Cala is described as a Modern Mediterranean Restaurant. It is in the small boutique hotel called Senna House in Old Town Scottsdale Arizona. The restaurant is led by celebrity chef Beau MacMillan. Parking is difficult but not impossible. It’s just like city parking. You can valet there or search for a parking spot somewhere. The nearby lots are tow-away zones but we’ve found a parking spot down the main road.
We’ve found the hostess desk. Eventually someone walks by and says that a hostess will be with us. We waited about ten minutes. During that time I could look around.
Inside is comfortable looking, modern, airy, and visually beautiful. There are lots of live plants. It’s like a big patio inside and also they have an actual outdoor patio with another bar outside.
It’s impossible not to notice that NOT ALL but most of the females working there are wearing very little up top and not enough down below to cover their panties. Two servers today are wearing long jeans with a tank tops. I can’t decide if they are going for a beach in the desert look or a Hooters at The Senna House look?
This photo was the most family friendly of what was seen…..Other women I saw had the daisy dukes with their buns exposed.
Cala is for sure a great destination for younger men or any males that enjoy looking at young women in skimpy outfits……maybe even your grandpa…… But maybe not so great for most other women, young children, or grandma.
Eventually a brestaurant hostess seats us…..She looked like a teenager……..She wore hot pants and a top that exposed 49% of breasts…whole middle and part of stomach)………..She seats us at a table where I have to brush away what looks like a big spill of granola from my bench….(sorry now that I didn’t photo all that I brushed off)
We look at the menu. They have cocktails for the table. They also offer sharables like flaming cheese, and mezze plates ($58…that one seemed steep to me?), Cala power bowls, brunch plates like a green Chile pork burrito, burgers, banana French toast, insalada pizza, and a few desserts.
I thought that the spiced lentil & chickpea bowl with added salmon sounded good so I ordered that and I received a very large bowl of food.
It’s suppose to contain lentils, chickpeas, carrots, tomato, beets, cucumber, feta, and tahini-citrus vinaigrette. I wasn’t told but found out that the carrots and beets were missing and were replaced with crunchy corn nuts. (would have ordered the other bowl if I knew) Crunchy corn nuts seems like a bar snack………..and I believe that corn nuts are a South American food and don’t seem Mediterranean and also are not a replacement for carrots and beets. ….In a nice restaurant they usually let you know if they are out of something……..
Anyways-
I taste the dressing. To me it taste like tahini and lemon…….pretty much nothing else. I would expect to taste cumin, coriander, salt, and at least pepper. I can only guess that ingredients are missing from the dressing? ……I DON’T KNOW if ingredients are missing but I think so because the the bowl had missing ingredients and also the food I enjoyed from the chef’s previous restaurant was flavorful and delicious……so I was expecting flavorful and delicious here………
Then I taste the salmon. It’s prepared nice like it seems like it was slow cooked. It has a very good texture but it is also unseasoned and unseasoned is at the very least UNDER-SEASONED. For some odd reason it’s slightly fishy.
It taste exactly like the bloodline all the way threw. This bowl is mostly unseasoned. The crunchy corn kernels add a little salt. The best thing in my bowl are the tomatoes. They are extra sweet today. I could have sent this back but I usually don’t send things back at restaurants….especially when I can’t see into the kitchen. I used to work in restaurants and most were professional but I did work at a certain restaurant that was one of the busiest restaurants in the country. That restaurant was unique and very different from all the rest. They didn’t hire culinary students there to work in the kitchen instead they hired their cooks fresh plucked from the local jail to cook the food. When you sent food back…The cooks got unhinged….. you’d be sorry if you saw what they did to the food…….I’m not kidding….. It was exactly like from that 2005 movie called Waiting. When I saw that movie I thought they stole a memory from my head for the movie. Don’t send food back unless you can see into the kitchen….”You’re welcome.”
My husband ordered the shakshuka burger with fried cheese instead of the whipped feta cheese. He said that the fries seemed good and he received a very generous portion of fries. Also the bun was grilled nicely. He asked for the burger to be prepared medium (because he thought it was going to be made out of lamb..((his error…it’s beef)). (red pepper tomato jam, whipped feta, cilantro, fried egg, and fries)
The bun was grilled nicely.
The egg was a little under with some runny white and wasn’t seasoned. No seasoning is UNDER-SEASONED.
He said that the jam had very little flavor and the burger was extra dry. It was very dry. We brought home a small piece for our dogs and it was so dry that it was hard for me to break up.
*******Summing things up.***********
I had to wait ten minutes for someone to seat us.
I was sat at a bench full of crumbs that I had to brush off myself.
My meal was a very large portion but was missing some ingredients (beets & carrots). However it did contain an unexpected substitute (crispy corn nuts). It also was under seasoned (no seasoning on fish and possibly missing seasoning in dressing?) and the protein was a little off.
The burger didn’t seem seasoned and the egg was under seasoned (not seasoned). The burger was also cooked till dried out.
Maybe dinners are better or I hit them on an off day? I don’t FORKING know.
The next day I got an email from Cala asking me to rate the food and to write about my experience there. I filled it out and briefly explained everything I mentioned here. Haven’t heard back from Cala as of yet (and that was over a week ago as of 5-4-22).
That was my trip to Cala…Under-Seasoned, Under-Dressed, and left Underwhelmed.
www.CalaScottsdale.com
7501 E.Camelback Rd Scottsdale AZ
480-590-5676
Everything is subject to change.
