According to the experts take out is a less risky option than dining in and we aren’t risk takers so we do take out during the pandemic. Our first take out of the week was from a little casual place in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide called Skewers Mediterranean Grill.
They make really great $7.50 salads. I got the one with pickled turnips and chicken kabob. My husband got the chicken shawarma with chickpeas and pickles. I just love the fresh herby tabouli it’s only $3. so why not? My dogs enjoyed some of the tasty chicken kabob.
Next take out was from Twist Bistro & Galley in North Scottsdale. They are a small modern restaurant that swings towards Mediterranean.
We started out by sharing the falafels. They were crisp and herby inside. They came with tahini aioli and garlic yogurt sauce. For my main I had the Mediterranean Salad. WOW! it was packed with all kinds of goodies. The salad came with marinated olives, almond golden raisin couscous, crispy chickpeas, minted cucumbers, good ripe tomatoes, really good creamy feta, hummus and really delicious sauces..and I added the salmon as my protein (the salmon here is very good). WOW! It’s like a special occasion Birthday salad. My husband got the steak sandwich pallard. It’s a really good beef (tenderloin) on a really great baguette (garlic toasted Noble Bread) with mozzarella cheese, horseradish and demi sauces. The cheesecake here is very good so we shared that too. It’s not heavy and sour like most cheesecakes I’ve tasted. It’s light creamy and delicious and detailed with pistachio praline, salted caramel, strawberries, whipped cream and a tasty crumb crust. Dogs helped with the generous portion of salmon.
Our last take out of the week was from a brand new restaurant that just opened this week called Gabriella’s Contemporary American Cuisine in Scottsdale. They were just on TV and the food looked so good from TV we wanted to try some.
On the left is the short rib grilled cheese and on the right is the fish and chips. I live 35 minutes away so the food didn’t travel as well as from some of the closer places that I go to but all was tasty. As per usual I always share some with my dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all that delicious food”
That was week 25 oof take out during the coronavirus pandemic. The restaurants that we did take out from –
I thought this flavor (Kettle Cooked New York Pizza) Potato Chips sounds tasty. After all I really like pizza. I really love east coast style pizza. Most east coast pizza is made with a rich tomato sauce and a really delicious cheese blend. Usually it’s made with a sprinkle of seasonings that many pizza places around Phoenix don’t use. New York style taste different because of the water and usually is made thin with lots of oil. It says on bag that these chips are suppose to be in the style of Grimaldi’s pizza. I haven’t had a Grimaldi’s pizza in years so I can’t tell if it is like Grimaldi’s. Anyway so here we go. I bought a small 2 1/2 ounce bag.
I open it up and take a whiff.
To me it smells just like mozzarella sticks.
I open the bag and read the back.
It seems safe to eat.
I spill some out.
The chips are smaller sized and very crisp. They have a very powdery finish.
I taste one. It’s not bad but it doesn’t taste like pizza to me.
I think it’s too oregano heavy to taste like pizza.
This doesn’t usually happen but I am actually tasting the potato here. Usually these chips lack potato flavor but the potato shines threw.
I guess it taste like a crispy Italian potato croquette.
Could pass for a mozzarella stick though.
It’s not bad but it doesn’t taste like pizza to me.
My bag of chips seems to lack the rich tomato flavor.
Maybe your bag might come with more tomato flavor?
Worth a try!
Those were my Forking Thoughts on Lay’s Kettle Cooked New York Pizza Flavored Grimaldi’s Flavor Icon Potato Chips.
Your experience may indeed differ from mine and everything is subject to change.
I recently purchased The Phoenix Cooks Cook Book by Cristina Barrueta. It is a cook book that features recipes from many of of the best chefs from Phoenix. The first recipe I tried was the Chiles Rellenos with Duxelles, Goat Cheese Cream, and Chimayo Salsa. This recipe is by chef Rene Andrade and chef Roberto Centeno from Ghost Ranch Modern Southwest Cuisine in Tempe Arizona. The recipe is very unusual for a home cook. This recipe calls for 2 cups of garlic plus TEN cloves. I also thought three cups of heavy cream is a lot of heavy cream for 7 peppers….. Even though I changed up the recipe a bit I do not have permission to publish it. I will just mention my experience with the recipe. For some people this recipe might make way more filling and sauce than you might need for 7 peppers but it is delicious.
Roasted Anaheim peppers
Chimayo salsa..This came out very thick for me. I added some water like they suggest to if the sauce is too thick. I also added 1/2 a cup of apple cider vinegar. I thought it brightens it up some. This makes way more than needed. It also gets thicker and needs to be thinned down more.
Goat Cheese Cream – three cups of heavy cream plus the goat cheese is too much for me so I only used one cup of cream that I didn’t reduce. I added a secret small dab of French Dijon mustard for a little depth. Still had plenty of goat cheese cream.
