Pancho’s Mexican Restaurant is located in the Downtown Summerlin part of Las Vegas Nevada. They also have a California location. They offer most of your usual Mexican Favorites like quesadillas, tacos, burritos, chimichangas, enchiladas, combo plates, beef and chicken entrees, margaritas, desserts and more.
Inside is very rich with decorations and live plants.
This is also a very large two story restaurant with several dining rooms.
Whatever you order they start you out with a big basket of hot corn chips and a spicy herbed salsa.
The entrees come with your choice of a salad……
Or soup of the day (this evening it was albondigas soup ((Mexican Meatball soup)))
I thought the mole en pipian sounded like an interesting dish that I don’t see very often on menus.
It’s an enormous serving of tender white meat chicken chunks in a pumpkin seed, peanut spiced sauce. It’s served with cilantro rice and vegetarian black beans topped with cotija cheese. Oh and your choice of tortillas too! It’s tasty and not too spicy but is also very flavorful. Taste like maybe guadijillo chilies in it?
My husband tried the steak picado.
It’s tender flat iron steak with grilled peppers, onions, tomatoes and melted cheese with Mexican style rice and vegetarian re-fried beans. (They don’t cook with lard and use healthier soybean oil instead) It’s a BIG tasty plate.
The desserts offered did sound delicious but I find that I am never able to fit in dessert at Mexican restaurants.
I doubt anyone ever leaves hungry from Pancho’s in DT Summerlin Las Vegas.
Osteria Fiorella is an Italian Restaurant by James Beard Award Winning chef Marc Vetri. This restaurant is located in the Red Rock Casino and Resort that is in the Summerlin area in Las Vegas Nevada.
It’s artsy and modern inside. There are several small bars and wine bars inside.
They also have an exhibition kitchen in the middle of the restaurant.
They start you off with a bread basket of freshly made sourdough bread and focaccia with Californian olive oil enhanced with balsamic vinegar.
The breads are very good and are unlike any focaccia or sour dough bread that I ever had before. The focaccia is very light and moist in texture with delicious flakes of salt on the crust. The sour dough bread is like what white bread would taste like if white bread was really good.
We started with the seasonal crudo. It was hamachi with citrus.
It was very good. The fish seemed very fresh and came with citrus that taste better than what us mere mortals can buy from our local supermarkets.
We also shared a pasta dish because you really are suppose to try pasta here.
We shared the ricotta tortellini with preserved tomatoes and Calabrian chili.
These were different too…..The pasta was extra thin and very light. The cheese inside sure doesn’t taste like it was from a tub….It taste milky and fresh made to me.
For my main I tried the branzino.
It’s different…….The fish has a different kind of fired taste. I forgot what kind of oven they used for this fish but it is different. The fish came adorned with baby greens, peperonata, oil, lemon and sweet peppers, It’s a good size portion and is almost big enough to share.
My husband tried the bone-in veal.
It’s also a little different. It’s a pounded breaded veal covered in San Marzano Tomato sauce that is topped with fresh basil and melting high quality bufala cheese.
I managed to save room for dessert and tried what my waiter said was the popular favorite dessert here.
This is called the Orange Bonet.
It’s cream custard topped with poached pear with house made vanilla gelato on the side enhanced with orange sauce, citrus zest, and crushed pistachios.
That was a little taste Osteria Fiorella.
11011 W Charleston Blvd Las Vegas (Red Rock Casino and Resort)
The Federal American Grill is a Texas Based small group of American Restaurants that recently opened in Phoenix Arizona (across the street from Whole Foods on Mayo Blvd). They offer a great big all day menu of all kinds of things.For people that love whiskey they offer 500 labels. They offer a variety of appetizers (all day) like fried oysters, kung pao calamari, crab cakes, and BBQ bone marrow. They offer American entrees like braised short ribs, catch of the day, chicken fried steak, WAGYU meatloaf and pork chops (all day). They also offer small salads, entree salads, burgers, sandwiches, protein bowls, soup, seafood, steaks, entrees and more – ALL DAY! I was told that brunch will soon be added in addition to the all day menu.
The kitchen is visible from the dining room.
They offer a variety of seating.
They have booths, traditional tables, high top tables, bar seating, and a private room.
Whatever you order they start you off with complimentary biscuits with butter and sweet and spicy Fresno pepper jam.
We tried the truffle macaroni and cheese. (menu reads- Resistance is futile.)
It very cheesy. It taste like it was made with lots of real cheese and is laced with truffle essence. A sprinkling of crunchy crumbs were added. The pasta was also prepared perfect and isn’t mushy.
