Category Archives: Forking Thoughts

Random Forking Items of Interest

The Halloween Special Edition – A Collection of the Most Frightful Horrific Foods served to me in Metro Phoenix AZ

Here is a collection of the most frightful and horrific foods served to me in Metro Phoenix Arizona. Some but NOT ALL of these restaurants are normally good but things do happen …..and many will have a bad day…..It is very unfortunate for me because I won’t go back when I have a poor experience somewhere. It’s not my intention to damage a restaurants’ reputation. I will mention the name of the restaurant if they are no longer in business. After all I already mentioned who they were at the time I dined there. And That’s The Forking Truth!

The worst taco in the whole world came from Taco Haus in Scottsdale. Dry flavorless chicken in a tortilla that decomposed on the way to the table. Rest in peace Taco Haus.

The 2nd worst taco in the whole world was served to me at the 2019 AZ Taco Festival. This one wasn’t just salty or over salted. It FORKING taste like it was HALF SALT. Some poor boob at the festival must have accidentally dropped a whole container of salt into the taco. mix and just mixed it in not giving a dam. Shame.

Once upon a time there was a restaurant called Indi Fusion. It was an Indian Fusion restaurant. They sure did make some tasty food and they had so much potential. But dessert was another story there. I ordered a fondant ( basically a French lava cake) instead of a fondant I received a Fon-DON’T…….I recieved not a molten cake….not even a cake…but a disk of frosting. I have to say that the chef had some confusion issues.

Soggy falling apart dumplings from a particular Asian Restaurant in Phoenix.

Bad food usually does come from chains…….

I’ve never been to a Long John Silvers before and never will go again. I enjoy fish and many decades back Arthur Treachers used to serve really delicious quality Icelandic Cod. Incase you don’t know the chain has been sold a long time back and lowered the quality of the food so it might suck now. . Anyways I was hoping that Long John Silver would serve something similar to what Arthur Treachers used to serve. WOW was this sickly BAD!!!!!! It was so greasy and muddy tasting with that OLD USED OIL TASTE. I couldn’t eat it….Now I feel bad because I offered this fish to my dear departed dog Louie and Louie took it and he FORKING SPIT IT OUT! It was so bad LOUIE SPIT IT OUT! But then my younger dog gobbled up what poor old Louie spit out.

Now I really feel bad for these people that opened a meatball theme restaurant called Meatballz in Scottsdale. They didn’t have basic cooking skills to prepare meatballs or a basic tomato sauce. I have no idea on why they went into this business. I highly doubt that anyone ever said to them your food is so good that you should open a restaurant.

Crunchy Carrots in Vegan Balls and Sauces

Mushy vegan meatballs with crunchy carrots in a raw acidic slightly bitter sauce sandwich. The sauce was so bitter and also had crunchy uncooked carrots in it. My husband tried a meat meatball and it was also awful.

This one was from a restaurant in Phoenix.

Dinner that looks like it threw up on it’s self ……….from a well known restaurant on Camelback Road.

All the food was really bad from this Mediterranean restaurant in Glendale but most things photographed well.

The pickled they gave me could own a senior citizens card……before it passed away. Their falafels were served with hard uncooked chick peas that was hard like rocks and could break teeth……The gyro was like fried baloney….but the rice, onion and tomato was good.

I went to what one of the “official” top ten Italian Restaurants of Metro Phoenix. The Forking Truth is that I did enjoy a few lunches there but then went back for dinner.

For $34.00 I got over cooked Bronzino and vegetables that appear to be reheated too many times and maybe were a couple of weeks old. They don’t don’t check on you here…this might be why.

Now Little Cleo’s in Phoenix was a good seafood restaurant……But

I was horrified at this tiny dinner plate……Don’t you think it was tiny too? I guess I accidentally ordered “the I already ate plate.”

Here’s another “I already ate plate.”

This one was also from a very nice restaurant that had an ultra talented chef…..but.

Seared Tuna Nicoise ($16.) from The Local, PHX AZ

Wouldn’t you be horrified if you received this tiny lunch for $16.00? This isn’t even enough for a midget on weight watchers….and WTFork did they do with that other half of egg anyway?

……Is my dinner excited to see me?…….Or is the chef just pissed off?

