Ocotillo

If I could give two different reviews, one for the food and the other for the service, I would.
I’ve now been to Ocotillo twice. First time I went there was with coworkers for lunch during the week. There were five of us and one toddler. We sat indoors. The service was great. Our waiter came back several times to make sure that we were okay, before our other friend arrived. The food arrived on time and we all enjoyed our meals. I got the fish and fries. I don’t recall the name of it on the menu, but it was cooked perfectly and was very flavorful. My friends all enjoyed theirs as well. Atmosphere was great and by the time we left lunch, the place was packed. Lots of conversation and everyone seemed happy.
Second time I went to Ocotillo was yesterday and that’s where the 3 stars come in. We had a seat outside. The weather was spectacular. We were sat by the hostess and had glasses for water sitting empty for 10 minutes+ from when we first sat down. Finally someone stopped by to give us some water. Then another 5 or so minutes before someone came over to us to take our drink orders. By this time, I was starving so I ordered an appetizer. We ordered the ceviche which was delicious. I mean very unique take on any ceviche I’ve ever had. Scallops and grapefruit in a shell. Really nice presentation too. We finally ordered our food. I ordered a ribeye and fried eggs with hash browns, my boyfriend ordered the brisket. Both were very tasty. The ribeye, however was very fatty. I know that ribeye is a fattier cut of meat, but I’m not a huge fan of that kind of marbleing throughout the meat. The whole meal really was tasty though. And then when we finished our meal, we waited for a server for at least 20 minutes before we saw anyone again. We did want another drink and waited for a long while for that. When we finished that… it was easily close to another 20 minutes before we saw someone to give us our check… and then another long while to get someone to take our money. My boyfriend went up to pay instead.
Great food at this place, but the service outdoors was kind of crummy. They staff was really nice, but just very very very slow… and at times not very attentive. We’ll be back, but may not sit outdoors next time.
Btw, I actually made reservations both times.

Great ambiance… DJ during brunch hours is an added bonus. Great food presentation. My only complaint is the men’s room lacks privacy from the beer garden. If you’re standing at the urinal and the door flings open folks may see your sunshine!

Wow! Great dining experience! House specialty cocktails were a unique twist on traditional drinks. The shaved Brussel sprout and kale salad was huge. The roasted cauliflower with kale pesto, mint and basil was fantastic. We had the scallop ceviche and ocotillo chicken for our main courses. For desert, we had a dark chocolate and coconut gelato on a bed of toasted coconut. Loved it all and we will be back.

Super disappointed, our waiter was so rude and took forever so we left. I normally enjoy it there and the overall vibe is good but he was arguing with us about wine and it was pretty awkward.
***Update, the management and owner reached out to me almost immediately and it’s never really about what happens it’s about service recovery and they really did a great job. I do enjoy this place and I know I will keep going back.***

I’ve been here once and I plan to come back. The food selection is excellent, I really liked the baked pasta I ordered with the goat cheese. I forget the name but it’s in the picture below.
I also enjoyed the small plate Pork. It was almost like a deconstructed Vietnamese spring roll. Excellent taste, texture and depth.
The facility is amazing, very large and can be used as event venue or a brunch time chill spot out on the patio.
The dining room was pretty rough however. It seemed like it was super loud; I was sitting closer to the guy next to me than my girlfriend across the table. I can hear everyone conversation like I’m sitting in a cafeteria in grade school. I dunno, kinda bummed about that aspect.
It was very cold the night I was there so maybe once the temp is nice out they won’t pack so many in the cafeteria.
I’ll be back from brunch!

Cool, casual, urban atmosphere. Great service from friendly staff.
I don’t know who buys their wine, but it was SO good and not one I was familiar. The absolute BEST was the Ocotillo chicken! It was seasoned top perfection and juicy throughout! Will definitely be back! YUM!

