The Gladly is a casual full service Camelback Corridor type neighborhood restaurant and whiskey bar located in Phoenix Arizona near the Biltmore Fashion Park.
It sure didn’t look empty for long and filled up fast…..But crowded my photo didn’t look so great……All you could see were the two large people in the first both. The restaurant is bigger than my photo shows. They have at least two more dining areas. They also have an outdoor patio for dining outside when the weather is nice.
They offer a mostly all day menu of a variety of starters like local Little Miss BBQ smoked sausage and pretzel bun,
crab cakes, and a vegetarian Brussels sprouts dish. Starting at 3pm they offer some raw seafood. The Gladly also offers a few salads, a couple sandwiches, and seven entrees scallops, chimichurri chicken (that was moist and developed with flavors…..the potatoes were also flavorful and a little spicy).
They also offer- filet mignon, salmon, poke, short ribs, and a vegetarian dish of roasted mushrooms, acorn squash, vegetables, rice and quinoa.
In case you didn’t know their most famous dish is the chef’s original chopped salad that has it’s own Facebook page. It’s also served at the older sister restaurant called Citizens Public House in Old Town Scottsdale and at Cowboy Ciao at the Phoenix Airport.
The salad is made of smoked salmon, Israeli couscous, currants, pepitas, dried sweet corn, marinated tomatoes and buttermilk herb dressing. (Avocado is an add on option)
They offer to toss the salad table side.
The salad is seems unusually light but also is filling…..It’s full of textures, sweetness from the currents, smoke and salt from the salmon, airy crunchy dried corn, tomatoes with more flavors than regular tomatoes, and the right amount of bitter from the arugula, yummy from the pepitas. It’s an outstanding salad….No wonder why it has it’s own Facebook Page.
October 7th 2022 was the first Food Truck Friday West in Glendale Arizona. They are held every Friday Night 5pm-9pm at 18551 83rd Ave. in Glendale (between Sam’s Club & Walmart). It was free admission. There were around eighteen food trucks to pick from. They also had seating, music, a children’s bouncy blow up, and a children’s train ride.
The first Food Truck we tried was Red Ginger. They serve a menu that’s Asian Pacific and sometimes Baja Mexican.
We shared the Korean Bulgogi Tacos topped with Asian slaw and sriracha aioli.
OMG they are delicious! The beef is tender like butter and is infused with delicious flavors. WOW what a great start.
We came across Mel N Libby’s Soul Food Truck.
We shared the fish and shrimp combo with macaroni and cheese.
The shrimp are ok but seem unseasoned. My husband asked (Libby?) for cocktail sauce but she didn’t give him any……..maybe she was out? The fish are very fishy tasting and chewy……(ick!) The macaroni and cheese is all dried up and not good…..
I would say that the fish and macaroni and cheese was very substandard. I am surprised that they are in the food truck and catering business. It’s a crime to make food like this. They should cook for our local jail. (of course most of this $23.50 was thrown out)
So we still had room to try another food truck.
We tried the tartufata pizza from Re Di Roma Wood Fired Food Truck.
I thought that this pizza sounded great……..It’s ok but a little off. The crust is extra thin and I do like that. But the cheese is rubbery and not the best. The mushrooms are very spongy. It’s also oily and lacks truffle taste. Maybe I would have liked a different flavor pizza better?
We finish with a trip to Mr. Softea.
I got a small cup of vanilla soft serve with rainbow sprinkles.
It was only $2. and pretty good.
The large chocolate with chocolate sprinkles was only $3.
Today we tried a very good food truck (Red Ginger) and OK Food Truck (Re Di Roma) and a not so good food truck (Mel N Libby’s)
I will certainly try Red Ginger again and there were lots of other food trucks that I was interested in trying.
I’d say that the Food Truck Friday in Glendale AZ is Worth a Try!
18551 83rd Ave Glendale AZ (Between the Sam’s Club and Walmart) Fridays 5pm-9pm
Fabio On Fire is an Italian Restaurant and MORE in Peoria Arizona. Fabio On Fire besides being an Italian Restaurant also happens to be a pizzeria, bakery, gelateria and a mobile catering service. The restaurant offers, Neapolitan pizzas, seasonal specials, hand made pastas, house made baked goods, house made gelato, bar drinks and wine too.
