Metropolitan Grill

Metro has been a favorite of mine for many, many years. The atmosphere is stylish, food well priced and well prepared, and the service is always friendly and courteous. I can’t find a better place for a nice evening out in NW Tucson/​Oro Valley. I especially like the bar (even if the Wildcats don’t win). Great place to watch the games.

I used to live central and ate at OPG tons for their firecracker shrimp. I was extremely happy when I moved across the street from this place and found out they have them in the bar area too. Only tried the bar menu from the 3 – 4 times we have been there, but all the bar food is delicious and priced incredibly well. We usually order like 5 different appetizers and make that our meal. Add in some drinks, and you are in for a good time. Love the zucchini bread they give you! This is my hidden spot to go watch a game at, because the bar area doesn’t usually get packed, and has enough TV’s to make it enjoyable. Would like to see them upgrade the bar area to be better to watch games at, ie bigger and more TV’s. But then that might attract too many people and ruin my hidden game-​time spot!
Don’t forget to try the pizza! It is excellent. We have even ordered it to go before, as we like it so much.
Removed 1 star, as their cocktail menu isn’t anything to write about, but at least they usually have a couple of decent microbrews.

I’ve been here a number of times and always felt the same way about the food: it’s very unexciting, conservative, and seemingly aimed to not offend. It’s a perfect example of a restaurant appealing to the boring American diner that usually dines at McDonald’s and Olive Garden, but comes here when they really want to treat his/​herself.
But it’s not that much of a treat. There’s always a waiter or waitress that visibly shows how peeved he/​she is to be serving you. This same character will show an attitude if you ask for anything and generally gives off an air as if to be too dignified for their service position. This always boils my blood.
As I’ve mentioned, the food doesn’t do much to redeem the service. It’s just boring and uninspired. The pizza is hardly a step up from frozen and induces a shrug and «Eh, it’s okay.» Same with the Dip Sandwich I ordered based on the waitress’s strong recommendation on my most recent visit. Yikes, poor gal probably swears by rice cakes too. Not even the chile tossed into this sandwich could provide it with some noticeable flavor.
If there’s any hope for this place, it’s that it has a good décor. Perhaps if they did one of those restaurant rescues and revamped the menu and taught the chef’s how to cook more boldly, this place could have some hope, but right now, I think it’s on its way out.

Every time I go here, I can honestly say that it’s been a great experience. Although, I have a different server every time, and am beginning to think they have a high turn over rate with the front of the house staff. Besides the point, every server I’ve had has been very attentive and informative with the menu. I’m pretty obsessed with their oro valley salad with wok charred salmon. Their salmon makes me very happy inside… always seasoned to perfection. Between the avocado and chip crumbles, it definitely works for me. Today I had Matt for a server and he killed it with good, friendly, prompt service. I work in the restaurant industry and what bugs me most about dining experiences are empty drinks (which Matt never let happen), and the fake uncomfortable server voice (which also wasn’t there). I can also always appreciate the fact that every time I’ve had the salad, it has never changed. Consistency is important to me. It’s comforting to know you’ll always leave happy. Sure, the deco isn’t top notch… but to me consistency, good food, and good service are far more important than a not so pretty door, or an unappealing art piece. Oh! And try their amazing hot cookie! I can’t remember what it’s called, but it’s delish.

Gave Metropolitan Grill a chance since my wife won a gift card for Metro Restaurants. Tried the all you can eat fish and chips. First portion was fine, albeit small – likely less than you’d get if you simply ordered the dish. Waited 15 minutes for a greasy, cold second piece of fish.
Don’t intend to go back for dinner.

The remodel is hideous! The steel front door looks like a jail door. We walked in to the bar and all the 4 person booths open were dirty. The bathroom sucks, empty tissue holder is filthy, no paper towels only an airblade and the door opens inward, horrible f
or a germiphobe. The draft beer selection is heavy on the IPA having 2 out of 8 1 stout and nothing else good. This place screams Dennys décor with higher prices. I would sue the decorator and chastise the manager for untidiness. The bread napkin was covered in crumbs like it had been used already. the menu is rather disappointing as well with liver and onions to fish and chips and flat iron steak. This place reminds me of a restaurant bar in a hotel. Funny but true, The food is good but the menu choices, not so much, I think the employees are suffering from upper mgmt bad choice, Only my opinion.

