went unanswered seems like they know what they are doing:)

2nd update. Eventually got a call but it was agreed that we disagreed on how pizza should taste, they may use fresh mozzarella daily and new dough 2x a week but it's been brutalized to the point it's scare to rise:) .. Main review still stands.

Place is going downhill.  For years I've been coming here I've noticed a degradation in service within the general dining area to the point that I usually sit in the bar area as the people there seem to get service.  

Until today.

Example from today. service  here was very poor. Ignored our request of seating, make it seem like it's an imposition when we mention it. It's ok we can wait.  Then server forget the beer till food arrived,then forget the hatch side for a while leaving me  an under fired meal for most of it, yeah I like it going cold.

Many of us used to go here for lunch as I work nearby but the place is practically impossible to get a group to now as one of the checks isn't right or an order is missed.  It's food has been consistently good and since I am a heat junkie it's the nearest New Mex place to my work an obvious choice.  A choice that's getting harder to justify with days like this.

Been here 3 times in the month and have had a different experience each time. E.G., Older guy talks to you , younger staff, ( either sex) tend to communicate in a perfunctory manner so it's not the great service one goes for.

Onto the ice itself,First two visits was an improvement over the usual attempt at  shave ice in Phoenix and the spread of the syrup and retention till the end were pretty good. Today's made it half-way down  then ice all the way and the visit prior was close to that too.

Tropical sno's flavors aren't that subtle , not  a huge fan of the insulated cups for the larger sizes which seems to be an issue with how the ice on the bottom  freezes into bigger lumps that doesn't happen on the smaller plastic cup.   Maybe a 3 on a good day but not much more.  While it takes not much more effort to get this right I'm betting you can' t do it within the contstraints of a franchise..

There's a lot of rock to get through to find out if this place is going to be a diamond in the rough.

I don't want to give this place any halo effect from  excellent concert we attended there. E.G.,  not  reviewing Roger Clyne  (5* btw:) )  but  the venue itself.

It's not finished, appears to  be poor on safety grounds ( really slow at removing piles of beer  from the cans  so many chances to stumble, / stick your foot in glass.  And the toilets are stuck somewhere around platorm 9 3/4. Luckily they had a guard posted with a light to show which door was the mens. ( yep  it's that unfinished)

Thankfully on the seriously hot ,for indoors, night the prices for the water / beer was reasonable. Crowd started to thin out well before the end so they are doing something seriously wrong here.   Oh hell they know what they did , more a warning to others to check out the current state of the place before you pay a lot of money to take a sauna with 1000 of your closest friends.

For a reflective barn it sounded good , ok the main act sounded good and I'd hate to think they shared the same sound guy because  it was night and day.

The extra cash for the "vip" area wasn't worth it it's higher up with worse AC than the main area and the seats were all taken way before we could get in.Upperbar  staff  were oblivious to our attempt to order so we joined the main floor and  had no trouble getting served in a reasonable amount of time.