Hmmm. Everything is amazing about this restaurant. We started with a glass of Malbec and Pinot noir of course you can’t go wrong there.
As appetizers we ordered the ricotta and the scallop ceviche! The ricotta was amazing we ended up having to get more bread to enjoy every last little drop.
My boyfriends ordered the ocotillo chicken and I got the lumache pasta. The chicken had a honey base that was to die for and the skinny was very crispy… The lumache came with a goat cheese that made the pasta that much more tastier!
Overall amazing experience, great service and an even better atmosphere!

Great outdoor open air space. Food was great. The service was slow and forgetful. We’ll come back.

Loved this place! Went for the first time to have lunch and instantly loved the atmosphere. There is plenty of outdoor seating options and the inside is just as nice. We had the cauliflower as an appetizer and it was so flavorful! As an entrée I had the salmon sandwich and it was good but nothing extraordinary. I did try my sister’s crispy tofu and I actually liked that dish better, it was very good! Where they fell short on was the service. It took us a while to get our drinks (2 glasses of wine and a beer). Other than that the place was great and I will definitely be returning soon!

The atmosphere is cool, urban and casual. The servers hussle; they’re doing the best they can. The food is above average for the most part and the beer menu is amazing. I don’t know of a lot of places with such a global beer list and they let you keep the pretty bottle if you want (though I forgot mine).
The wings were actually the most disappointing dish we had. They were not seasoned, grilled and underdone. Not raw enough to send back but the joints were very tight and red. They put pickled veggies you’d find on a bahn mi sandwich on top which helped with flavor but quite random and still too bland. 12 bucks for 5 wings — very disappointing.
The calamari camperelle (?) pasta was solid. It came with some of the best tasting grilled bread I’ve ever had. The pasta itself was solid with a creamy tomato sauce. I’m not sure I’d get it again but I did enjoy the dish.
The ribeye was very different from the typical restaurant steak — actually seasoned with more than salt and pepper! I think there was pesto on top. I enjoyed it very much, with the mushroom and/​or potato with every bite it was very good. My friend thought it was too salty though.
The beer list was amazing — the prices seem pretty fair too. Sure, there’s a small up charge but where would you find all these beers outside a beer festival? Some of the bottles were beautiful — I wanted to take a couple home to use as vases but forgot them.
All in all, I think the pricing is fair and the food is above average. They have no happy hour or any kind of special so expect to spend at least $ 20 per person without drinks. Drinks will add at least 10/​person/​round (though they did have some ~5 beers like Pabst but… don’t…).

I really wanted to love Ocotillo based on the pictures I saw posted & the reviews I read through. Unfortunately, for us that was not the case. We went in for my boyfriends birthday dinner and had even higher expectations for this reason. When we arrived, we were greeted and offered a seat in either the dining room, the bar area, or the heated patio. We opted for the dining room and were taken to our seats immediately. My first observation was that the seating was so close together on both sides of the table that even a normal sized person would have issues squeezing through to get to the booth seat! Also, while no body around us was talking loudly, their entire conversation could be heard simply based on the fact that they were so close to us. The restaurant itself was very loud which made it hard to have a conversation either way.
Our waiter came by soon after we were seated and took our drink and appetizer order. We got the fried zucchini first. When another waiter dropped it off at our table, he walked away so fast I couldn’t even ask him for a couple of small plates so we could share, and we were also missing one set of silverware. It took a few minutes to track someone down to get what we needed. The dish itself, while it was decent, was definitely nothing to write home about. The biggest problem with it was that it was lacking salt! The burrata with the zucchini was an interesting combination and paired well with the spicy peppers & balsamic. I most likely would ask for it without mint … and again, not to harp on this but I believe this would have been really tasty with a sprinkle of salt!
The orginal waiter came by as we were eating the appetizer to ask if we had decided on our main meals yet. It felt a bit rushed as he hadn’t bothered coming by to check on us regarding the appetizer, but we ordered the Ocotillo Chicken & the Peking Duck. Even though it was busy, it didn’t take too long for them to bring the food out. The plates looked absolutely beautiful when they were dropped off to us! The taste however … I’d say it was interesting.
Firstly, the best thing at the table was the polenta that was underneath the duck. It was really creamy and tasty, I don’t know how it was made but if I could just order a bowl of that, I would! I don’t care for duck but did have a couple of bites and noticed it was well cooked & had a very crispy skin. It wasn’t particularly flavorful though, so if you order this, make sure you like duck! My boyfriend said he’s pretty much done with duck as it tastes really gamey.
Next, the chicken dish — my biggest complaint is that it was really hard to cut. For some reason, I was expecting that they’d just have chicken breasts a top the potato salad but this wasn’t the case. The dish that the food was served in was so small it took a lot of effort to separate what I wanted to eat with the bones that I didn’t. Another waiter noticed my struggle and brought a larger knife. Unfortunately, by that point, I was just done trying. The potato salad was yummy and tasted good with the au jus that was on the bottom. The chicken itself also had a really crispy skin like the duck, but didn’t have much flavor.
Yet again, our waiter came by just to drop off the check. If the other components of the restaurant really wow’ed us, we would have consider coming back for a meal a different day. The service was really lacking and the prices of the dishes were really high (not worth it) so unfortunately, it was probably our first and last time at Ocotillo.