Janice’s Meatloaf is made with RC Ranch Craft WAGYU beef. It comes with mashed potatoes and bordelaise sauce.
Our server recommended the lemon basil salmon protein bowl.
The salmon was grill to request (medium) and was surrounded by deluxe seasonal vegetables (today is was brussels sprouts, multi color cauliflower heirloom tomatoes, zucchini and more) with rice and was laced lightly with lemon basil dressing.
Federal American Grill recently opened in Phoenix AZ and offers a great BIG all day menu.
I made an EZ Roast chicken that was delicious but the skin didn’t crisp up like I thought it would so I remedied. I pulled the skin off didn’t add a thing and in around 30 minutes shattering crisp skin. By The Way…The stuffing was EXTRA EASY and also came out extra delicious. I just used 1 cup of leftover take out rice that I saved, added some store bought kimchi and a few minor things, stuffed it into the bird and it came out FORKING Delicious too. Serving size is always difficult to judge. Chickens run different in size and people run different with their portion sizes. I got 6 – 4oz dinner portions and two – 3 oz lunch portions of chicken. I only got 4 small servings of the delicious stuffing……….You can double the stuffing recipe but you won’t be able to fit the stuffing all inside the bird so it won’t taste as amazing…..Do what you need to do.
Ingredients for at least 4 portions
1 whole chicken (remove packet of insides….I cooked some of it and sprinkled with olive oil on tray for around 25 minutes 350F and gave as treats to my dogs….gizzards you have to slice)
2 oz gochujang -(or to taste…they all are different. I recommend to buy one from an Asian Market because it will taste better. I used one small tube that I buy from Asiana Market. ( like buying the tubes because when I used to use the tubs they’d dry out before I could finish them.
6 cloves garlic – ground to paste
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 cup cooked rice – stuffing
1 cup kimchi (you might need to lightly chop) – stuffing
1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin – stuffing
2 teaspoons ginger – grated – stuffing
1 teaspoon soy sauce – stuffing
1 teaspoon rice vinegar – stuffing
2 tablespoons cilantro – chopped – stuffing
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl mix together the gochujang, garlic and canola oil. This gets rubbed all over the chicken, under the skin, and into the cavity.
Then you mix up the stuffing mixture. In a medium bowl mix together the rice, kimchi, scallions, ginger, soy sauce, vinegar, cilantro.
Stuff the rice into the cavity.
Roast for 30 minutes uncovered. Then cover with foil and cook another hour. You can shut the oven off for an hour or so and then heat the oven up again to 350 F to crisp the skin.
This needs to rest and cool down for an hour or more. When cool enough to handle just pull off the skin and place in a single layer on a sheet tray. The chicken skin goes on the middle rack of a preheated 350 degree oven. After 12- minutes turn the skin over and cook another 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels.
The whole house smells really great. If you have dogs they will stay in the kitchen for food.
To serve – pull the chicken, remove stuffing, serve gochujang chicken stock on side, and crispy skin on side.
Gochujang Roast Chicken with Kimchi Rice Stuffing and Crispy Skin
There is always something NEW, weird, different, limited or special edition when we shop for food. We never know WTFork that we will come across when we shop for food.
Up above is-
LIMITED EDITION – Sprite in Winter Spiced Cranberry. Sounds tasty and festive…But you cran-berry taste the lemon/lime now.
NEW – Tootsie Roll candy coated mini bites…….Candy coated candy! MORE calories and more business for dentists!
NEW – M&M’s dark and milk chocolate espresso candies. Kids do eat more candy than adults……Like how many kids drink espresso? Not sure how well this one will sell.
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Twix salted caramel cookie bars. Maybe they ran ut of wafers?
NEW – Reese’s Snack Cakes (sorry but this doesn’t look like picture and is not recommended by me)
DIFFERENT and maybe NEW – Kit Kat Duos strawberry and dark chocolate. It sounds good but can go either way.
DIFFERENT – Kit Kat – Blueberry muffin. We’ll see when I get the nerve to try it.
DIFFERENT and Maybe NEW and Maybe? Limited Edition – Twix Silly Rabbit turned the milk pink…….The thought of that makes me gag. Did the silly rabbit have a cut finger? or a bloody nose? Also what happened to the Twix? They look like springtime flowers.
NEW and DIFFERENT – Kellogg’s Avatar Pandora Frosted Flakes with Blueberry Flavored Blue Moons. They are naturally with OTHER natural flavors???? What on EARTH can the OTHER natural flavors be?
LIMITED EDITION – Wakanda Forever Baked Goldfish Snack Crackers……???? I don’t see anything different about the crackers?……Just a Special Edition Paper Bag they come in.