We had the best ever thanksgivivg meal at the metropolitian grill. Beautiful presentation, ample portion and great service. I also want to comment on the dress code of the staff. It was great to see a owner who cares about his staff’s appearance. Everyone had on the same thing, basically all in Black. They looked great. We will be visiting Tucson again in Feb & are looking forward for another great meal. We were in the restaurant business for 40 years & really appreciate good food and well trained help.

I’m visiting from Texas, and a dinner companion suggested this place. After eating at way too many chain restaurants, I was pleasantly surprised by this place. Service was okay, but I enjoyed the food.

This restaurant has really gone downhill in the last few years. Everything from the service to the quality of the food is affected.
We went recently for dinner and started with a round of drinks. Our server brought a clearly dirty glass for a beer. He didn’t even notice it apparently and it wasn’t that busy at the time. We asked if he could bring us a clean glass, and it took him five minutes to get one.
He also wasn’t sure what kind of brands they had at the bar, so he had to go ask the bartender, who apparently gave him incorrect information, and then the bartender came over to apologize and said «Oh, it’s been a long day for me» and it was only 5 in the evening. For a restaurant that was only open 6 hours, this is no excuse.
One person in my group ordered the fish and it was overcooked and the batter too hard, instead of light and flaky the way it should be.
Pork tenderloins were also overcooked, and too chewy.
We won’t be returning to the Metro Grill ever again. We aren’t the only ones who have noticed it seems. In years past on a Sat night, every booth would be filled and when we went, less than half were filled. I don’t know if it’s just bad management or what, but they really need to improve their standards and service.

When we moved back to Tucson in April of this year the first place we visited was Metro as it was one of our favorites back in the day. Well, 5 years later and the place is not the same. Our visit was for Happy Hour back in April and found several things that could make up a nice vegetarian meal including hummus, pizza or salads. My husband has fallen in love with the steak quesadilla and firecracker shrimp!
Well, in only 3 months they’ve changed the Happy Hour menu and raised the prices significantly! Hummus is no longer on the menu so now I’m left with salad or pizza. My husband had the sampler plate which included the quesadilla, shrimp, calamari and a chicken lettuce wrap, which he enjoyed and felt it was a good value at ½ off.
I just have to say each and every time we’ve come in I’ve tried to order a Lemon Drop… and NOT once has it been made the same or made well. I’ve decided to give up on this drink as the bartenders don’t know how to make one!
All that being said — I am disappointed over the changes in menu, higher prices and lack of choices for us ‘vegetable’ people. We will go back as hubby likes the food, but I’ll eat first before we go.

We tried the Metropolitan Grill for the first time because they had a vegan friendly meal, which was healthy and delicious. Our waitress was so sweet. We were able to ask her questions and order items without cheese. Managers stopped by to check on us and refill my wine. We had dinner for three and drinks and appetizers for under $ 70.00. It was freshly cooked and they brought us a basket of bread that was very good. We will definitely go back.

Really good «snacks» and very reasonably priced.
Spent the day with my daughters starting at 7:30AM at Market on the Move, then shopping all afternoon so when we hit Metropolitan Grill around 4:00PM we were starving. The place was pretty empty for a Saturday afternoon and we were seated at a comfy booth. Our server appeared to be the bartender as well and he was very attentive. Started off with the Metro Bloody Mary for all of us. It’s listed as bacon infused Skyy vodka, house bloody mary mix and fresh vegetables. L took one taste and sent it back, it was just too heavy tasting for her. A & I kept ours although we didn’t love it. Admittedly I am known for my spicy bloody marys and we are a bit spoiled by mine that use Clamato and we aren’t fans of bloody mary mixes. And the fresh vegetables they list consisted of a lime slice, a lemon slice and one green olive. The bacon infused vodka made them too smoky for our taste. L replaced hers with a Catalina Cooler which was fruity and yummy. There was pear vodka, peach schnapps some midori and other fruitiness.
We each orders two «snacks» each but all three of us had the chicken, tomato & poblano quesadilla and then there was the bruschetta sampler, the ahi-​tini and firecracker shrimp. The shrimp was pretty basic with a spicy cocktail sauce, the ahi-​tini was really good and had a delicious ginger wasabi aioli on it. The bruschetta sampler was okay: 4 different pieces with the best being the carprese, then the pâté, followed by the artichoke and my least favorite was the romesco. We all agreed the quesadilla was the standout of all the snacks we tried.
Happy hour was $ 1 off drinks and all snacks at $ 3 each. Cheap, pretty decent and if in the area, we would possibly go back. I do have to say that our waiter/​bartender was excellent and very friendly. Really appreciated his customer service.