Everyone seemed friendly, especially Eli. He was the only person who introduced himself to me so naturally I remembered his name. The only issue was the hostess. She didn’t want to give us a table outside because they were all reserved… at 8pm. We were there at 5pm LOL.
The place. Trendy/​classy set up inside, and casual outside. Inside was very loud, which could get in the way of a good conversation. We sat outside at one of the picnic tables in the beer garden. It was nice that heaters were placed on both sides of the picnic tables. Most restaurants don’t understand that. The outside is very spacious with lots of standing area.
The food. We had beets, broccoli, mushrooms, pork steak, chicken wings, and ceviche. The ceviche was weird. The sauce that came with the broccoli had a goat cheese type flavor. For dinner, the chitarra pasta with clams was pretty good. But the best… pork steak and french fries. Warning, the pork was a little pink if you’re okay with that. I believe the pickled veggies with peanuts were taken from a famous Vietnamese salad recipe. The flavor was all too similar. Works for me because I like the flavor. Most of the dishes didn’t have much flavor. No one really bragged about their meal, except the 17 year old who loved the ribs and chicken. What growing 17 year old boy doesn’t love a huge plate of ribs or chicken? After a few bottles of wine and $ 400 later, we had a great night with friends and watched the Cardinals beat the Packers.

I debated between giving this place 3 stars and 4 stars, let’s say it’s a 3.7. What it has going for it – atmosphere is really hip, trendy, and gentrified in an area that isn’t really any of those things. Similar vibe to Postino and the Yard. It’s a sprawling complex of a restaurant that is unusual for the area.
The food is also good! I ordered the spinach salad with salmon and the fruit salad. The fruit salad was good, but a little on the high end price wise for what you got. The spinach salad was good and filling and it was enough food that I couldn’t even finish. I liked that although it was drenched in dressing, the dressing was so light that it wasn’t overwhelming. Also, the salad had hard boiled eggs in it that were cooked just perfectly. Not overdone and not underdone. That’s kind of a tough feat for hard boiled eggs, so I liked that. However, I would have liked it better if instead of just doing spinach, they would have done mixed greens that included spinach. Eating all that spinach gets a little monotonous after a while.
What I didn’t like was that on a Sunday it was very busy and kind of hard to get quick service. We sat at the bar and felt like we were waiting a lot (to order… to get the bill… you get it). Also, our server/​bartender was a little too jokey. I don’t need every answer to one of my questions to be a joke, you can just… answer my questions.

I’ve been wanting to try this place for a while now and recently checked them out for brunch/​lunch on a Saturday. It’s a cool property with several distinct dining areas.
The service was fast and friendly. I thought the medjoul date and ricotta appetizer was excellent. My breakfast chimichanga was very colorful but could have used a little more spiciness.
Dining in the main inside room was very noisy as the sounds were bouncing off all of the hard surfaces and made it a little hard to carry on a conversation at times.