SPECIAL TAILGATE EDITION – Kettle Buffalo Bleu potato chips. I did try them. They are not bad…..My husband thought they just taste like BBQ……..These you have to slow to get all the flavors…When I eat them very slow or lick them I can taste the buffalo and get an after taste of the bleu……….a few days latter……. THEY TASTE COMPLETELY different as you eat more…..They get FORKING HOT……really HOT…..Like make you gag and cough hot….YUK! These are more flavored as you go down in the bag. I stopped eating them.
DIFFERENT – Snyder’s of Hanover artificially flavored Jalapeño pretzel pieces. I bought these hoping that they would taste good……..Oddly they don’t taste like pretzels or jalapeños…….?
NEW and WEIRD – Heinz Beanz Pizza ,,LOL! Beans on a pizza what will they come up with next?
DIFFERENT – Latin Specialties – Tejocotes – Mexican Hawthorn Apples….They are very small apples that are seldom found at our usual supermarkets.
DIFFERENT – Reddi Wip – FAT FREE with CREAM? Whipped whatever it is……How can cream be fat free?
DIFFERENT – Gran Luchito Mexican Chipotle Chili Paste and Crunchy Salsa Macha…YUM love both flavors…..
There is usually something New, Weird, or Limited Edition Oreo out there but this month I didn’t find any……So I went to the internet and typed in weird Oreo and found this….
Dining Out With DOGS in Metro Phoenix is just a “FLUFF” story about taking my dogs out to eat. It all sort of started with my dog Louie. He always liked going out to eat. When he got elderly and diagnosed with aggressive cancer he couldn’t do a lot but still enjoyed going out to eat so I took him out to eat as often as I could. Instead of his 3-6 month diagnosis Louie made it another 17 months. Today I take my current dogs out to eat when the weather is right.
There are a lot of things to know about dining out with dog(s).
Not all patios are dog friendly…(you need to call or look for a dog friendly patio sign)
Weather is an issue in Phoenix….90 and above is too hot. Dogs are not as heat tolerant as people.
Most food and drink that you consume might be harmful or toxic to your dog. Get these food lists from your veterinarian.
While out dog(s) they must be close to your side and are NOT to sit on restaurant furniture or eat off of restaurant plates.
Our first stop this year was our neighborhood American Italian style restaurant called Cucina Tagliani.
It’s not very dog friendly but I got one of the dishes I think they do best because I haven’t had it in a long time (baked spaghetti squash).
“I’m getting something”
The baked spaghetti squash lasagna (it has onions in it that are very bad for dogs) But it is very good for people. It is very light and sauced with rich Alfredo, tomato sauce, and it has lots of melted cheese. The spaghetti squash is perfectly cooked and is somehow delicious with the sauces and cheese on the top. (I do peel off some cheese for the dogs)
My husband got the chicken parmesan and sliced off a section for the dogs.
“We enjoyed our meals at Cucina Tagliani”
Cucina Tagliani 17045 N 59TH AVE Glendale AZ
602-547-2782
www.CucinaTagliani.com
Every Month we make it to Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix. They are a Pho-Free Vietnamese Restaurant that specializes in serving around a dozen different Banh Mi Baguette sandwiches. They also offer rice plates, noodle salad bowls, curry chicken and more.
Today I got a chicken banh mi sandwich.
chicken banh mi
There is plenty of chicken to share.
I’m a pretty good eater but even with sharing this is two meals for me.
My husband got the shaken beef banh mi but I forgot to photo it. The beef is always very good here….It’s always tender like filet mignon but I know it’s ribeye. The dogs really enjoyed the shaken beef too!
The food is always fresh and good. Prices are low and portions are large.
We always enjoy going to Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese eatery in North Phoenix.
2340 W Bell Rd PHX AZ
602-843-3637
www.BanhMiBistroAZ.com
We also made it to Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in North Glendale. They offer certified Neapolitan Pizzas and Italian Foods. We were both getting pizzas today so We got the dogs their own side order of chicken.
side order of chicken
Look how happy this dog is!
“OMG YUM!!!!!!!!!!” “CHICKEN”
This little sweetie pie puts his head on my knee waiting for chicken.
“I sure LOVE to eat chicken….and a little Parmesan couldn’t hurt”
I tried the pesto & truffle pizza today.
The fragrance of truffles is stronger than the taste……..I think the generous amount of pesto and the arugula just are more forward……I think they accidentally also gave me extra truffles because they only list truffle oil as the truffle ingredient. I can see shaved truffles here. Some bites do taste like truffle. Other bites don’t.
My husband went with the salame piccante (spicy salami) pizza.