This is an award winning restaurant.
The porchetta dish is officially one of the best dishes of the valley according to Phoenix Magazine and was featured on the cover (Feb. 2022)
My picture of it isn’t as good but it certainly was a Fantabulous dish.
Whatever you choose you are going to start with the complimentary FANTABULOUS ciabatta puglese bread…possibly the tastiest most delicious bread in the valley…
All the pizzas are very good but maybe the very best bufalina pizza in the valley is this one. It goes a few steps further than others that you can find.
The cheese is the best bufalina from Italy….But unlike most bufalina pizzas out there the high quality imported cheese gently melts on the pizza instead of being baked like at most places so you can taste it more and is enhanced with the best flavors that bounce all over……balsamic, bitter arugula, sweet tomatoes, and a rich certified San Marzano tomato sauce.
Certain times of the year spinach raviolis are a special on the menu. These raviolis are layered with flavors…..
The spinach raviolis are in a delicious slightly creamy walnut sauce. The pasta has an extra taste and maybe it was cooked in a little vegetable stock that adds another layer of taste. They might be the tastiest ravioli anywhere.
I’ve tasted vodka sauce at a few different Italian restaurants but none of them where as delicious as the vodka sauce dishes I’ve tried from Fabio On Fire. They do offer a lobster ravioli in vodka sauce on the regular menu but I was lucky to try a few specials with that delicious vodka sauce.
One special was smoked salmon pasta in vodka sauce.
Another was –
Arugula and sweet tomatoes with pasta and vodka sauce.
Off the regular menu you can get these incredible butternut squash stuffed purse shaped ravioli in an amaretto laced rich sage cream sauce……vegetarian or with crispy prosciutto di parma. These are really a treat to eat!
My husband loves the orecchiette with broccoli and sausage. He said that it is very good.
I don’t have a good picture of the halibut special that was offered several times but I can tell you that the halibut seemed as fresh as from a fish house and was prepared as well as from a fish house and came with extra fancy vegetables…..It was very good and maybe was the best fish dish offered on the west side of the valley.
Often wood roasted lamb is a special of the evening.
The most delicious desserts and BEST gelato can be found here.
The baked goods do change up now and then.
But this strawberry rum cake was amazing.
Fabio makes the best gelatos. Some of the flavors I’ve tried were blood orange, pistachio, brownie, passionfruit, peach, cherry, and STRAWBERRY.
All the gelato was amazing and delicious but the strawberry for sure gotta be the BEST strawberry gelato in the country. If you taste it then you WILL agree!
Zuzu Restaurant is located in the Hotel Valley Ho in Scottsdale near to Old Town Scottsdale in Arizona. This restaurant is named after the Hotel Valley Ho’s Matriarch of the family known as Zuzu who they say was an amazing cook with great hospitality.
Zuzu the restaurant offers brunch, happy hour, dinners, cocktails and more!
Zuzu has a sort of club-like or lounge type of atmosphere.
They also offer patio seating for when the weather is nice.
A few items offered for early bites are things like avocado toast, for sweet eaters they have breakfast cinnamon buns, Moroccan style hummus, and garlic stuffed pretzel bombs with mascarpone.
They also offer salads, and brunchier foods like eggs Benedict, huevos rancheros, breakfast fried rice, half chicken and waffles.
They offer a few southwest style plates like fish tacos.
If you are a burger or sandwich person they also offer that too on the brunch menu.
Happy Hours are 4-6pm and all five offering only cost $6-$7 each. (subject to change)
For dinner some of the offerings are grilled Portuguese octopus, salt roasted beets, scallops, sea bass, pork shank, beef filet, and a SURPRISE dinner called, “Zuzu Take The Wheel.”
That was a Little Taste of Zuzu
Zuzu – located in the Hotel Valley Ho Scottsdale AZ
Hot Pot For Days is a casual Vietnamese Hot Pot Restaurant located in Peoria Arizona across from Desert Diamond Casino. Maybe you aren’t familiar with hot pots? It’s basically a big boiling pot of soup and you add all the vegetables, noodles, and meats to it that cook in your soup that you want.
