Dining with Dogs is not full blown reviews of restaurants. This is a FLUFF story of dining with my dogs.

Many restaurant in the Phoenix AZ area have outdoor patios but not all outdoor patios are dog friendly. It’s always a good idea to call the restaurant and ask if they are dog friendly even if you’ve been there before with your dog.

There are some rules with dining with dogs. Dogs are not to sit on the chairs or eat off the restaurant plates. Dogs are also suppose to stay by your side.

You also should be aware of what foods are dog friendly. Most food you eat isn’t safe for a dog to eat so you should do a quick search of what foods to avoid for your dog.

It’s 92 degrees F today in Phoenix AZ so we go to Cucina Tagliani’s roomy dog friendly patio with misters in Glendale AZ. This is a budget American/Italian family friendly restaurant with the best dog friendly patio in town.

Our server quickly brings water to the dogs and to the humans garlic toast, ice water and large glasses of wine.

I haven’t had the salmon in a while so I go with that.

I got a large grilled piece of meaty moist salmon, a big bunch of thin tender crisp asparagus and spaghetti squash in lemon caper butter instead of pasta.

The dogs were very happy to share the salmon with me.

“Yummy I’m a good girl.”  “I want some.”

“I’m forking 15 years old.” You are going to forking give me some.” “Make it quick too because I don’t have all Forking Day!”

“You don’t need all that food.” “Forking give me more.”

My husband had Tortellini in hot sausage sauce.

“ummm…That smells good.”

“I’m pushing my way over to have some tortellini with hot sausage sauce too.”

For more information on Cucina Tagliani please visit www.cucinatagliani.com

We”re on our way to AJ’s Patio and Outdoor BBQ.  We tried to have lunch there and AJ’s was running late again. Just like last time we didn’t arrive exactly at opening time we come about fifteen minutes after opening time because we always try to dine at off times out of consideration for other guest. We try to miss most of the crowd because some people don’t care to dine around dogs. We called AJ’s and asked what time they open the BBQ and we were told they were open.

We said the gate was down and was closed. Have no idea how long till they opened so we left and went back to Banh Mi Bistro. This is a small Vietnamese Eatery that specializes in the Banh Mi Sandwich. They also serve noodle bowls, rice plates, appetizers and don’t serve the popular Vietnamese Pho. They are a Pho Free Vietnamese Restaurant.

My Chicken Rice plate was so good last time that my husband tries a BBQ Pork Rice Plate.  It comes with a crispy pork egg roll, Lots of tasty BBQ Pork, A big sticky rice ball and a tasty light crispy salad.

I needed to eat lighter so I had the chicken rice plate again. I had plenty of help finishing up the plate.

“Don’t you forking eat all that BBQ Pork by yourself”

“I did alright here.”  I love coming to Banh Mi Bistro. “This is a forking great $8.00 lunch!”

For more information on Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery please visit www.BanhmiBistroAZ.com

Eating local again so we’re on our way to A Taste of Buffalo in Glendale AZ. The specialty of the house is The Beef on Weck Sandwich that is seldom offered in any restaurant outside of Buffalo New York. The roll is a special hard kind of kaiser roll called a kummel weck bun and course sea salt and caraway seeds are applied to the top of the bun. The roll is dipped with au jus and is stuffed with a big mound of tender roasted beef with fresh grated HOT horseradish.

There was plenty to share with the dogs. The beef is tender and flavorful. I’m not hungry enough to eat the whole roll so I just use half and let the dogs share the beef with me.

They forking love sharing the beef with me.

According to my husband A taste of Buffalo makes the best Italian Hoagie around so that’s what he went for this time.

This sandwich not only contains higher quality lunch meat but is also a belly buster. My husband took half the sandwich home.

For more information on this restaurant please visit www.ATasteofBuffalo.com

We took the Dogs to Leo’s Island BBQ in Peoria AZ. They specialize in the Hawaiian Plate Lunch and are one of the only independently owned restaurants in this part of Peoria AZ. The Plate Lunch is lots of meat, a double scoop of rice, creamy macaroni salad, steamed cabbage served in a styrofoam container. You have about thirty different choices and the plate lunch coast around $8.00 each.

