Chestnut

I am pretty sure there is a saying about the definition of stupidity is doing things again and again and expecting a different outcome. I have been here before, several months apart, and had poor service and mediocre food but it is SO CLOSE to my house. I really want to like it. However, today was the last straw: an uncooked chocolate croissant. When I picked it up I was surprised at how heavy and dense it felt. After biting, the cause was revealed to be raw dough. I can’t even bring myself to return it because the dude at the counter had such a bad attitude and that was just when I was ordering. Ok so I learned my lesson, I won’t be back.

Guy walks into a restaurant and looks up at the menu board and orders a sandwich for $ 9.
Hipster cashier overcharges me and I ask why and he shows me the written menu with new prices (it was 50 cents more now). Cashier turns to manager, who is wearing black nail polish, and says we need to change the menu board prices. Nail polish boy doesn’t say anything to me or cashier and keeps eating his soup. Normally, this is where I go off on anybody in sight, but I let it go cause I wanted to try this Billy Club. It was pretty good, but the bread needed to be softer for easier biting. All the ingredients were fairy high level including real turkey.
Obviously you cannot change your written prices and «forget» to change the menu board that 100% of people are actually looking at to order. Throw in the fact that a dude was wearing nail polish and I will find another turkey sandwich somewhere else where the employees and management aren’t this lazy and inept.
UPDATE to Owner Response 2÷1÷16
I wasn’t there on a Sunday. It was during the week. Plus your flat out lying. You have been open since at least 2014, so your telling me that the menu board prices have been wrong since you opened the doors? Cmon, if that’s true then yes you are lazy and inept.

Was looking forward to my first experience here. While the food was ok, the presentation of the brunch was not appealing. The plates it was served on were disgustingly scuffed up. The silverware was low end. Forks were easily bent. We sat outside on Camelback Rd side and no one was out there to wipe off tables and pick up napkins off the ground.
I really wanted this to be a good experience as its a great location.
I would blame management for lack of supervision. Not enough staff during peak hours.
Banana bread pancakes were excellent.

Great coffee and the desserts were amazing! Try the carrot cake! I have not had a meal here, but plan to soon.

Popped in here for some grub on a Monday afternoon and had a delightful lobster roll. The atmosphere inside is bright, neat, clean and cheerful. However the girl I dealt with behind the counter who took my order didn’t seem too thrilled with her job and was very curt and unhelpful. Had I gotten friendlier service, I’d have given this place 5 stars. At least I know the food is good, and hopefully on my next visit, I’ll get both a yummy meal and service with a smile.

This place is inconsistent. The first time I came here on a weekday and had the breakfast Bibimbap and my wife had the Ricotta Waffles, and and it was good. Today (Sunday) I ordered the same dish and the poached eggs were hard making the entire dish dry. The coffee was overly bitter with a layer of coffee grounds. My mother’s pancakes were undercooked and partially raw. I’m willing to give this place one more try on a weekday, but I’m probably never coming back on a weekend. They seemed a bit overwhelmed, and the place was not even full.

Like others have said — this place has potential, it isn’t what it could be. I love the vibe here, good music and décor. I thought this was a sit down restaurant for some reason but it’s more set up like a Panera or Flower Child were you order and take a number to a table. That’s fine, but why do they only have one cash register/​cashier during brunch hours? Kind of a wonky way to run a restaurant that would obviously be busy on a weekend morning. I ordered, the hipster staff was friendly, food came out pretty quickly. It was yummy, simple food. This isn’t the kind of brunch where you walk away hating yourself and clutching a food baby — it was filling and healthy in a way that made me feel good about myself and life choices in general. Probably because my eggs were topped with kale and salmon, not oozing with cheese. The plate was good in general except for the toast, which was. Stale? I think? I couldn’t cut it with my knife, whatever that means. Less carbs I guess. The other drawback was the price; I’d been warned by Unilocalers beforehand so it wasn’t a totally shock when I paid $ 15 for my breakfast and coffee. For that kind of price I would expect better quality things like bread and a less weird cashier set up. I’ll come back, there are other things on the menu I’d like to try, but it’ll have to be close to payday.

I come here for brunch often, it’s a great place with delicious food! The staff is always friendly and helpful, and the service is fast. Great place!

This review is in regards to catering from Chestnut. We had Chestnut cater a bat mitzvah brunch this past weekend. We priced out a few restaurants and while price wise Chestnut was in line with the other restaurants, what we received with Chestnut far exceeded our expectations. Chestnut brought all the food in beautiful presentation ready serve ware and delivered it and set up all the food and picked it all up when the brunch was complete. The food was delicious and everyone ranted and raved about how delicious it was. The maple scone was the best thing I’ve eaten all year. Kirsten worked with us to get the best spread for all the dietary requirements as we had vegetarians, gluten free, and kosher. I will definitely use chestnut again for our catering needs.

