Biryani Bowl is a mostly North Indian and fusion casual restaurant that recently opened in North Peoria Arizona. Biryani Bowl isn’t a fancy place and is open for mostly take out but you can dine in and also dine on the small patio.
They offer a regular daily menu and MANY specials.
daily menuTaco Tuesday menuPulav (vegetable rice) Wednesday specialsThursday Roll Specials Dussehra Weekend North Indian Specials
We tried three of the Dussehra Weekend (Dussehra is a major fall festival) Specials and the pulusu fish (fish curry).
We started out by sharing the mirapakaya chicken Dussehra special.
It’s marinated stir fried chicken chunks in a slightly spicy onion/ginger/garlic kind of sauce with cashews.
Then we tried another Dussehra special the chule batura (spiced chick peas with fried bread called puri).
Much less spicy than what I expected but tasty.
For entrees we shared off the daily menu the pulusu fish (fish curry) and off the Dussehra menu the mughial chicken (brown onion gravy curry chicken)
It gets delivered to you like take out food with boxed fluffy rice. Both dishes have very small amounts of protein in them. The fish curry on the left is tasty but unlike any fish curry that I have had before. It is less sour and less spicy but is aromatic. The munhial chicken on the right is MELT IN YOUR MOUTH tender as can be. This is an extremely fragrant dish….also not very spicy but does have some heat to it.
Side note……The leftover munhial chicken I took home to have latter grew with heat maybe two levels.
That was a little taste of Biryani Bowl in Peoria AZ – Newly opened!
Peoria Artisan Brewery is located in North Peoria Arizona. They are a bar that serves craft American foods and their own hand crafted beers, and other local and regional beers as well as a full bar. They have around twenty beers on tap. According to The Arizona Republic Peoria Artisan Brewery does make a Top 25 Burger in the valley. They do use Arizona beef for their burgers.
It seems to be always busy.
I noticed that many people are ordering the pretzel…..I don’t know how many pretzels were served by me……….but it was a bunch…..The pretzels do smell delicious..I got to smell many of them.
They also have patio seating.
I’m not a beer drinker so I went with the cocktail of the day.
A hibiscus mai tai …..(that seemed pretty darn strong)….and my husband tried some sort of blond beer. I did try a small sip of the beer and it was smooth and had a softer hops taste than what I usually taste in beer.
They have all kinds of things on their menu. They have a selection of bar type foods like pig ears, sliders, and wings. They also offer a smoked dish of the day, salads, sandwiches, entree plates like salmon, flat iron steak, and Macaroni and cheese with added meat options, sweets, a children’s menu and more.
Today we started with a garden salad.
It was accented with crispy onions and the gorgonzola cream was tasty.
My husband went with the BBQ special.
Today it was brisket, turkey breast, pickles, links, and beans. Everything was prepared reasonably well. The pickles are very good.
I went with the smoked trout. I thought that it was odd that the server asked me how I wanted the trout done……. ( My BAD……..I should have changed my order…but it was the reason that I wanted to dine here tonight)
Anywho-
It looks nice……
I tell The FORKING Truth so here it is…………This meal is described as with AZ citrus, herbs, and a fennel blood orange salad…….The fennel blood orange salad is mostly bitter fizzy lettuce with sour oranges. The herbs are very good and I do like the citrus. The trout didn’t taste good to me. It taste like a combination of ammonia, fishiness, smoke, and deep funk to me. My husband tasted it and to him it just didn’t taste good and was fishy. I couldn’t eat it. Our kind waitress did offer to get me something else, I declined and she took it off our bill.
On a previous visits we had
French Dip
Scottish salmon with crisp skin, baby spinach, grilled pineapple, and confit garlic. This was very good!
On a return visit I wanted to get that really great salmon that I had last time……… When I got the salmon this time I thought the chef was replaced. I was so bothered by this that I called them up the next day and inquired about the chef and was told same chef.
I tell The FORKING Truth so here it is……….salmon with less finesse as the first one over couscous that taste like seawater accented with some vegetables.
Same visit as above salmon – cubano good but missing the mortadella from the menu discription.
Take out – salmon salad and an Italian Beef. These were ok.
www.PeoriaArtisanalBrewing.com
Strong cocktails, smooth beer, food is a bit hit and miss but the pretzels sure smell good.
Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi is located in North Peoria Arizona in P83. This is an American Restaurant with a full bar, thirty two taps, over fifty HDTVs, and a food menu that is all over the place. It almost like you name it and they probably have it.
They try to please any appetite.
Maybe you want to start with something healthy like edamame?
Or something unhealthy but more fun like made in house macaroni and cheese bars with spicy ranch sauce.
You can have tacos (two chicken tacos one Korean Style beef).
You can also have sushi tacos ( fried seaweed shells, spicy tuna, shredded krab, avocado, choice of sushi). (I prefer the sushi tacos to their regular tacos)
tuna, smoked in house salmon, and salmon
They also offer a variety of burgers with a few different protein choices.
atomic beef burger
Or maybe a pulled pork sandwich.
A few of the other things on the menu are all sushi, sushi rolls, sushi burrito, sushi burger, tuna pizza, wings, pizzas, salads, rice bowls, fish and chips, spaghetti and meatballs, pan seared sirloin and desserts.
There is a lot to taste at Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi in Peoria at P83.
Squid Ink Sushi is a Japanese Asian Fusion Restaurant located in North Peoria Arizona. They offer comfortable dining in a sleek modern environment.
They offer a bar up in the front of the restaurant with TVs.
They have a nice long sushi counter.
They also offer patio tables for when the weather is nice.
On the menu is traditional and various non traditional sushi. Squid Ink Sushi offers various appetizers like squid and Nancy (tempura fried squid), Korean sticky ribs, char grilled chicken wings with hot pepper sauce. They offer salads and bowl meals like Squid salad, ginger chicken salad, wagyu beef salad. Some of the entrees they offer are grilled salmon, coconut curry shrimp, a wagyu burger, and pepper crusted filet mignon.
Today we started out with some sushi (a spicy tuna roll, salmon, mackerel, and tuna).
The one thing that is noticeably different was the rice. It was pressed tighter than most places press the rice. That is a good thing. The FORKING Truth is that my introduction to sushi was from the Iron chef himself Masaharu Morimoto when he was the actual working chef at his namesake restaurant in Philadelphia. I didn’t know him personally but ate at his restaurant often enough to get a wave from chef Morimoto when I came in. Getting back to sushi Morimoto’s sushi was the prettiest, smallest and most tight sushi I ever had anywhere. To this day I’ve never had sushi anywhere like Morimoto’s sushi. So the tightness of the rice brought back that memory for me. Today the fish is very similar to other sushi restaurants in the area but the rice is shaped better.
But I am finding out the stand out items to be the entrees.
We split the Japanese Beef Salad made with grilled wagyu steak.
This is a different and really great salad. The beef is tender and flavorful. In the salad are soft greens, red onion, sweet tomatoes, mushrooms, cilantro, wasabi peas, and a sweet and spicy vinaigrette. These are especially good salads.
On a past visit we took out the Thai style chicken fried rice and the Atlantic salmon bowl. These were tasty and good.
But my favorite plate I had was a take out plate when they had Scottish salmon on the menu (not on current menu) On the right side of the photo below.
This salmon was amazing…Like from the best restaurant. So silky fresh and cooked medium like just right with a tasty char. On the left is a beef yakisoba. I didn’t try that one.
GET the Japanese beef salad made with wagyu beef!
Don’t miss the Scottish salmon when they have it.
Well that was a little taste of Squid Ink Sushi in Peoria AZ.
Mercer’s Restaurant is located in Peoria Arizona. They are a family owned and operated restaurant since 1987. They serve comfort foods at reasonable prices and are open seven days a week from 6am – 8:30pm. They serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner and also offer daily specials.
Every table is full and people keep coming. Many people are here for take out too!
Mercer’s Restaurant is on the end of a mostly deserted mall.
The menu reads that salmon is a favorite here so I should get it?
So I ordered it.
Dinners come with salad or soup.
The above salad is what you get with dinners.
The baked potato is light and fluffy and I like the soft butter that goes with it. I also think that the tartar sauce is unusually good……The salmon taste similar to the frozen salmon from my local Safeway. The texture of the fish has a lack of succulence. It also contains that fishy taste……………………The carrots are not tasty to me. I can’t identify what is on them.
