Tag Archives: #PhoenixEats

My Trip to Hush Public House in Scottsdale AZ

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Hush Public House is a small but slightly upscale restaurant located in a strip mall in the north end of Scottsdale Arizona. They offer a full bar and menu of mostly many sharing plates that might be slightly globally inspired but lean slightly towards Italian. They also offer a variety of dinners. On the night of my visit pasta, chicken, seafood and beef were all on the menu.

When you walk in you see a busy and also loud bar.

The music is also kind of loud.

When you are seated you see how this is really a tiny place.

The kitchen is behind half of the bar.

Here’s the other half of the bar.

We decided to start with something salad like but more interesting. We tried the grilled treviso.

It’s covered with finely shredded manchego cheese, cured egg and chives…..I taste some. It’s very bitter…..I knew it would be bitter because treviso is a bitter kind of fancy cabbage…..but this is really bitter. The cheese is very good and gives some relief to the bitterness. This dish is unique and interesting but isn’t for everyone because you have to have a high tolerance for bitterness. ($13.00 subject to change)

For dinner I tried the roasted half chicken.

My half chicken is missing the wing and leg. The skin is notably crisp and is served over Swiss chard, wild mushrooms and is in a rich Madeira laced stock that is stunning and delicious. The Breast is kind if thin for breast and is on the dry side but the thigh is much more flavorful and moist……there just isn’t much of it ($25.00 subject to change).

My dinner might not be typical of what they usually serve…..This dinner has been featured in our local newspaper, other publications and Yelp. I took a photo from Yelp so you can see what I saw from other publications.

www.Yelp.com

Any who-

My husband tried the Italian Beef Sandwich ($28.00 subject to change)

The brioche bun sandwich is served open faced. The slightly over toasted bread is soaking in a pool of rich beefy stock. There’s melted smoked provolone cheese, and a small amount of melty succulent tender beef that is topped with finely chopped giardinara. The plate is almost amazing except for one thing. This $28.00 sandwich only has about 3 ounces of beef on it.

We tried the peach toast for dessert ($16.00 subject to change).

The palisade peaches are especially flavorful and are delicious. House made ricotta is very creamy. There’s hazelnut dukkah, fresh mint and some local honey on a very sturdy toasted grain bread. It’s all delicious here…

That was my trip to Hush Public House in Scottsdale AZ.

www.HushPublicHouse.com

Every Forking THING is subject to change and your experience may or may NOT differ.

The Forking Truth

Seydi’s Pupuseria and Grill in Phoenix AZ – Worth a Fork! GREAT Pupusas

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Seydi’s Pupuseria and Grill is located in a strip mall in North Phoenix Arizona. This is a casual order at the counter kind of restaurant that specializes in serving Pupusas ……(Salvadorian stuffed flatbreads). They also offer Salvadorian style breakfast such as tamale, rice, beans, plantains and burritos. They offer appetizers, close to a dozen different pupusas, (either meat and cheese or cheese and vegetable) a couple soups, combination entrees and plantain empanadas.

You order at the counter, pay and seat yourself.

We shared two of the combination plates. The first plate we tried was the #12 steak that comes with two pupusas ($9.50 subject to change).

The Pupusas were CRAZY CRAZY GOOD….. (they are under the steak).

The Pupusas are like Salvadorian really great grilled cheeses……..inside of them is LOTS of tasty mild melted cheese. One pupusa has some wild flowers in it that don’t add much flavor but the one with jalapeños is incredibly delicious. The pupusas got crisp ends that are tasty…crispy cheesy buttery grilled and really delicious sort of corn masa flavor….They are also big……I don’t think most people would be able to eat two of them because they have a lot of filling. They also gave us this delicious not-too-spicy but flavorful chili sauce to spike things up a bit and a little cup of very sharp spicy slaw. The steak was just ok and a little tough and chewy but it tasted better with the addition of the sauce.

My husband tried a side of Salvadorian Sausage. He enjoyed the flavors but said the texture was dry.

The Fried Tilapia Plate comes with rice, beans, salad and fried jalapeño and house made corn tortillas ($11.99 subject to change).

The Fish is fried to perfection. It gets a squirt of fresh lime. It’s so moist and flaky. It falls off the bones. It’s a little hard to eat with plastic silverware but we manage. Beans were well seasoned and almost like in a soup. The rice was fluffy and studded with peas and carrots and seemed like it was laced with chicken broth.

The house made corn tortillas are a nice thoughtful touch!

