Chauncey Social is a New American restaurant and bar with a DJ table located in North Scottsdale Arizona. They have a wrap around patio with lots of TVS and an unusual but interesting plant boarder.

Inside looks groovy with pops of bright colors and some retro furniture.

Next to the orange booths in the bar area is a DJ table.

There’s a great big bar.

The dining tables are around the bar and are all high tops.

Further back they have booths with small cocktail tables and outside on the patio are traditional tables.

We started with Kung Pao Cauliflower ($12.00).

It’s fried really perfect! It’s not oil at all. It’s firm but cooked threw. It taste like very mild take out Chinese Food. It’s very tasty. I especially like the fresh micro cilantro on it….I think that adds something nice here. There are also some bell peppers and crushed cashews. I’d like it even better if it was kicked up a notch with a small amount of heat but still it’s very tasty.

For my main I went with the Hawaiian Steak and Noodle Salad ($18.00)

This salad is suppose to contain steak, pickled pineapple, tomato, peanuts, carrots, cabbage, basil, mint and ginger vinaigrette. The best part of my salad was the steak. It was developed with delicious flavors that seemed like from marination. It had a nice crust and was tender and juicy. The Steak was really Forking GREAT! THE FORKING TRUTH is that I want to FORKING tell you how amazing this salad should have been……but The Forking Truth is that the steak was topped with lots of micro herbs. I think they might have been micro basil but taste more like vegetal sprouts. I didn’t taste any peanuts, basil, mint or ginger in this salad. I don’t know if any were in it. I ate mostly just the meat sprouts and carrots. Because the rest was just oily but nicely cooked spaghetti with a couple chunks of pineapple. My husband loves spaghetti and took one big forkful after I finished and he said, “It’s just taste like oily spaghetti.” Well at least the steak really was very good. I didn’t complain because I forgot what was suppose to be in the salad when the waiter checked on us. I thought I had really good steak with a very bland salad.

Anywho-

My husband went for the Open Faced Steak Sandwich ($17.00)

There’s nicely prepared skirt steak, arugula, apple, pickled onion, parmesan vinaigrette and country bread. It sounds really good. I didn’t try it but my husband said the steak and bread were really good. He showed me his sandwich and it had spread on it that taste like a really mild Caesar dressing. He had trouble eating his sandwich because it was hard to eat. He said when he ate a big green leaf all the cheese fell off and he was left with a mouth of dry greens. He might have had less trouble if his sandwich came with a steak knife. I don’t know if his sandwich was made right.

I did try two fries and ketchup. The fries are really good. They were super fluffy with a crisp exterior and fried just right. The fries also had a nice potato taste. The ketchup grossed me out……it’s kind of gelatinous, sort of sweet and not as flavorful as Heinz. Maybe I just got a weird batch that someone mixed up?

The wait staff were all friendly and attentive.

The Kung Pao Cauliflower was delicious and in both plates we tried the steak was very good.

That was my trip to Chauncey Social.

wwwChaunceySocial.com

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

Proof Restaurant is located at The Four Seasons at Troon in North Scottsdale Arizona. This is a casual restaurant that serves American Food. House cocktails have a whiskey or bourbon theme. Ice cream is fresh made in house.

As soon as we turned in the sky changed and this is how it looked.

It was very chilly tonight in mid December but I wanted to sit on the patio anyway and take in the stunning views.

And then as fast as the sunsets came they have gone.

While we were waiting for a portable heater to be set up we enjoyed a rye based cocktail.

They had trouble getting the heaters to fire up. The third one was successful…but only for about three minutes. I heard a pop and then it went out. Without a heater it was too cold to stay on the patio so we sat at a table inside.

The inside is casual with a big shuffle board, a big screen TV, a bar and an ice cream bar.

I thought we’d start out by sharing the wild mushroom soup ($16.00). That is listed under the start or share section on the menu.

