Disclaimer: I spent over $100.00.that night here at Chubby Skewers Mesa Arizona, I have time stamps…read moreof me in Phoenix! Despite me being from California. I've been to Chubby Group's MaMaXita in Temple City California and gave Excellent reviews to that sub-brand.
Previous review got rescinded by Yelp Mods because I was being Trucker Blunt...blue collar blunt, straightforward with my criticism. So here I'm going to be nice about everything and focus on the restaurant w/ minor calling out of rude behavior from other guests.
I had two mandarin speaking chubby skewers Mesa Arizona customers, (mind you Yelp Mods, they were not speaking the Taiwanese Mandarin Accent I'm familiar with), cut in front of me 15 minutes after I was the only one waiting at the front of the house with no attention given to me, no queue, no eye contact from any of the staff members. The restaurant did not do me right.....they went ahead and quickly cleaned up a table and seated the two whilst ghosting me....
When I regained conscience at the disbelief and waived for the staff members attention...they finally cleaned out a table for me 5 minutes later and left me to figure out what the heck is going on in the restaurant. There was a complicated QR menu, no instructions whatsoever, no staff member decided to explain how the skewers menu worked...just a Pandoras Box....figure it out yourself, DIY.
Mind you again...I tipped these guys out over 15%, on a $100.00 meal.
I had no water, I put in an order into the self POS system and just tapped whatever I could get my hands on in the app menu...still skewers....
And that's when I got up, went to the hallway where a line of fridges lined up....I saw some trays, grabbed one and started blindly grabbing random skewers. Labeling was chaotic, quite frankly none of the labels really adequately explained in detail what the meats were, they didn't look too fresh (the supposedly Wagyu skewers looked very mediocre), and just simply I have to say, Alot of the Malatang places have much cleaner better layouts than how everything was stacked here.
So for fridge layout score: 1/5
For staff professionalism: 1/5
For Ambiance: 3/5 neighboring table of customers were loud and rowdy, but I'm guessing the staff doesn't care much of the overall experience that encompasses all customers.
Now to the water situation... apparently water was self serve....no cold water vases that staff members in other restaurants would place on each individual table ....just cups and you go get water from some lukewarm water tank.........
There was no condiment sauce bar, you know....a place like chubby skewers should at least have a condiment bar with chopped garlic, green onions, dark vinegar, soy sauce, sugar, msg...all that shenanigans....nothing......
Just red flake seasoning, cumin powder seasoning that tasted very chemicallish.... Not even sure they actually went to real spice herbs wholesale distributors to get these seasonings. No bueno.
Now to critique the food:
The dumplings....were really dry, nothing to dip the dumplings in...I don't even think they booked them, felt like they were pre-steamed, quickly reheated and served.
The fried chicken wings...absolutely horrendous, it was like McDonalds chicken nugget stuffing and tasted nothing like how quality fried wings should taste like....Alot of batter...too much batter it tasted like Turkey stuffing....very No bueno, I didn't finish the wings.
The bamboo tray clam fish garlic dish had too much of a fish taste to it. I tried downing the second one and did not finish or pack the third to go.
The overall skewer experience: maybe due to everything being under seasoned, and them not providing adequate sauce and condiment bars....onion red sweet soy sauces or pickled raddish soy sauces.....I have to give the skewer experience a 3/5. I think you are better off going to Cow Korean BBQ in El Monte California, pay $40.00 and have peak ROI (return on investment) on your meal.
The only Pros: was the mango shaved ice...that was it. That was the only highlight...there wasnt any service. No follow ups, no feedback loops, how this location has over 4 stars is beyond my understanding.
Im usually the type of customer, you do me right, the food is passable, heck I don't like giving anything under two stars.
So to the Yelp Mods who took down my previous review, I urge you to use AI, filter through THIS review and find that I was sincerely disappointed with this Chubby Skewers Mesa Arizona Location, and that you guys keep this review for public reference, so the management team at Chubby Skewers can do better!