I got this polenta tower from a well known restaurant in Phoenix. I do note the chef has changed at least twice at this restaurant since I had this dinner. You won’t get this anymore there……(but he may be working someplace else now?)

We ate a nice meal at a Filipino restaurant. The FOOD really was good there but the desserts were hard like rocks. I couldn’t break them open but my husband used all his might and busted them open.

We did confront the owner and he said that nothing was wrong with the desserts and they just needed to be heated up. (excuse me…….. I didn’t know that I was suppose to bring my own Forking heat source with me to try these desserts) Well The Forking Truth is that these desserts were served to us HARD AS ROCKS….(he also said he’d take them off the bill…..but nobody took them off the bill..we just paid and left)

Some people don’t enjoy dessert….Now I know why.

I was served this dessert somewhere WAY out in the far west valley. the dessert wasn’t so good……in taste and in texture. When I pulled this thing out of my mouth from the dessert I thought it was a piece of silicone glue.

But the waiter here told me it just was a piece of the dessert…???????? I thought it was GLUE…The waiter said it was part of the dessert!

This is my finished plate of food from a certain Mediterranean Restaurant somewhere in Phoenix. This restaurant at the time had a FIVE STAR Average on a certain review site so I thought the food would be good. The food might look good but my chicken was so dry and hard that it was impossible to remove it from the wooden sticks. That little bite on the one piece of chicken was all I could break off. The pitas were also hard and seemed like processed food. Even the rice was horrible and was some kind of pre-cooked rice.

Nobody enjoys a falafel that lacks herbs and is crumbly dry.

I have read many reviews that this small Mediterranean Restaurant serves the best falafels in the valley……I don’t know what they had but these falafels I tried sucked. They are dry as the Sahara Desert and lacked fresh herbs. This is not a good falafel.

Even nice resorts serve mediocre food.

This salmon salad was from a fine resort in Scottsdale. This salad made me very unhappy. The salmon seemed like it was salvaged from a buffet past. It was pre-made, almost cold and also over cooked. There was albumin formation on the fish…it’s like egg whites being cooked out of the flesh.

The salad was also missing some ingredients that I was looking forward to enjoying like fiddlehead ferns, sunflower seeds and flavor.

The Forking Truth is that once in a while the finest restaurants might screw up.

This fish tells a different tail. Over cooked and over salted fish from one of the finest restaurants in Phoenix………All the other plates here were excellent…..They just screwed up on the fish. I told the waiter and he claimed he’d tell the chef………….who knows?

Here is a sad fish story of a small business located in Glendale. I think what happened here was a combination of poor cooking skills and restaurant equipment failing.

My fish was crispy in a weird way. I never was served freezer burnt fish before…..The sweet potatoes seemed to have been aged and the Mac’n’ Cheese was mushy watered down velvetta sort of concoction. The tarter sauce wasn’t even edible here and had the consistency of creamer. My husband’s plate was even worst. His fish was even more freezer burnt and he warned me not to even think about trying his sides….Red/beans and rice were spoiled and he couldn’t describe what was wrong with the hushpuppies…..after a brief tasting we tossed out all the food and ate someplace else.

I waited 45 minutes for this.

Tried a deep dish pizza in Peoria. The crust was very hard and tasted burnt and all this cheese made me feel sick. Crust is mostly black.

Bad food can come from a food truck.

Close up of Corned Beef Wild Buckeye Roll

This was from a food truck. It was a greasy mess and tasted like the grease it was fried with decomposing possums, dead donkeys and other critters or whatever.

This next one might not be the restaurants fault?………….you can purchase unusually super tough chicken. (it’s usually that ultra cheap chicken)

The slaw was really good. The fresh made bread was tasty but the chicken was inedible. It was like it was full of steal belted silver skin…….You couldn’t eat it. This was from a Bosnian Restaurant somewhere in Phoenix.

“READY OR NOT HERE IT COMES! …………. sucker”

Some restaurants put out food ready or not!

Raw grits from a bbq restaurant in Phoenix. Here we brought this to someones attention and instead of saying I’ll take that off your bill or I’ll get you a new one she just walked away. Also from the same BBQ……

For what it’s worth….The brisket might have been outstanding if it was cooked several hours more but they served it before it’s time with hard fat and tough beef. We had other problems but these were the major issues.