Duxelles….I made the duxelles but maybe my garlic was too strong and not as fresh as what a chef gets. The 2 cups of garlic was too much garlic for my mushrooms….to remedy this I added 3 Tablespoons of Mushroom Powder and one cup of huitiloche (Mexican Truffle also called corn smut) salt and pepper. (P.S. the mushroom powder is very good to add to things and is locally made by a woman known as the mushroom lady.
She supplies very fine mushrooms to the finest restaurants around Phoenix. My peppers for stuffing were far smaller than what the chefs have used because I had enough leftover to fill around a dozen roasted yellow Mexican chili peppers. The leftovers were also really great in omelettes too. (down below are the Mexican Yellow Peppers filled with the leftovers after filling 7 Anaheim peppers)
Garnish with chives….I fried leeks instead.
It came out Delicious and AMAZING…My changes I feel were only minor……. I never would have made this delicious dish without the Phoenix Cooks Cookbook.
Chiles Rellenos with Duxelles, Huitilloche, Goat Cheese Cream. and Chimayo Salsa
A Special THANKS! To chef Rene Andrade, chef Roberto Canteno and Christina Barrueta for this amazing recipe.
We have been doing a lot of take out in Metro Phoenix since the pandemic has happened. We’ve taken out a lot of Chicken Dishes so here they are in no particular order.
We are starting with the AMAZING Fried Chicken lunch from Confluence in Carefree. It’s a very large portion of chicken and it’s INSANELY Delicious chicken. It comes with this sauce that is mustardy, spicy and a little sweet but in a way that is a hundred times more delicious than I can describe. They change up the sides every few weeks but it’s always CRAZY GREAT!
The Greek Salad from Pita Kitchen tin Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide with added chicken kabob is usually very good (like 17 out of 20 times…. The chicken is usually moist and is always developed with delicious flavors. It always has a delicious kind of char taste too.
Below is the chicken fajita salad from Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
This salad is always a little different every time I have it but I can say for sure that it is always a large salad. I always enjoy their house made salsa with this salad.
From Taco Fusion in Glendale. I would highly recommend the mild chicken habanero taco. It’s even better with their pineapple salsa if you can get it on the day you are there. Actually all their food is very good. Even the tortillas are better than from most places. You do have to ask for the salsas here.
Bellow is the chicken cabbage salad from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix.
It’s tasty and just the right size and only cost around $5.00. Next to it are their chicken potstickers. They are also really great too!
Below was the chicken family dinner from Tratto in Phoenix.
This was very good. Everything was very good. The pasta is exceptional. How could it not be? It’s by a James Beard Award Winning Chef Chris Bianco. This take out was really special.
Below is food from Chino Bandido in North Phoenix.
Chino Bandido
We got big combo pans that start at less than $10. Not all but many of the choices are chicken in a somewhat Asian, Mexican or Caribbean variety. I’ve tried maybe all their chickens and I usually get the emerald chicken because I like the moist chicken breast with that ginger scallion sauce. I think this day I got their popular red jade chicken.
Below is the chicken and goat cheese salad from Cucina Tagliani in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UppetWestSide.
The dressings are made in house and are very tasty.
Below was our take out from Mochilero Kitchen in Peoria/#UpperWestSide.
One of them is a chicken bowl.
Below is our take out from Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix. They serve Caribbean Food and also Vegan options.
The top pan is my favorite meal there…….The curry chicken and jerk chicken combo. It’s always delicious with tender falling apart chicken. It’s also a big pan of food that I get more than one meal out of it too.
From Philla-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide I got the chicken steak as a wrap.
Next below is the chicken kabob from Alzohour Market in Glendale. It’s a Moroccan/Middle Eastern Restaurant that also sells some baked goods, some grocery and some Islamic clothing. It just might be the best chicken kabob on this side of town.
Everything is amazing from Alzohour Market. Don’t pass on the tea there or you will be sorry.
Skewers Mediterranean Grill in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide serves really great nice salads with chicken shawarma or-
Chicken kabob (below). The salads are crazy cheap and are only around $7.50@.
Below is the noodle bowl with chicken and egg roll from Banh Mi Vietnamese Bistro in North Phoenix.
It’s delicious and big. I know it was $10 or less and can be two meals for some people.
Below we tried a brand new restaurant called Kabob Grill and Go. The sides were all very good. The garlic sauce can make you go yip-pid-dee-WOW-wow! It might make you grow hair on your chest. It feels healthy.
The two outer boxes contained chicken. One was tenders and the other was on the bone. We ordered an extra meal because this place was highly recommended by our food critic and the prices are very low so we wanted to try. Maybe we just live too far to take out from here. Good flavors but all three meats were very dry.
This next one was very good! It’s a HUM YUM DINGER!