I see them serving us two small crocks that are half full with lots of bread topped with shattering crisp cheese. I was thinking that it was so nice that they split the soup for us and gave us extra bread (only to find out at the end of our meal that we were INDEED CHARGED FOR TWO SOUPS)

Anyways-

The soup is actually very good and has a very intense mushroom flavor. It contains trace amounts of heirloom grains….like not a spoon full more like a small pinch..like the amount of ground pepper that you would add. the minuscular amount of grains get stuck in my throat when I eat the soup. I’d rather have slightly more grains that I could eat or no grains added. The noble bread with the shattering crisp cheese tops were very good. They gave us so much bread we took a bunch home and had it for breakfast the next day.

For dinner I went with the Light as a Feather section of dukkah crusted salmon ($29.00).

The salmon is prepared to a perfect medium and has a very nice sear and is lightly coated with a tasty sort of spicy crushed nut seasoning called dukkah. Also on the plate are little open rings of sliced squash, cauliflower pilaf and turmeric cauliflower puree.

My husband had the shrimp and grits ($32.00).

The shrimp were cooked to perfection. The sauce was delicious and the grits were full of lots of cheese. This was a very good plate.

The ice cream is made in house so we thought we’d share a bananas foster sundae ($10.00).

The ice cream taste very fresh and has a perfect creamy consistency. Maybe it’s just me (and my husband) but I’m not real found of the flavors with this one. This doesn’t sing banana to me……The sugar crisp taste burnt and sticks to my teeth. The ice cream and banana jam doesn’t taste like bananas foster to me and lacks a sweet caramelized banana flavor, lacks cinnamon and lacks dark rum…Maybe I’d feel different about another flavor…The little cakes are tasty and moist and citrusy.

That was dinner at Proof in Scottsdale.

I was a little bummed that the portable heaters didn’t function. I also was slightly upset that the server didn’t tell us that the soup was too small to share and decided to just order us two soups without asking. If I knew the soup was too small to share I would have ordered something different to share. But in the end the soup and entrees were very good. I wasn’t a big fan of the bananas foster sundae but I did previously enjoy a bourbon pecan pie that I tasted from Proof at a recent food festival. For the most part the food really was very good and the outdoor atmosphere is exceptional.

www.ProofCanteen.com

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

Vic and Ola’s Tavola Italiana is a small restaurant in North Scottsdale (DC Ranch) that serves Italian Style Food.

Pictured above are most of the indoor tables.

Reservations are necessary for a table indoors or on the patio.

If seating is available at the small bar you can sit there without a reservation.

We arrived very early and they were already very busy. We didn’t have a reservation so we sat at the bar on the indoor side because they were the only available seats to us. It’s a loud atmosphere. Not from music but everyone’s chatter.

Fleming’s Steakhouse is next door.

We started out by sharing the Happy Hour Roman Style Artichoke (Carciofi Ripieni ($8.50).

The all edible artichoke was dressed with bread crumbs, pecorino cheese, garlic, raisins and pine nuts. It was the tastiest artichoke that I had in recent memory.

We also shared the cacio e pepe (spaghetti, black pepper and pecorino) ($16.00) (it was accidentally served with the dinners)

The pasta was prepared to perfection. The dominate flavor was butter….I thought the pepper and cheese should be kicked up a notch for balance….

For my main I had the branzino ($28.00).

It was listed under large plates and yes it truly is a large plate and brought half home. The pan seared branzino was moist and flaky. On the side was tasty farro, butternut squash, red pepper, pumpkin seeds, figs and fine shreds of bitter radicchio. This plate was for the most part very good. It did arrive almost cold but the pasta and my husbands meal arrived piping hot so I didn’t complain. ( I don’t send things back….especially if it’s not an open kitchen….that sort of thing gets some cooks very upset and I’ve seen too many of them lose it. I also I didn’t want my husband’s meal to sit and get cold.)

My husbands main was the veal osso bucco ($36.00).

