We had a reservation at Blanco, but since we arrived downtown early, our table wasn't ready yet. We…read morewere downtown for a concert at the Mortgage Matchup Center and wanted to stay close by, so we decided to walk around and see if we could find somewhere that could seat our group of six sooner than waiting another half hour for reservation. We walked into Tom's Watch Bar and lucky for us they had a table available and were able to seat us right away!
Tom's is a big sports bar with tons of TVs everywhere. We sat in the back just below the large TV. The menu reminded me a lot of Yard House or Thirsty Lion, with a variety of options.
One thing I noticed is that they don't have a kids menu. I asked if they had any options for kids, and we were told they could make kids mac & cheese, chicken tenders, or grilled cheese. We actually ran into another group of friends with kids who were also going to the concert, and they were eating there too. They were never told about the kids options and ended up ordering adult-size meals for their kids, which they were disappointed about, can't take left overs into a concert. I'm sure Tom's gets a lot of families dining there before Suns or D-backs games and events, so it might be helpful to have a small paper listing the kids options to hand out with the regular menus.
We started with the poke nachos, which were pretty good. They were a little smaller than the portion you get at Yard House, but still tasty. My son ordered the kids mac & cheese with fries, and my daughter got the chicken Caesar salad. Our friends ordered the bacon avocado cheeseburger and a grilled cheese, while I went with the Mediterranean bowl salad.
My Mediterranean salad looked absolutely delicious and had so many yummy ingredients, lettuce, quinoa, kale, edamame, tomatoes, artichokes, garbanzo beans, feta, and olives...but unfortunately it was completely saturated with the white balsamic dressing. I definitely should have asked for the dressing on the side because there was SO much on it, it was almost soggy. It was a bummer because I think I would have really enjoyed the salad if it hadn't been so heavily dressed. Hopefully it was just a one off and someone in the kitchen was a little heavy handed that day.
My son loved his mac & cheese and ate every bite. I was happy to see they used cavatappi noodles rather than the basic Kraft-style mac & cheese you sometimes get at restaurants. The chicken caesar salad had really good cornbread croutons, but unfortunately, most of the romaine was the yellow bottom part of the stalk. It gave the salad a nice crunch, but my daughter would have preferred a little more green romaine lettuce. The croutons though were an awesome treat and she loved that addition with the chicken.
Our food came out quickly, and our server was nice and attentive. The bill was definitely on the pricey side for what we ordered, but I guess that's to be expected for a downtown restaurant so close to the stadium.
Overall, Tom's was a convenient find when we needed somewhere to eat before the concert. The quick seating, fast food, huge number of TVs, and sports-bar atmosphere made it a good option with the kids. I'd give it another try, especially to see if my salad was just a one-time dressing mishap!