This restaurant thinks that the customer will eat anything.

$13.99 Salad from a Mexican Restaurant in Phoenix AZ

The most uninspired salad in metro Phoenix……with horrible salsa too!

Sometimes there is a reason why some restaurants go out of business.

Sonata’s Restaurant used to be located in Scottsdale. My first few visits were so delicious….I was flabbergasted at what they served me on my last visit not so long before they closed. Old fishy tasting salmon that was topped with sour uncooked tomato paste surrounded by horrid splats of floury corn two horrible ways. Down before are gooey gross pierogis. I latter heard that they were between chefs.

Sometimes restaurants don’t hire qualified help and then they go down the tubes. I did tell them how it was when I dined there and the waiter said he’d tell the management. They did nothing. I also wrote about my experience here and on a review site. The management told me that my first two experiences were great so I should just be happy with that.

Tough steak with a side of pond slime for some place in Carefree. (this really grossed me out…I couldn’t even bring the meat home for my dogs…and couldn’t eat beef again for a few months)

I went to this particular restaurant in Peoria and a while back it was OK….I heard that the ownership changed and I was hoped that it got better……sadly it got worst. This food was far worst that what you’d get from the lowest end fast food place! It was like MICROWAVED BY A MORON!

This is my salad. It was made with what tasted like pre-made frozen chicken fingers that had the strangest texture. They were hard, hollow and cold. It seemed like they blew them up in a microwave oven and then chilled them.

My husband also had an awful sandwich here.

His sandwich was made with similar chicken fingers that were covered in cheese that was hard but also melted at the same time.

This one isn’t the worst and almost didn’t make this list….but it isn’t great either.

There is this sandwich shop in Glendale and the fillings for their sandwiches aren’t bad but they use the FORKING WORST ROLLS IN THE WHOLE WORLD. I have no idea why someone would open a sandwich shop and use the lousiest bread they could buy.

Sometimes some restaurants serve you half good and half bad food.

I went to an Asian Chicken restaurant in Mesa. The chicken on the left side of the plate was moist and edible. The chicken on the right side was similar to jerky but very dry and stringy.

I had delicious fish at this restaurant in Glendale before so I thought I would get delicious fish again….I was wrong.

I have no idea what went wrong here…..The fish came out like it was made of rubber. You couldn’t eat it. We didn’t complain because we were just so upset that we just wanted to leave. Then they charged me $89.10 for this fish. This has to be one of the worst experiences I ever had anywhere.

Disappointing food can come from a pizza shop.

Who wants a pizza without toppings? I got an individual pizza from a certain place in Peoria. They were very scant with the toppings and one slice was pretty much topping free.

Some people are not fit to be in the restaurant business.

It’s impossible to forget this plate I got somewhere in Sun City. (notice the funeral service card by the lower right side of the plate….strategically placed……) It’s made of boiled frozen vegetables, old green potatoes and old trout. here’s a closer look at the vegetables.

and the potatoes. Try some…I dare you!

Honest to GOD I asked why the potatoes were green….The waitress said I have to ask the chef……The answer I got was that black pepper always makes potatoes turn green. I was so offended by what I served I seriously thought about calling the police because I thought this was a crime.

Well that was the Halloween Special Edition – A Collection of the most Frightful Horrific Foods served to me in Metro Phoenix AZ.

And that is THE FORKING TRUTH!

My Favorite Thai Dish in North Phoenix – Spicy Pumpkin Basil from Sala Thai in Peoria AZ – FORKING Delicious – Worth a Fork!

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At the moment my favorite Thai Dish that I’ve come across in North Phoenix is the Spicy Pumpkin Basil from Sala Thai in Peoria. The Pumpkin adds another delicious flavor. It’s sort of sweet, a little creamy and sort of chestnut-like. This dish is basically a Pad Gra Pow with added Thai Pumpkin. It’s your choice of meat hand chopped with extra surface space to soak up flavors. Then it’s stir fried with bell pepper, onion, garlic, Thai Chillies, basil and fish sauce. It’s incredibly delicious. I enjoy that they use a handful of delicious basil that you can taste in this dish. This dish also taste better than from other places because they use Thai Chillies for heat unlike some of the other places that use jalapeños and or a granulated powder. Some of the other Thai restaurants in North Phoenix do offer Pumpkin Curry but Sala Thai is one of the few or possibly only Thai Restaurant in North Phoenix that offers Spicy Pumpkin Basil.

