Cooper's Hawk Winery & Restaurant- Surprise

Walked in on a win today for a late lunch and had a great experience.
We’ve heard great things from many people and decided to come check it out today.
This location gets busy quick and walking in it is clear to me in the future you are better off making a reservation to save wait time.
Through our the experience there were only a few negatives for me if you could call it that.
I’ll start with one of those now.
Walking in it’s a bit confusing if you’ve never stepped foot into a Cooper’s Hawk.
You’re basically walking into a bit of chaos with a long bar type are of people tasting the wine options.
You can pay for a monthly membership and while it’s a great option I wish it wasn’t the first thing you see upon entering.
I say this because if you’re there to eat the hostess station is clear at the other end of the area near their full bar.
Once I watched another couple head that way I was able to get us on the waiting list.
It just got busier from there.
Luckily we were seated with in about ten minutes.
Lucky for us because people were coming in droves.
We were sat in a spacious, well lit and nicely decorated two person booth.
Our server came right over, all smiles to greet us and while taking our drink order she also gave us some great options and left to give us time to look over the menu .
Everyone around us seemed to be having a great time.
This gave me hope for a wonderful meal.
It was a hard decision narrowing down what we’d like because there was so many great options.
We decided to start with the pot stickers.
We soon ordered a Cooper’s hawk Ale as well as two wine samplers of the blueberry and their newer melon flavor.
This was great so we could try before deciding if we’d like to buy a glass or full bottle.
I opted for the blueberry, but both had great flavor.
They weren’t acidic and hat great fruity flavor.
Our pot stickers arrived quickly as well as complimentary bread and butter, yum! The bread was warm, soft inside with a great crust.
The potstickers were not only plated beautifully, they tasted amazing and the slaw type cabbage blend under was so good! As our main courses we both chose the surf and turf one with the pork chop and one with the steak medallions.
Our other side was the drunken shrimp we both had heard so much about.
We enjoyed or time to chat and sip our drinks while we waited for the main course.
Everything came out pretty quick and looked wonderful when it got to the table.
Our meal came with both potatoes and oven roasted veggies as well.
Steak was cooked perfectly, full of flavor .
No need for any extra sauces request.
The veggies were honestly my favorite of the sides, but all was delicious.
The worst for me was honestly the shrimp.
It was a huge let down.
It was so dry it was practically inedible.
There was no flavor because of this.
Was I even eating bacon etc.
To end our meal even though we were so dang full we took the waitresses advice and ordered the carrot cake.
While o do like carrot cake I do not eat much of it because I find the frosting too sweet and the spice too high on most.
This hands down not only looked beautiful when it came out it was the best I’ve ever tasted.
It was not super sweet or heavy.
It was topped with a few strawberries which gave it even more flavor.
It left us so happy and extra full.
I wish I’d ordered a second to take home.
The vibe is great.
At around 3pm the lights dimmed a bit more to get ready for early dinner service.
Our waitress was wonderful and we never had to ask for a thing.

Entry: We arrived five minutes early to our reservation and were seated within ten minutes.  There are no doormen so you must wrestle the heavy door yourself.  The entry opens into the wine bar.
At 6:05pm the place is swamped with patrons.  Once we were seated, and before we even ordered appetizers, the sales pitch for their wine club started.  Between the seating and the arrival of appetizers we were visited five times to offer wine tastings and sales pitches. The wine was excellent.
The meal was pretty good.  The ambiance was less than expected.
We sat on the patio to dine au fresco and we were mostly glad we did since the volume inside would have made any conversation difficult.
Maybe I'm just getting older and don't enjoy the higher decibel conversations.  The furniture outside was standard patio furniture.
It wasn't uncomfortable at the start but after an hour I did feel the need to give my body a break from the chair.  I also would not have paired the dining experience with the golf game that was on the TV, and eventually that became basketball, equally questionable for a "fine dining experience".  We are used to dining at Fleming's and I suppose that was the bar I was measuring to. We had Drunken Shrimp as an appetizer and it was done wonderfully.
The presentation was beautifully constructed and the shrimp cooked to perfection.
The accompanying bread was perfect as well. Three meals were ordered.
A burger, surf and turf (pistachio grouper and some medallion steaks) and a filet mignon with broccoli.
All three were cooked very well (as in they matched the temperature that was ordered).
The presentation was lovely. The general consensus was that the meals were very good.  The ambiance felt off.  Pick a vibe, sports bar or fine dining.
None of the party intend on returning in the near future as there are many other fine dining experiences in the valley.

Great food, and a nice location! The food is always well made and DELICIOUS! While service used to be slower, it has really picked up over the last couple months and is now absolutely excellent!