Here is the menu fried chicken thigh sandwich (with added Calabrian Peppers) from CHZBURGR in Glendale. This is really FORKING GREAT! Great flavors, it’s crunchy, lots of juice. Even the bun is very good and not too big so you can eat it as a sandwich. Below on the right side is a crispy boneless chicken leg special I had to try also from CHZBURGR.
Next is the chicken and strawberry salad from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
The strawberries in this salad taste better than the ones I buy from the store…It’s a nice treat for a salad.
Phila-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide offers great BIG $7.50 salads in addition to their sandwiches.
This salad is nice and big and only $7.50. Thanks Phila-Deli for filling my belly!
The Delta & The Larder is an AMAZING Restaurant. When they offer their KFC Chicken sandwich DROP EVERYTHING! RUN and GET IT! I didn’t get that sandwich recently but did get a take out special.
We took out the hot fried chicken special there.
I really like the spicy lemon chicken salad (on left) from-
Sala Thai in Peoria/#UpperWestSide.
Lower right corner is the tender and delicious chicken and dumplings from-
Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale. The chicken was super great in this dish!
Below are the seasonal specials from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
On the left is the chicken piccata. This one was very tender and very lemon-ee. The mushroom pasta was really excellent too!
On the left is the chicken from-
Fe La Cubana Cafeteria in Glendale. (little Cuban Restaurant)
On the right is the very flavorful yellow curry chicken from-
Angelina’s Pho and Grill in Glendale/#UpperWestSide.
We even went to Starlite BBQ by Old Town Scottsdale.
On the left is the hot fried chicken. It was very tasty!
Below was a Friday Night Dinner of Jerk Chicken Special for two from the Bread Fruit and Rum Bar in Down Town Phoenix. It had nice exotic flavors and came with this hot sauce that is so hot it can be used as a weapon.
Friday night jerk chicken for two special from The Breadfruit & Rum Bar in Phoenix
We went to the newly opened Nanaya Japanese Kitchen in the Arcadia Area of Phoenix.
It the right corner is part of one of the chicken ramen dishes that they offer. The plastic tub holds the liquid. Mt half looked more like this.
I have to say that chicken was really tender and developed with delicious flavors.
I heard about a spicy chicken sandwich special from Aioli Burgers in Phoenix.
Not real spicy but were tasty moist chicken sandwiches.
Below was the fried chicken special from FnB in the arts district of Scottsdale.
WoW! It was glorious! Really GREAT fried chicken and SUPER GREAT sides that were made with the best vegetables on earth.
Below is Mrs Chicken “HOT” Nashville Style dark meat on bone with mustard slaw.
WOW! It has a DELICIOUS REALLY GREAT shattering crisp exterior. It doesn’t seem so hot at first but the heat builds quickly and turns to molten heat before you know it. The interior chicken was tender and juicy moist delicious chicken.
Those were the majority of the chicken dishes we took out since March 2020.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
We do take out during the pandemic because dining in involves risk to exposure to the coronavirus. All restaurants are struggling these days and since we are spending so much less than we normally do we are doing take out as much as possible.
Our first take out of the week was from Pita Kitchen ( a casual Greek Restaurant) in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
We both got Greek Salads mine was topped with a chicken kabob and my husband’s salad was topped with gyro meat. The gyro was great like it usually is. My chicken had good flavor but was on the dry side today but not bad. We always enjoy the fresh baked pita bread here. I had plenty to share with my dogs.
Our next take out was from Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante (Italian Restaurant) also in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
Today we went with a few specials.a delicate pasta with eggplant, pesto and pine nuts, Chicken piccata, a side salad and chicken pizziola. Everything had really good flavors and the bread is always great too! The dogs couldn’t wait to try some.
We treated ourselves to the AMAZING fried chicken from Confluence in Carefree.
Confluence is a small but upscale restaurant that serves modern American Cuisine. The moist chicken came with blue corn grits, broccoli and this incredible honey mustard chili-tepin sauce. As delicious as it was…and IT WAS! I saved half for latter so we could splurge on dessert. We got sake poached pears with angel cake and yuzu curd with almond brittle……This was all amazing! I shared some chicken and a small amount of cake with my dogs.
Our next take out came from a small Indian Restaurant called Wraps ‘N’ Curry. When they first opened most of the menu was naan wrap sandwiches. I recently noticed that they fully expended their menu and offer over 20 different Indian dishes. They make a DELICIOUS onion stuffed naan bread called onion kulcha.
Today we tried the Karachi Chicken and the Vindaloo Chicken.
Both dishes were nicely spiced but not very hot with heat. The Chicken in both was incredibly moist and tender. My bigger dog was incredibly excited to try some.
Last take out oof the week was from Stratta Kitchen in Scottsdale.
