I went to a small Italian Restaurant located in a Strip Mall somewhere in Metro Phoenix Arizona.  Since this is a newly opened small family owned restaurant I don’t feel the need to mention the name of the restaurant. This restaurant serves up some of the usual Italian favorites and also offer some unique items you don’t see everyday…..Such as…… A ravioli of the day, Chicken, Sausage, Beans and Greens, Grilled Chicken with lemon and mint, Brooklyn Thin Pizza and Long Island Grandma Pizza. That all sounds really delicious and a little different than the usual.

This restaurant is just big enough to have a bar and a patio.

The light fixtures are mixer attachments.

We started off with an Italian Salad of Arugula, Spinach, Sun-dried Tomatoes, Artichokes and Hot Red Peppers.

It was dressed with the lightest amount of oil.

We splurged and also tried some garlic knots.

Each knot is almost like eating a slice of pizza. They have a nice chewy texture and are well seasoned with LOTS of Cheese! Mozzarella and Grated Cheese. The sauce is tasty too! I need to stop at one but my mouth wants to eat more. All the fresh garlic, herbs, sauce and cheese is delicious.

For the most part everything is great enough…until now.

Then dinner arrives. I ordered the Grilled Chicken with Lemon and Mint over Sautéed Spinach.

While the generous amount of Chicken was prepared reasonably well and did indeed have tasty grill marks………The rest of it didn’t meet my expectations.

The over-cooked spinach was in a state of decomposing and a mourner’s blessing was appropriate. The X- spinach is at rest on my plate and is also mixed with over-cooked droopy melted arugula (that might have been also on it’s way to knock on heaven’s door) that just doesn’t taste well cooked together……… I hate to knit pick but I have to add that the cook was allergic to lemon and mint because they weren’t added to my dish…..However  It taste like they used parsley.  It might have been wrong that I didn’t bring this to the owner’s attention but my husband complained about his plate so I didn’t want to also complain. That’s just too much complaining.

My husband got the Chicken, Sausage, Beans and Greens that was suppose to be in garlic parm sauce. Does THIS look like garlic parm sauce?…….it wasn’t…My GOD…any sighted individual can see this dish isn’t in a garlic parm sauce. The sauce in this dish tasted like the same vegetable broth from my dish. Wouldn’t you know that the sauce wasn’t the biggest problem here so we forgot about it….and let that one get away like a surprise fart.  The plate did indeed contain chicken, sausage and spinach.

I do note for all of you that don’t know…..Italian Bean and Green dishes are made with bitter greens and not a sweet green like spinach….

But the biggest disappointment  with this plate was that we didn’t get the beans that this dish was suppose to contain and we brought this to the attention of the owner that served us.  The owner apologized and  brought him out some warmed up beans. (we don’t know for sure but the beans seemed like fresh drained  from a can………Oh Joy!. Maybe most of the people reading this would not know that this is not at all to an example of how this traditional Italian dish should be prepared.

Down below is Broccoli Rabe with Cannelloni Beans from www.Food52.com ……..This is an example of the type of dish we were expecting.

I happened to notice that the cooks that were working in this restaurant were obviously not Italian and obviously weren’t trained in preparing Italian Foods. I also noticed that the cooks didn’t speak English so it might be a possibility that they can’t read the recipes. Maybe that is the reasons for some of the problems in these dishes….?

What got me is that it was the owner that served us…..She didn’t have a clue that anything was wrong with the food she served us. Even servers working for other people (if they are good servers) glance at the food they serve and make sure it’s correct.

Chances are that it is a possibility that at least half the people out there will not have a clue that anything is wrong with food like this.

On the positive side I do note the pizzas from this establishment looked delicious so maybe that’s the sweet spot here.

The Forking Truth is that Sometimes Restaurant Owners are just Restauranteurs and have NOTHING to do with the food.

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