My husband got the chicken fried steak with potato salad. He said, “It’s ok but not the best.”
I tried the potato salad. It’s a little too creamy for me but does have good flavorings to it.
Why critique this?
Some people judge restaurants by the amount of business that they have.
I haven’t been everywhere but I have tasted some amazing dishes this year. There are many GOOD ONES that I can list here but narrowed it down to the ones that stood out the most……….All the dishes taste TOP of the line, They are all marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.
The Bufalina Pizza from Fabio On Fire in Peoria – Is made with high end ingredients such as San Marzano Tomato sauce, imported buffalo cheese, oregano, garlic, arugula, reduced balsamic vinegar, farm fresh sweet tomatoes, and extra virgin olive oil. This has all kinds of flavors going on. Also the heat of the pizza warms the cheese JUST SO and you taste the most exquisite mozzarella the way it was meant to be enjoyed instead of just heating it to death on the pizzas like most places do.
The ground filet burger from The Bourbon Cellar in North Scottsdale. This is a ground in house burger that taste more like a fine steak. I have no idea how this burger has so much flavor. I think that it is best to enjoy this burger open face with a knife and fork because it taste like a juicy steak.
Speaking of a juicy flavorful steak…..
The filet mignon from Confluence in Carefree is excellent and not your grandfather’s plate of steak. This plate came with fried green tomato, fiddlehead ferns, white asparagus, black eyed peas, basil creme fraiche and the most buttery tender flavorful steak ever. (NOTE*******the menu at Confluence is ever changing with what is fresh from the local farms and does change often)
The Confit Wagyu Beef Cheek from Confluence in Carefree is a FORKING JAW-DROOPINGLY astonishing. …. The only bad news is that the menu from Confluence is ever changing so you might not be able to get this dish when you want it. But the good news is that this restaurant pretty much always is serving something amazing.
The Strawberry Gelato from Fabio On Fire in Peoria might be the best in the whole country. I take that back….because…It probably is the best in the country!
The Salmon Salad is very special from Pomo Pizzeria in Scottsdale. The salmon is from Chula Seafood. This one was melt in your mouth succulent with tasty grill marks. It POPS from the sweet grilled lemon and PINK PEPPERCORNS…that are a magical combination that I didn’t expect. The rest of the salad is fresh spring mix, gold beets, fennel and grape tomatoes…It’s only a salad so you can splurge for the Luna Gelato that is extra special too!
The Chicken from Valentine in the Melrose area of Phoenix was superb. It was smoky (but not too smoky), masterfully tender, moist, and flavorful. With that deep developed sauce, cabbage, durum wheat berries and kerned dill yogurt it was an explosion in every bite.
The Kokomo Chop Bowl from Little Cay Latin Caribbean Kitchen is one BAM-Diggitty-YUM-Dinger (When you add the seasoned Puerto Rican Pique sauce on the table) This Chop Bowl is full of yummy marinated chicken, yellow rice, black beans, curry mayo, rum soaked cranberries, add that pique sauce and it is FORKING BOMB!
I think a doughnut can be on this list if it is the FORKING BEST that I have tasted.
There is a donut shop on Bell Road in North Phoenix called Daily Donuts and Wings. I have only tried a few donuts so far and each one that I tried was the best of it’s kind that I have tried anywhere. I think my favorite might be the glazed lemon filled. These donuts are so fresh, have the perfect sweetness, seem light as air, and are DELICIOUS and overly easy to inhale.
The buttermilk fried chicken that is usually on the lunch menu from Confluence in Carefree is a OMG YUM kind of plate. It’s incredibly crunchy and crisp on the outside. The interior is JUICY, flavorful, EXPERTLY prepared tender chicken…..but I didn’t mention that INSANELY delicious sauce on it. The sauce is called chili tepid honey mustard sauce. It is a little spicy but not too spicy and is really FORKING plate scraping delicious. I also note that for me this is a very large portion and I make two meals from the chicken. My husband eats more than me and just eats the whole thing.
Taco Fusion in Glendale makes VERY GOOD Tacos (especially the habanero mild chicken taco with pineapple salsa) on hand made tortillas that are delicious. But this corn cake from Taco Fusion is amazing. It has a great corn flavor and taste like it’s a mix of custard and cake together. It’s just an AMAZING dessert! It’s better than the majority of desserts we get out at most places.