They have a family pak special so we gave it a try for lunch and dinner. A few of the things we had before are different now. The salmon is not med/med-rare any more and is now a kabob. The chop salad is made with much less egg and avocado now but everything did taste good. Below is my take out from Stratta Kitchen from just a few weeks ago.
I shared some salmon with the dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all that delicious food”
That was week 24 of Take Out in Metro Phoenix AZ During the CoronaVirus Pandemic.
We got many places around North Phoenix where you can take out DELICIOUS food for $10.00 or less around North Phoenix. One restaurant that is on my local rotation is Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Bistro in North Phoenix. They are a pho free Vietnamese Eatery that offers around a dozen different Banh Mi Sandwiches and many other Vietnamese Favorites except for pho. Pictured up above is the noodle bowl. It’s a lot of different flavors in one (or two) meals. Minty salad, fried shallots, tasty protein that taste even better with fish sauce, lots of rice noodles and a tasty egg roll for me.
Here’s the shaken beef Banh Mi my husband recently got.
shaken beef from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery
Below is a $5. Chicken and cabbage salad and on right are the potstickers $4. They are delicious and tasty. The $5.00 is the right size for many people. The papaya salad and the lotus root salad both come with shrimp and are the same size as the chicken and cabbage salad.
Below is a rice plate. It a large amount of tasty meat with a double scoop of rice, a fragrant pickled salad and a pork egg roll.
Rice Plate
Another restaurant that we enjoy is Taco Fusion in Glendale.
They sell the BEST tacos in the area!
It sure doesn’t cost much to eat from Taco Fusion. Most tacos are less than $3.00 each and are made on hand made tortillas that just TASTE BETTER than from most taco places. It isn’t just the tortillas….The FILLINGS ARE DELICIOUS TOO!
I usually don’t even like carne asada from not all but most places. It has to have a really good flavor and be tender for me to eat it. I do really like the carne asada tacos here. My personal favorite taco at Taco Fusion is their mild chicken habanero taco on flour with pineapple salsa and a little pico. That taco is stuffed with flavorful moist dark chicken meat. It’s even better than chicken tacos I ate in Mexico. I also like their fish taco but I prefer that one is better on a corn tortilla. My husband eats the different styles of asada tacos here and he always tells me that they do shrimp tacos very well here. The salsas differ everyday. Sometimes they have.a real interesting black salsa that’s next to too hot but really delicious. I really enjoy their pineapple salsa because it usually has so many flavors in it. All the salsas I tried are good but you have to ask for the salsas. They also offer cilantro rice and two kinds of beans here and MORE.
Also in Glendale is Skewers Mediterranean Grill.
I get big beautiful salads here for only around $7.50.
On the left is my chicken kabob salad and on the right is the salad with shawarma. Look at the GREAT LOW pricing below. You get your meal as a pita, rice bowl, fry bowl, wrap or salad like I always get.
Almost across the street from Skewers MG is Phila-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
My husband enjoys the cheese steaks from Phila-Deli but they cost over ten so we will talk about the really great $7.50 salads that Phila-Deli offers. (My salad was 75cents extra because I added avocado.)
You can get a very good salad for only around $7.50 at Phila-Deli to FILL YOUR BELLY!
We also like Rocket Burger in North Phoenix for burgers, Mexican Fish sandwiches maybe the largest collection of bottled sodas anywhere and MORE!
It doesn’t cost much to eat from Rocket Burger. Not all but more than half of the menu is priced under $10.
On the left is a cheese burger with a big fried chili pepper on it. At the right is the Mexican Fish Sandwich. The slaw and rocket sauce are so tasty that you can slap it on a hamster and the hamster will be delicious.
In Glendale we love going to CHZBURGR. They offer great cheese burgers, FORKING delicious crispy chicken thigh sandwiches, hot dogs, milk shakes, SPECIALS and more!
Most of the time I get the Crispy Chicken Thigh Sandwich with added Calabrian Peppers because IT’S FORKING AMAZING!
It’s crisp! It’s delicious, It’s Juicy! It sort of POPS from the house made pickles! The bun is delicious and not too big. It’s just perfection. My bigger dog is usually well behaved when I eat but when I have this sandwich she slaps me for some.
My husband gets the Triple cheese burger.
He said it’s just so perfect he can’t get anything else.
CHZBURGR is a GREAT Place for $10. or less. During the pandemic CHZBURGR offers the safer Curbside Pickup.
In North Phoenix on Bell Rd inn an older strip mall is Wraps ‘N’ Curry. They offer aromatic delicious Indian Food in fresh made naan wraps and many Indian Dishes and MORE! Below is one of their delicious wraps that you can order for take out that is only around $9.00.
Wraps ‘N’ Curry expanded their menu since opening and now offers at least 20 different Indian dishes priced at $9.99.
