I seriously cannot believe these reviews. Let me start by saying I consider myself a bit of a foodie and am not afraid to drop some significant cash on good food and service! My husband and I both love to cook at home, so we know what good quality tastes like. We also both come from a background in the service industry, so we can spot the difference between bad/lazy service and understaffed/overworked service.
Food: I was terribly underwhelmed at everything we tried here, and it was so expensive! I wouldn’t mind spending this kind of money on great food, but when you’re underwhelmed with all the food, spending this amount of money on dinner is disappointing. It makes me wish we would’ve just stayed home.
Drinks- We had a top shelf margarita on the rocks that was good. Nothing spectacular, but good.
appetizer- we had the spinach and artichoke dip, which was also just good. It could’ve been more flavorful, but I was fine with it. I wouldn’t order it again.
This is when the food started getting weird tasting. The flavor combos were just weird and confusing, like they(whoever designed the menu) were trying too hard to make something “different”, but didn’t understand how to best combine flavors.
Salad- I had a wedge, that would’ve been great if they hadn’t tried to make it different or special with the balsamic drizzle. The balsamic combined with the creamy blue cheese was not good.
Pizzas- We had a gluten free crust for both pizzas, which was a little below mediocre, but I’ve learned not to expect much from a restaurant’s gf crust.
grilled chicken and goat cheese pizza- again, weird combination of flavors, and just not very flavorful. I was really not feeling this balsamic drizzle they were using. I was expecting more from an arugula and goat cheese pizza, two ingredients that I usually love. Overall, a very boring pizza. Would not order again.
Woo Pig Sooie pizza- would’ve been a fairly good pizza if it had a freshly made pizza sauce. The pizza sauce tasted exactly like what I remember Pace Picante salsa tasting like, which I haven’t had in probably 15+ years, but I immediately recognized the taste as Pace Picante. Not good. It was a weird combo, and overshadowed all the wonderful pork flavors that COULD have been. Why ruin a perfectly good porky pizza with a weird sauce? I don’t get it. Just use normal pizza sauce, please.
My husband had the special with a baked potato. I can’t remember what the protein with sauce was, but I remember thinking it was also a weird combination. I hate using the word weird so much, but that’s really the best way I can describe all the food we had.
I was so underwhelmed with all the food that we skipped dessert.
Service: very mediocre, not very attentive, no smiles. It was lazy and minimal service, at best.
I wish I could bring myself to go back and try some of the more expensive menu options, as so many people RAVE about this place in the reviews, but for the high price and with the chance of receiving mediocre/lazy service again, I just can’t.
I’d rather drive the extra 20 minutes to somewhere good in LR, where I know service will be great.
I’m sorry to say that Mr Poncho and David’s Burgers are the only 2 restaurants worth going to in Maumelle, and I wouldn’t even consider Mr Ponchos food very good, just slightly better than cheers, depending on what you order, and for pennies compared to cheers.
The service at Mr ponchos is what keeps me going back.