Palette

plenty of refills on drinks, which was nice. Wifi is practically non-​existent. Also, kind of a bad sign on how employees are treated when they aren’t given enough time to actually see what’s going on in the museum. Makes conversations awkward when you want to talk to your waiter about the museum and they’ve never been inside!

Noisy restaurant!
Loved my gruyère cheese tart in a nice flaky crust. Served with a salad of mainly greens. Friend had the fish fry which she loved. Had a taste and the fries were great, dusted with garlic I think. But then I tasted the fish and it was nothing special, and smelled not fresh. Noise level was high and made it difficult to converse comfortably. Service was okay.

The warm brie was nice and came with a side of grapes. The latte was good too. A bit on the pricey end but we expected that from a museum café

WE had a very nice meal here while visiting the Phoenix Art Museum. The food was fresh tasting and had a good flavor. I had the beet salad with chicken and it was very tasty and filling We had the prickly pear lemonade which was sweet and refreshing. The waiter gave us a carafe for the table which was nice. Service was very good and it was a nice lunch. There is outdoor seating when the weather is cooler.

I truly want to love Palette. Truly I do! A lunch rendezvous as a perfect midway break during galleries and exhibits at the Phoenix Art Museum should be remarkable. But Palette has some serious drawbacks that need tending to. It’s Contemporary Stylish, but kind of blah, and would benefit from a more daring color scheme and more interesting furniture — it currently resembles a College Conference room. The menu choices sound great, and the ingredients are fresh, but everything is just a bit underseasoned; everything tastes like expensive Assisted Living Center food. Not bad, but not as exciting as an Art Museum dining space should ideally be. The staff is pleasant, but not particularly engaging — they hire VERY young people, and do not really look to train them to be particularly energetic. And please, add two or three more exciting dessert choices. As it is, Palette is decent, but it would be nice to have a destination restaurant in Phoenix’s only true outpost of stimulating culture.

I believe that any art museum worth it’s pastels, should contain a high quality café, in keeping with the Masterpieces In Residence, but also with egalitarian price points. Palette almost pulls that off.
Set in an attractive space overlooking a courtyard garden, currently bursting with lush, virginal white roses, the ambiance is pleasant, soothing, contemporary.
Our waiter was perfect, and the food appeared remarkably fast.
Less perfect, was the food-​runner, who dropped one of the plates on the table, creating a substantial rift in the somnambulist vibe around us. No broken china, but it was a near thing. In clearing the table, he, not once but twice, let the used silverware slide off the plates and clatter, loudly, to the table. His performance at two nearby tables mimicked the audio jolt he provided us with. WTF dude, Bad Day, or what? I began to hum the tune, Back To Reality.
My friends ordered sandwiches that they all enjoyed, and one raved over the seasoned fries that I’d rate as just okay. The mango iced tea was refreshing and excellent.
I’d decided on my entrée previously by viewing the menu online. I ordered the «Seasonal Tart», based on the ingredients listed therein, and by the compelling photo on Palette’s site, showing an open-​faced, savory tart brimming with natural goodness. The tart I received was completely encased in pastry (not a bad thing) and my first thought was that one could hide Toyota repair parts in there without anyone knowing. VERY SMALL PARTS, that is!
While this little puppy was sinfully rich, deeply savory, with a perfectly crisp pastry crust inspired by Angels, and consisting of superior spinach, celestial cheeses, and fabulous fungi, the portion was absolutely MINISCULE! Incredibly delicious in every aspect, the entire effect was virtually ruined by the ludicrous size.
Priced at $ 14.75, it compared, in volume, to HALF of my companions $ 12 sandwiches, which contained very similar fillings.
As an entrée, this item is GROSSLY misrepresented. It should be offered as an $ 8 – 9 appetizer, MAX! The 7 or 8 drops of balsamic reduction over a mini-​pile of fresh leafage DID NOT save the day. Have I been transported to Quiessence without my knowledge?
I could go on, but you get it already.
I’d return for other menu items, but today, I needed a burger on the way home, no kidding.
JUST SO WRONG!