Metropolitan Grill is a very average restaurant. I’ve had meals that were above average, and meals that were so below average that they were comped by a manager.
I’ll start with the best thing about Metropolitan Grill: their complimentary zucchini and sourdough bread! I can eat that stuff all day, it’s so good! The zucchini bread is rich and sweet, but not too too sweet. The sourdough bread is crunchy but soft on the inside. I don’t like the butter they serve with it, it’s usually oversalted, but neither of the breads need it anyway. They taste great on their own!
Now, let me get to the worst: the service. Since the most recent reviewer of Metropolitan Grill had the nerve to say that people who think the service is bad are «1) rude, or 2) lousy tippers», I want to address how invalid of a statement that is. I take offense to it. I am never, ever rude to staff anywhere. I am universally considered to be overly nice to everyone I meet (I don’t think you can be too nice, but others disagree with me). I also tip no less than 15% (unless someone is downright mean to me), I commonly tip 20%, and have given up to 50% (and not on $ 3 checks, on regular restaurant meals for 2). This person’s review is useless due to the off base generalizations he makes about other’s reviews.
So when I say the service at Metropolitan Grill stinks, it certainly does indeed stink, and it has nothing to do with me. It usually takes us 5 – 10 minutes (sometimes more) to be greeted by a waiter. I’ve gone entire meals without a drink refill. You can look into the back server station and see them all huddled there, often goofing off, quite often. I’ve seen them hitting each other with towels before. All while I was waiting for an iced tea refill. Not good. The staff has never been rude, though, they’re just not attentive.
The food is inconsistent. I like inconsistencies because that means the food is actually being prepared by the chef and they’re probably original recipes, not canned or frozen goods. However, when the food goes from being super delicious one visit, and disgusting to the point of being sent back to the kitchen the next, there’s something wrong. This happened with the Four Cheese Mac and Cheese that I ordered on our last visit. I’ve had it in the past, and it was seriously the best mac and cheese ever! It was rich, and creamy, and had some heat to it from the chiles. The next visit it was just ok, and this last visit it was so bland and the breadcrumb crumble on top was so burned, that I had to send it back. The manager had it remade for me, and not surprisingly, it still tasted bland and bad because the cheese sauce is pre-​made. But he comped the meal without being asked.
My husband likes their french dip sandwich. He says the meat is tasty and the bread is soft and fresh. The fries are ok, nothing great, but not too bad.
I like their weekly special three-​course meal. You get a salad, whatever their entrée special is, and whatever their dessert of the week is, all for $ 16.95. (TIP: Make sure you ask your waiter about it and what the dishes are because some don’t remember to tell you.) It’s a really good deal, and the special actually rotates, which is nice. It adds a little variety to the menu.
Their dessert menu is great, too. The desserts aren’t knock your socks off, but they’re sized and priced right. They’re not giant, but for me and my husband, still shareable. And they’re only a couple of bucks. They’re a great way to end a meal with a little bit of sweets! My favorite is the brownie with ice cream on top. The brownie is rich and moist. They put a lot of chocolate and caramel syrup on the dish, too, adding a little extra flavor to the whole thing.
The restaurant itself is kinda boring. The décor doesn’t say much. It’s ok though, but not a place I would go to for a special dinner.
The prices are reasonable. The portions are reasonable. Overall, Metropolitan Grill is a restaurant I will return to.

Interesting place. It’s dressed up like a nice restaurant but its in a strip mall and the prices are extremely reasonable, especially desserts.
Metro restaurants in Tucson all seem to have excellent appetizers and this place is no different. The fried pickles and firecracker shrimp were very good and not terribly expensive. My wife had champagne shrimp pasta and I ordered a bleu cheese and bacon burger. Both entrees were delicious. For dessert we shared a $ 3 Hot brownie (yes a cheap dessert!) which was also tasty.
Connor, our server, was very nice and I honestly have zero complaints about the meal. Don’t come thinking you’re getting anything too upscale but it would be a great choice for an inexpensive family dinner outing.