D.O.P. Tomato sauce, fior di latte, spicy salami, basil, extra virgin olive oil…What’s not to like?
“We always enjoy going to Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante!”
Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante 19420 N 59TH Ave Glendale AZ
623-777-1868
www.BottegaRistorante.com
This past week it was too cold in Phoenix to dine outside without heaters. So we took the dogs out for their own butter cheese burger from Culver’s. Culver’s is good for a fast food chain. Their beef and chicken are never from frozen and they hand batter fish. My Bigger dog was so excited when she saw we were driving up to Culver’s. She smacked my smaller dog out of his seat so she could sit on the side to look right into the menu and the take out window. We got them a plain (no toppings or sauce) double butter cheese burger. They always sear the burger nice. I ripped off about a third of the burger for them without the bun. They will eat the rest over the next two days as treats.
They always enjoy Culver’s.
Culver’s
8330 W Deer Valley Rd Peoria AZ
623-792-8957
www.Culvers.com
That was Dining Out with DOGS in Metro Phoenix January 2023. We hope that you’ve enjoyed and we hope to see you next month!
The Forking TruthIn Memory of Louie 5-5-2001 – 3-3-2017
Then Burger is located across from the entrance to Westgate in Glendale Arizona. The restaurant is brought to you by a local resident Mr. Preston who also owns Twist Hot Chicken in Peoria. This is a casual but very nice burger restaurant.
inside
Besides elevated ground in house burgers they offer service, great cocktails, beer, wine and more. Mostly everything is made in-house. Everything is fresh. They only use the freezer for the ice cream for milk shakes. They offer appetizers, a few salads, and around a dozen different modern burger choices. Most of the burgers are beef patties (short rib, SIRLOIN, chuck) that are ground in house. They are recommended to be served medium pictured below.
Some of the other very detailed burgers are short rib (like quesabirra that you dunk), beef like with marrow and mushrooms, salmon, chicken thigh, and beet patty. They are served on Noble Bread Buns and come with hand cut fries that can be upgraded to poutine fries or animal fries (dressing and cheese).
We started out with smooth strong cocktails called wild horse.
Lip Service Rye Whiskey, St George Absinthe, Maraschino Bitters
We also tried the roasted bone marrow appetizer.
This was really great! – It’s so much better than the last bone marrow I tried someplace downtown. It was adorned with wild mushroom ragu and came with Noble Bread Slices.
Then came ——-The Burger.
I picked the Kenji Burger – red Leicester cheese ( my request on the side), teriyaki, caramelized onions, arugula, yuzu aioli on a just right, not too bread-ee Noble Bun………OMG This is just FANTABULOUS! The Flavors are incredible. The Burger is incredible. ********this burger is FORKING INCREDIBLE*******Besides everything that is tasting amazing I’m pointing out the caramelized onions…..not sure if it’s just the onions or a combination of the onions and sauces but the taste is so incredible that it might be impossible for me to try a different beef burger here…..It really was that FORKING GREAT!
Around five minutes latter the cut in house fries arrive.
regular friesupgraded – poutine fries with cheese curds and gravy
I was surprised that we weren’t offered ketchup for the fries. Instead we got small dishes of sauces. One was house sauce ( a creamy mustardy sauce ((my favorite)), ranch sauce, a creamy lemon-ee sauce, and garlic aioli.
My husband thinks that the burger called drugstore was FANTABULOUS. (It’s the most traditional burger on the menu)
He got his Medium Rare. American Cheese, HOUSE Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, Bread and Butter Pickles, and House Sauce. He just kept saying that this is a really good burger…..THIS IS A REALLY GOOD BURGER……..Can we go here tomorrow?
They do offer a few desserts but the food is so darn FANTABULOUS that I doubt most people will ever have room for dessert.
Then Burger (across from entrance to Westgate) Your Welcome.
Worth a Fork! THEN WE RETURNED.
The burgers are no longer a blend of short rib, sirloin, and chuck. Now they are all chuck.
The burgers taste different and cook up different now.
My husband tried the Drugstore burger again (American cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, bread and butter pickles, house sauce) and asked for Medium-Rare. It no longer comes with bacon.
Unfortunately it’s well done and dry.
My marrow & mushroom burger (menu reads munster but they gave me truffle pecorino ((on side at my request)), shiitake mushrooms, marrow crisp, marrow bone.
This burger patty is FORKING DRY AS A HOCKY PUCK!
For a $36.00 burger that IS CERTAINLY NOT ACCEPTABLE. It was very hard for me but I had to send it back and my husband also sent his burger back. In acceptable time we had the re-fires.
Second drugstore burger came out well done and dry.
