Fantabulous means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite.
Daily Donuts & Wings recently opened in a strip mall on Bell Road in North Phoenix Arizona and the donuts on every visit have been FANTABULOUS! I read that they also have other locations in Mesa, Tempe and in Glendale (*****UPDATE haven’t been able to find the other locations…..maybe they plan to expand?). Besides FANTABULOUS Donuts they also offer breakfast, wings, chicken tenders, fries, smoothies and a few snacks.
They have some indoor seating across the front and a table to the side.
OOOOOOOOH! It’s that sweet doughnut aroma………….Doughnuts!
Oh my what will we try?
Today I tried a blueberry filled donut and my husband tried a chocolate iced. I was so excited that I forgot to photo them. But WOW!!!! were they FANTABULOUS! The blueberry filled donut was one of the best donuts that I have ever had in my life. The donut really just melted in my mouth. It had the perfect sweetness and was so tender and seemed light as air. I didn’t get to try any of the chocolate iced doughnut but my husband said that it was better than other chocolate doughnuts that he has tried.
Then we went back the next week and tried two more donuts.
Today I got a lemon filled doughnut. (the blueberry looked identical) It’s this just right lightly iced doughnut that seems light are air and it just melts in my mouth. I don’t get lemon in the first few bites because the filling is squeezed into the center. BUT WOW! It’s the best lemon filling that I ever had in a doughnut. It’s very lemony and tart but not too tart….It’s just right.
My husband picked one of the cinnamon doughnuts (they make a few different kinds).
Went back the following week and tried a Boston Cream.
I think this is the best Boston Cream doughnut that I ever had. The cream is so smooth and delicious. The doughnut is so fresh and so light as air. The chocolate icing is has the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. (my husband had the same cinnamon doughnut again)
On my most recent trip back I got a doughnut with sprinkles and my husband got the cinnamon doughnut again.
This is the FORKING BEST doughnut with sprinkles that I have ever had. Even the frosting is better than from other places. It’s not too sweet and actually taste good. The doughnut is so light and so fresh….It’s FANTABULOUS!
FANTABULOUS Doughnuts from Daily Donuts and Wings. So light and so fresh….these doughnuts are easy to inhale.
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
You can find Daily Donuts & Wings on Facebook and the North Phoenix location has a website and lists the other locations.
Here is the SKINNY on the thinnest dough pizzas and such in Metro Phoenix Arizona. If you are a fan of the extra thin doughs and are around Phoenix this might be of interest to you.
Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in north Glendale offers all of their pizzas (around 16 varieties Milano Style……….. that means EXTRA thin…much thinner than their normal thin Neapolitan pizzas. Thin pizzas never weigh you down. You can enjoy more pizza when you go for the extra thin. Up above is the vegetariana pizza made of D.O.P. tomato sauce, flor di latte, red bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.
Next is a spinach calzone from Pane Bianco in Phoenix.
It looks like a normal doughy calzone.
But look!
This dough is paper thin…This is super thin calzone dough….gives you more belly room for that rich creamy cheesus filling. BTW- The cheeses are incredible here. For my taste it is a little light on the spinach but it does taste great.
Pomo Pizzeria offers quite a few extra thins. One is the Pizza Rimini in 4 varieties.
It gets baked for a very short time at around 900 degrees in a certified Italian wood oven.
Pomo also offers the Focaccia di Recco in three varieties. (below is the formaggio)
This focaccia gets rolled even thinner than the Rimini pizza because it gets stuffed with stracchino cheese and you can add on local honey to enjoy it even more.
Focaccia di Recco from Pomo Pizzeria
Here is the focaccia di recco in the pesto variety from Pomo.
focaccia di recco pesto
LOOK how paper thin it really is.
I loved the Focaccia di Recco so much from Pomo Pizzeria that I had to try it when I saw it on the menu at Mora Italian in Phoenix.
The Mora Italian Focaccia di Recco was very different from the Pomo Pizzeria. Mora’s wasn’t as crisp and the cheese didn’t come out all melty.
I was told by the manager that Mora Italian uses a different oven so the results do differ.
The thinnest non-extra thin pizza that we have received was the mushroom with mozzarella and salamette picante from PA’LA Downtown.