We have always been happy with the food here but the service has been consistently inconsistent.
Today we sat down for a late lunch 2:30ish. The restaurant had patrons but was far from busy. There was a party of 3 at the next table. I noticed that 2 of the patrons were eating, one was not.
We waited awhile and after about 5 minutes a waiter «nearly» brought us water… then he realized he was at the wrong table and said he’d be right back with waters for us.
We watched somewhat amused, at staff moving very quickly around the restaurant but not carrying any food or anything else. After an indeterminate wait, the waiter returned but this time he was carrying a plate for the person at the table next to us (the one not eating)…the other 2 people were well past halfway through their lunches when this poor woman finally got her lunch.
We waited awhile longer, still seeing wait staff walking through other parts of the restaurant… eventually, we decided we were invisible (although only two tables distant from the bar) and decided to leave.
On the way out I noticed that the «hostess» was busying herself at what looked liked a computer station across the restaurant, a waiter at the bar directly in front of our table appeared to organizing his receipts in a neat stack… no one noticed our departure.
Having said all of the above I can honestly say that in the past we have actually tasted the food and it was very good. The last time I was here the service was a little slow but we were acknowledged, given menus and got our food (everyone was served at the same time).

Was told to come here to try the cheese curds only to be told they didn’t have any. Ordered a sandwich on focaccia bread but they didn’t have focaccia. Poblano sandwich was good. Nothing amazing. Service was a bit slow.

Palette always has good food and friendly service. On a recent visit here, I was disappointed to learn they no longer offer cocktails with St. Germaine. The waiter suggested a Moscow Mule, and I agreed, but then he came back with a Maker’s Mark Manhattan (complimentary) as they were out of the Moscow Mule makings. The Manhattan was a bit harsh to my taste, but it was a nice gesture.
I really enjoyed the Butternut squash soup and a goat cheese and golden beet salad. The dressing was marred by a few bites with some dried oregano that was just a bit too pungent. I wonder if fresh would have been better or if the dried oregano just needed a little more time to marinate. The bread that accompanied the soup was «meh.»
I will return here… I hope they consider expanding their bar options and getting better quality bread.
The restaurant’s atmosphere is understated, elegant, and relaxing. Quite nice.

Pleasant atmosphere. Food was very well prepared and the staff very attentive. Wasn’t expecting the quality this restaurant delivered being located in the museum itself.

We stopped before leaving the museum for a salad and the warm brie, the food was delicious, however the service was slow as molasses, we were left sitting for long amounts of time before placing our drink order, placing our food order and then while waiting for the food, which was not elaborate. I’ve sat at the bar before and just had drinks and that usually goes great so I didn’t expect such long waits in the nearly empty dining room.

Consistently great healthy food. … And a few delights like their coconut cake pastries. Yummy!

The staff are the best. Two of us were eating and one of our dishes didn’t taste so good. I mentioned this to the waiter who, without hesitation, took away the food and replaced it quickly with a different order. He apologized twice (not like it’s his fault!!). I was really impressed by the wait staff. The food is typically delicious, too! We ended up having the warm brie with honey and slivered almonds… delish!!!

The restaurant inside the Phoenix Art Museum is great! Lovely set-​up, wonderful ingredients and combinations (affiliated with the Farm at South Mountain), pleasant and attentive staff, and reasonable prices — all in all, the best museum restarant I’ve been to!
We stopped in for some drinks and an appetizer between exhibits and were so pleasasantly surprised by food quality (without the inflated prices that usually come with being a captive audience), warm service and atmosphere and we actually planned to come hungry on our next museum visit.
The food around us looked yummy: the sandwiches have great-​looking ingredients, the crab cakes look marvelous and have barely any filling (per the server), and the coconut cake is a delightfully generous portion. To top it all off, they have named the menu items to go with their Hollywood Costume theme — hilarious!

