St Francis

[phxmacbear]

I have been meaning to try St Francis for EVER and had never gotten around to it. So when I made plans to meet some friends for dinner this week, it was a good halfway point. They had been before and were happy to meet us there. I've heard SO many good things about this place, and the fact that my friends were happy to go back left me feeling very good about our choice.

Fast forward to dinner...what a letdown.
First strike: mandatory valet parking. Ugh. Hate valet. Oh well. Not a dealkiller.
Second strike: Apparently when you make a reservation, they hold the worst possible table for you. We sat at the first table when you walk into the dining room. The one that is between the drink station and the silverware station. Aside from constantly being in the middle of every server in the place...and them squeezing behind one of our chairs to get to other tables rather than walking around us, the placement of the silverware station comes into play later.
Third strike: Noise level. Holy Mother of God...I've never eaten in such a LOUD place. I get the whole concrete, metal, glass sound thing. This was so far beyond that. Unbearable.
Fourth strike (I know, there should only be 3 strikes, but I'm not much into sports anyway so I'm claiming ignorance)...Fourth Strike: The Food. Yes, I know i only ordered a chicken salad sandwich and maybe that's MY fault. But dammit, it SAID chicken salad with currants and zatar spice and i thought it would be just SO tasty in the way that curry chicken salad usually is. Wrong. Yes, the flatbread was likely fresh and just-baked and that was yummy, but the chicken salad had NO flavor. Zero. and there was so little of it on the sandwich. The fries it was served with were just ok. Nothing wrong with them i guess, more just personal preference. I hate home cut, greasy soft fries. I like 'em crispy and thin. Corn soup looked promising, all thick and golden with a roasted green chili laying across the top - but instead it just tasted like buttery cream with a hint of corn flavor.
Fifth Strike - My friends had to ask for refills, despite the server being at our table twice to see their empty glasses. They actually had to flag her down. By this time, my glass was empty as well. She brings back their refills and leaves. Never checks me or my partner's drinks. I know the debate over service vs food, etc. but drink refills are kind of a pet peeve for me. So many servers nail it beautifully that those who don't just seem sub-par to me.
Sixth strike - Throughout the meal we were bombarded with the noise of clean silverware being brought by the box full from the kitchen to the counter RIGHT NEXT to us, where it would be dumped into bins and then servers would sort and roll them into napkins. So we had a front-and-center view to this next strike. Server is chatting to other server while folding napkins and silverware. CLANG CLANG! She drops a knife on the floor. The noise was so loud it caught our attention so we look over and all of us are just poised, horrified, our eyes all pleading "No! Dear God, No!"...but yep...she wiped that knife off with a dry cloth and wrapped it right up in a napkin to be put on someone's table.
Seventh Strike - we put down two credit cards and tell her to just split the ticket in half. She says "I can split it by seat if you want"...so we're like ok, whatever. She holds out my friends card and they confirm that that is for the two of them. She returns with two tickets, and of course, they have been rung up backwards. And it wasn't an insignificant difference...my friends had $20+ entrees and dessert, while we did not. It was a $40/$60 split. It was easy to resolve, as my friends just left the tip and that pretty much made it 50/50 anyway. But really?! REALLY!? it was the last straw at that point. oh wait, no it wasn't.
Eighth Strike: So walking out, I ask my friends what I'm supposed to tip the valet that i despise. They say well it's complimentary so just tip what you want. I said "I WANT to tip zero, that's why I'm asking what I SHOULD tip." So i get out a couple of singles and while i'm waiting for the valet i notice our car is like four spaces down. I think to myself, oh well, at least it will be nice that he'll pull it out of the tight spot and bring it right here. WRONG. I hand him the ticket and he says "oh, you're just right there. you wanna just get in" and hands me the keys. LOL...Needless to say I didn't tip.

So I don't know. I liked the "idea" of St. Francis and the menu looked good. I might give it another chance, but it was a real clusterfuck on my first visit. LOL.

St. Francis
www.stfrancisaz.com
111 E. Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85012
602-200-8111

[Firenza00]

If you think it's noisy then, you should try it for weekend brunch when they have a goddamn live band playing. It was unbelievable. We basically had to text if we wanted any type of conversation. That said, we loved our meal. The bread plate was awesome and the rest of our food was as well. We haven't been in a while, so things may have gone downhill.