My wife and I did not have a memorable first experience at Metropolitan Grill but decided to give it another shot because our food was very good. Unfortunately this second visit will be our last.
Much like our initial visit, the place was virtually empty, not a promising sign for a Friday night. Likewise, the service had not improved. It took almost 15-​minutes just to get water, and then another 10 minutes after that to get our drinks. It appeared that the restaurant only had two waitresses working even though there were many staff walking around. Once the food finally arrived, it was disappointingly average. Although the Turkey Burger I ordered was satisfying, the fries were cold and bland, as if they had been sitting out. The shrimp in my wife’s Shrimp Pomodoro was overcooked and the rest of the dish was forgettable.
If there’s one positive aspect of this visit it is that we actually got the appetizer that we ordered BEFORE our dinner arrived, unlike our first visit where we had to take the appetizers home with us because they came so late in the meal.

We had some super tasty things at our table and some not so great stuff. I loved that there was vegan/​vegetarian stuff, and a girl I was with is gluten free so the menu options were great.
The service was slow and the place was empty (strange) — although our server was nice.
My plate was good, my Aunt’s pot pie was good, but the pizzaS (which comprise a large part of the menu) were burned. I want to give it more stars because my dish was tasty… but I just can’t. And it was so empty I am surprised they can continue on if tonight is indicative of the normal pace.

This place epitomizes «hit or miss.» The last two times I was there the food was lacking and so was the service. My boyfriend’s soup was cold and we waited a long time for our waitress to ask her to make it hotter, but she never came back until we had both finished. Sometimes the service is downright odd and I’m not entirely sure what to attribute it to, but even when the place is virtually empty we get ignored or treated strangely.
Tortilla soup is the shit.

Great place for a spicy bloody mary! The Burgers are HUGE! and I left feeling really stuffed! Molly served us today, and she was very helpful and nice!
I would recommend this place to anyone who is hungry or wants to have a few cocktails with friends before dinner.

Belch. Supposedly this place used to be a real hotspot in Tucson? With each bite of food, I was reminded of my mortality.
When we asked the waiter what was good on the menu, he literally shrugged and replied «Ehh…» before giving a couple generic suggestions.
This place needs a major facelift.

The more reviews I write here for Unilocal,the more I realize that my ratings have a lot to do with how I felt as I walked out of the restaurant. Give me a great experience, and I’ll be willing to overlook a few little problems and still rate you highly. Well… our experience at the Metropolitan Grill is a perfect example of mediocrity. Nothing fancy, but nothing terrible. And nothing that really stood out.
Service: ⁴⁄₅
No real complaints here, aside from a slight issue with seating that left me a bit confused. We arrived shortly after 5pm and the restaurant was barely one-​third full, yet there were at least three or four groups, including my wife and I, that were waiting in the lobby to be seated. Why a ten minute delay with a restaurant that isn’t even half full? Maybe I was missing something, but it was just odd.
Other than that, the service was good. Our waitress was attentive, water and appetizers were brought promptly, and the bill arrived shortly after we were done with our meal.
Food: ³⁄₅
Only one aspect of the meal really stood out to us, and that was the house smoked salmon appetizer. That was absolutely to die for and we gobbled up every last bit of it. The rest of the meal was purely pedestrian. My wife ordered a bleu cheese hamburger; solid but unspectacular. And I ordered shrimp pasta. The shrimp was overcooked and the pasta lukewarm, but unless something is purely inedible, I am not the kind of patron that sends things back. Perhaps this is unfair to them as it doesn’t give them a chance to improve, but my perspective is, they should have done it right the first time.
Overall Impressions: ⁴⁄₅
The Metro Grill gives a clean, modern appearance. My wife complained that it was a little too noisy for here, as it was difficult for us to carry on a conversation. But other than that, the lighting, décor, and atmosphere convey the sort of modern American attitude that the restaurant and its menu convey.
Overall I would say that the Metro Grill is a serviceable choice for modern American cuisine. It won’t wow you in any way, but you won’t feel worse off for the experience.