It wasn’t tough….but it wasn’t the most tender or most flavorful osso bocco. Overall it was OK. The spinach on the side was very good. The risotto was slightly under done and not very creamy or developed with flavors. But I do note that you almost will never get a great risotto out anywhere. I think the only great risotto I’ve ever had out was from Binkley’s.

The Roman Artichoke was Great! The Branzino was very good but the kitchen timing was off.

At the time of this posting (November 2019) Vic and Ola’s is a newly opened restaurant and may or may not be still working things out.

www.VicandOlas.com

*****UPDATE NOW CLOSED FOR BUSINESS****Meat The Ball is a casual full service meatball themed restaurant with one location in Scottsdale Arizona at the Promenade and another soon to re-open at The Biltmore Fashion Square. They serve a variety of appetizers, salads, sandwiches, platters, some platters with house made pasta, Seven kinds of meatballs or meat-free balls, pinsa (ancient Roman focaccia) and more.

It’s bright, cheerful, colorful and modern when you walk in.

You can sit at the bar or at traditional tables or outside on the patio.

The menu offers many tasting sounding things to try. We want to try most of the menu but can’t so we try a few things.

We decided on a flight of meatballs and a pinsa. They come out in reasonable time and here they are.

I really appreciate that the meatballs are all served in special separate plates. I shared two of the three meatballs. All the meatballs were good, very good or outstanding but our mutual favorite was the Cauliflower (bottom ball). WOW! the texture is very good, it’s very flavorful…but it’s also spicy……It’s simply delicious and the sauce is one of the most delicious curry sauces I’ve ever tasted….This is really Forking Awesome! I hope the recipe stays the same so I can enjoy this again.

My husband ate the Rustica (middle). He said it’s a very good meatball with a nice texture and good flavors. We liked the parmesan sauce but it needs to be noted that the chunks of red pepper ran spicy today. He also said it’s much better than most meatballs that he eats in restaurants. My husband grew up eating meatballs. Meatballs are part of his heritage.

I tried some of the Short Rib Meatball. It taste like a very good beef stew…………..It taste just like beef stew but in the shape of a ball………It’s almost odd to me because I wasn’t expecting it to taste like beef stew. I was thinking like BBQ Short Rib kind of taste. I personally don’t eat beef stew but if you are a fan of beef stew then this ball is very good.

Now to the pinsa.

Some people consider the pinsa to be a healthier alternative to pizza with less calories and less carbohydrates. Pinsa is suppose to be made of a combination of different flours with high hydration and long proofing to make the dough….I didn’t ask what the ingredients were but others pinsa makers use soy and rice flour mixed with basically a sour dough. Other people tell me that you should enjoy pinsa just because it’s the most popular pizza in Italy right now!

I take a bite. It’s tender, light and delicious. The crust feels like fine sand paper against my lips but it’s easy to bite into. It’s almost like a tender but lighter English muffin. The sauce taste like traditional vine ripe sweet tomatoes and it’s topped with melty mozzarella cheese laced with oozing basil. It tasty and light so your stomach has room to try meatballs.

My husband helps really well with the pinsa so we share something else.

Instead of dessert my husband picks the eggplant meat(less)ball ($4.00)

The Eggplant has a core of melty mozzarella….. and is dressed in meatless tomato sauce and topped with a little mozzarella and a little basil leaf. It taste just like eggplant parmesan. The texture and flavor is much better than the same meatball I tried at the Phoenix Location. But I do note that they told me that they were still perfecting the eggplant recipe at that time.

Service was very attentive, efficient and welcoming.

We enjoyed our visit to Meat the Ball in Scottsdale.

I’d say it was Worth a Fork!

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

I hope the recipes stay consistent. I do note that I have been to the Phoenix location and did come across inconsistency with the seasoning and spice. The discontinued quinoa meat(less) ball on fist visit was spicy and amazing but on a second visit was mild and less flavorful.

www.MeatTheBall.com

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