It was a very chewy very thin pizza.
This was the SKINNY on the thinnest dough pizzas and such in Metro Phoenix AZ.
I recently went to one restaurant in Phoenix Arizona and had a most unpleasant experience. I doubt whoever just opened this restaurant knows anything about the hospitality business. My gut told me that I should leave as soon as I got here….It was my bad for staying…….Note to self listen to your gut. This is the only restaurant (so far) that I am not mentioning by name. This restaurant has so many problems I doubt they will be around for long anyway unless they bring someone in to help. The only reason I wanted to eat here is because I was BAMBOOZLED on Yelp. I read mostly all 5 star reviews and looked at mouth watering photos of food……I can only figure that the reviews must have been done by friends and family…..I have no idea where they got the photos from……….I sure didn’t get anything that resembled the food I looked at…….This is the only way that I can write about this restaurant.
We walked in early just twenty minutes after they opened. Every table in the restaurant was left dirty from the night before with crumbs and smudges.
crumbs and smudges on every table “actual table”
I thought our waitress was dressed like a slut.
not actual waitress but similar
Since every table was filthy I thought our server would wipe the table off that she sat us at…. but she didn’t…. so we wiped off the table ourselves………………….. They obviously don’t even concern themselves about sanitation.
Then she introduces another slut…I mean waitress that she is training who is even sluttier.
Not actual waitress …ours had even more cut outs
We order and soon complimentary chips and salsa come out.
actual complimentary chips and salsa
Oh my they don’t know how to make chips and salsa. These chips taste like the ones that Costco sells (that aren’t good). They tried to heat the chips up but didn’t do that right because they taste burnt….. The sauce taste just like crushed canned tomatoes with too much added dry oregano and doctored up slightly with a little hot sauce. Wow it’s like a child made the salsa.
We needed silverware for our meals that arrived. We were the only table on the restaurant and our server was unaware that we needed silverware…….So we asked for silverware……Then we got some and I unrolled my silverware and they were covered in soap residue. I used my glass of water to soak off the soap from the silverware.
All the food that we received was mediocre….meats were like dry stringy pot roast. Flavors weren’t so good. I ordered a grilled fish taco and the cook made me a breaded fish taco that seemed like it was already reheated a few times. It was similar to bad buffet food.
Finally we asked for the bill. They have some sort of new electronic paying system where you don’t see the bill until you see it in your email on the computer.
They added on without telling us an extra 3% called processing tech charge.
Dirty Tables, Bad Chips and Bad Salsa, Soupy Silverware, Dry stingy meats, Undisclosed 3% processing tech fees, and some peoples daughters dressed like sluts from some restaurant in Metro Phoenix Arizona.
Everything is subject to change….This restaurant will probably close and re-open soon as another restaurant.
I only went here because of the glowing reviews and amazing looking pictures of food from a certain review site. It turns out that I was bamboozled by a review site.
There are several different kinds of restaurants out there. Most go under the categories of neighborhood restaurants….and neighborhood restaurants also are very good restaurants. We LOVE neighborhood restaurants……….but…… Some restaurants out there are destination restaurants. Destination restaurants serve the FANTABULOUS dishes. These are the restaurants that you drive across town for. We lost some of our destination lunch restaurants like Tarbell’s Tavern, Christopher’s and Vincent Market Bistro possibly due to the pandemic. Some restaurants have cut back lunch service to limited days. It is important that we still have some destination lunch restaurants. These restaurants are great for a special lunch out. Some only offer lunch on the weekends. Maybe you want to impress a friend or a relative. Maybe you want a special lunch for an anniversary or a birthday. Or maybe it’s for just because…….
Here they are in no particular order.
