The Desoto Central Market opened in April 2015. It opened as a Food Court with few counters of food. The local Arizona Republic Newspaper reported back in 2015 that in the coming months McClendon’s Select Produce, a Butcher Shop and a Bakery were soon to come. I thought that this sounds GREAT! McClendon sells produce. A butcher Shop and a good bakery would be awesome too! However as luck would have it at the time of my visit these places and other local venders haven’t materialized. WTFork? How could this happen in the busy section of Downtown Phoenix AZ with walking distance to the light rail???? This should be a hustling bustling place like the Famous Reading Terminal in Philadelphia.

Appond entering this was the first thing I saw.

An open Machine Age looking Coffee Bar that looked empty at lunch time. It forking reminds me of a movie. I think it was called something like “The Time The World Stood Still.”

I keep walking and pass a small table with raw oysters, a burger window and then I hit my destination called The Larder +The Delta.

The Chef of this establishment formally worked at The Bolder’s Resort in Cave Creek AZ as executive Chef. I tried the food there it was Amazing.  Later this chef moved on to a Down Town Phoenix Hotel and was the Executive Chef at the Blue Hound also making a Big Splash in the Metro Phoenix Culinary world serving up Outstanding delicious food. I was hoping for inspirations today and had dreams of tasting some of the best food this area can offer.

The Bar was set very high and so were my expectations.

I thought that this was going to be really good.

To my surprise the menus I read on-line were not the same and only lured me here like bait.

Oh! Goodie…. goodie….. joy and oy.

As wonderful as breakfast burritos, muffin sandwiches and omelet’s can be these are not plates of food I would travel across town for. Nothing is wrong liking that kind of food……but it’s just me and I don’t get excited about breakfast food. When I do eat breakfast food I only eat it at breakfast time not lunch time. Besides the breakfast plate choices they were also offering a Chili Dog and a Chicken Skin Sandwich.

You might not believe me about the chicken skin sandwich but IT’S THE FORKING TRUTH. I note that the chicken skin sandwich might be very good but it’s not what I’m looking for because I like chicken meat with the few times I eat chicken skin. I also note the the hot dog might have been house made and extra high quality but wasn’t something I wanted to eat. Again I don’t travel across town to eat breakfast burritos, French Toast, Eggs or Muffin Sandwiches either.

Fortunately there was one dish that interested me.

It was Cauliflower – pickled celery – smoked ewe’s bleu – and local Homeboy’s hot sauce. It was like what angels would eat if they ate chicken wings. The cauliflower had the lightest crispiest crust. This was tangy, mild spicy, pickled and creamy textured cauliflower that was cut with a scant amount of cheese. It was more delicious than I can make it sound. My husband and I shared it and then we ordered food next door at Adobo Dragon.

The Adobo Dragon serves up a very limited menu of sort of Asian and Latino fusion inspired food. We decide to share a Bao (steamed stuffed bun) Combination Plate of two Bao that comes with a side salad.

We decided to start with the Fish (salmon) Bao. It sounded very interesting and was made with guava chili jam and wasabi huancaina (wasabi cheese sauce). I took a bite. I liked that the bread was fresh made and hot and steamy but the fish inside……

wasn’t spoiled but tasted very fishy.

There wasn’t much fish in the whole Bao and my half was even smaller. A piece of fish fell out of the sandwich and I didn’t even bother to put it back in. But even with all the interesting sounding sauces couldn’t mask the fishiness of the fish in this sandwich.

We bravely go on to try the Chicken Bao.

It was described as grilled chicken, mango salsa, and chimichurri.

Another nice hot steamy bun. Chicken wasn’t awful but it wasn’t good either. Dry and pretty much tasteless chicken. The major taste of this sandwich was something like mango jam. It was very sweet.

My husband was sort of angry that I suggested visiting the Desoto Central Market.

We walk around and don’t see much.

We see an empty community room, a mostly empty dining room and an empty area where the butcher and produce was suppose to be.

Then we go upstairs. I found the restrooms and a whole bunch of nothing but got views of some people dining below.

Then we leave.

And see more nothing.

I do note that I did my visit to Desoto Central Market on a Saturday. I sure hope that they are busier during the week.

For more information of the Desoto Central Market please visit www.DesotoCentralMarket.com

That was my visit to Desoto Central Market in Phoenix AZ

I do note your experience may differ.