Ocotillo
MEDJOUL DATES, SHEEP’S MILK RICOTTA, MARCONA ALMOND, HONEY
WARM BREAD PUDDING BOWL, FALL SPICED CREME, ROASTED APPLES
DRIED STRAWBERRY SCONE, VANILLA BUTTER, LOCAL HONEY, PECANS
IRON SKILLET PANCAKE, WARM FRUIT COMPOTE, POWDERED SUGAR, MAPLE SYRUP
Named after an indigenous plant of the Sonoran Desert and inhabiting a sprawling space that flows freely from indoors to outside and everywhere in between, it was for brunch on Saturday that I arrived at Ocotillo and with dining companions opting out last minute a four-​top shrank to seating for one, a limited tasting to follow as the dining room quickly began to buzz.
Priced like a quick-​casual concept with a menu steeped in American classics upgraded by fresh local farms, it was with service that hovered between aloof and overworked that a menu was presented and going entirely sweet in formulating a two-​course foursome it was with mild amusement that I watched a woman flip out on the hostess regarding seating arrangements, a not-​so-​subtle reminder of one of the reasons I moved away from the city some 26 months before.
Brilliantly lit by the midday sun, music playing unobtrusively overhead while photographs of the desert decorated the walls, it was with water refilled infrequently that a short wait separated ordering from round-​one, a long plate of dates stuffed with ricotta and almonds lent additional sweetness by honey while an enormous pancake arrived too-​hot-​to-​eat in a cast-​iron skillet, the toothsome crumb moist even before adding pure maple syrup or spreading the berries with a portion size large enough to feed four.
Joking with a different server than the one assigned my table that the pancake should come with a warning it was with part packaged for later that a brief break ensued, my waiter apparently also covering outdoor seats with the mimosa crowd now in full bloom, a member of the kitchen staff eventually presenting tableside with two plates and an apology, a nice gesture though certainly not necessary.
Admittedly well-​sated, the pancake and dates having followed Doughnuts and Pastry elsewhere, it was with good fortune that both the pair of scones and bowl of pudding were far smaller than the items preceding them, the former far more «British» than those typically offered in America as fresh berries and «vanilla butter» not dissimilar to clotted cream helped temper the dryness, a problem certainly not encountered in buttery bread pudding sopping up the juice of sauteed and slowly melting aromatic cream.

My husband and I are familiar with Sacha Levine’s cooking from her days at FnB. We were eager to try out her newest venture in central Phoenix. The huge space is really eye-​catching, and I can’t wait for it to warm up just a bit more so we can dine outside.
We’ve been twice so far, for brunch and dinner. We came at slower times so we didn’t encounter any service issues. Our food came out quickly and piping hot both visits.
For brunch, my husband got the steak, eggs and potatoes which he absolutely loved. The flavorful steak was cooked perfectly, and the potatoe hash thing on the side looked sinful. I thought it was a great value for $ 20. He wasn’t that happy with the cabbage salad however. I liked it ok but thought it could use a little punching up. My falafel burger was good but needed way more dressing and/​or pickles. When I had the leftovers at home the next day, I liked it even more with extra toppings. The fries on the side were absolutely divine.
Our dinner visit was with friends. We started with the roasted cauliflower which was decent but below my expectations. Our dining companions loved the ribeye steak and pork tenderloin (from the small plates). Their daughter and I both had pasta dishes, and I was impressed with the homemade pasta. My little shells were dotted with kale and goat cheese and swimming in a squash sauce that wasn’t too heavy on the cream.
I was absolutely stuffed and couldn’t stomach any desserts. I can’t wait to try them out with some coffee on my next visit.