I would say that Seydi’s Pupuseria and Grill is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.Seydis-Pupuseria-Grill.business.site

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

The Forking Truth

Hello Vietnam Peoria AZ – WHOO HOO The Upper West Side gets a NEW Worth a Fork Vietnamese Restaurant

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Hello Vietnam is a Vietnamese Restaurant that just opened this week in North Peoria Arizona. They serve most of the usual Vietnamese favorites – fried and fresh rolls, cold noodle bowls, rice plates, banh mi and pho. The atmosphere is different and interesting. They have two dining rooms and a semi open kitchen. The restaurant is decorated with Vietnamese kitchenware around the kitchen counter. There’s an illustration on some walls of a Vietnamese village. There are seashell– like fixtures and a wall of wood that looks Vietnamese.

Uptop reads “Cook like a local in Vietnam”

We started off with the Lemongrass Beef Steak Fresh Rolls ($5.99 subject to change).

The rice paper rolls are stuffed with flavorful steak, minty herbs and lots of vermicelli noodles. They are delicious on their own but also came with a peanut sauce today. Possibly due to the soft opening we didn’t receive the toppings for the rolls listed on the menu. (scallions, pickled medley, cucumber and mint…….crispy twist)…..unless it’s a misprint?

For my main I tried the Grilled Chicken Rice Plate ($10.99 subject to change)

I received a generous amount of marinated chicken thigh, pickled vegetables, fish sauce and rice. This plate differs slightly from every other Vietnamese restaurant. Everything is good!…….Chicken is tender, salad is pickled, rice is fresh. Here the fish sauce really brings the chicken to life. The fish sauce is particularly good here.

My husband goes for the Special Pho ($12.99 subject to change)

Here the Pho is an eighteen hour beef oxtail bone broth unless you order your pho with vegetable broth. I don’t often eat pho so I didn’t try it but my husband thought it really was a good bowl of pho.

This restaurant is brand new and was very busy at an off time. Service was a bit slow and we weren’t checked on till we were done but the food was good so to me that means –

Hello Vietnam is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

I haven’t found a website for Hello Vietnam but they are on Facebook.

Every THING is subject to change and your experience may or may NOT differ.

The Forking Truth

Lunch at Elements at Sanctuary Paradise Valley AZ – Worth a Fork

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Elements Restaurant is located at the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa. This resort is on the north face of Camelback Mountain on fifty three acres in the beautiful Paradise Valley Section of Scottsdale Arizona.

The executive chef is celebrity chef Beau Macmillan. He been be seen on many various Food Network TV Shows. The food served at Elements is mostly changing menus of seasonal Asian Inspired American and Global Foods. Upon arrival you stop at the valet and then make your way to the restaurant.

They offer formal dining seating.

They also offer booths on the end of the dining room with views of Paradise Valley that you still can see even when the sun screen is in use.

They started us off with delicious super crusty locally made MJ sour dough bread and seaweed seasoned butter.

Today I went with the Miso Scottish Salmon Bento Box ($26.00 subject to change)

I received a very tender grilled salmon with nice grill marks. The fish was very buttery in texture and just melted in my mouth. The miso glaze went really great with the quality salmon. Off in the left hand corner are steamed organic vegetables. I’m reasonably sure that some of the vegetables were an Asian Broccoli that has an edible stem similar to asparagus and it was mixed with a flavorful mushroom that tasted like shiitake to me. To the right was a cucumber salad that ran very acidic today for me. On the bottom left was Asian seasoned chewy brown rice.

My husband tried the House made Cavatelli with Duck Confit. ($22.00 subject to change)

Look at all those hand made cavatelli! They are mixed with duck confit, peas, pea tendrils, pearl onions, garlic and parmesan.

We shared a dessert because the last two we had here were very good.

Today we tried the Cherry Ice Cream Sundae.

I tell The Forking Truth and this dessert wasn’t the best for me because I am super picky when a dessert has chocolate in it…..This chocolate tower is sort of waxy like like a coconut oil coating. But The ice cream inside is unusual, not so creamy but more fruity also lighter and nicely flavored with the tart cherry compote that I like. Candied pistachios, fresh raspberries and a chocolate coated gold accented dark cherry adorned the plate.

From previous lunch visits we had-

Tea Brined Chicken
Five spice beef tenderloin
Lemon Meringue Pie
A different variation of tea brined chicken
Five spice duck
Key lime pie

Everything here was delicious and top notch in a great environment with the greatest service and amazing atmosphere.

Only a couple things weren’t perfect for me but for the most part Lunch at Elements is certainly worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.SantuaryCamelback.com/dining/Elements

Every THING is ALWAYS subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

True Food Kitchen Phoenix AZ – Tried a Healthy Summer Special – Worth a Fork

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True Food Kitchen is a full service casual restaurant located in Phoenix at the Biltmore Fashion Plaza in Arizona. They have another location in Scottsdale Arizona and around forty locations in the United States with the largest amounts of restaurants in California and Texas. The foods offered at True Food are based on the science to maintain your best health by choosing foods that don’t contribute to chronic inflammation by celebrity doctor Dr. Weil. He is famous for his alternative medicine. True Food Kitchen offers vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and they are happy to customize meals for you. A few locations of True Food Kitchen also offer healthful yoga brunches.