Hot Pot For Days offers four kinds of broth – pork broth, spicy sate beef broth (not so spicy), Thai Style very spicy sweet and sour (not so spicy), vegetarian (owner recommended not to get because she said it was the least flavorful………..I mentioned that because..remember ……….I tell The FORKING Truth)
Next you can try all the meats that you want. The meats that you can get served to you are – prime beef brisket, chuckeye, beef tongue, chicken breast, pork belly, catfish, salmon and sometimes an extra seafood.
Not done yet…here comes the fun part.
You go to the buffet and you can pick buffet things like – octopus, mussels, whole shrimp, fish cakes, tofu, eggs, a few kinds of noodles.
Vegetables like carrots, onions, bok choy, broccoli, Asian greens, daikon, hard squash, zucchini, and scallions.
Here it is.
Not sure why but Hanukkah garland decorates the front desk in September…
ANYWHO-
Today we picked a ying/yang pot of spicy sate beef broth on the left and Thai Style very spicy sweet and sour on the right.
I got a big plate of vegetables and some noodles to cook up in the boiling broth. They also give you a condiment to add a little more flavor to the food.
We also got plates of different meats and fishes to cook up in the broths.
I only tried the beef broth and the Thai Style broth. I thought the Thai Style had more going on with it than the beef broth. Both are suppose to be spicy but are on the very mild side for spicy. I tried a few different meats, The brisket, chuckeye, chicken, salmon and the catfish. Usually catfish is my least favorite fish but for some odd reason it taste the best to me out of what I tried in the Thai style broth……It just complements that flavor better.
I’d say Hot Pot For Days is With a Try! (current price subject to change is $25.00 for all that you can eat)
*****UPDATE CLOSED******EXPECTED TO RELOCATE******The Larder and The Delta is a small sort of Unique Southern Cuisine laced with Arizonian ingredients in a new way kind of Restaurant located in Downtown Phoenix Arizona.
They offer patio seating.
They offer seating at the bar.
They also offer regular indoor seating.
On my most recent visit we found out that they use QR code menus so you do need a cell phone to dine here.
The menu does change every so often but some of the things you might find are-
The hoping John – This one is different and is vegetarian and was made with Sea Island field peas, Carolina gold rice, and herbs. It’s was full of so many flavors and textures.
The cauliflower – smoked blue cheese, celery, Cutino’s Hot Sauce. As far as I know this dish has been on the menu consistently. It’s also vegetarian and is sort of like vegetarian hot wings.
On a recent Restaurant Week Menu they offered very UNIQUE beignets with black garlic-peanut-romesco sauce.
I only got the eat the K.F.C. Sandwich once but it was truly the FORKING BEST Hot Chicken sandwich that I’ve tried anywhere. What does K.F.C. stand for?…..Kentucky FORKING Crack Sandwich? What I still remember most is that this sandwich had the very best delicious chicken flavor…… Also all the other flavors from the slaw, thick pickles and the right sized bun just went magically together…..It was different……… This sandwich was not the spiciest….but was the most delicious…..This one was on the menu years ago for lunch. I JUST FOUND OUT that this sandwich….(I’m guessing smaller in size………Hopefully the same recipe?)….Is on the Happy Hour Menu…….. (Wed-Fri 4pm-5:30).
Recently I enjoyed the Ethiopian Fried Chicken Restaurant Week Special.
This was delicious and crispy with a lot of flavors and heat….I was surprised that this was or seemed spicier than the hot chicken sandwich….Or maybe it just seemed hotter without a bun, slaw, and pickles to blend with? It was delicious and came with a vegetable-ish relish called chakalaka. The chakalaka had some of the similar beans from the hopping Johns but was spicy.
Sometimes a chicken dinner at The Larder and The Delta might look like this with chicken toe nails in the air.
Shrimp and grits are next.
Below was a recent restaurant week special.
Possibly due to supply issues the Restaurant Week Pork Special was changed up some. It was advertised as a smoked and braised pork collar. Here it was a slow roast Niman Ranch pork loin with hominy and corn giardiniera. My husband thought that the pork had a similar taste to ham.
Something seafood is usually on the menu.
If I remember correctly this was an Ethiopian spiced snapper. The flavors on this one really were BANGING.
Excuse the bad photo above because you can’t see the BBQ meatloaf.
Desserts are casual here.
