Well, I hate to do this, but feel I must. I have lived in Scottsdale 25 years now, and have been to the Sugar Bowl many times. I love the nostalgia of an ol' fashioned ice cream parlor; it reminds me of my childhood and eating hot fudge sundaes at the dairy parlor in Wisconsin. I love the Bil Keane Family Circus caricatures hanging on the walls. BUT... my visit to the Sugar Bowl on Tuesday, May 26th, with WI relatives, may be my last. First of all, the prices on just about every food item are outrageous, considering this is not a fancy place by any means. $10.95 for a lunch size chef salad? $8 for a small egg salad sandwich on wonderbread? Oh, the sandwich does come with stale potato chips, too. Second of all, the service was lousy. Our waitress, who had "1968" displayed under her name on her name tag, certainly did not display the wealth of superior customer service one would expect from someone with 41 years of waitressing experience... just the contrary. No warm welcome to the Sugar Bowl, no friendly smile, just a stern "what do you want?" to take our orders. After waiting 20 minutes for our food, she came back to our table and announced "Sorry, but the printer in the kitchen ran out of paper, so I need to retake your order". Okay, after repeating our orders, thinking that maybe our lunch would be "on the house" (or, at least, getting some sort of compensation), she just walked away without a word. My lunch companions thought this was so odd (again, where's the awesome customer service one would expect from an establishment that should pride itself as being the highlight of the West's most western town???). So, when she came back to our table to deliver a shake that my niece ordered, I piped up and asked "So, do we get free ice cream sundaes for having to wait so long?". To our surprise, she said "No.". After seeing our surprised looks, she suddenly changed her mind and said "Well, you can get that shake free.". Okay, so we got something free out of the deal, but we all were extremely disappointed and bewildered. Why? Because we had to ask. Doesn't a waitress with 41 years experience have any clout with the management to be empowered to offer compensation to a customer in order to promote great customer service (and ensure that the customer comes back as a repeat customer)? The Sugar Bowl used to be a fun, inviting place to have an inexpensive lunch and enjoy a sweet dessert. Now, it seems to be going downhill... fast. I noticed that other, recent reviews have noted the same thing, and not many "stars".
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