Why settle for Pad Gra Pow when you can have Spicy Pumpkin Basil?

www.SalaThaiAZ.com

Every THING is subject to change and your experience may or may NOT differ.

The FORKING BEST Thing I Ate Out This Week – The Arctic Char from Confluence in Carefree AZ

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The food is always spectacular from Confluence in Carefree Arizona. Not just great but usually detailed and very complex…..actually astonishing. I’ve been to many better restaurants in several states and I haven’t found one restaurant anywhere that does fish as well as from Confluence. This is the only restaurant where I am able to eat the skin. It’s seasoned just so and is crisp, delicious and stays crisp from first bite to last bite. The arctic char was tender, moist and cooked to perfection. If you like salmon then you will LOVE arctic char because it like a milder creamier salmon. The fish plates I tried from Confluence always “SING” with flavors that harmonize and go together like an orchestra arrangement. Here on this plate was sweetness from golden raisins. Piney, buttery flavor from pine nuts. Touches of bitter and salty from Gaeta Olives. A sort of floral saffron sauce is the glue that ties it all together and clean tasting patty pan squash and couscous complete the plate. It’s a stunning plate. Sweet, piney, buttery, touches of pleasant bitter, salty, floral…it’s delicious and interesting in the mouth.

The Arctic Char from Confluence in Carefree AZ was The Best Thing I ate out this week and was Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! Worth driving across town for.

www.RestaurantConfluence.com

My Forking Thoughts on Lay’s Cucumber Potato Chips

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Here are Lay’s Stax Cucumber Flavor Potato Crisps. They are from China and I purchased them from the Mekong Market in Mesa AZ. I thought cucumber was an interesting flavor for a potato chip so I had to try it.

These Chinese Lay’s Chips come in a little tray in the can.

When I open the can I take a whiff and they really do smell like cucumber.

Look at the ingredients.

They seem safe to eat……

Take a close look at the chips.

The first thing I notice is that these chips are very small…..maybe a 1/3 smaller than a Pringle type chip. The other thing I notice is that these chips have a rough bumpy lumpy texture and feel slightly powdered.

I slowly taste one.

For a second it taste just like cucumber….but it’s sweet……and then becomes unflavored in an instant……..really unflavorered……..I don’t get salt…I don’t even taste potato…….I get a weird light lumpy textured unflavored chip to eat.

Then I munch one down.

The cucumber flavor last though the munching……..but this way I get a greasy mouth I didn’t get before. My lips are greasy now too……..ummmm I’m still getting cucumber in my mouth after I finish a couple chips.

Don’t eat these chips slow….You have to munch them to get the flavor.

I’d rate these Lay’s Cucumber Chips as Worth a try!

Your opinion and experience may indeed differ.

Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in Phoenix AZ – $4.00 and $5.00 Menu is Forking – Worth a Fork!

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Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery is located in North Phoenix Arizona. This is a casual order at the counter Vietnamese Restaurant that specializes in serving about a dozen different Banh Mi baguette sandwiches. They also serve most Vietnamese favorites but DON’T SERVE PHO.

Everything I’ve tried at BMBVE is great and at this time (subject to change) EVERY FORKING THING on the menu is under $10.00 but the $4 $5 dollar menus should be mentioned because they are CRAZY GOOD for less than fast food prices.

You order at the counter, pay, grab a drink and seat yourself.

Every choice is a winner.

But this $4.00 and $5.00 Menu is not to be missed.

We tried most of the $4 and $5 dollar items.

Here are the egg rolls ($4.00)

Three crispy egg rolls with fish sauce and lettuce and vegetables to wrap around the egg rolls.

Fire cracker salmon rolls ($4.00).

My favorite on the $4.00 are the potstickers. These potstickers are better here than from most restaurants in the area. They also come in chicken or pork.

I think my husband’s favorite $4.00 are the pork belly bao buns….(he said they were better than the last bao buns he’s tried)

The $5.00 menu is so much better than any fast food I’ve tried anywhere.