The Craftsman (lunch Fri, Sat. Sun.) in North Scottsdale offers some expectational cuisine. When you taste just even a salad you know that it isn’t ordinary. It’s the highest freshest quality.
crunchy quinoa salad with chickenCraftsman muffuletta with friesshipwright ahi saladtomato and melon burrata
www.TheCraftsmanAZ.com
We have Elements at Sanctuary (lunch Mon., Tue., Wed., Thurs., Fri.) in Paradise Valley with celebrity chef Beau Macmillan. The menu is ever changing and seasonal. But you are sure to find a variety of appetizers a special of the day, bento boxes, a very good exceptional chicken dish, and pastry chef quality desserts.
bento box house made cavatelli with duck confitseasonal chicken thigh dishfive spice beef tenderloinchef crafted dessert
www.SantuuaryCamelback.com/dining/Elements
Ocotillo (lunch Sat., Sun. subject to change) is a restaurant and more. It is technically also a coffee bar, cocktail lounge, wine bar, event space and park. They offer a mostly American menu laced with global cuisine. The menu offered is a large brunch menu of mostly sharing plates of salads, vegetable plates, sweets (breakfast), light plates, savory plates. I counted over 20 different plates to choose from. The menus are seasonal and do change. Also the hours change. Before the pandemic Ocotillo offered a great lunch everyday. Currently brunch is offered on the weekends of mostly lunch sharing plates.
house smoked salmon platecrispy chicken meatballstandoori chicken salad pita with tomato watermelon saladvanilia roasted pear with goat cheese and bitter chocolate with mintsmoked brisket on parmesan polenta, fried egg, crispy onions, brisket jusJapanese fish and chips
It’s easy to see why Ocotillo is a destination restaurant.
www.OcotilloPHX.com
Superstition Downtown Meadery (lunch 7 days a week) in Phoenix offers chef crafted food and award winning meadery (ancient honey wine). They offer sharing boards, small sharing plates and large sharing plates and food and mead pairings.
12 mead sampler $24.piri piri chicken & warm cannelli bean saladgorgonzola. & herb butter skirt steak blondies with cocoa nibs and Marion berry mead sauce whipped cream
www.SuperstitionMeadery.com
Another one of the top destinations for a special lunch would be the small restaurant in Carefree called Confluence (lunch Wed. Thurs., Fri., Sat.) They serve ever changing seasonal menus of elevated modern cuisine….You can order appetizers, lunch, and don’t miss dessert….because the desserts are equally amazing as the food.
Some of the amazing detailed and delicious lunches from Confluence that we tried were- –
kampachi crudo appetizermiso braised beef cheek (don’t miss out on any beef cheek you ever come across from Confluence) (this was only on the lunch menu maybe one week)Wagyu pastrami sandwich cubano sandwichBBQ chicken sandwich, celery root, spicy pickle, beet greens, smoked onion mayo, on a house made fontina roll (This might have been the most delicious sandwich that I have ever eaten anywhere)buttermilk fried chicken with broccolini, grits and chili tepin honey mustardmixed fruit granitespiced plum with black pepper oat crumble, sake poached cherry, candied manderanquat, mint, matcha creme anglaisechocolate mousse smoked toffee risotto, spiced pear, cocoa nibs, hazelnut, mint
www.RestaurantConfluence.com
These are some of the destination restaurants of metro Phoenix for lunch.
In no particular order-
The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen – (Fri-Sun.) North Scottsdale
I found this bag of Deep River Snacks Chinese Mustard Kettle Potato Chips at Marshall’s. I thought this flavor seemed different and fun so I gave them a try. The bag is different.
The top of the bag reads, “Because we give a chip.” What it means is that they donate from their sales to a charity to feed children.
Then I look at the ingredients.
Seems safe to eat.
I open the bag and it smells like mustard.
Spill some chips out.
These are very small chips. They look fingerling sized??? They are extra crisp, very thin and slightly powdered.
I eat a few.
They really taste like Chinese mustard with that slight horseradish flavor.
Now I go to eat one real slow…………can’t………..the flavors are too strong that way….These you just have to eat.
I have to say these Select Edition Chinese Mustard Kettle Potato Chips from Deep River Snacks are Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
If you are a fan of Chinese Mustard and Crispy Potato chips you might want to give this bag of potato chips a try.
Goldbelly is an on-line marketplace of special foods from special restaurants from around the country.
Zahav in Philadelphia PA is a multi award wining and James Beard award wining Modern Israeli restaurant by James Beard multi award wining chef and co-owner Michael Solomonov. In 2019 Zahav earned a James Beard Best Restaurant in the Country Award.