Cola Cake
M&M Cookie with Capt’n Crunch Ice Cream
Apple cobbler
That was a Little Taste of The Larder and The Delta. Give it a try! *******UPDATE CLOSED EXPECTED TO RELOCATE******
I do not enjoy writing about negative experiences but I do write The FORKING Truth ……..I also note I have not listed the name of this restaurant in the title of my story on purpose. Only my regular readers get to know The FORKING Truth. You also must know that everything and anything is always subject to change at anytime……and when the press goes and visits a restaurant usually a restaurant is on their best game. For us mere mortals we get what we get.
Aiello’s Restaurant is located in Central Phoenix Arizona in Moon Valley. They originally were opened and ran by Joe and Myrah Aiello in 2007 who have been in the restaurant business for much of their lives. Below is a picture I took of Joe in 2019 at The Italian Festival in Scottsdale. The Aiello Restaurant didn’t serve New American Fancy Food. They served East Coast Style Italian Food. It was good…..It was the type of food that you’d expect to get when you go to an Italian Restaurant. I think my favorite Aiello’s experience was from the 2019 Italian Festival. Aiello’s served a very good spread of many Italian favorites there. I remember me and my husband ate maybe 3-4 different plates from the Aiello’s there.
One of my other favorites from Aiello’s was the thoughtful take out special they offered during the pandemic. They offered take out dinner for two that included a bottle of wine and a candle for $65.
In 2022 the Aiello’s decided to retire and sold the business to someone local. The local people Tara O’Neale and Josh Johnson call themselves Truth and Alibi Hospitality.
Changes have been made inside and out. Outside a lot of the shrubbery has been cleared out. The inside is brighter and more open. The booths have been removed. The chairs got new paint finish and were upholstered with new fabric.
Aiello’s is new again with new faces, new atmosphere, a new menu and a new attitude.
You can stop reading now if you don’t want to know how things changed on my most recent visit. Things started out as good as it got and then things started going downward until the crash at the end.
It was Restaurant Week and the menu sounded amazing. It sure was different from the original Aiello’s…..When I read the menu I thought the restaurant turned upscale Italian….. I also thought I’ve found something very special that I had to try….Maybe something exciting to write about?
Upon my arrival they incurred some sort of glitch with their reservation system. I had a reservation and the hostess insisted that I didn’t have a reservation…..My husband showed the hostess my reservation on his phone……………….She still insisted that I didn’t have a reservation…………..(WTFork?…why?…….)…………I was kinda thinking that I should leave…….I sure didn’t feel wanted there. Eventually we get seated by someone else……………but the weird thing is around thirty minutes latter my husband gets a text that our reservation from Aiello’s was cancelled……(WTFork?)
The only menu we were given was the restaurant week menu and they suggested to get the wine pairings and we agreed…..It sounded great…That’s what drew us in anyway so why not.
They started us off with toasted bread with squid ink black garlic butter.
I can tell you that the bread is decent with a nice crust but I didn’t try the squid ink black garlic butter. However my husband did……He just said that it was very strong tasting.
Next we got a giant meatball with polenta and tenderloin bruschetta and two glasses of wine.
The meatball was the single best dish of what we tried. It was good….My husband said that the polenta was very runny.
The tenderloin was like eating raw meat……….It wasn’t seared or anything and was cold. I was told that it was marinated in tomato. There is some thin tomato sauce under the steak. It’s also a very large portion and is enough for a meal. I ate most of one….took the other two home to cook up better.
Here’s part of one I seared at home…..It was so much better this way and it took almost no time at all to make it much better…It’s tastier and much more tender.
Next course was one of each salad offered….The prosciutto and grilled peach and the caesar and the two glasses of wine were forgotten so my husband asked for the wine.
My husband’s least favorite part of the salad was the peach…..It was supposed to be grilled but the peach turned out oil poached……………..
The caesar dressing taste like mayonnaise mixed with powdered cheese and the croutons taste like they were from a box………..(………..not the best………….)
Our server stops by and says that our dinners would be out soon…..My husband lets the waiter know that we didn’t get our primo course yet…..(the cacio e pepe)….The waiter seems to be in disbelief……Soon someone runs the cacio e pepe plates to us and they forgot the wine again so my husband bothers someone to get us our wine.
