Tag Archives: #PhoenixEats

Dosa Place – Phoenix AZ – Newly Opened 35 Dosas and South Indian Food

Dosa Place is located in North Phoenix on West Bell Road in an older strip mall in the spot where at least three previous Indian Restaurants once where (Pastries and Chaat, Dosa Grill, Just Biryani). This restaurant specializes in serving dosas. Not entirely but the majority of the menu are dosas. They offer around THIRTYFIVE savory or sweet dosas. Incase you don’t know the dosa is a South Indian Crepe made from a batter of fermented rice and lentils. Dosas are served with chutney and sambar (a vegetable soup laced with curry and a little heat). Besides dosas Dosa Place also offers vegetarian and non-vegetarian appetizers, vegetarian and non-vegetarian entrees, biryanis, fried rice dishes, noodle dishes, naan pizzas, and of course DOSAS and more! At the time of my visit Dosa Place is without a sign.

It looks exactly the same inside as it did as the last two restaurants.

inside
inside

We ordered up a storm and tried a variety of dishes.

We started with the chicken 65 appetizer.

chicken 65

The chicken is tender and is coated with some spices and a little heat……..It taste like an Americanized version of this dish.. Not too spicy and not the most complex but better than from some places.

Then everything else comes out.

Lets start with the dosa masala.

I ordered the beetroot dosa masala but they were out of beets today so I got the regular masala dosa. It’s a large paper thin crepe stuffed with a small amount of seasoned potato in the center. The sambar a tomato-lentil vegetable soup laced with curry and a little heat was very good that was on the side. It also came with tomato chutney and a green chutney.

We also tried tomato-onion uthappam.

tomato-onion uthappam

This is also a dosa. It’s a light rice and lentil sort of batter embedded with vegetables and a few herbs and is very tasty. It has a unique light texture and almost seems like it might have been steamed.

For our main we shared the chicken chettinadu.

chicken chettinadu

It’s wildly fragrant with a little heat and very tender moist chicken. It might contain coriander, cardamon, chili, cloves, cinnamon, garlic, tomato, turmeric, ginger, onion and more.

Dosa Place – Newly Opened – Lots of dosas – Give them a try!

Dosa Place 3539 W Bell Road Phoenix AZ

602-612-2383

www.DosaPlacePhoenix.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Sushi Little Glendale AZ – The Forking Truth – Was only a Little Good

Sushi Little is a small sushi restaurant that recently opened in the Arrowhead area of Glendale Arizona. They are in the spot where Ginger Bistro used to be.

Ordering is difficult. They do not have wait service so you have the menu, a menu of sushi to read, a specials menu, and around twenty-five rolls to read about at the counter. Then you pay and seat yourself. They do offer soft and some hard beverages. We asked about soju but they only have peach flavored soju. I went with iced tea and my husband asked for a cup of water. We were charged $3.00 for my iced tea…That’s fine…but we weren’t expecting to be charged $3.25 for the cup of water that we served ourselves.

We ordered a variety of things.

One of the better things of the visit was the gyoza.

They were a little on the plain basic side but really seemed ok.

Then came the mackerel.

Slightly off…..but often the mackerel is slightly off. Some people decide on sushi restaurants by the mackerel. Personally I think that it is more fair to judge sushi restaurants on their tuna. You know right away if tuna is good or not.

Next we got smoked salmon nigiri, ahi tuna nigiri, and a Red Sea roll (spicy tuna, cucumber, ahi tuna, Japanese style chimichurri).

The BEST of what we tried here was the smoked salmon sushi in the left upper corner of the dish. It did taste good but was cut very strange…..You can’t see in the photo but the fish was almost triangle shaped. