I recently went to a nice restaurant that I have enjoyed before somewhere in Metro Phoenix. They were offering three course specials for Restaurant Week so we decided to give them a try. I started with the Smoked Tomato Gazpacho. My first taste and I’m thinking to myself…….. Wow it’s powerfully smoky. To me it taste like a half a spice jar’s contents of smoked paprika is in there plus something else that is smoky too. For me this is painful to eat. In the middle of the Gazpacho is a mound of creamy Buratta Cheese…it seems odd to me that it’s in there but it does bring some relief to all the strong smoke. Maybe it’s just that my taste does differ from the Chef’s Taste…..I know I do have some sensitivities to certain flavors of smoke and I do prefer foods to be gently smoked and not strong with smoke. Perhaps it was MY BAD that I ordered this dish?……

For my main course I had the Seared Red Snapper.

The fish was a large portion that was slightly over cooked but seasoned well. It rested over the toughest gnocchi I ever tried to eat in my life. WOW the Chef here is talented for sure and does other things quite well but needs to try some really good gnocchi so he knows what gnocchi should be like. No matter what variety of gnocchi this is the gnocchi are suppose to be light pillows that melt in the mouth. Not tough, chewy and crispy. This was not my taste….These Gnocchi were really bad to me. Gosh now let’s tell The Forking Truth……These Gnocchi were Forking Awful.

I made a mistake and tried a small bite of my husband’s Relleno.

All I taste is smoke………… 🙁 …………..My husband wasn’t found of this either but really more because he didn’t like the chicken inside……It was very smoky but I think he didn’t like the fine shredded texture even more……..It was like they put the chicken in a blender…..My husband’s taste did differ too from the Chef’s. This plate wasn’t his cup of tea.

For Dessert We shared the Lemon Poppy Bread Pudding and the Flourless Brownie.

I liked the lemon cream that came with the Bread Pudding but the Bread Pudding might have been over cooked because the end was burnt tasting and the pudding was dense and dry. No complaints about the flourless brownie as it was quite good.

Sometimes Your Taste will indeed Differ from the Chef’s Taste.

The Forking Truth