The pasta is properly cooked but is in cream sauce……..(who does that?……..that’s not right….) It’s not the traditional Romano cheese and pasta water with pepper……Oddly the two cacio e pepe dishes taste different…….My husband ate his and then just tasted mine because I left a lot….He said mine wasn’t so peppery. I thought mine tasted more like white pepper than black pepper.
After the plates were cleared our dinners come out and the dinner wines never came.
Usually duck breast is served with rendered skin. Here it was not. Sadly the breast was on the raw side and was very tough. Even when I tried to give the leftover duck to my dogs it was so tough I couldn’t pull it apart to tear. The mushroom cherry risotto sounds good and looks good but it taste like it was made creamy with the addition of something like cream cheese spread. (ick) But it wasn’t as bad as the salmon.
The salmon came out with a slightly burnt but seasoned skin. I asked for it to be cooked medium but it came out past well done. I never expect fish house quality fish from an Italian Restaurant but this plate I consider substandard restaurant quality…….Nobody goes out to eat to get a plate like this…………ANYWAYS The well done slightly burnt fish was served over an unpalatable mound of olive tapenade (it’s FORKING AWFUL…Nobody can eat this) I try to eat some of the eggplant. It’s also awful ….the eggplant wasn’t prepared properly and it’s flesh was dissolved and was like a balloon filled with oil bursting out. The best part of the plate is the cooked spinach…It taste more like cacio e pepe than the pasta they served me.
We did inform the waiter that we never got the dinner wine pairing. He said, “I ‘m sorry for the LATE arrival.” (WTFORK is that?) ((WHAT LATE ARRIVAL?????? It never came…….) So he took $5. off per wine pairing.
That was my FORKING Most UNFANTABULOUS Restaurant Experience of 2022….
This wasn’t the story that I wanted to tell but I feel I must tell The FORKING Truth.
I sincerely do hope that these new owners find their way and fix things.
Aiello’s East Coast Italian
777 E Thunderbird Rd PHX AZ
602-547-3354
www.AiellosItalianRestaurant.com
Everything is subject to change and your experience may indeed differ. I sure hope it does.
Wally’s American Gastropub is an American Restaurant and Bar located in Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant is a “Brother” restaurant of chef Christopher Collins restaurants and Catering group called Common Ground Culinary Group (The Brotherly, Collins Bros. Chophouse, Grassroots Kitchen & Tap, Sweet Provisions ice cream, candy, and dessert shop, The Collins, The Macintosh, Arcadia Catering, and soon to open St Urban).
Wally’s American Gastropub offers appetizers like fresh baked pretzels with asiago cheese sauce, grilled artichokes, and buffalo wings. They also offer soup of the day, salads, sandwiches like a burger, cajun fish, and a French dip. They offer hand made in house pastas and entrees like meatloaf, fish and chips, liver bacon and onions, and a few kinds of ribs. Desserts are butterscotch pecan pie and Ghirardelli brownies with ice cream.
They have a good sized patio.
seating at the bar
Wally’s offers a mix of regular tables, high tops and booths inside for seating.
Besides the menu two specials were offered today. One was a tuna salad sandwich and the other was parmesan crusted trout with spinach and remoulade sauce. Today’s soup was steak chili soup.
It’s a rich beefy soup with a generous amount of diced steak in it. It also contains beans, cheese, and is sprinkled with raw onions.
Below is the salmon and spring salad.
It might not be the most interesting thing on the menu but it seems light and healthy. Sometimes you just want a light and healthy salad. The Salmon here was prepared well done but wasn’t dry. The skin and complete bloodline were removed and the salmon has nice grill marks. The salad is a basic mixed green salad with some added goat cheese. The green goddess dressing is very thin today but tasty and can pass as a basic vinaigrette.
The S’Mac with andouille sausage and bell peppers might be more interesting.
The pasta is made in house and this skillet is very cheesy. It’s accented with andouille sausage, bell peppers, and toasty bread crumbs.
If you do take out they package your food extra carefully.
On the left is their amazing coconut cream pie (My husband hates every coconut cream pie EXCEPT this one…it really is delicious!) Norwegian salmon with caper sauce and spinach, veal & spicy pork meatloaf with horseradish mashed potatoes and asparagus, and to the right are the fresh baked pretzels with asiago cheese sauce.
