Modern Grove

I really want to love this place as it is close to my house, super cute and dog friendly. But, they just can’t seem to get it right. I keep giving it a try but it falls short every time. I like to eat healthy and it’s hard to find something good and light here. The salads are weak. They need to get some lessons on salads from Pita Jungle or even CPK. I think their burgers and pizza are decent so a good place to go if you don’t care about calories and want a cute local place with outdoor seating.

Very good, fun restaurant. Food is imaginative takes on classics. Fun outdoor seating. Friendly and helpful staff.

We went to Modern Grove for the first time on Saturday. The fig, goat cheese and ham pizza is very good. The Reuben panini was cheesy and excellent. The strawberry chicken salad was fresh and my wife loved it. Our waitress was attentive and made good recommendations. Eating outside at a slat-​wood table was perfect. Definitely going again. Prices are reasonable for a gastro pub.

So glad for the change… I adore the little outside eating area as well as the design in general! The panini’s are delicious. End of story

Cute local restaurant. Tried Gobbler burger with fruit… with a Sanpellegrino =$ 15!!! WITH?! Burger was bland, unimpressive. I had to drown it in mustard. Service was sub par; guess it takes too much effort to smile. Oh well. Hope the other location is better. Not giving it a try though.

Place is ok if you’re looking for a burger and don’t want a «fast food» one. I’ve come a few times but every time I do the prices go up… Kinda disappointing. Same food just pricer.

While the food here is usually good the service is awful! I’ve come here a few times and it’s been bad every time. This will be my last visit here. There is a total of 7 people here and it has taken over 30 minutes to get our breakfast paninis. This will be my last visit.

I recently moved back to Mesa after living in Arcadia for 3 years. I was so excited to have a cute new restaurant in my neighborhood, seeing as mesa doesn’t have a ton of restaurants and Arcadia is full of them! I have Modern Grove 3 solid tries because I really wanted to like them! I talked to our waiter each time to give them feedback because I just really wanted them to survive. After time number 3, I’m kind of over it. The food is good, but not good enough for the price! The prices are more expensive than LGO and the food, service and atmosphere isn’t even comparable. It’s such a cute spot and, like I said, the food is good. Just crappy service, waiters/​cashiers who seem scattered and not super educated on the menu, and too pricy!!!

I just left so annoyed I’m knocking a star off my review. I still give it 3 stars, because my salad is delicious, but the overall experience left something to be desired. Here’s the recap:
I order their strawberry salad to go. When I arrived, there was no one in line, there was just a couple sitting at a table waiting on food, and another group or two eating. After I ordered a group of 3 came in and placed an order. These were the only customers. The place was pretty slow.
After waiting about 15+ minutes, I’m starting to wonder what’s up. It can’t take that long to make a salad and they’re not busy. Maybe they had to grill the chicken? Finally the cashier notices I’m still standing around. «Are you waiting on something?» She asks. «Yes, my salad.» I reply. «What salad?» she says.
Keep in mind, this is the same lady who took my order, and has only taken one other order (that group of 3) since I came in.
«Um, the strawberry salad? That I ordered to go?»
«Oh, okay, I’ll check on that for you.» She then proceeds to go to the kitchen, get food for the one couple that had ordered before me, meander back to the kitchen, and then ask the cook about it. I can hear his response: «Yeah, I was just working on that, can you hand me a to-​go container?»
She hands him the container and he proceeds to make my salad in under 3 minutes.
And then, when he places it on the counter, ready, she continues for another few minutes writing a customer name on a to-​go bag (for for that isn’t even ready yet) when she knows I’m waiting on the salad that IS NOW READY TO GO. She finally finishes that, then takes her time filling a container of dressing for me (as if she couldn’t have done that earlier?!). By the time I’ve gotten my salad it’s been almost 20 minutes. The chicken was pre-​cooked and the strawberries were pre-​sliced. There was literally NO prep time.
So basically, they let me stand around waiting for 20 minutes for a salad to go, that takes less than 5 minutes to make and could have easily been put together while the one other order ahead of me (burgers) were cooking on the grill. Then to add insult to injury, to stand there doodling on a bag when my salad is ready and I’m right there waiting for it (and have been for long enough time that you had forgotten my order all together).
To be fair, I don’t think this level of customer service is indicative of the business as a whole. I think it was just a bad day (or maybe a bad combo of employees who happened to be working). I would encourage others to check it out, at least once. But I’m not going out of my way to go back.

Love the atmosphere, but it’s a bit pricey for what you get. Seems like they’re trying to tap into the fancy-​food trend but the 3 slices of tomato and mozzarella that make up the caprese dish shouldn’t cost $ 10… That being said, it’s a lovely place to meet friends, sit outside, and have a glass of wine. It’s oddly located away from other similar nightlife establishments in a residential area of Mesa which makes it very accessible and not crowded.

