Q: Is it weird that Firkin has an urban dictionary definition? Did I ever tell you that I thought I came up with the word Fathlete only to have my hopes and dreams crushed by urban dictionary? Another story for another day...on to Firkin on Paradise. I've been here a few times for co-workers going away parties. So I'd say the majority of my experiences here have been for beer n' app's. Not too shabby, they do make a pretty mean onion raaang. So when I saw that they were doing a Groupon I jumped at the opportunity. On a quiet, no plans, just back from vacation, not really feel like hanging out with anyone kind of night my wife and I decided to redeem the Groupon and grab some grub here. We were pleasantly surprised when we walked in and UFC was playing on every TV and blasting over the sound system. It was kind of weird that this was a Saturday night and outside the bar they weren't advertising that they were showing the fight and they had food specials listed Mon-Fri, but nothing on this Saturday night. Huh? So I went with the chicken strips, which sounded like they were made in similar fashion as the fish n' chips. Whoa, these were world class bad strips. Over cooked, stringy, and a batter that just tasted poor. The waitress was fantastic and took these back and offered to bring me something else. I went with a plain ol' cheeseburger, which was real good. Nothing special, just a good bar burger. My wife went with the parmesan grilled cheese. Here's the problem, they ran out of parmesan bread, so it was a plain grilled cheese. The part I don't understand is that when you run out of an item, why do you just assume that somone won't know that the item isn't as described and serve it anyways? Como que what? It was a decent grilled cheese, every 6yo in the world would have been satisfied. The bread pudding was very good and I would recommend that. So overall it was a pretty poor dining experience. I would still come here if someone was having a party of sorts, the beer is great, but I wouldn't go out of my way to break bread in this establishment. Schmeh...

A: negative

Q: I was excited to try this new boba spot. The cafe was clean and the service was great. I ordered four drinks of varying flavors and every single one tasted like it had been mixed with hairspray or perfume. It was super funky and left a waxy film in my mouth. No one...and I mean no one in family took more than two sips. Such a bummer and a waste of $15.

A: negative

Q: = = = = = DAILY LUNCH & DINNER BUFFET! = = = = = This was my first venture back to this Sweet Tomatoes since their reversion back to normal from the god-awful Field Kitchen cluster fork! :-O Now before that experiment, this was already the weakest of the Valley's ST locations because it had an awful floor plan that had caused lunch rush customers to actually bump into (& complain to) each other as they tried to get at the hot food! Because of that mess, I had this location at only 2 Stars & carefully avoided returning until I came on opening day of ST Field Kitchen, which turned out to be even worse! Now the remodel of this location back into a "real" Sweet Tomatoes, gives it up to the minute styling without it looking like an airplane hangar inside (as some Valley ST locations do). The new floor plan gets rid of the crowding problem and not only that, the food has improved! Remember how the only meat in the place was chicken chunks everybody fished out of the Chicken Noodle Soup? Well today they had Spaghetti & MEATBALLS, and PEPPERONI Focaccia Bread, for two examples! YAY MEAT! Remember how they only had some strange "spread" to put on your bread & potatoes, except sometimes there was some yellow whipped mystery grease? Now they have BUTTER, in your choice of pats, whipped & flavored, right out there for you to help yourself to! YAY BUTTER! Remember the ucky frozen yogurt dessert? Now they have tasty soft ICE CREAM! YAY ICE CREAM! Some other nice pluses today were the cheerful, friendly staff, reasonable pricing that now stays the same all 7 days, a lovely dining room layout with all sorts of seating options including booths, round tables, a bar with stools and a big, gorgeous patio with fly (& partial sun) screening above. What else? Great music from Demi Lovato & from Tempe's own Gin Blossoms, playing at the right volume. Enjoy it now with a little BEER & WINE. YAY BEER & WINE! This is one of the MOST IMPROVED restaurants I have ever dined at, & it's priced at $8.99/$8.09 Sr. including Dinner & Sunday hours, a top value for a Buffet of this caliber! :-))

A: positive

Q: My family has been coming to Marrakech in Vegas for as long as I can remember. So, when I saw a groupon for it we snatched that baby up and booked a reservation for July 4th weekend, during our recent trip to Vegas. The coupon helped tremendously, since there were 7 of us and this place is a tad on the expensive side, but for all you get, it is surely worth the price. Based on the food alone I would probably rate this restaurant 3 stars, but who goes here JUST for the food - no one. The experience is well worth the price and even though the food isn't the BEST I've ever had, it is pretty good. Stand outs for me are the shrimp appetizer with bread, which is so good. Soaking up that buttery, garlicky sauce with fresh bread is excellent. I love the hummus and pickled carrots. The soup is OK (I would cut this course out if I could). The beef kabobs are the BOMB! They are so well cooked and extra yummy. The chicken is moist, and the cous cous is good, but nothing special. The dessert was different this past time than it previously was. I liked how it used to be - nuts and chicken- this time it was bananas and chocolate and I'm allergic to bananas and I didn't know they were in there, so that was a bummer. The belly dancing MAKES this place. It's fun, and I love seeing my Husband get pulled up to dance with the girls. Cracks me up every time. I would say go to Marrakech for the experience at least once when you are in Vegas. It's off the strip, but well worth going... you'll have some funny trying something different and unique!

A:
positive