This is a classier neighborhood stop. Casual dining experience and great atmosphere. The menu is unique, haven’t disliked anything yet. Be prepared to wait for a table to open up it gets busy during high volume hours and tables are first come first sit, self seating.
Recommended for a casual brunch or lunch or first meeting, it’s not as formal as dinner out. They sell flowers but are by no means a flower shop. There is a cooler of flowers in the corner that’s never full. All in all It’s a great relaxing spot.

Chestnut has potential to be amazing, unfortunately my experience was mediocre at best.
I have been wanting to go to Chestnut for the past year but rarely make it past 32^nd st on Camelback. Why? I’m not too sure. Either way, I made a mental note to make this my destination for today.
The décor is beautiful. I love the yellow and grey. Not only are the colors bright but there is a ton of natural light. The center of the restaurant is the coffee bar/​baked goods/​regular bar/​juice bar, and there is seating on the far side.
My lady and I each ordered a sandwich, grilled cheese for me, some sort of club for her and we each ordered the lemonade. I asked for bacon on the grilled cheese but it came without so I double checked to make sure I hadn’t been charged. The guy who took our order didn’t hear me order it I guess, therefore he didn’t charge me for it. The grilled cheese does come with tomato on it. It was small, but delicious. The club was descent but nothing to get excited over. Best part of the sandwich was the Noble bread. As for the lemonade, way too tart.
After we ate we ordered a couple baked goods, a snickerdoodle for me and a pecan bar for her. They were also just ok. While she was up at the counter ordering, I was watching what was going on in the bar area and what I could see in the kitchen. I watched the guy who was making juice, grab a glove out of a mason jar. Thought it was kind of odd but figured they did that for décor purposes. Later I saw one of the employees filling it with gloves, but not wearing any while doing it. Kind of kills the purpose, don’t you think?
I doubt I will return. I came, I saw, I conquered, and I left disappointed. It’s a great spot but nothing to get excited over.

I’m no longer a fan of this café and here is why:
I needed to get some flowers for my wife yesterday afternoon. It was one of those «I should probably get her flowers.» moments where husbands sometimes find themselves.
Previously, we had eaten at Chestnut and browsed in Camelback Flowershop which is located inside the café. The woman working there that day was friendly and gave my wife their card and had hand written on it that on Fridays from 1−6pm they offer «Fresh Flower Happy Hour». It just so happened to be Friday afternoon that I needed to buy a bouquet. I didn’t have our car that day, and called my friend to come pick me up and drive me over to the store. We arrived at 445pm. Chestnut closes in the early afternoon so of course the door was locked but I imagined their would some way to access the flower shop therein. We tried all the doors: all locked. I called the flower shop: no answer but the voicemail message said they were open at that time. I could see about 3 adults behind the bar inside Chestnut milling around, one was clearly staff cleaning, but the others looked like possibly owners/​management. Someone’s child was just inside the door playing with toys. I knocked, and the adults were clearly doing their best to not make eye contact because I was the dumb customer who clearly didn’t know how to read the hours of operation sign. I KNEW they were closed I just wanted to find out why I couldn’t get into the flower shop that was supposed to be open. We went around to the patio door and I mimed to them that I was trying to buy flowers. They looked away perturbed.
So here’s the thing: there are many flower shops in Phoenix. There are also a million places to eat in this area. But by not being open during advertised hours and not posting a sign or leaving an outgoing voicemail on the service with an explanation as to why I can’t do business at CBFS during their clearly posted business hours, this shop has failed me as a potential repeat client. I understand life happens, emergencies arise, but it takes seconds to jot a note and stick it in the window: «Sorry we had to close early today. Please come again! :)»
Chestnut failed because there I was standing there in 110 degree heat being made a fool of. Would it have KILLED the Chestnut people to come over, open the door and tell me why the flower shop is not open? Was it really necessary for me to stand there looking at them ignoring me, a former customer? Customer service is a dying art and is common courtesy apparently. I’m more disappointed in the Chestnut people as they were THERE.
But I will tell you: the flowers I bought at Safeway are beautiful, and neither I nor my friend will ever spend any money at Chestnut again. Which is too bad cuz it’s close to home and has decent food. But so will the new Matt’s Big Breakfast opening soon at the Safeway mall at 32^nd St. where I will be able to get brunch and flowers in the future.

This place is awesome. Super calm vibe. Nice staff. Very helpful when I asked questions about the menu. Food was delicious. I ordered the egg salad sandwich. Which is to die for, by the way. Clean. Not much more to say than that. I’d recommend it to anyone for lunch/​brunch. Outdoor and indoor seating.