But I must mention this one…..
I have to give it to Fabio On Fire in Peoria again. This Strawberry Rum Cake is so good I’d tell a diabetic to eat it. It was really so delicious! I had to mention it.
My husband ate something very special that I didn’t eat so I want to mention it.
He REALLY LOVED the slow braised osso buco from the Italian Daughter in North Scottsdale.
It was falling off the bone tender. He loved digging into the bone and enjoyed the marrow. The sauce was nice and rich with the perfect deepness. He really enjoyed this and wants to have it again.
These were some of the Marvelously Great Foods that stood out in 2021 so far. I do note that many others are out there.
Leo’s Island BBQ is a Hawaiian Plate Lunch (including dinner) casual restaurant located near Arrowhead Town Center (mall) in Peoria Arizona. Leo’s Island BBQ is one of the few independently owned restaurants in this area. They offer around THIRTY varieties of the Hawaiian Plate Lunch. The Hawaiian Plate Lunch is a large styrofoam container filled with around eight ounces of one or two proteins, a bed of steamed cabbage, maybe some other steamed vegetables, a double scoop of white rice (or up-charge to brown rice) and a big scoop of Hawaiian style macaroni salad. They also offer appetizers, soups. salads, mini meals, burgers, Hawaiian bowls, family meal deals and catering. The food is never from frozen and is fresh made and even the sauces are made in house. Not all but many of the Hawaiian Plates are priced under $10.00 before tax. It’s not fancy food but it is superior to anything fast food and isn’t priced much different than fast food.
Inside is casual and you order and pay at the counter.
During normal times you. can seat yourself in the dining room (currently closed during covid.) Or you can seat yourself at one of the few tables on the patio or just do take out.
Today I got the maui maui grilled fish.
It’s a lot of food…I get 2-3 servings out of this. The fish is always prepared to perfection with a nice slightly crisp exterior and is always moist inside. I get LOTS of steamed cabbage and a few pieces of broccoli that seem healthy….There is a very generous serving of rice that can feed a small family and a good sized scoop of creamy macaroni salad that always get tastier if you hit it with a little sriracha.
My husband got the chicken kalua pork combo.
It’s a good amount of grilled marinated chicken thigh with grilled smoked pulled pork and a lot of rice, cabbage vegetables and macaroni salad.
Below are some of the other. plates we tried.
combo with bbq chicken and crispy shrimp (shrimps are shaped like onion rings)
island curry chicken (white meat)
lemon pepper chicken
garlic shrimp
loco moco (burger patty, fried egg, gravy.( added Spam)
curry bbq chicken MINI MEAL (………not so mini)
bbq chicken salad
chicken and rib combo
That was a taste of Leo’s Island BBQ in Peoria AZ.
According to Yelp a small casual Mediterranean Restaurant located in a gas station called Casa De Falafel is the #5 TOP restaurant in greater Phoenix Arizona. *****UPDATE no longer located in gas station moved to own spot in Glendale AZ.
Also according to Yelp Casa De Falafel is the number 2 falafel restaurant in the United States.
Lets see what Casa De Falafel is like.
We order at a counter and pay here.
The menu is limited.
I noticed that they sell their very own packaged lentil soup.
We ordered 2 falafels and a beef and chicken shawarma plates. While we wait we look around a little.
Here is the dining room. It’s currently not in use during the pandemic.
Here is the view if you were seated.
We start with falafels.
They look like small donuts. One is with a little hummus and the other is with a little tahini sauce that are very similar today and are very delicate tasting.
They are fried nicely and do have a crisp exterior and a moist fluffy interior and are lightly herbed and seasoned. It’s good……to some this falafel might be under seasoned.
Now we are digging into the shawarma plates with garlic sauce, tahini and extra HOT green sauce.
There is a lot packed into this plate. I got a serving of lentil soup, chicken shawarma that is moist, flavorful and nicely caramelized. there’s Mediterranean pickle slices, olives, chickpeas, salad, red onions dusted with sumac and what might? be?
Mexican style rice? Perhaps a nod to part of the name of the restaurant?
The beef shawarma plate is the same but made with beef.