That was a little taste of Wally’s American Gastropub.
Tia Carmen is a high quality contemporary South-West style restaurant located in North Phoenix Arizona in the JW Desert Ridge Marriott. The restaurant is led by Michelin Star chef, Restauranteur, Bravo Top Chef, and Cookbook author Angelo Sosa. They use Arizona purveyors for local ingredients with an authentic Arizona taste and wood fired grills.
You can be seated on the patio when the weather is nice.
Or maybe a seat inside…
The one MUST-GET-DISH is the Tuna Crudo – tuna in corn coconut broth, smoked chili oil, dill.
I PROMISE you that it is mind blowing (…but on the flavorful spicy side)
If you want something less powerfully flavored then you must get the avocado aguachile.
Milder heat and more delicate flavors. date sesame crumble, Persian cucumber, serrano chile.
The current (September 2022) tri-tip kababs – sesame leaf, pickled onions, serrano chile, Thai basil are pictured below.
Good but not the same as the Wagyu kababs from the opening (May 2022).
They look the same but the texture and flavor is different. (they were also the same price) Both are good but we preferred the opening kababs even if they were $28. for a couple bites.
The native grain fried rice consist of lingica sausage, bacon. serrano chile, garlic, ginger, sunny side up egg, and soy sauce. This might be soy sauce forward to some people.
The tomato salad is a mix of textures and flavors. A base of corn puree like no other supports farm fresh tasting tomatoes, burnt corn dust, basil, pickled onions, and fancy greenery.
This is another one of the plates with a lot of layers of flavors – Mesquite noodles, pork, heirloom carrots, Sichuan peppercorns.
It might be the most expensive tostada in Phoenix but it also might be the most delicious tostada in Phoenix. It’s a toastada with beef, bone marrow, guacamole, pickled onions, fancy micro greens.
A very surprising delicious vegetarian dish is the mushroom menudo.
Very unusual mushrooms with amazing textures are used – cordyceps and cauliflower mushrooms in a very developed broth filled with flavors and textures.
Two different fish are on the menu that are completely different.
One is the wood grilled whole trout with parsley and oregano sauce.
The flavors go down into the skin and penetrate the flesh. I think it also is a larger portion than the the other fish. I was told that they will filet the fish for you if you ask. When it’s served whole you do have to be careful to avoid the bones.
The crusted Baja Striped Bass is served with Thai Basil and mole verde. Both fish are very good and can’t really be compared to each other since they are so different. For me this one just pops a little more.
Next is Tia Carmen’s Chicken Guisado.
It’s really just a humble well made stewed chicken dish with rice. Chicken thighs, olives, chimayo chile (they are hard to find), garlic, turmeric rice.
This next vegetarian entree is also extra delicious……but for us it is more of a starter or side dish……But it really is delicious.
See it really is a very small portion. It’s purple yams in a queso sauce with THIRTY WEEK aged tepary beans and mole negro.
The Arrowhead Grill is a steakhouse, grill and bar located in Glendale Arizona. They offer some FORKING AMAZING restaurant bargains.
One of the BEST restaurant bargains in town is the Happy Hour menu from the Arrowhead Grill that is offered 3-6pm every day in the bar area. Well drinks and house wine is only $5.99 a glass (subject to change). But the best happy hour food bargain got to be the A.G.Burger (Sept 2022 price subject to change $15.99)
This burger is made of ground-in-house prime beef trimmings, topped with a 6oz prime rib, crispy fried onions, cheese, mayonnaise, horseradish cream and a fresh toasted eggy bun. And it taste amazing too! It’s so flavorful. It sure is one of the very best burgers that I have ever tried. For me this is far more food than I can eat in one meal but some people I know can eat the whole thing.
The other BEST restaurant bargain is the complimentary Birthday 10 oz Delmonico Prime steak with complimentary A.G. Butter Cake. You do have to sign up for the Arrowhead Grill E Club and you do have to buy one 10 oz Delmonico steak to get one free….Your Free 10 oz Delmonico steak ($44.99) and A.G. butter cake ($13.99) are a combined total of $58.98. I think $58.98 is a really FORKING GREAT GIFT from a restaurant.