PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (downtown there is another more casual PA’LA in Phoenix) is a wood fired, ever changing, fine dining sort of Mediterranean-ish, sort of Italian, laced with Japanese sort of restaurant. Somehow the flavors can be magical together. At this restaurant you will find small plates, a few sandwiches, a couple salads, two pizzas, fresh made pasta, fresh amazing wood fired seafood and a few specials. At the moment this restaurant serves lunch (Tue.-Sat.11-3) but dinner is only on Fridays and Saturdays (5-10) (subject to change).
They have an indoor-outdoor bar.
It looks like this when you walk in.
From my seat I can see the open kitchen and the wood fired oven.
Here’s the view from the other side.
There are a variety of traditional tables and partial booths. You can’t see the large mirrors behind me that make the room look enormous. Bright light comes in from the windows out front and upstairs. They only use the upstairs when needed. The decor sure doesn’t look like Phoenix to me……Look at the chandelier..
There are lots of details and big cherubs on it. It reminds me of Vegas….maybe Chicago….Maybe certain parts of Philly?…… When I see it and the big curved booth I see this in my head.
Robert De Niro with Joe Pesci. I can visualize them dining here.
Or maybe it looks more like this?
Anyways….
We start out with the pickled white anchovies with fennel crackers.
The anchovies are sprinkled with some fruity mildly spicy pepper and have a splash of a quality olive oil. The fennel crackers might be Taralli (Italian fennel crackers)
I went for the fish of the day plate. It was sea bass. It was described coming with Fresno chili and fregola (Italian cous cous shaped toasted pasta).
The fish is tender, moist, and flaky. It has a nice tasty sear. There are all kinds of flavors and surprises in the fregola. I taste bitter greens, pickled fennel, stringy things that I thought were sprouts but taste like spicy ginger…I taste an Asian sauce…. and there is a special red pepper flake. It really just dances together…It’s fiendishly great!
My husband went with the pasta of the day dish that came with shrimp.
The sauce was made with Bianco tomatoes. It’s a very good some sort of wheat or grain rigatoncini pasta and a very well made sauce. I heard that the shrimp were delicious.
We saved room for a little dessert.
We shared a little dish of smooth rich chocolate called pot de creme topped with pistachios and a little pistachio and fruit biscotti that was a great sweet ending to a FANTABULOUS meal out.
I have to say PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (Downtown Phoenix AZ) is…
Worth a Fork!
www.PalaKitchen.com
We returned.
The menu and special board differed.
Service differed too and we had the same server.
She brought out our appetizer and main meals together.
Our appetizer was the Niman Ranch Prime Beef Skewer.
The beef had mushrooms between each piece. The beef was as tender as butter and did taste very good. The polenta was very plain but creamy.
For my main I had the albacore brown rice bowl.
The fish was lightly seared and seemed very fresh. It had a little Asian rice seasoning and sauce on it. The brown rice was chewy and was adorned with pickled onion, some extra thin shreds that tasted like ginger, cucumbers, tomato, and avocado.
My husband had the roasted mushroom pizza with mozzarella and salametto picante.
The pizza was extra thin and very chewy.
Everything is subject to change.