The Little Pickle is a Jewish Type Deli Located in Phoenix Arizona across from the Biltmore Fashion Mall in the Esplanade (they validate parking). It’s a small casual place with only a few tables and a small counter by the window.
Currently they are open for breakfast and weekday lunch till 2pm (subject to change). We made it there just before they closed.
You order at the counter.
They call your name when your order is ready.
Here’s an everything a bagel with scallion cream cheese.
I thought that this was a West Coast Style Bagel but someone from The Little Pickle contacted me and told me that their bagels are from New York. The bagel I tried is a different style than east coast bagels that I was used to when I lived there. I was used to the ones with a shiny crust that were chewy inside. Anyone remember Abe’s or Miller’s Deli? Also Scotts Generations serves the chewy style bagels that were and also are from New York. The style of these New York bagels are different.They are good…just different.
Sandwiches come wrapped up like this.
Your sandwich comes with a wrapped Little Pickle to the side.
Our first sandwich that we tried was the corned beef.
Corned Beef
The corned beef is a little different than what I’m used to. It’s good but milder with the spices.
We also tried the turkey.
The turkey is nice, tender and moist. It’s good but……………….
Brisket Sandwich
I think that the brisket might be the *****BEST FORKING BRISKET***** that I have ever tried anywhere. The Flavors and texture is BOMB! It has this incredible burnt sweet onion taste and the beef just melts in your mouth……..They melt cheese on the bread so that is great for some people but other people might want to order the brisket without cheese.
The Pastrami is also *******FORKING GREAT**************!
It’s so flavorful and unusually juicy just melts in your mouth. It’s fatty but not too fatty. It just might be the best pastrami sandwich out there!
You’d be nuts not to try the pastrami or the brisket. Your Welcome!
The Black Sheep Restaurant is located in Las Vegas around fifteen minutes away from the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. This is a casual, modern, Vietnamese/American restaurant that is ran and owned by seasoned former Top Chef contestant chef Jamie Tran. She also was awarded by Eater as Chef of the year in 2017.
Inside is casual.
You will probably see chef Tran running around the place.
The majority of the menu is interesting and different. Our waiter said that the starters are very small and to try several. We tried the salmon skin tacos.
They are crispy salmon skin stuffed with salmon belly, salmon tartare, tobiko, smoked shishito peppers, micro cilantro, and jalapeño aioli. They are very tasty, not too spicy, and full of flavors.
My husband has a little more room to enjoy more and really enjoyed the bao slider special.
These mini bao sliders were stuffed with house made pork sausage, pork belly, quail egg, crispy shallots, greens, and jalapeño aioli. It also came with shrimp crackers. My husband kept saying that these were VERY GOOD…..over and over.
We also shared the hamachi crudo.
I thought that this was FORKING Amazing. This was an explosion of all kinds of flavors and textures. Sweet, heat, citrus, clean fish, pickle, crunch, This was made with rayu sauce (Japanese citrus sauce), dragon fruit, pickled pearl onions, bubu arare (Asian crackers), and a few other goodies.
For dinner I tried the boneless fried whole trout.
I never had fish like this before…….All the bones were removed before they fried it. You just cut though and enjoy. This came with rainbow Swiss Chard, Chinese Broccoli, sesame seed crumble, in a garlic chili oil sauce with steamed rice. Very Good!
My husband tried the braised pork jowl….(it’s the cheek….tender like beef or halibut cheek)
It came with turmeric flat noodles, Chinese Broccoli and was in a spicy garlic chili oil. This was very good too! Another Hit!
Somehow we managed to squeeze in a dessert to try. We went with the citrus meringue with ube (purple yam) crust.
The crust might be thick for some but the flavors are a nice sweet ending to a FORKING Amazing meal.
This restaurant was featured on Diners Drive Inns and Dive on Food Network TV.
It’s casual inside. You can sit in the bar area, at the bar, on the patio, or in the main dining area.
main dining area
I went with the signature orange bowl salad with added bronzed salmon. (bronzed is like 1/2 blackened…less seasoning and cooked lighter)
I have to say that this was an unusually good salad…..But it does run very spicy…It’s almost too spicy for me. It’s romaine lettuce, mandarine oranges, cranberry-raisins, scallions, celery, almonds, and this SPICY sweet and spicy vinaigrette. The salmon seems extra fresh and is really prepared to perfection. They didn’t even ask how I wanted it done they just prepared it perfect……medium-ish- medium/rare.
My husband was thrilled with the loaded jambalaya.
He just kept saying that it was really good. (chicken, sausage, rice, bronzed shrimp, kielbasa sausage.
