Overpriced and gentrified food.
My roommates and I gave this place(actually, we gave the Yogis inside) three chances. I have ordered the same thing (a large Beef Teriyaki bowl with extra rice and added avocado) all three times. The first time I came, I ordered during the soft launch. The meal came in a styrofoam to-go box with entirely too much rice and tiny bits of what was essentially left over meat bits. As this was during my lunch break, I had no where to go since I had spent the entirety of my lunch waiting for the meal to be made in the first place. Imagine my devastation when finally faced with a meal after a long day of work to see the desecration of a meal that held so much comfort.
The second time I decided to order here, I'd heard that the cooks had been retrained and customer feedback had been taken into consideration. I figured, hey, I only tried it once, it can only go up from here right? Mayhaps soft launch jitters had gotten the best of them. I was genuinely pleasantly surprised with the quality of my food this second time around! The food was hot, the package was correct, my meal didn't look like food scraps. I was happy that the turnaround seemed genuine and was looking forward to coming back.
And yet, like Sisyphus pushing his boulder, I am destined to remain in a cycle of hellish disappointment as the quality of this Yogis, too, goes down hill.
Tonight, actually, an hour ago as of writing this, I convinced my poor roommates out of ordering Chipotle, a decision I now wish I could go back and change, and they joined me on my quest to try this mythical Yogis once again, as we had all had previous questionable experiences but were so optimistically hopeful to try again. Maybe the fact that this complex, once marketed as a hub for young people to hang out, was almost completely empty on a Friday night in Tempe, was the red herring we so blindly missed upon entering.
Opening my meal upon arriving home, ecstatic like a child on Christmas morning, my enthusiasm quickly diminished. My precious Large Beef Teriyaki Bowl with Extra Rice and Added Avocado.... Was actually a small... with no avocado in sight... no problem, right? Except... with all the added upgrades, a single meal comes out to about $18-$20.
And there so, begins my horrid night. After calling and chatting with a nice gentleman about What we could do, I decided to come in to get my meal remade. As I waited for my replacement, my roommate, an unfortunate victim who was part of my order, informed me that their chicken katsu was infact, entirely inedible due to the tough, rubbery, almost plastic feel of the meat itself. As we live in the neighborhood, they agreed to bring their meal in as well while I would bring up a potential partial refund to the manager on shift for the night, who, up until that point, had been incredibly pleasant with me and apologetic about my initial experience that night.
...until...I brought up wanting a partial refund. It was like a switch had been flipped, like a bale of hay catching fire, our interaction immediately became heated and hostile on her part. I was offering my phone to her so she could see my initial order, as I assumed she would've liked to see the order to confirm I wasn't lying. I asked for a partial refund, as I had already had my personal meal remade. My roommate is autistic, and I knew they wouldn't want to eat the same meal after their experience with the first one, so theres no point in taking a new plate. This manager, who I didn't even catch the name of, immediately raised her voiced and told me I could either take the new plate, or talk to the owner of the establishment, as all she could do for me was replace my meal. Since when have managers not been able to do more then comp a meal? Why was the first resort jumping to making me talk to the OWNER? I didn't even ask for a manager in the first place.
With tensions rising, both my roommates arrived with the second meal in hand, and suddenly it was all smiles, comped drinks(one of which had gone entirely flat)and offered seats.
TLDR; go to Tempe Marketplace read more