[jobshaddow]

I wanted to throw my own review of St. Francis up here, so I thought I would just post it as a reply to the previous one to keep it in-thread.

I was one of the first patrons for lunch, I park in the lot on the side, open the door and walk in...and get fairly rudely told by one of the servers that I've just entered the wrong door and if I would like to go to the front and wait for the hostess, I can be seated. Not the best start to the meal.

I ordered a bunch of food figuring I'd sample it all and decide if I like the restaurant enough to bring my wife by at another time.

First I got the hamburger w/bacon and gruyere. By the time it got to me, the bun was completely soggy under the burger. The bread was too soft and porous, and there was nothing between the burger and the bread. The biggest crime here was that the menu said it was served w/an aioli...and it was, on the side. If they had just put a nice thin coat of it on the bun then the juices wouldn't have turned my bun into a fall apart mess. The crispy onions on top were nice though, and the burger was cooked a nice medium. HOWEVER, I also got a side of the fingerling potatos...disaster. They were charred little briquette lumps, which was a shame, because I had really been looking forward to them. Only about 1/4 were even edible.

Second, I ordered the cheese flatbread, thinking it would be like it said on the menu, flatbread w/cheese and herbs. However they made the mistake a lot of lesser restaurants make, they brought me a pizza. Look, quick easy difference between pizza and flatbread...sauce. If you put tomato sauce and cheese on it, it is a flatbread pizza. If you MEAN flatbread pizza you should say that on the menu. No big, it still tasted good, except again...soggy. Like, fall apart soggy. A shame.

Third, I went for the cheesecake for dessert. First problem w/this? It took 15 minutes to get my cheesecake. Not even kidding. They weren't that busy, and my server stopped by twice while I was waiting to refill my water. Not once did he say, "hey, that'll be up in just a moment" or offer any explanation. Weird. Second problem, when it finally does come, it is a bell jar with an inch of cheesecake in the bottom, a combination of canned fruit and candied nuts on top of that, and about 3 inches of whipped cream filling the top of the jar. Do you have any idea how hard that is to eat? Ridiculous. I was angry because actually tasted good, but it was so hard to eat!

In my book, 3 near misses. They're so close to being a really good restaurant, but right now they just aren't there.

[Mike S]

I've never eaten at St. Francis for dinner, so maybe that's why my experience has differed. I've gone there frequently for lunch, and a few times for brunch. The noise level hasn't been bad and the food is usually great. I enjoy the pig dip though the jous can be inconsistent.

It's not my favorite place but it's definitely in my lunch rotation.

[Dapuma]

I have not been back in awhile, but i have been there a few times for lunch, it was always good - their beef sandwich is pretty awesome for lunch, but i saw they took it off the menu, awhile ago so had not been back for lunch since they didn't have that

Their house salad is very good as well

had a dinner there one time, and it was good, if not mind blowing - everything was done pretty well

It is far away from me so i don't go there often, if i am that far out in that direction i favor Dick's Hideaway or Hana's

[ScottofStrand]

Popped by St. Francis for Happy Hour a couple days back.

I can see the criticism that the place has received. The mandatory Valet is really frustrating. I didn't know about it and just pulled in and parked in one of the spaces. I checked with the Valets and they were ok to let me leave it there. The service was so-so. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to write home about.

Where the place excelled was the Happy Hour pricing and menu. 5 dollar proper cocktails, half off wines and beer from 1.50 to 3.00. The food was all around $5-8ish ballpark also.

Moscow Mule- Finlandia Vodka, Gosling's ginger beer, angostura bitters, lime

Cucumber Cooler- Hendricks Gin, muddled lemon/cucumber and fresh lemonade

French Onion Burger- Bacon, Gruyere, Onions, w/Fries

Everyone knows how critical I can be about burgers. I asked for it Rare, and they definitely cooked it rare, which is a bonus, but overall it felt dry and under-seasoned despite the toppings. I wanted more cheese and onion flavor. Not a bad burger, especially for 8 bucks, and the fries were pretty awesome, but I'll try some different food on the next visit.

[meleyna]

I really like the happy hour. Last time we did the baked goat cheese, romaine salad, green chile, veggie rice bowl, and a cocktail. Oh, and the figgy pudding. A good amount of good food for under $50 with tip.