One of my favorite $5.00 plates is the lotus root salad.

It light refreshing, crunchy and herby…….It comes with shrimp but I usually skip the shrimp…He’s a better look.

There is a $5.00 Papaya salad too.

The $5.00 chicken cabbage salad is CRAZZZZZZZZZzzzzy good.

This is a pretty Forking BIG salad for $5.00 and it’s DELICIOUS TOO! It’s more like a Vietnamese herbed slaw that’s lightly creamy lots of marinated slices of chicken in it. It’s light but filling and very satisfying. This might be the best deal in North Phoenix!

Everything at Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery is Worth a Fork! ….(but the $4.00 & $5.00 menus are really special!)

www.BanhMiBistroAZ.com

Every THING is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

My Forking Thoughts on Creepy Cocoa Crisp M&M’s from Target – Worth a Fork!

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I saw these NEW Creepy Cocoa Crisp M&M’s at my local Target Store. These Creepy Cocoa Crisp M&M’s are exclusive to Target Stores. This flavor is described on the package as a cocoa crisp center with a layer of dark chocolate. I look at the package and notice that this is the first new or limited edition flavor of M&M’s in a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG Time…….maybe many years (or decades) that doesn’t say with artificial flavor on the front of package.

I look at the ingredients…..and get excited……..Looks very promising…..

I open the package up and take a sniff.

It smells just like a bag of chocolate chips.

I pour some M&M’s out.

These are smaller sized and slightly irregular in shape. They come in colors of yellow, red and brown.

I eat one……Ummmm It’s chocolatey and crunchy. It reminds me of the “Crispy” variety of M&M’s but it taste like chocolate chips and a little bit of hot cocoa flavor.

I eat another and let this one melt in my mouth. It had the usual sweet candy shell. Then I’m left with chocolate that taste like a chocolate chip. Then the chocolate melts away and I’m left with a small crispy chocolate cereal lump in my mouth. The chocolate lump taste similar to what I think I remember a cocoa puff taste like. (it’s been decades since I ate a Cocoa Puff)

I bit into a few so you can see what they look like inside.

DANG !!!!!!! It’s Forking easy to keep eating them. They seem lighter and airier than regular M&M’s with a good chocolate taste……They have the right amount of sweetness, salt and are ever so slightly bitter with that chocolate chip flavor and a smidgen of hot cocoa…… It’s actually hard to stop eating them!

I’d say these new Creepy Cocoa Crisp M&M’s are Worth a Fork! These are good enough to be a permanent M&M flavor.

My opinion may indeed differ from yours.

My Forking Thoughts on the BK Impossible Burger

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The Impossible Burger is a meatless burger made from potato, coconut, wheat and heme made by Impossible Foods.

If you cook it correctly it is suppose to be meat-like and red in the center.

Ok so I have to try it to see how it is………I haven’t eaten a real Whopper in over ten years. In the old days when I was a kid Burger King Burgers at one time used to be juicy and used to have a nice charcoaled kind of flavor…….I remember they always were always a mess to eat and came with much more lettuce too………….Nothing ever stays the same and progress happens. Whoppers are cooked different these days. It seems that they are cooked till they are prettified and are always served dry…….like hockey pucks.

“WOOF!” “I don’t want a vegetarian burger” “I would rather have a dry beef burger!”

So here’s to a new progress again and lets see how the Impossible Whopper is……..

Well it’s not red inside but it’s not dry either.

The patty is very caramelized ……..almost like a crisp coating all around the patty. I’ve had the Impossible Burger at two other restaurants and none of them had an almost mushy center like this Burger King Impossible. This Impossible Whopper is next to flavorless…..(Unlike the other two Impossible Burgers I had). Or maybe between the pickles and the over load of ketchup and strong onions it’s hard to taste anything else……I pull off a piece of the patty and try to taste it…….but I mostly just taste the ketchup. For me this sandwich has too much sauce on it and there is too much bread…I lose half the bun after the last photo.

Conclusion – For fast food quality it’s not the worst……Not big on flavor but it’s it’s not dry either. It didn’t make me feel sick to my stomach like most fast food. It’s not great but it’s edible.