In North Phoenix is the home of Chino Bandido A sort of Chinese and sort of Mexican and Other foods type of restaurant. According to Food Network Chino Bandido offers (starting at $9.35) NINTY THOUSAND different combination plates. You get a BIG Pan of food that is BETTER than fast food and cost LESS than fast food if you figure that amount of food you get for your money. During the pandemic they even offer curbside pick up. Once I got the veggie salad combo with the Chili Relleno.
Our most recent take out is more typical of what to take out. I got a chili Relleno again because it is good! They use a real pepper that doesn’t taste canned (like from certain more costly restaurants) The cracker coating is unique and all that cheese is darn tasty. I like the emerald chicken with scallion ginger sauce. I get lots of rice and lots of black beans. It’s more food than I can eat and could be two meals for some people. They also give you a BIG complimentary snickerdoodle for dessert.
That was EIGHT $10. or less food from Restaurants for Take Out in North Phoenix AZ
You can never be too careful. Take out is a less risky option than dining in these days during the coronavirus pandemic. All restaurants are struggling these days so we are doing take out as much as possible. Besides there isn’t much else to do safely these days besides staying home.
Our first take out of the week was from Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix. They are a Vietnamese Eatery that offers most of your Vietnamese Favorites except pho, Meals are very large portions and can be two meals for some people. Prices are very low and I believe everything on the menu is $10. or less. They even offer $4. & $5. menu items. My husband had the shaken beef Banh Mi Sandwich. I know the beef is ribeye but it is as tender as filet mignon. It’s delicious and you can’t go wrong with a shaken beef Banh Mi. I got the chicken & egg roll noodle bowl.
There’s lots of rice noodles and a pile of refreshing minty salad, tasty chicken covered with some fried shallots, crushed peanuts and an egg roll for me. (there are other choices). You can mix the whole thing up and eat it dressed with chili sauce if you want. Or just eat it the way it comes. Just make sure to dip the protein inn the fish sauce because it makes it taste even better. This is a very large platter and can be two meals for some people. My dogs sure didn’t mind helping me out with this.
Next take out was Moroccan/Middle Eastern Cuisine from Alzohour Market ion Glendale. We’ve enjoyed many amazing dishes from Alzohour Market.
We got two jerk chicken curry chicken combos from Desert Island Eatery in North Phoenix. They are a very small mainly take out restaurant that offers Caribbean Food and Vegan Options.
The food is always delicious. The chicken meat is always developed with great flavors and is always falling off the bone. They give you a very generous portion of food that might be two meals for some people. Both the jerk chicken and curry chicken are delicious. I think they make the best around. Sometimes it is saucier than other times. It’s CRAZY GREAT when you get it a little extra saucy. My dogs sure don’t mind samples.
Our next take out was from Phila-Deli in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide.
Their salads might be the best deal in town! They are only around $7.50. Many other places charge over $12. for salads that aren’t as good. My husband likes the cheese steaks at Phila-Deli. The people there are extra nice. They also have treated our dogs extra nice when we dine on the patio. My dogs are always happy to help eat Phila-Deli Food.
Our last take out of the week was from Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide. They are a casual Sonoran Style Mexican Restaurant.
I got my usual chicken fajita salad and my husband got the carnitas fajita. They gave us chips and salsas. The chicken was really good today and they loaded the salad up with lots of caramelized onions. I had plenty to share with the dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat alll that delicious food”
That was week 23 of take out during the coronavirus pandemic in Metro Phoenix AZ.
The restaurants we did take out from-
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Ratery – North Phoenix
Allzohour Market – Glendale
Desert Island Eatery – North Phoenix
Phila-Deli – Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide
Popo’s Fiesta Del Sol – Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
During the pandemic I’ve been doing takeout instead of dining in because it’s less risky. Since I’ve been just doing take out I noticed that the food has been better in general. I usually get a few HORRIBLE dishes a few times a year. Outside of dry chicken a couple of times I really haven’t had any bad food. I’ve been more careful with my restaurant selections and mostly but not entirely go to restaurants that I know. Here is a collection of NOT ALL but some more of the BAD and or DISAPPOINTING foods I had in Metro Phoenix. My bad experiences might be humorous for you to see.
The crust taste burnt from this deep dish pizza restaurant. I waited around an hour for this to be served to me. They told me that they pre-bake the crust and these pizzas come out that way. WOW if I did that like this nobody would tell me to open a pizza restaurant.
Bad food can come from a food truck. The next one came from a food truck in Metro Phoenix.
The fried dough had a rancid taste and was suppose to be stuffed with corned beef. I think they used the deep fryer for frying not fresh but very old road kill.
The next one seemed like a culinary wonder after this.
This restaurant serves the most uninspired fajita salad I ever had with the worst salsa and chips I’ve ever tasted. Bagged chips and jarred salsas are superior to what I tasted. Not to mention that somebody dripped something with strawberry into one of the salsas on its way to me. I have no idea why this is a popular restaurant.