The Phoenix location of True Food Kitchen offers a foliage accented front patio.

A side patio.

Indoor is bright, woody and accented with green. There are large modern light fixtures. They offer seating at traditional tables, bar seating, half bench tables –

and by food preparation tables. The restaurant is busy and noisy. Music also fills the air.

Today I tried the Limited Summer Red Fish with sweet corn, edamame, onion, scallion, achiote and cilantro. (480 calories, gluten free and $26.00)

The red fish is very soft and moist and seasoned in a delicious way with achiote and other spices. The corn just might be the most delicious corn I ever had in a restaurant. It’s like you bought it from a farm and just grilled it. The corn is so sweet and so flavorful. Everything they mixed into it is delicious….I mean it really delicious!!!!! I liked that it seemed like the perfect amount of food too and it’s really rare that a 480 calorie plate is so satisfying.

My husband tried the Limited Summer Spinach and Mushroom Pizza. (970 calories vegetarian and $15.00)

This pizza was made with mushrooms, organic spinach, garlic, onions, lemon almond ricotta and seasoned with Aleppo pepper. The mushrooms are very flavorful but the spinach is just wilted. The cheese has a really light but grainy texture. My husband is slightly grumpy now and scraps off the lemon almond ricotta cheese that he mistook for regular ricotta with added lemon and almond. I told him to leave a small amount of the cheese to use as glue to hold some of the delicious corn to help remedy the taste and the corn is so good it makes the pizza delicious. He said, FORK some more corn over.”

I thought our server was trained particularly well. She had a great attitude, was helpful about the food, checked on us at the perfect time, offered desert and when I declined she dropped the check. That is perfect service.

I thought the healthy Summer Special of Redfish with the Corn Mixture was Worth a Fork!

www.TrueFoodKitchen.com

That was my trip to True Food Kitchen in Phoenix.

Everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

Budget Burger Places of North Metro Phoenix AZ*****UPDATE Matty G’s & CHZBURGER Closed

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In north Phoenix we have several choices for budget burger places. My definition of a budget burger place is $10.00 or less and offers menus that feature burgers. I didn’t include the chain places because although we have many and some are local chains I haven’t been to them. The original budget burger place that I know of in the area is called Burger Mania. It’s decorated with fun metal sculptures of cowboys, musicians and dinosaurs…..I don’t know what the Fork the decor is about…. and if that’s not enough the window reads Chicago. Well it looks like a fun place anyway. Instead of a bar they have lots of airplane booze bottles on display for you to buy. On the menu they offer BURGERS, Chicago sandwiches, hot dogs, breakfast, gyros, Mexican food and more. I remember the used to have gum ball machines inside.

I had a pastrami single burger here…(the current price might be $7.95). I thought it was an ok burger. On the day I was there my actual burger wasn’t the most flavorful but was better than a Jack in the box burger that cost about the same.

My husband had a burger called the Ortega. (same price) His burger came with a green chili.

Another Budget Burger destination might be Rocket Burger.

Rocket Burger and Subs Phoenix AZ

They advertise that their ground beef is never frozen. Rocket Burger offers BURGERS, sandwiches, subs, beef hot dogs, fish sandwiches, soft serve ice cream and maybe a MILLION KINDS of bottled sodas………I know when they first opened they made it a point to have every root beer ever made but these days they offer any kind of flavored soda.

Anyway I had a Eddie Lopez Burger here. ( $8.39)

This burger is enormous. It is actually two thinner burgers topped with pastrami, slaw and rocket sauce. That rocket burger sauce that makes any burger or sandwich taste better. Their slaw is also very tasty and the fries really do taste like potatoes.

But my favorite sandwich here so far is the Mexican Fish Sandwich. The slaw and sauce are very flavorful and delicious. It’s a little spicy too. It was a similar in price to the burgers.

My husband had a double bacon cheese burger this time. ($8.39)

We had a blast at Rocket Burger. For several years Rocket Burger seemed like the best of the budget burgers.

*****UPDATE see other locations..Glendale location closed.*****Recently North Metro Phoenix got not one but TWO new Budget Burger Restaurants. One was Matty G’s in north Glendale. It’s not a sports bar but it is a sports theme BURGER restaurant. The menu is mostly BURGERS. They offer a chicken sandwich grilled or fried and they also offer a full bar and custard milk shakes.

I ate a grilled chicken sandwich here.