I would like to try to cook the Impossible Meat myself but I heard the restaurant Impossible meat will not be sold to the public. I also heard that a different formula of Impossible plant based meat will be sold in supermarkets soon.

Those were my Forking Thoughts on the Burger King Impossible Burger. Your Forking Thoughts may indeed differ.

Hattie B’s Las Vegas NV – is Worth a Try but doesn’t seem the same to me as from Nashville

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According to the Nashville Hot Chicken Coalition ( www.Hot-Chicken.com ) – Nashville Hot Chicken is only Authentic and is a specialty of Nashville Tennessee. Only 6 restaurants are certified to be authentic Nashville Hot Chicken. They are Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish, Pepper Fire Hot Chicken, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, 400 Degrees and Deezies in Murfreesboro.

Nashville Hot Chicken is marinated, floured and fried. It needs to be sauced either before or after flouring or breading with what they call a dry sauce or paste (wet sauces are NOT Nashville hot chicken). Nashville hot chicken is HOT because the paste is suppose to be 1/3 fat and 2/3 cayenne pepper that gets cooked and reduced till thick. A few other seasonings may be added. Nashville hot chicken is also about flavor. It should be flavorful as much as hot. Authentic places will serve the chicken with dill pickles and white bread to catch up the juices nd flavor.

Hattie B’s in Las Vegas is located in the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in a food court area. You order at the register and you pick up your platter at the end of the counter when it’s ready.

I ordered a small dark HOT with pimento macaroni and cheese and cole slaw. I ordered HOT because that is the same I had from the Nashville location.

This Las Vegas chicken lacks the cayenne aroma that the Nashville one had. I take a bite. The chicken is tasty and moist but doesn’t start you off with a sting like the Nashville one did. This one is also sweeter. This one is much milder……I thought it seemed greasier…..I thought it had even less crunch to it…….It’s tasty and is GOOD chicken but it’s not the same.

My husband got the same platter and a side of the hottest chicken strips they offer called, Shut The Cluck Up. I taste one.

This chicken is dry and it’s not stingingly hot either…….It’s not mild but it’s not like what came from Nashville….Even the Shut The Cluck Up isn’t as hot or delicious as Hot from Hattie B’s in Nashville.

Here are some pictures from Nashville.

The Hattie B’s in Las Vegas is Worth a Try! but to me doesn’t seem the same as from Nashville. Could be an off day????

www.HattieB.com

www.CosmopolitianLasVegas.com

Every FORKING Thing is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

Where The Fork I’ve Ate – Las Vegas NV – Summer 2019

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My first stop was Hattie B’s for Hot Chicken in the Cosmopolitan on the Las Vegas Strip.

Hattie B’s is located in the new food court…….

It’s tasty but it’s not the same as what I tried from the Nashville location………..It doesn’t sting you when you bite it……..It’s like they cooled it down and sweetened it up for the masses. Or maybe it’s just an off batch? I don’t know?

Our next stop was Eataly.

It’s an Italian Food Court with wine and more food to purchase.

We tried fish.

We tried pasta.

We came back another day and tried more pasta.

Finished up with gelato.

Some things were better than other things and we purchased some things to try latter.

The next day we went to China Town and tried Mian Sichuan Noodle.

This is suppose to be a very authentic Sichuan Noodle Restaurant. It’s not a fancy place.

But where else have you been that offers placemats with instructions on how to eat the food?

Before we order they start us off with sweetened Mung Bean Soup. It is used to cool you down from fiery mouth numbing food.

Here we started with Spicy Radishes and a sweet and sour cabbage is served as a palette cleanser. The Spicy Radishes were indeed spicy but not like water boiled spicy……That means you didn’t need a fire hydrant. They were unlike anything I ever tasted before…….with an unusual crunchy texture. I might not have known that they were radishes because I could no longer taste radish in them.

We had-

Sichuan cold spicy noodles

and

Spicy Sichuan Pork Noodles called Za Jiang. Tune in and you can read that story soon.

Our next destination was Chica in the Venetian.

It’s a Latin Restaurant of chef Lorena Garcia’s takes of Latin cuisine.

We tried spicy Peruvian ceviche.

and dinners of pacific striped sea bass

and porchetta.