The next restaurant was very good when they opened. Unknown to me at the time the chef left and they must have let the dishwasher take a shot at cooking for them.
Smelly tasting fish topped with lots of raw tomato paste and served with two styles of splats of blended corn.
That wasn’t the only bad dish.
Below are the gooiest pierogi in the world.
This restaurant went out of business shorty after this.
This steak was so chewy that I didn’t even bring it home for my dogs. I was able to eat the potato cakes but something was wrong with them and that side of pond slim on the plate was disgusting. This upset me so much I didn’t eat any beef for a year.
Last week I gave you the worst taco I ever was served so here is the 2nd worst taco I ever tasted.
The 2nd worst taco I ever tasted came from the 2019 Taco Festival. This taco wasn’t just salty but it tasted like it was made with 50% salt. Some poor boob must of accidentally dropped a container of salt into the taco mix and said oh well. This was so salty I thought I was going to turn into a pillar of salt. I spit this out so I wouldn’t get sick.
You know of lava cakes?….. well the French name for lava cake is fondant. Well these people served me a Fon-DON’T
The chef from this restaurant didn’t put a molten filling in this thing. He gave me a lump of solid frosting. Who wants a solid lump of frosting? It seemed like someone besides the chef wrote the menu for this restaurant without training the person in charge of cooking. Although this was a promising restaurant that did serve some delicious dishes this restaurant has closed for business)
This next one came from a well known Asian Restaurant.
Guess I hit them on an off day. The dumpling were soggy and falling apart.
This comes from another well known restaurant. It was made special to look like vomit for me.
EVERYTHING was HORRIBLE from this Meditertanean Restaurant that is out of business now.
They served me falafels that I almost broke my teeth on because the chick peas weren’t cooked and were hard as rocks in them. The shawarma tasted like it was grilled chicken baloney and all these goodies came with a decomposing pickle.
I enjoyed lunch a few times at a well known Italian Restaurant so I thought I’d enjoy dinner there…..Well I was wrong again.
My dinner was overcooked and my vegetables that came with my dinner seemed like they were over cooked many times for like maybe two weeks.
I heard about a fish fry restaurant and wanted to give it a try.
The owner seemed very nice and was very conversational. But WOW EVERYTHING WAS AWFUL. It seemed like it was a combination of poor cooking skills mixed with restaurant equipment failure. The macaroni was gooey and cheese seemed water downed. The sweet potatoes seemed old. The tarter sauce was thinned down…..but the fish……was FREEZER BURNT. It’s was like eating crunchy astronaut dehydrated fish. My husbands plate had similar and different problems. After we tried everything and everything was horrible we threw it all out in the trash. This place is still in business so there is a possibility that she improved the food she serves there.
This next one was very disappointing from a restaurant that was newly opened at the time.
On the left was suppose to be corn and jicama slaw. There wasn’t any corn or jicama in the slaw so that was disappointing. The sandwich was also disappointing. Besides being impossible to eat as a sandwich the white sauce was suppose to be green curry coconut that sounds very good but it was just a tangy loose white liquid. I did mention these things to the manager before I was about to write about them. They told me not to criticize them because they were busier than expected and newly opened. I just told them that if someone told me that they might be out of a few things then I would be alright and know what to expect. That’s fair shouldn’t a paying customer know what to expect? Later the owner said nasty things to me on line and told me never to go to his restaurants again. A few weeks later he sent me another email that just read – You Suck!
Anyways-
Over cooked and over salted fish can happen at one of the finest restaurants in Phoenix. (but the rest of the meals were excellent)
Sometimes desserts can be horrifying. It really upsets me when desserts have foreign objects in them that I have to spit out.
I complained about this and the waiter told me it was part of the dessert. (jerk)
I went to a certain Filipino restaurant where I enjoyed the meal so we splurged for dessert. My fork couldn’t penetrate the dessert because it was hard as a rock. It took my husband a long time but he finally busted it apart with his hands.
The owner said nothing was wrong with his dessert. He said if I heated it up it would turn soft. WOW! I didn’t know that I should bring my own oven to heat up his hard as rock desserts.
*****THE I ALREADY ATE PLATE******
Sometimes food can be disappointing because they serve you “The I already ate plate” I do note that this wasn’t a tasting menu for lunch…….This was a regular lunch entree.
This was my $16.00 lunch salad that came from a restaurant that is out of business. (and WTFork did they do with the other half of the egg?….I was still hungry and could have used it)
******THE I ALREADY ATE PLATE********
Here’s another “I already ate plate” The food was very good from this restaurant but this is not a tasting restaurant.
This restaurant is also closed for business.
This last one is a bonus extra and was something my husband had somewhere in metro Phoenix at one of the places I showed you bad food from last week.
It might be the WORST crispy chicken sandwich in Metro Phoenix. They sure don’t give a cluck about what they served there. My husband said the cheese was a mix of hard and melted. Chicken seemed like processed and prepared over done in a microwave because of the rock hard texture and the blown out chicken middles.
Well those were only some of the bad and disappointing foods Part 2 from Metro Phoenix Restaurants.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
Unless I make a trip to Nelsons or Chula Seafood it is hard for me to buy fresh fish. I have purchased inedible fish from Frys, Safeway and Costco. I have paid top dollar from AJ’s Fine Foods and got less than fresh. For those reasons I mostly gave up preparing fish at home and enjoy eating fish out or taking it home these days. The dishes below are not in any particular order. Here are some of the fish dishes I took out from restaurants since around March 2020.
On the right is the grilled salmon from Cucina Tagliani in Glendale/Arrowhead/#UpperWestSide. It’s a good size portion that is prepared reasonably well and I like that you can have healthy options like double vegetables instead of pasta. I had spaghetti squash and asparagus. My husband had a shrimp and pasta dish that night.
The best tacos near to my house are from Taco Fusion on Glendale. My favorite taco from them is the mild habanero chicken taco with pineapple salsa but all their tacos are good. They even use hand made tortillas. On the right is their fish taco. Doesn’t taste like a fish taco from Mexico but it is a good taco and is better than most fish tacos I try out . My husband says that the shrimp tacos here are really great so I’ll take his word for it.
Everything from Confluence in Carefree is extraordinary!
These are the halibut lunch tacos from Confluence. Nobody prepares fish as masterfully as from Confluence. The crispy skin on fish actually can taste good and stays crisp from beginning to end. Even the finest restaurants anywhere can’t do that as well. If you like to eat fish than you must take the splurge and try one of their fish dinners.
You can even get fish from Rocket Burger in North Phoenix.
On the left is a double cheese burger with a really big fried chili pepper but on the right is their super tasty Mexican Fish Sandwich. It’s delicious I have to have one once in a while. The slaw and rocket sauce are so darn tasty that you can slap it on a hamster and the hamster would taste good.
I would say among the top fish take outs was from Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale.
I had the Salmon dish twice. It was really great both times. Very few restaurants in metro Phoenix prepares salmon this well. My husband is just as found of their Shrimp Diablo dish below.
Aiello’s Italian Restaurant in Phoenix offers three course dinners with a bottle of wine and a candle for ($50.&$65.)
I got a generous pan of salmon with artichokes and a tasty potato croquette. The other dishes were tasty too!
In Peoria (#UpperWestSide) is the Twisted Italian and they offer a Friday Night Walleye Special. (It’s that BIG PAN on the left in the picture below.)
It’s more food than a human can eat and I tried to order it a few weeks before and it was sold out. Now I know why.
I also got a salmon salad from Chula Seafood in Phoenix.
It was prepared well and everything was fresh. My husband got some sort of grilled tuna sandwich that day.
Below was our take out from Vincents Market Bistro in Phoenix.
To be honest (like I always am) I didn’t order the salmon dinner but wound up with it. When we called them to let them know of the mix up they quickly took care of things. VMB has been a long time favorite of mine and I have enjoyed dining in here for a decade or so now. Dining in they always give you delicious fresh baked croissants and some of the best desserts in town.
Below is the really great Halibut from Fabio On Fire in Peoria #UpperWestSide.
The halibut was cooked to perfection and also was a large portion that came with fancy vegetables in a delicious sauce. This was really great!
We did take out from Wally’s American Gastropub in Scottsdale.
My husband said the meatloaf from here is really great. I liked the healthier grilled salmon with tomatoes and really tasty cauliflower. It was filling but light enough to add on one of their really delicious slices of pie.
FnB in the arts district of Scottsdale usually offers delicious wood grilled seafood.
Upper left hand corner is the Blue Nose with Citrus and Couscous
One of the plates to get from Scott’s Generations Restaurant and Delicatessen is the fish plate supreme (middle). It’s suppose to serve one person but I always get three servings from it.
It think it’s kind of special because you get to pick three kinds of fish for it. One fish I always pick is the smoked sturgeon because it cost around $40 a pound and you seldom find it anywhere. They offer belly and nova lox. (Belly is better but sometimes it runs too salty) and then I pick something like white fish too. I think it’s fun to get once in a while.
Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix offers a few fish dishes. Bellow is the middle is the Lotus root salad.
I think it only cost $5.00 and comes with shrimp.
Nayana Japanese Kitchen recently opened in the Arcadia Area of Phoenix,
On the left side of the picture is a spicy tuna roll and the very tasty salmon yuanyaki.
Below is the amazing house smoked salmon from the Barrio Cafe in Phoenix (Lower Left)
WOW! it was all so delicious! YUM!
From Szechwan Cuisine in Glendale (on the left) I tried the fish with fungus in egg white sauce.
In the middle my husband tried the kung pao shrimp.
Also in Glendale we did take out from Taylor’s Chowder House.
On the left my husband got the dish that is called 2 plus 2 (2 cod 2 shrimp) and I got the Sole Florentine. They were very generous with the potatoes and fish in the 2+2. I like that they serve vegetables with the dishes.
We even did take out by Old Town Scottsdale and did take out from Starlite BBQ.
I tried the Hot Fried Catfish there and it was very good!
Went back to Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale.
The Grilled Hawaiian Opah Special was really good! (and so was everything else!) That beef sandwich and Moroccan Vegetable soup were really great too!
We did take out from a really special Thai Restaurant in Phoenix called Glai Baan.
On the left corner is their famous Mackerel fried rice. Everything was really great!
Stratta Kitchen recently opened in Scottsdale. I had another one of the best salmons there.
On the left is the mistral salad with added salmon. WOW this was a really great salad and a spectacular salmon. This was really special.
Those were 27 fish dishes we took out in Metro Phoenix so far in 2020.
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
All restaurants are struggling these days. ABC News reported that 16,000 restaurants across the country have permanently closed after temporally closing from the pandemic as of July 25 2020. We LOVE going out to eat so we are giving as much support to independent restaurants as we can. Take out dining is less risky than dining in during a pandemic so we do take out instead of dine in.
Our first take out of the week was from Taco Fusion in Glendale.
They serve a good variety of mesquite style tacos on hand made tortillas. They are smaller sized tacos that are a little bigger than street sized and are stuffed more than street tacos. Today I got a carne asada on flour, a mild habanero chicken on flour and the fish on corn tortilla. They are all so delicious! I very rarely like carne asada because it’s usually not tender enough and doesn’t have enough flavor but the carne asada is much better here than from many other places and the tortillas either flour or corn ALSO taste better than from most places. I also enjoy their fish taco on corn….but my favorite is the mild habanero chicken taco with pineapple salsa. I’ve had a lot of chicken tacos from many places and also Mexico. The mild chicken habanero taco is really great. My husband had several tacos that were different than what I ordered and his favorites are the different asada tacos and his other favorite is the shrimp taco. He said they do shrimp better than from most places. The only thing that is difficult is asking for the salsas because you don’t know what they have. I saved some meat for the dogs and they were very excited to try some.
Next was La Piazza Al Forno in Old Town Glendale. They offer certified Neapolitan pizzas and the popular in Italy Roman type pizza. So we got one of each, a salad and their amazing cheese cake for latter.
WOW it smells really great! The basil is very aromatic. We start with some salad. Then we dig into the pizzas. They are both really great pizzas made with house made mozzarella that is really great and the certified San Marzano Tomatoes. The Roman Style Pizza is unique and the dough is thick but very light because it’s mostly air and looks sort of like a sponge. Saving the cheese cake for latter. I always share some food afterwards with the dogs.
CHZBURGR is a small casual restaurant that serves extremely good flat style burgers, outrageously GREAT chicken sandwiches, all beef hot dogs, milk shakes and more. I wasn’t planning on coming this week because I came here last week but when I heard about the crispy boneless chicken leg special sandwich I had to try it.
One the left is the triple cheese burger my husband loves. On the right is a crispy boneless chicken LEG with chipotle honey, house made pickles, asadero cheese and green leaf lettuce. WOW! another great sandwich from CHZBURGR! Of course my dogs wanted to try some.
We also did take out from Aiello’s East Coast Italian.
The food all looks great! They got mixed up there and gave me someone else’s dinner. We called to let them know and something was worked out. I don’t eat veal but I enjoyed the cannoli. My dogs were very happy with the result.
Our last take out of the week was curbside pick up from Chino Bandido in North Phoenix. This is a popular mishmash restaurant of sort of Asian, Mexican and Caribbean Inspired creations. Food Network figured out that you can order around 90,000 different combinations here. You get a big pan of food that comes with complimentary snickerdoodle cookies and the combination pans start at less than $10.00 each and might be more than one meal for some people. This is better than fast food and priced cheaper than fast food.
I got the chile relleno, emerald chicken, white rice and black beans. My husband got a carnitas quesadilla, matchacha beef, white rice and refried beans. We had plenty to share with the dogs.
“Don’t worry we are in this thing together and are here to help you eat all this delicious food”
The restaurants we did take out from on week 22 –
Taco Fusion – Glendale
La Piazza Al Forno – Old Town Glendale
CHZBURGR – Glendale
Chino Bandido – North Phoenix
Aiello’s East Coast Italian – Phoenix
Everything is subject to change and we hope it does change for the better.
