Ardovino's Desert Crossing - Sunland

Not a memorable meal for Mother's day brunch in 2022. It was my second visit to Ardovino's mother's day brunch. The last time was before COVID in 2021. It was an excellent brunch buffet then and we were very happy with our experience then. I hope they improve. It's a lovely cozy place.

We were considering having a wedding here, so had dinner to give the food a try. It was pretty good and I’d give it 3.5 stars. However, the service was 1 star slow. Getting drinks from the bar took 20 minutes. They offer an upgrade to a large ice cube, but it had melted and watered down a nice scotch. Our waitress kept disappearing for long amounts of time. Then our food came out cold and the owner/management handling of it was completely unprofessional and rates 0 stars. Someone said it was the owner, or owner’s sister, that spoke with us. She told us our pizza was brought straight from the oven, so our complaint was unwarranted and treated us like we were the problem for complaining. She agreed to make a new one, but said it would come out the same temperature and we were paying for it we still weren’t happy. The remade pizza came out piping hot and was quite good. A pasta dish also came out cold the first round. The replacement came out hot, but it was a different pasta dish. We gave up at that point and didn’t send it back for the correct entree. Considering other reviews, we must have just visited on a really off night. However, considering how ownership/management handled things, I can’t see taking our wedding business there.

First impression of this place, after it was recommended to bring my out of town family, was great. We were excited to see a large patio and plenty of seating. The outside chairs upon closer inspection were in dire need of a paint job and were very uncomfortable. But we thought, ok we are here for the awesome food. We were wrong. We ordered the ribeye several pizzas, mushroom lasagne and seafood pasta. And bread that was $6 a basket. Who does that? Let me begin with the ribeye. A $60 steak that was mostly fat and drown in what seemed to be a brown sauce like the packet gravy with some whole peppercorns thrown on top. It was literally a supermarket cut thrown on a plate with gravy. No presentation. I think it came with fries? That no one ate. Next we have the pizzas which were generally ok but no one saw what the big deal was. Ok. Fine. The cherry on top was the seafood pasta. I know what “al dente” pasta should be. It was so under cooked it was nearly crunchy and got stuck in our teeth. With a few tiny scallops and frozen peas swimming in a strange watery sauce I could not eat it and instead asked for the roasted chicken which was later thrown away as well since it just looked unappealing (note: they still charged me for everything). Positive, the Pino noir was pleasant and the staff seemed to be nice. Unfortunately, after a $120 bill just for my part, and leaving with an empty stomach, neither I or my family will be returning.

Looking for a nice dinner with some good outdoor ambiance and excellent food? Look NOT here. $59 for a “24 oz” steak (which was bottom quality meat that’s actually only maybe 12 oz, and about 30% of it fat, 10% tendon, 5% bone, and all of it poorly cooked. But wait, there’s more! It is served in a plate-bowl of bonus mystery sauce, which is strikingly similar to the powdered grocery store gravy mix. $6 for 4 stale pieces bread served with a side of oil that tastes like the red grease that coagulates on top of cheap pepperoni pizza... $24 worse-than-Chef-Boyardee pasta served with day-old-fish smelling clams atop lemony-water soup, and half cooked-half crunchy pasta.... all served at a cool room temperature... Top it all off with impatient, irritated and rude staff and management. But hey, the tap water they served was edible... so they got that going for them. In summary, if you love to spend a lot of money and you have no taste buds, this is the place for you! Needless to say, I will NOT be coming back and I hope this review will save you the time, frustration and money.

We were there for a wedding and it was amazing. Really nice view, great food and friendly staff.