Monthly Archives: May 2021

Harbor Seafood Buffet Phoenix AZ – Worth a try!

The Harbor Seafood Buffet is located in Phoenix Arizona. They are located in the Metro Center Parking lot by where the Metro Center Mall used to be. They offer over a hundred different food items for you to try. Prices are reasonable.

Why go to a buffet?

It’s kind of nice to stroll around picking up food to graze on just like you are at a food festival.

It’s nice that you pay a set price and all that food is ready waiting for you.

Sometimes you just need something different. Sometimes you just need that element of surprise.

Sometimes you just don’t want to spend much….You can get a few appetizers, a salad, some hot foods and dessert and then some for a low set price.

It’s squeaky shiny clean when you walk in. You almost need sunglasses.

I came in just as they opened to get the freshest experience possible.

They have lots of seating. Pictured above is only a fraction of all the seating they have.

Now lets walk around and see only some of the offerings.

On my visit I thought the best chicken dish that I tried was the teriyaki chicken. It was moist, flavorful and nicely charred. (no guarantees it’s the same three hours later or tomorrow) To the left is a ham and to the right are mussels.

I picked up the bun marked Zhong zi…..Inside was rice mixed with sweet tasting squash. I like the texture of the steamed buns. It seemed almost like meringue mixed with pizza dough but I know it isn’t. Oh and they did have pizza on the buffet too!

My husband was very brave and tried an oyster and a shrimp. He said that the oyster didn’t taste fresh and I didn’t ask about the shrimp????

Neither of us felt like pigging out on the Pig Feet.

The green beans were very fresh and tender crisp with some mild garlic. We both really liked the bok choy too. Next to the bok choy were mushrooms. These three pans were good. It’s always nice to get nicely prepared fresh vegetables with your meal.

They had corn on the cob and beef ribs. Neither of us tried but they look ok.

They brought back the typical salad bar with puddings, jello, grapes, canned and fresh fruits, mayo based salads………..

The other end of the salad bar with many sauces and dressings.

Forgot to photo the sushi and sashimi. I tried a salmon sushi, a tuna sushi and a fried sushi and a salmon sashimi. On my visit everything except the tuna was much better than I expected. The salmon was actually good and better than from some sushi restaurants. Only the tuna tasted like buffet sushi tuna…(like not good to me)….. Some of the sushi didn’t have signs naming what it was….

Off the buffet I tried some flounder with scallions that could have used some sauce or flavor but the fish seemed freshly prepared and was moist and tender. Another highlight were the chicken meatballs. They are pictured below in the upper middle pan. They were moist and flavorful today….Further down it seemed they they had a million fried offerings like onion rings, fries, chicken nuggets, fried fish, and many other things.

Thee chicken (lower left on skewers) was a little dry today. Apple pie (lower middle) had raw dough on the bottoms.

Finished up with fresh sweet strawberries. They did have some baked goods but I passed on them. Oddly next to the baked goods they had a steak to carve. I think I saw a stir fry station or Mongolian grill there too! But gosh how much food can a person eat?

That was my trip to the Harbor Seafood Super Buffet in Phoenix AZ.

I would say Harbor Seafood Super Buffet is …….

Worth a Try! *******I wouldn’t drive across town for this but on the other hand it is a good value if you pick the right pans to try.

www.HarborSeafoodSuperBuffet.Kwickmenu.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Just a little taste of The Italian Daughter in Scottsdale AZ – Worth a Fork**With Re-visits

The Italian Daughter Restaurant is an Italian restaurant by the daughter (Melissa) of award winning and well known restauranteur Tomaso Maggiore. This restaurant is a tribute to her father. This Italian Restaurant offers a varied menu for what you are in the mood for. They offer chicken, short ribs, veal, sausage, fish, Italian burgers, weekend veal osso buco, hand made pastas, sharing boards and nightly live piano music.

bar area

They have a bar area.

part of dining area with mostly high tops

Part of the dining room near the piano is mostly high tops. They also have a lovely father and daughter photo on the wall.

patio

They do offer some patio seating.

part of dining room

The wall reads, “Whatever is happening in your life, always remember to enjoy the table….be it yours or ours.”

part of dining room

They started us off with a basket of bread with herbed butter.

We shared the caesar salad served in a crispy parmigiana basket.

The romaine was fresh and crisp. The dressing tasted house made but was on the milder side of caesar. The fresh made buttery croutons were especially good and the parmigiano basket was a unique extra special touch. Fresh crushed black pepper is on every table for seasoning.

Today I tried the pan seared salmon with bourbon mustard glaze and whipped potatoes.

The potatoes are so smooth and buttery. The broccolini is a perfect tender crisp. under the broccolini is very nice extra fancy carrots of three different colors. The fish is moist and is a large portion. The sauce is unique but tasty. It does have sweetness to it.

My husband had the weekend veal osso buco.

He said it was tender and infused with delicious flavors. He also said that the saffron risotto was better than most risotto that you get out. He said that this was really GREAT!

We tried dessert. Our server highly recommended the cannoli pizza cioccolato so we went with that.

This is a made to order chocolate dough with lots of cannoli cream, berries and Nutella. This dessert is much larger than it looks. This can feed a family.

I noticed that with one dish on the menu is to honor the owners late father….. They donate 100% to the Tomaso Maggiore Culinary Education Scholarship. (since my visit the has had added shrimp to it)

The Italian Daughter Restaurant in Scottsdale is Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.TheItalianDaughter.com

Everything is subject to change. We visited a couple of times since and the menu differed some on each visit but everything was very good.

We enjoyed our first visit so we went back for a second visit. There were slight changes to the menu on our second visit. Another change was that the bread came with regular butter and herbed oil this time instead of just herbed butter.

On our third visit we received tapenade instead of oil and butter with the bread.

This time we tried the Sicilian Trio. It was an arancini (short rib stuffed saffron laced rice crochet), caponata, and stuffed squash blossoms. ( a tasty start).

On another visit we tried the Italian sharing board with brie and apple, fig and prosciutto, pepper, goat cheese, and pine nuts, and wild mushroom, taleggio, and fontina.

My dinner was the fish of the day….barramundi.

WOW! This was MUCH BETTER than the salmon I had last time….don’t get me wrong…that salmon was good but this barramundi was masterfully prepared with a shattering crisp skin that stayed crisp and very tender mild, moist fish flesh. My waiter didn’t know that this special came with shrimp so I removed them and my husband ate one and my dogs latter ate the other one. My husband said that the shrimp was prepared perfect….I’m generally not a pasta person but this spaghetti was particularly great tasting with the perfect amount of crushed red pepper white wine lemon fish sauce. For me it was really great.

My husband had the chicken and sausage scarpariecco this time.

He said that this was unusually moist flavorful chicken and the sausage was good but slightly overcooked today.

On another visit I had the fish of the day halibut in a lemon caper sauce with Israeli couscous and fresh vegetables.

It was perfect!

My husband had the osso buco again.

He really enjoyed it. He said it is one of the best osso buco that he has ever had.

I took home a slice of lemoncello cake. It was really great I think anyone would like it. It seemed light and was lemony and was very moist. A little white chocolate shaving and some berries accented the cake.

On another visit we got what they called the secret dessert of the day….a spumoni.

A perfect sweet ending.

The Forking Truth