Gordon Biersch offers great views, but dismal service
By CRYSTAL PETROCELLI
Get Out

Wait: We stand in front of two chatty hostesses for a few seconds before the uninterested twosome tell us it's open seating in the bar ... (long pause) ... or we can sit in the dining room. At 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday, we're one of about 10 people who aren't at the bar.

Service: The thoughtlessness continues when the hostess puts us at one of the few tables with an unlit votive. Not a huge deal, but it sums up the overall lack of interest this crew seems to have in its customers.

Our waiter, who looks to be in his early 20s, asks the kitchen to split our shared salad, but that's the only brownie point he gets.

Refills are a problem, and at one point, all four of our drinks sit dry while he chills in a booth with his co-workers.

Even though there is ample space surrounding us, he lazily reaches across each of our faces more than once to grab things. And when he does grab things, he can't seem to do so without clanking something. I don't know how we escaped unscathed.

With silverware on plates, we wait for our server to clear the mess. Instead, he buses old tables, removes all the votives (ours is still out) and then puts up a bunch of chairs. He wipes down his wait station counter and then, finally, pays his only table a visit.

Meal: The chopped Asian chicken salad and Southwest egg rolls get four thumbs up. The rolls — which are perfect at a notch below tongue-burn temperature — are sliced lengthwise, which puts the good stuff (shredded chicken, black beans, corn, roasted red peppers and pepper jack cheese) on the fast track to our tongues.

The chicken marsala's wine and mushroom sauce is too sweet, and the unnaturally shaped pieces of chicken are not appealing. The side of linguine tastes like it went straight from the colander wash to the plate.
They forgot to add butter, garlic or any seasonings for that matter to the mound of chunky mashed potatoes. And they missed forking about a quarter-chunk of tater, too.

The pizza was more like flatbread with a sprinkle of cheese and a splash of sauce — edible but plain.

Scene: Tempe is sort of dead on Sundays, and the scene at this Palo Alto, Calif.-based brewery reflects that. There's a group of can-we-split-the-bill-seven-ways kids behind us, but the majority of the action is a good 100 feet away in the bar. Pink, Sheryl Crow and some unrecognizable R&B play overhead. The second-story patio offers outstanding views.

Bathroom break: Clean but dark (middle stall's bulb is out).

Tab for four: $100 with tip and tax for shrimp and chicken pot stickers ($8.95), Southwest egg rolls ($7.95), Asian chicken salad ($11.25), meatloaf ($13.95), sausage and basil pizza ($10.95), chicken marsala ($14.50), carrot cake ($5.95) and two sodas ($2.25 each).

If work weren't buying: I would write a letter to Gordon Biersch in hopes of a refund.

Gordon Biersch
420 S. Mill Ave., Tempe

Major cross streets: Mill Avenue and Fifth Street
Hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday and Monday; 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday; 11 a.m. to midnight Friday and Saturday
Reservations accepted: Yes
Health report: Six major violations on May 2
Kid friendly: Yes
Web site: www.gordonbiersch.com

SCORECARD
Food C-
Service D
Scene C+
Bathrooms B
Overall C-