I visited Palette soon after it opened at 11AM on a Wednesday. I was seated and taken care of right away. Even though I was in a seat that was kind of hidden, my server checked on me every few minutes. I didn’t have any of the service issues other people have noted on Unilocal,but then, I was also one of the first customers of the day.
As for the food – oh my. I ordered the Mission Fig Salad. It was gorgeous. I should have taken a picture of it. The lettuce was green and purple with the full chicken breast neatly sliced to one side. Big crumbles of blue cheese, sliced fig, and candied pecans dappled the outer edge like Christmas presents beneath a tree. The balsamic vinaigrette complemented the sweetness of the figs and pecans in a wonderful way; sweet, but not too sweet. It’s a big salad but it’s not a heavy salad, not like a chop salad might be at another place. I didn’t have any leftovers.
Also, it came with a toasted slice of bread. It was perfectly done – crunchy but not hard. It tasted very fresh with just the right amount of butter.
The cost ($ 13.50) was more than most salads at restaurants, but considering the local ingredients, I thought it was quite reasonable. I would absolutely eat at Palette again. I’d love to try some of their other salads.

Loved the food there. I had shrimp tacos, my husband had white chili.
The reason for three stars is the service was the worse I have ever had and there were only 8 other people in there. We never got our water glasses refilled nor did we ever see the waitress again after she brought our food. We had to go up to the cashier which is no big deal to pay our bill but it would have been nice to get refilled and asked if we needed anything else.

We loved the idea of this café. Locally sourced food and a changing menu based on freshly available products. He had the BBQ Sliders and I had the Chicken Panini. The BBQ sliders were done well and the bun used was fresh and tasty. The Chicken Panini was cooked well and the red onions were a great touch.
The sides were the semi-​missed out on piece of the puzzle. The feta and bean salad was just okay, not bad, but not as good. Considering that it was roughly $ 10.50 for the sliders and $ 13 for the panini, it was too much money for the offerings given (total $ 23.50 for just two sandwich plates — no drinks, no dessert).
They had Stewart Root Beer, which was definitely a bonus in my fiancée’s book!
Overall: B
We wouldn’t mind giving this place another try, but considering the price tag for just sandwiches with just okay sides — we most likely will try other options in the downtown Phoenix area!

Located inside the Phoenix art museum. Weird. Lolz but we went anyways. I ordered the bean hummus, oh my lanta, it was delicious. My sister and I killed it. :) I loved my portobello melt sammich. It was so good. But not too much of the quinoa on the side. :/​it taste so bland and watery.
Our waiter was a little slow on our refills, but other than that. It was very good. I’ll be back :)

I luckily work near by the phoenix museum, so decided to walk with a co-​worker for lunch one day. It’s a nice short walk from our office and hte walk through the museum is a small treat.
I wish I could write about more than just a bowl of soup, but it was a delicious bowl of soup at the very least. I ordered the butternut squash bisque. It was very tasty and enough to keep me satisfied for the rest of the day.
Our server was very friendly and attentive. The restaurant was quite full for being a weekday at lunch.
I will be back.

Fresh sandwiches, soups, and salads with a focus on organic, local, and seasonal foods. They have a variety of dishes that will satisfy vegetarians and carnivores alike. I started out with a mango iced tea ($ 2.25) which was cool and refreshing, and split the roasted beet salad and the portabella melt (Both $ 12). Both were excellent. The roasted beet salad was huge and had a nice balance of sweet and acidic from the caramelized roasted beets to the sherry vinegar dressing. It had a good amount of toasted pistachios in it too to provide some added crunch, also included creamy goat cheese crumbles, and came with a toasty buttered slice of crusty bread. The portabella sandwich came on some nicely toasted bread, and was a nice blend of textures and tastes from the cheese, mushroom, and roasted red bell pepper. The sweet potato salad was very good as a side.
Service was good, and the ambiance is nice. The patio looks very scenic, and I’d definitely like to eat here again to take advantage of the nice outdoor setting.