The chicken was caramelized nice but ever so slightly dry. The onion rings were very thickly breaded and it all was tasty.

My husband had an All Star Burger. ($10.00)

You can see the burgers are nicely caramelized and the fries are abundant. My husband thought it was a pretty good burger.

*****SADLY Now Closed for Business********Then CHZBURGR also opened in north Glendale.

Chzburgr offers BURGERS, Vegetarian Beyond burgers, Crispy Chicken sandwiches, a couple salads, hot dogs, sides and milk shakes.

I went with the Crispy Chicken Combo here ($9.00) and it was FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS! Very Juicy, delicious, very crispy Chicken. The sides were also well seasoned and delicious too!

My husband had a Triple Cheeseburger Combo $10.00. These burgers are very thin grass fed burgers. He liked that each beef patty in the burger came with a slice of cheese too!

These were pretty darn tasty!

Those were the Budget Burger Places I’ve been to in North Metro Phoenix.

You can find Burger Mania, Matty G’s and Chzburgr all on Facebook. Rocket Burger has a website.

www.RocketBurgers.com

Everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

Taylors Chowder House in Phoenix AZ – A Good Old Fashioned Budget Fish House*****UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS

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***UPDATE 9-20-2022 They lost their least……NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS>****Taylors Chowder House is located in North Phoenix Arizona. It’s around 59th aveune and Thunderbird but is impossible to see from the road. It’s been in business since 1985 so they must be doing something right. They are a full service restaurant with a bar. The average seafood dinner runs around $15.00. When you walk in it doesn’t feel like Phoenix anymore…….It also doesn’t feel like 2019 anymore. You sort of get transported to the east coast by the water……of the eighties era with all kind of fishing and seafood themed relics everywhere.

Here’s the bar area.

Tables are spaced generously.

This booth is the roomiest booth I’ve ever sat in.

Our waitress is friendly and pumped about the food. We ordered and soon she brings out a basket with a toasted AZ-Style Kaiser roll and whipped soft herbed butter.

My husband was going to try the chowder since it’s a chowder house but decides on gumbo since it’s the soup of the day.

It’s an A-OK.

I was going to go with the sole Florentine………haven’t seen that on a menu in decades but I went with the pan fried Walleye Special because you just don’t come across walleye often. It’s an expensive fish and I’ve seen it at AJ’s Fine Foods for $40. a lb…….This isn’t as meaty as a $40. a pound fish but hey! it’s walleye and not swai or something like that.

I get a good amount of skinless walleye. It came out with a light dusting of cornmeal. A squish of fresh lemon and a dap of tarter and all is ok here. Off to the side is a monkey dish of sweet peas that are dressed in butter and studded with chunks of sweet onions and sliced mushrooms. My baked potato is ever so slightly over done but the inside is delicious with the herbed butter from the bread basket. ($20.00)

My husband got the entree called the Two Plus Two.

He received TWO large pieces of battered cod and two large battered shrimp, thick steak fries and the buttered peas. ( this great big plate was around $14.95)

That was my trip to Taylors Chowder House in Phoenix – A Good Old Fashioned Budget Seafood Restaurant.

****UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS********

www.TaylorsChowder.net

Everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

NEW Restaurant ALERT Lychee Kitchen – North Phoenix AZ

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Lychee Kitchen recently opened in North Phoenix a short distance from the Happy Valley Mall Area. This is a Chinese Take Out Sushi and more kind of place. Alcohol is offered, a couple pan Asian dishes, fish dishes and hots pots are on the menu.

During daylight hours it’s bright inside from lots of natural light that comes in threw the windows.

We started out by sharing the pan fried dumplings.

We received four plump hand made dumplings stuffed with tender white meat chicken and a tasty Asian dipping sauce. All is good here!

I ordered the Korean Spicy Chicken.

I received a generous portion of lots of tender chicken slices studded with onions and scallions in a sauce that looked like it was made from paprika but tasted almost like sweet tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. It wasn’t spicy and had no other flavors to it.

My husband ordered the Szechuan Spicy Chicken.

This plate also was made with tender white meat chicken and came with mixed bell peppers, broccoli and onions and was in an unusually sweet brown sauce that looked spicy from visible crushed chili flakes but was only slightly spicy. (he ordered extra hot) I would rate the heat level as a number 2 out of 5 on a Thai Scale. I can’t say it had no heat. You really couldn’t detect heat at first when you ate it. You just got an ever so slight building heat. Possibly the high level of sweetness blocked the heat and other flavors here. This dish ran very sweet.

Based on only trying the dumplings and two of the spicy entrees Lychee Kitchen might be perfect for those seeking Chinese Food that is less seasoned, more sweet and less spicy with large portions and tender chicken.

www.LycheeKitchen.com

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

The Forking Truth