My husband went with the one he gets most often.

The BBQ Pork and Chicken Combo.

I get the Lemon Pepper White Meat Chicken Today. The chicken is moist and mildly seasoned and caramelized.  They always give me a very large portion. I bought home half the chicken home after me and my buddies ate a bunch of it.

“Immmmm…..I’m getting a bunch of Chicken”

The dogs are very interested in the food.

For more information on Leo’s Island BBQ please visit www.LeosIslandBBQ.com

“Where’re on our way to Amuse Bouche in Surprise AZ…ooooh…la…la”

Amuse Bouche is a tiny gourmet bistro that serves up Foods prepared by a husband and wife trained chef team that met in France at a French Culinary School. The menu is small but everything they serve is packed with flavor and also technically impressive. Back when they opened around 2009 they were featured in New York Times as one of the Best New Restaurants in Phoenix Magazine.

I’ve been here a bunch of times over the years and always enjoyed anything I ordered but this is the first time I brought the dogs here. Their Pots de Creme was the fist perfect Pots de Cream I ever tried. Also at a West Valley Food Festival that I attended I remember the most delicious food I tried there was from Amuse Bouche.

Today it was going up to 96 degrees F in Phoenix today but in the shade it still is very comfortable at lunch time. I’ve been living here around a decade now and I will never understand the weather. Sometimes at only 70  degrees F it feels like 100 degrees F in the sun but in the shade 96 degrees F is still comfortable. I don’t think I’ll be taking the dogs out much more since the weather is expected to rise in temperature.

I was craving a nice juicy piece of salmon today the way most people crave hamburgers so I ordered the Salmon Salad.

The greens were fresh and the salmon was fresh tasting, juicy, succulent and crusted with herbed crisp potato. I also liked that the eggs are cooked medium/well instead of chalky. They also served a HOT and Steamy fresh baked roll with soft butter with my salad. This salad was very enjoyable.

Both dogs behaved very well.

Both dogs also helped me eat the salmon.

My husband had the Meatloaf Sandwich.

It wasn’t ordinary meatloaf it was very good and came with a nicely detailed salad.

A community water bowl for dogs sits on the patio that both dogs helped themselves to.

For more information on Amuse Bouche please visit www.AmuseBouche.biz

“We’re on our way to Bahn Mi Bistro”

We haven’t had Banh Mi Sandwiches in a long time and wanted to stay local so here we are at Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery. (minus Pho…they don’t serve pho here) Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery’s specialty is the Banh Mi Sandwich. The roll is a Vietnamese Style Baguette made of both wheat and rice flour. The exterior has some crunch and the interior is soft. This kind of bread seems much lighter from a regular baguette in the stomach. You have ten choices of Banh Mi sandwiches to pick from and they all include pickled radish and carrot, cucumber, jalapeño, fresh cilantro and house made aioli.

We shared a crispy light and refreshing Lotus Root Salad.

The salad was light and delicate and the mint made it refreshing. The dogs enjoyed my portion of shrimp.

My husband had the Shaking Beef Banh Mi Sandwich.

The beef was like really moist tenderloin infused with delicate seasonings.

I had the Chicken Banh Mi.

Suddenly I have lots of friends.

The sandwich is just delicious. I love the sweet, sour, tangy and spicy. The white meat chicken has a nice caramelization and is very tasty but the slightest bit dry when you taste a piece separately from the sandwich. When you eat the sandwich as a whole you don’t notice it anyway. Still a delicious sandwich. I do note the dark meat chicken on the rice plate they serve is amazing with flavor and is always very moist.

“There is a bunch of Chicken there that I am Forking Waiting for.”

“I’m the cutest 15 year old out there.”

“You better fork over some of your forking chicken to me!”

“I don’t have all day!”

That complete’s May 2016 Dining with Dogs in Metro Phoenix AZ. The weather is expected to reach around 110 degrees F by next weekend and that is way too hot to dine outside. But we might be able to squeak one more Dining with dogs in before the weekend.