Years ago I found out about Zahav Restaurant on the Travel Channel watching an Anthony Bourdain show. I knew one day that I would dine there (since I am from Philadelphia) and I did. It truly was an amazing experience. We had so many small plates to share and each and everyone of them was delicious and awesome. It truly was one of the most amazing dinners that I ever had to this day. They were all so nice to me there too. They treated us like VIPS too! We got to sit in front of the exhibition kitchen and watch all the magic. We watched as breads were baking in an Arabic wood oven called a taboon and we watched cooks acrobatics with skewered meats and fish were cooking on live coals. The funny thing is that I didn’t recognize the chef but he looked so familiar to me. I honestly thought maybe he was someone that I used to work with long ago in a restaurant in a suburb not so far away. The chef looked at me maybe because I was looking at him……I was trying to figure out if I knew him. Anyways he sent out some extra food to us and the management and host(s) were very chatty with us.
This is my photo of the salatim (small plates of salads) we enjoyed from Zahav in Philadelphia that you start out with….
Zahav Restaurant Philadelphia PA
www.OnlyInYourState.com also used my photo.
I had gift credit to buy something from Goldbelly and picked the salatim from Zahav that includes their best in the world hummus. ( it’s made with special sesame seeds that are grown and made into tahini for this restaurant.) I measured out the hummus in 2 oz portion cups and figured that I got twelve generous portions of that special hummus. I also got twelve large pita breads that are two servings each for me so I did have a lot of hummus and pita to freeze for latter.
It doesn’t look very attractive when it arrives.
Everything is numbered so you can look up what each bag contains on a cheat sheet.
It looks better in your own dishes. You can eat it after it sits out for an hour to warm up slightly.
I was so anxious to taste the hummus that I didn’t wait for it to warm properly. I wasn’t thrilled as I remembered but then when I tried it again warmed up then it was like 10 times better and closer to what I remember but it still does differ slightly from Zahav. The Hummus at Zahav is made fresh in the morning and doesn’t get refrigerated. It’s made the highest quality ingredients that can be grown and is topped with a high quality olive oil. They did serve the hummus to us with laffa bread at the restaurant. It’s a more delicate thin bread than pita bread we got packaged for Goldbelly.
Our mutual top favorites were the hummus, schug sauce, harissa, twice cooked eggplant, and spicy fennel…..But everything was very good….The beets taste more like the hummus than beets….so I liked them a lot. These dishes brought back the memory of the amazing food from Zahav.
It’s so cool that you can order food from famous restaurants from all over the country on Goldbelly. ……
Goldbelly.com brings you a taste of Zahav – James Beard Award Wining Restaurant.
Fantabulous means – Top of the line, marvelously great, peachy keen, and DYNAMITE!
Confluence is a small restaurant located in Carefree Arizona just above North Scottsdale. This restaurant serves an ever-changing menu of elevated modern American cuisine.
They always start you out with some sort of delicious house made bread. Tonight it came with olive oil and white vinegar.
We started out by sharing an amazing cold detailed appetizer of kampachi crudo.
The fish is clean and buttery and is enhanced with baby bok choy, shiitake mushrooms, radish, supreme grapefruit, red onions peanuts and laced with ponzu. It’s light and refreshing but also interesting.
This next one is a drop the mic moment. Sorry my picture doesn’t do it justice.
Above is the miso braised wagyu beef cheek. (Insert the sound of angels singing)
OMG it’s one of the most amazing things that I have ever eaten and I am not a beef person.
This beef isn’t like any beef that I’ve had anywhere……It’s so tender that you don’t need teeth. It really does just melt in your mouth.
The combination of everything on the plate is simply FANTABULOUS! It’s miso braised beef cheek with fried forbidden black rice, kimchi, miso emulsion, lotus root chips, garlic chips, and pickled ginger.
Both dinners were masterfully prepared to perfection……both were fish and both were much better than from any fish house that I’ve been to.
My husband went with the branzino.
This is one of the only restaurants that crisps and seasons the fish skin in a way that I can eat it. The fish also always. comes with something interesting and and very detailed that you won’t get anywhere else…..