This. This is exactly what I want when I come home. So quintessentially Arizonan. Lovely outdoor space with picnic style seats and loungey sofas. The space is courtyard style so you feel totally encapsulated and are surrounded by desert landscaping, concrete, rust and wood. Part coffee stand, part restaurant, part outdoor lounge.
The sheep’s milk ricotta small plate was SO GOOD. Sun dried strawberries? What? Plus our server was nice and gave us an extra basket of that grilled bread.
We also got the fried zucchini, simply because it came with burrata and my sister and I are addicts. Thankfully it was good here (I am ever amazed at the poor quality of burrata out there).
We drank craft beer and sat in the sunshine and ate good food. Man, I miss AZ. Thank you Ocotillo, from the bottom of my heart, for this lovely lunch on my last day in Phoenix.

Fab «new» spot located in Central Phoenix. It does a great job of delivering delicious New American food and providing an open and industrial/​modern space. The spot contains a restaurant, café and tons of open space like a beer garden, bar and patio.
For the restaurant (menu wise), they serve lunch and dinner. However, they only serve brunch on the weekends.
I came here for lunch with Stacy M to get a little taste of what Ocotillo had to offer and was pleasantly surprised. We ordered their Iced Coffee Boba, filled Dates, Cabbage Salad and a Egg White Breakfast Burrito to share and it was more than enough.
Iced Coffee Boba: I would pass on this as the coffee tastes like any typical iced coffee you can get, however the boba was overly done and mushy instead of having the chewy, bouncy texture it should have.
Dates: dates filled with ricotta and topped with almonds and blackberries, this appetizer is deliciously simple and perfect for sharing. No judgement if you don’t want to, it’s perfectly acceptable because they are that good!
Cabbage Salad: this salad is fresh, light and comes is a more than generous portion. It has shaved cabbage, carrot and comes with a lovely tea dressing that adds a tart and fragrant flavor to the salad.
The Egg white burrito: was probably the best egg white anything I’ve ever had, it was so flavorful and clean. This entrée surprised me the most. Filling, clean tasting but nothing short of flavorful from the ingredients and house salsa that’s served with it.
The café is the only café in Phoenix that serves Sightglass coffee and has a good arrangement of drinks, snacks and pastries. Although separate from the rest of the restaurant, this area is quiet and perfect for solo coffee/​tea drinkers. I’ve had their Autumn Latte, breakfast burrito (egg and bacon) as well as their Nutella Croissant and it was all so delicious. They definitely take typically made items and add their own twist which is truly refreshing. The price is also a lot cheaper than most other cafes I frequent, which is a definite plus!
The staff here can be a bit slow, but they are all so friendly and easy to talk to. They truly make you feel welcomed and show their appreciation. They are also really receptive to any questions or concerns you may have. Definitely a place to check out!

Huge, gorgeous location with knock-​your-​socks-​off food, poor acoustics (it’s super loud!) and service that’s pleasant but might be a tad slow.
The fare is foodie-​grade blissful. The ingredients are amazingly fresh and the preparation and presentation are phenomenal. Really: excellent food! There were 6 people in our party, and every single dish looked gorgeous and produced satisfied sighs.
The place is more complex than restaurant: huge, modern, and gorgeous. The only downside is you can’t hear yourself think inside the main restaurant. There are tons of outdoor seating options and a huge grassy area for tiny tots to play.
This place has been open only a few weeks and it’s already packed! Make reservations but be prepared to wait a few minutes even then. The staff are working super hard to work out the kinks, so they’re super friendly but your order might take a while. I’ll be sure to visit in a few weeks to update this — until then, just keep in mind that the convenience factor is low.

Fantastic brunch! They just opened their doors and this place is packed to the gills! Very hospitable, comfortable, and most of all killer menu/​food.
Smoked beets with ricotta & pistachio– phenomenal
Chimichanga– fantastic
Bacon– meh. Not worth ordering, flimsy & didn’t seem to be thicker than Oscar Meyer.
Skillet pancake (special) pretty amazing!
Just go! I. Abt waiters eat through this fantastic menu.