We stopped by Gordon Ramsay Burger. I asked about the beef the last time I was here and they told me that they ground the beef in a main kitchen that is in the Paris Hotel/Casino.

They changed the menu since my last visit and that amazing Tandoori Chicken sandwich is no longer available……so I ordered something else. I thought an interesting choice might be the Fish and Crisps Burger because This is the fourth Gordon Ramsay Fried Fish option that I know of in Las Vegas. They all differ slightly and they all are priced differently.

The a crisp beer batter lightly coated a thick big piece of cod and it was drowning in about a 1/4 cup of yuzu-dill mayo that got topped with salt and vinegar potato crisps on a big fluffy toasted seeded bun…….

We shared plain fries called “Just Fries.”

My husband tried the Hog Burger that’s Mangalitsa Pork, Bacon, BBQ Pork, white cheddar, pickle, crisp onion and slaw burger. (he requested the slaw on the side)

Oddly this burger was dry? All the food we tried last time was amazing……Well the truth is that most busy restaurants run hot and cold……but I prefer hitting them on hot days.

Another day we went to Bobby Flay’s Mesa Grill in the Caesar’s Palace. It’s a full service South West Style restaurant that’s very bright and lively inside with lots of bottles of tequila on the wall.

They started us off with a really delicious basket of assorted breads. (save room and eat the bread……the bread is worth eating)

For my main I had the Ancho Honey Glazed Salmon with black bean sauce, tomatillo and jalapeño crema over spinach (lunch $25.00 subject to change).

Gosh! It was delicious and flavorful. The salmon too! Not too spicy and not too sweet….just really good flavors!

My husband got the Grilled Mahi Mahi with green chile rice, yellow pepper mole and pineapple salsa (lunch $25.00 subject to change)

This one is delicious too! The flavors are different and stronger…..still south west. We both like the actual salmon more. I like the taste of both but my husband prefers the stronger flavors in this dish.

We go on to try the Deep Dish Banana Cream Pie.

It’s a thin praline hazelnut brittle with cream and fresh sliced bananas……..It’s ok to me. I really enjoyed the bread more and would have eaten more bread and skipped dessert…..We both really enjoyed the entrees and the bread basket at the Mesa Grill.

Then we got to try multi award winning and James Beard award winning chef Micheal Symon’s new bbq restaurant called Mabel’s in the Palm’s Hotel/Casino near the Las Vegas Strip.

We shared a big pan of Texas Style Brisket, Memphis dry rubbed Turkey breast, horseradish beets and macaroni and cheese.

Some things were great and some things weren’t as great………The pickles were DYN-NO-MITE! Like a crazy stinking great bread and butter pickle but better…..actually everything pickled was super crazy great! The turkey today had really terrific flavor but was served to us on the dry side today. The Texas style brisket might have been better at lunch time…..but when I got it the brisket was sort of dry and lacked much flavor but benefited from the house made sauces. The horseradish beets were pretty darn good! Macaroni and cheese didn’t have much flavor on my visit. I think they thinned down the sauce because our cup had lots of a milky liquid in the bottom.

The Splurge Night

L’ATELIER by Joel Robuchon

L’ATELIER by Joel Robuchon is located in the MGM Casino/Hotel on the Las Vegas Strip. This is a high end exhibition tapas restaurant by the late most stared chef in the world, also called chef of the century Joel Robuchon.

They made some menu changes since my last visit and the three course special ($85.00 subject to change) is only offered as an early bird now from 5pm-6pm.

You get a bread basket of the most delicious baked breads and French Butter.

You get an Amuse Bouche…that for the past several years has been a foie gras shooter with parmesan foam. If you ask you will get some sort of vegetarian Amuse Bouche.

My first course was an Eggplant – Avocado Fondant with pixie sized turmeric croutons.

My husband got polenta with egg and ham….(well not just any ham…..it was that ham that was kissed by Jesus…..has black feet ……eats nothing but acorns…….and cost like $25 or $30 a Forking ounce)

For my main I had Halibut Flakes in Lemongrass foam with Robuchon Potatoes.

My husband said he had the best short rib that he has ever tasted.

We both had the tarts – Les Tartes for dessert because there is a strong possibility that this dessert plate might be the very best most detailed dessert plate in the WHOLE FORKING COUNTRY.