Great décor awesome outdoor seating. I had the tuna sandwich. It lacked tuna and the bread fell apart as soon as i picked it up. I had to go back in and ask for a fork to eat it. Sweet potato fires were delicious! Serve yourself coffee area didn’t even have cream or milk just little fake sweetener pods. The guy working may have been new… he seemed confused and unsure when asked a question. For all the hype about fresh healthy food they really need to step up their quality or lower their prices.

Great atmosphere and location but they are struggling with service. It seems like they don’t have enough business to attract good help. What comes first, good service or a busy restaurant? This place has a cool factor in appearance and atmosphere but it just needs a boost. I do like the dog friendly patio.

We stopped in for the $ 5 birthday burger. The food was fine. I customized my burger (and paid extra to do so) and they messed it up several times. FYI, I didn’t send it back; the waitress came to the table multiple times and was like, «Sorry, the cook accidentally did _​_​_​_​_​, so he had to remake the burger.» Needless to say, the wait was forever. Finally, the burger made it out, still wrong, but I just wanted to eat. The fruit cup was tiny and the burger, while good, wasn’t super filling.
If I ever go back, I’ll try one of the salads.

I really, really wanted to like this place. We went twice: once in December, and again in February. Both times the service wasn’t too friendly, the food was mediocre and overpriced, and we stood at the counter for at least three minutes waiting for someone to take our order. The place has really cute décor and a nice patio with string globe lights and artificial grass. It has so much potential.

Great spot for lunch.
Service-​The guy seemed genuinely interested in the food and offered the anniversary special, their burger, fries and a drink (8 different teas, kinda cool) for 5 bucks!
Food-​Awesome burger, great bun selection, nice presentation, cooked perfectly (I’m a burger foodie, LOL). Fries. Usually don’t care much for fries but they were fresh, hot and not over seasoned, nice!

The staff was welcoming and friendly, I was excited to see they offer portobello mushroom caps as a burger bun alternative, but didn’t end up having any. Bummer. But I ended up getting a lettuce wrapped burger and it was delicious! The décor is awesome. When the staff is awesome, your drinks are always refilled and the décor makes you warm inside you can get over the whole mushroom bun thing will definitely be back!

Split q lunch at modern grove. Had the mac & cheese bites and pizza Bianca. Décor is cute if not your standard for a fast casual hipster place. Order at the counter and get a number, food is delivered, full bar in the back, self serve fountain sodas in dining room along with a cooler of bottled drinks and small assortment of specialty grocery items.
Mac & cheese bites were a little bland in their own but tasty with the cheese bacon dipping sauce. The pizza was too big for a single person but not quite enough to share without ordering an appetizer. The prosciutto was more a basic lunch meat ham then traditional prosciutto. The cook also had a heavy hand with the meat, more isn’t always better. The crust was thoroughly cooked with dark brown coloring on the bottom but tasted doughy and under done.
Over all the look is good, the menu sounds great but the actual food isn’t impressive and is a tad over priced.

Turkey burger. Because it’s November and stuff. But holy salt batman… I think the chef accidentally poured the whole can of salt on this burger. I’m just too lazy to walk back in from the patio to tell them. Plus the cashier was nice enough to bring my dog a bowl of water, so I don’t want to come off as an ungrateful jerk.
Like the patio ambience though, and dog friendly makes up for the salt fest. Sort of.
They have a bar. Looks like a nice selection of craft beers and wine. Order at the counter, seat yourself. I really want to like this place.

Bye Bye Hollywood Video and Hello Modern Grove. I LOVE that this place is here. Why you ask? Well, it is right dead in the middle of Mesa. If you know anything about Mesa it is filled with houses, houses and more houses. Unless it is a huge corporate restruant we usually don’t have a lot of eateries. Also, the feel of this place is very urban. I feel like I am over on Mill in Tempe or some posh place in downtown Phoenix but instead I am just down the street from my house.
The food is delicious. I have ordered several different dishes. The most recent time we started things off right with Pretzels and Beer Dip. Although I am not fan of tangy mustards, I couldn’t get enough of that stuff. Something about it was just so right with the cheese dip. Next up for me was the Napa Pizza. Oh the onions on it were amazing with the ham. Together all the ingredients made the perfect combinations of flavors that just fit so right!
Truth be told I am quite torn about giving this place 4 or 5 stars. However, I am going to settle with 4. The food is wonderful and honestly I don’t think it can be much better than it is. I just feel like it shouldn’t cost so much. The atmosphere just feels like it should be cheaper and I think it would be if it was located in Tempe, or Phoenix.

It’s nice to have an option so close because there’s not much around this neighborhood in terms of restaurants. Unfortunately it’s not a great option. The food is just OK, nothing special.
The customer service is probably the biggest thing lacking at this place. Whoever came up with their operational systems was clearly high or under the influence of something. Forget about ordering food while you’re in the bar. You have to walk up to the front counter yourself, order, pay for it and then walk back to the bar. They’re trying to mix a fast food and dine-​in restaurant — but they do it horribly.
They don’t have a full bar. Just cheap wine that’s overpriced, warm drought beer they poor with a three inch head and a few can options of local breweries. Drive a few miles in either direction and you can find something better, I’m sure.