I preferred the chicken over the beef shawarma because the chicken was moist and I think flavored better. For me the beef wasn’t tender enough but my husband said it was good to him. He doesn’t mind a little chew. I also thought the food was tasty and a good value. My chicken shawarma plate was only $9.50 before tax and tip.
That was my trip to Casa De Falafel in Peoria AZ. According to Yelp they are the #5 TOP Restaurant in Greater Phoenix and the #2 Falafel Restaurant in the country.
Casa De Falafel does not have a website but you can find them on Facebook.
Address and phone number is below.
Everything IS subject to change.******UPDATE They’ve moved. to Glendale.
The Fantabulous Dish means……top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite.
There are many fantabulous pizza restaurants out there in metro Phoenix. But each one is unique and many of them do a particular pizza better than from other restaurants.
Burrata or bufala cheese is the most exquisite mozzarella cheese that you can imagine. It’s the top of the line of mozzarella.
Most bufalina pizzas (margherita pizzas but made with Italian Buffalo milk cheese) look something like this……and this is GOOD but …….
Fabio On Fire elevates the bufalina pizza. His Bufalina Pizza is special.
Fabio On Fire in Peoria AZ makes his Bufalina Pizzas like this one below.
This Bufalina Pizza starts with San Marzano Tomato sauce, Imported bufalina cheese, oregano, garlic, arugula, reduced balsamic vinegar, farm fresh sweet tomatoes and extra virgin olive oil.
Sometimes they spread out the cheese.
The heat of the pizza warms the creamy imported bufala cheese without cooking it. You get the most exquisite mozzarella the way it was meant to be.
It’s FORKING DELICIOUS! It got all kinds of flavors going on. The BEST bufala cheese, San Marzano tomato sauce (the BEST), farm fresh sweet tomatoes (the BEST), peppery arugula, sweet but tang from the balsamic, flavors from the garlic and oregano….It’s going on here.
The Bufalina Pizza from Fabio On Fire is an official Fantabulous Dish!
A NEW Thai restaurant just opened in North Peoria called Tom Yum Thai. At this time (Dec/2020) there is another location of Tom Yum Thai in Surprise Arizona. The Peoria location is very tiny with less than ten indoor tables. But it seems clean and is bright and cozy inside. It’s tiny restaurant but they offer a very large menu. of many appetizers, soups, salads, chef’s specials, wok entrees, curries, noodles, pho and more.
They differ from some of the other Thai Restaurants by offering made in house hand rolled and other appetizers. One of the unique appetizers that I haven’t tried (yet) is the Thai Style Fried Sweet Potato dipped in coconut milk then tempura fried and served with tangy peanut sauce.
They offer NINE different salads that they say are packed with flavor and are not ordinary (It says that on the menu). They are filled with an abundance of herbs and spices.
There are many choices of seafood here. They offer a fresh catch of the day, mixed seafood with crispy noodles, scrambled egg with mixed seafood, a plate with one fried fish and one steamed with spicy lime dressing, a deep fried whole fish with spicy chili, and a few shrimp dishes.
Tom Yum Thai offers a bigger variety of protein for your wok entrees, curry and noodle dishes. They offer tofu or vegetables, tofu and vegetables, chicken, pork, bbq pork, beef, vegan shrimp, vegan chicken, shrimp, calamari, combination (chicken, pork, beef), duck, salmon, mixed seafood (calamari, shrimp, mussels, fish)
Wow that’s a lot!
Tonight we tried the green curry with salmon….We were told our choices were hot and Thai Hot. I picked hot.
The first thing I notice is that the curry isn’t green……Usually different peppers are used in the different curries and that is part of why the color of the curries differ. But it is different and does have delicious exotic spices and herby basil in it…There is eggplant green beans and bamboo in the creamy, slightly sweet coconut based sauce and then it builds quick with heat…..It is pretty darn hot. It close to the edge of nuclear in heat. The salmon is over cooked but I thought it would be. I’ll get chicken here next time for this sort of dish.
My husband got the spicy basil with chicken at Thai Hot with an added on fried egg.
It’s hot….and is a different hot than the green curry. We both think the green curry is hotter??????? We like the spicy Thai Basil….It’s hand chopped with lots of surface space for all the flavors to cling on to. There’s vegetables. It’s a big portion…..I think it could use a tad more basil but it really is pretty good.