On the side of the branzino is house prepared fettuccini with Parmesan, pancetta, kale, crimini mushrooms, eggplant, and white anchovies. My husband usually doesn’t order fish but this one was maybe the best that he has ever tried anywhere.
I went with the grilled steelhead.
Look how crisp the skin is…..It eats like a seasoned. potato chip. You just don’t get this almost. anywhere.
Under the perfectly prepared fish is a combination of wild rice, cauliflower, carrots, celery, scallions in a fumet (reduced stock).
Dessert should never be missed at Confluence because desserts here are ALWAYS as detailed and amazing as the food.
Tonight we tried the smoked toffee risotto.
It’s full of all kinds of surprising textures and flavors that have a confluence together…….The risotto is a very elevated kind of rice pudding with spiced pear, cocoa nibs, hazelnut, mint, and maybe orange zest.
I’ve had some Yum-Dingers this year but This dinner from Confluence in Carefree AZ was the most FANTABULOUS Dinner of 2021. It was stupendously impressive and Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.restaurantConfluence.com
Everything is subject to change. Remember that the menus change often so don’t wait.
My claws come out on Halloween. This is an all new collection of bad and the most frightful food that was served to me in Metro Phoenix Arizona in the past year or so. I already wrote about all of these restaurants so I don’t feel the need to name them again. It is not my intention to put down any restaurant too much. I mentioned them once and once is enough. If you read my blog then you know what restaurants these were.
Got these roasted vegetables somewhere in Metro Phoenix. Half were all shriveled up and chewy and the other half were RAW and crunchy.
Even children know that hummus is suppose to be a creamy dip. Somebody served me hummus that was thick like modeling clay.
Did take out from a brand new seafood restaurant and seafood market in Peoria. A few things were good but a lot was BAD. At the bottom of the photo is a large burro. The steak meat in it was chewy and we waited 30 minutes for it. They didn’t even bother to heat it for us. Here’s a better look at more of the BAD from this place.
This was the worst fish taco that I have ever had and it didn’t even come with a lime. The fish was so strong that it could do push ups. Fish was a throw away. I thought the food would be good here so I purchased a fish for dinner.
It was edible but wasn’t so fresh and smelled. So bummed I really wanted this place to be good.
Here’s another Fish Story.
You might think that I already ate this fish.
The FORKING TRUTH is that I opened up the fish and almost all the flesh was removed. I will never go back to this particular Thai Restaurant in Peoria. Come on…it’s not right to remove all the fish from someone’s meal. They don’t seriously expect anyone to come back for another do they?
The next one doesn’t look bad at all but it WAS REALLY BAD! ( I blurred out the one ok dish)
It’s like what do you want to try today?
Meat tough like leather?
Chicken that can be used for bungy cords with raw tasting starch? (this chicken was so rubbery and strong that you could pull out a tree with it)
Or meat so tough that you can chew and chew all night long and never get it down?
This restaurant should be named Tough MEATS R Us.
OMG this was so bad that I can’t believe this restaurant is in business.
Nothing is as stomach turning as bad sushi.
I tried one and was done. It was very fishy tasting…It turned my stomach. This place used to serve very really very good sushi. They went from hero to zero.
Went to a new upper end restaurant somewhere in metro Phoenix….Yes I ordered fish and it was so fishy tasting it was impossible to eat.
The waiter told me that Bronzino is always fishy because the flesh is so close to the skin (that is BULLSH*T)…….This fish was FORKING OLD…..This did go back and they did prepare me another fish dish that was good.
Sometimes food can be fresh but awful.
This was suppose to be bulgogi risotto.
It FORKING tasted like they put the bulgogi in a blender with cream cheese and then mixed in some rice and a few kernels of corn. This was more like vomit on a skillet.
I thought it would be impossible to really screw up a smoked fish…Well I was wrong.
This one looks very good but it wasn’t.
It taste like ammonia, fishy fish, smoke, mixed with funk. I couldn’t eat it. the fennel orange salad lacked fennel and was mostly fizzy bitter lettuce accented with sour oranges.
This plate also looks good…..but is one of the worst WHOLE PLATEs that I ever had anywhere.