For March’s Breakfast Club UYE after a little set back we walked our way to Chestnut, yep it was a brisk early morning walk to breakfast, it wasn’t in the plan, but that’s how it unfolded.
I have to say Chestnut is a cute shop, I like the open feel of it, and the staff is real friendly and helpful. And they make a great tasting Mocha!
I went with the weekend special, it was the short rib hash with 2 over easy eggs. In theory this dish would have rocked, but in reality it was a texture thing that was a little off. The onions were twice the size of the potatoes, the meat of the short rib looked like it was just ripped of the bone and tossed in with potatoes, just all chucky, I guess I like my hash to be equal in size haha. The flavoring was great though, so I got over the size textures sort of quickly.
Over all Chestnut is a cute little place and glad I finally got to try them out

We landed here after planning on eating elsewhere. It’s a nice place, just not great. The folks were nice and even brought our table a couple of cookies to share. The food ranged from blah to pretty good. One of our party actually sent something back. I had the braised short rib hash (chalkboard special) and the eggs were over well but the dish had a nice flavor. I tried a quinoa dish and was glad I had not ordered it,

I came to the Chestnut after expecting to eat somewhere else with a group and having to relocate at the last minute. It was underwhelming to say the least. The restaurant is very cutely decorated and the counter service was friendly. I got the short rib hash and the husband got the pancakes. We both had coffee. The price was pretty expensive… about 30 $. The pancakes were flavorless… like chewing a pile of nothingness… I would not recommend them at all. The hash was alright… the veggies were fine, but the short rib was in huge chunks and wasn’t very tender. The whole thing wasn’t seasoned and needed sriracha to make it palatable. Even then, it was nothing special. We also got to try a couple cookies and a muffin, all of which were fine, but not great. Coffee was good. Overall, it was not a place I would go back to necessarily, but it gets points for décor and service…

Let’s start this review by saying, you need to go try their iced coffee. It is fantastic. I mean just the plain ‘ol cold brew iced coffee, no cream, no sugar. Delicious.
I love this place! It reminds me of little urban coffee shops on the east coast mixed with that Northern California Farmer’s Market /​Artisanal twist.
They are a little on the pricey side. One morning it was close to $ 9 for an iced coffee and a side of eggs. The eggs were perfectly cooked.
All of their ingredients are very fresh. I had the kale salad which unfortunately had too many raisins for my liking, but they were easy to pick out.
One of my cousins had the French toast that she was not particularly impressed by so she grabbed a pastry that she enjoyed instead.
My other cousin got the eggs benedict with arugula that she loved. Entrée envy. We were treated with great service.
They also offer flower bouquets from the camelback flower shop. They’re gorgeous. I have to stop myself from splurging every time I go in there.
I definitely recommend this if you are in town. They also have a little area to entertain the kiddos while mom and pop have a date.

What a disappointment.
Now, I held off writing a review after a horrible first experience thinking that Chestnut had potential.
First of all, they really have the ordering system wrong. You walk in and have to stand in line while they have one cash register for taking orders. Personally, I love places where I can pay and take my number to a table. There is really nothing more annoying than waiting for a server to bring you your bill so you can leave, although, Chestnut needs to speed up this process. There is no reason why I should have to stand in line for over 15 minutes when only 3 people are ahead of me in line.
I went in today with a broken leg. So clearly after standing at the door on crutches for 15 minutes I was already a little irritated and ready to sit down. The girl who took my order, just rude. You could tell she didn’t want to be there and did not want to help me.
We ordered took our number and sat down. I’m still unclear if they bring the drinks to your table or if you’re suppose to pick them up. After sitting at our table for another 10 minutes with no one bringing us waters or silverware my boyfriend went up to the coffee counter. There he found my drink and while he was gone an employee brought me his drink. I asked him for waters and he told me I had to get them myself. I explained and showed him I was on crutches and had a broken leg and could not carry them and kindly asked him to bring me one. He scoffed and said alright, the waters never came.
I ordered a Lavender-​Honey Latte. Wow… that was the worst coffee drink I’ve ever had. I asked the girl if I could get something else because it was that terrible. I’ve never sent back a coffee drink until today. Steer clear of this drink. She brought me a sugar-​free vanilla latte with almond milk. It was so-​so but not worth $ 6.
For breakfast I ordered the Bibimbay Bowl which is two poached eggs on a bed of steamed kale, quiona and siracha. I don’t know how they managed it, but once again another terrible dish. It was down right disgusting. Salty, the kale wasn’t cooked enough and I don’t know what seasoning was used but it was awful. After sending back my coffee, which didn’t come out until after my food arrived, I wasn’t even going to say anything.
After two terrible experiences at this restaurant, I will be eating breakfast at any other restaurant. It’s safe to say that Chestnut is possibly the WORST RESTAURANT IN PHOENIX.

The food was very good but front service needing work. Only one register and line was 6 – 8 people deep. Took too long to order.
The girl at the register did not know about the food. She needs training on menu.

Have been driving by this place for quite a while and was curious how the restaurant was. Ate lunch there after church on a Sunday afternoon place was very busy. Very trendy and happening place with loud music.
The décor is very simple but quaint and not a very large dining area. The parking is a little awkward to get in and out
The food has very nice concepts but misses the mark on taste and flavor. Shared the banana bread pancakes and lobster roll. The banana bread pancakes had pretty good taste but the syrup was terrible in taste. The lobster roll was pretty good but for $ 16.00 was questionable whether was worth it. The housemaid chips that accompany the mail looked better then they tasted. Most of the dishes are fairly simple but the ones that we had just did not hit the mark.
Probably will not come back with all the restaurants in the area that are so good.