Well start on the left. There is a mahi mahi fish that is coated in a GOD-AWFUL rub, GOD AWFUL house-made reduced balsamic and mango avocado salsa. The combination is impossible to stomach. The only thing that I can eat on the plate are the green beans. Under the green beans is candied red cabbage (ICK!), Next is a cup of jalapeño creamed corn….that looks and sounds good but isn’t……Someone dumped a whole bag of sugar in it and it is sickening……It is way sweeter than any dessert. This whole combination is one of the worst whole plates that I have ever been served anywhere. I think when a restaurant serves food that is this bad they need to loose their license because this was a crime. I could sure understand someone getting unhinged over this dish.
Trying to eat this was pure torture. (and the sangria that went with it was made from OLD SPOILED wine……) They are lucky that I am not the kind of person that gets unhinged….
I tried to eat it but it was too painful. Whoever prepared this missed their calling to cook at the local jail. The server didn’t make a peep when they cleared my plate of food and the full drink………I guess that means this happens often there?
Thought that I was done with bad food. Next is the only restaurant that I have never mentioned by name on my blog. This restaurant recently opened (newly opened restaurant)….It was bad when I walked in for lunch (20 minutes after they opened)….They just opened and all the tables were filthy. (Note to self…When you walk into a restaurant and see only dirty tables leave.) I should have left. Our server said pick any table. I thought she’d wipe it off for us but didn’t……then things got worst.
All the food we tried was mediocre. But the most memorable (in a bad way) was the complimentary chips and salsa.
You’d think that packaged chips can’t be screwed up but that isn’t so…….They didn’t warm the chips at the correct temperature and they taste burnt……:( The salsa taste like a ten year old experimented with a can of crushed tomatoes and added too much dry oregano and then tried to doctored it up with bottled hot sauce. I only went to this restaurant because of all the 5 star reviews and the pictures of food that looked amazing on Yelp. The reviews must have been from friends and the photos I saw of the food must have come from someplace else.
Going out to eat can be scary!
This was the Halloween Special Edition Of All NEW Bad Food served to me in Metro Phoenix.
Osso buco is usually a veal shank that is cross cut and braised in vegetables, white wine and stock. It is traditionally served with risotto or polenta and is topped with gremolata. This dish is usually expensive in restaurants.
This dish is pretty easy to make. It is hard to find shanks of any kind. Near where I live they sell beef shanks at my local Asiana Market. They sell mostly the smallest ones.
Anyways.
Just salt and pepper the shanks well.
Brown them on medium high heat on both sides (around 3 minutes a side). (It will come out tasting best if you saved beef fat from something you cooked……you can use oil.
Don’t clean the pan or pot.
Fry up a big onion, a few carrots, one hot pepper, a few celery till almost soft. Add a cup of white wine and let it cook down.
Add around half a can of tomato paste and try to fry it up at the bottom of the pan or pot.
Add around a 14 oz can of Italian tomatoes.
Add 2 bay leaves, Tablespoon thyme, Tablespoon oregano, 3 or 4 garlic cloves. I had seasoned beef jus from something else I made so I added that.
Then it all goes in a baking dish or pan….Or you can do this stove top if you prefer.
This gets covered tight.
It will take at least 3 hours at 375 F The last one I did was a little bigger and took 5 hours. You might need to check on it and add more liquid.
When it finally becomes tender remove the foil that covers the pan and let it go another half hour.
Suggested serving is risotto or polenta.
I had mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts that I had to use up so that is what we had.
Top the meat with some of the contents of the pan…(some people blend this up Osso it’s smooth…but I didn’t)
beef osso buco
Top with gremolata. (parsley, orange & lemon zest, garlic (ground to paste), salt , pepper.
The Smoked food festival was held Sunday October 17th 2021 at Ocotillo restaurant, coffee bar, cocktail lounge, wine bar, and park near downtown Phoenix Arizona.
The event was hosted by Arizona Foodie Diana Brandt. This festival is called Smoked because it features smoked food, smoked drinks and more!
Here are random pictures from Smoked 2021.
That was just a taste of Smoked Food Festival hosted by Arizona Foodie at Ocotillo in Phoenix AZ.
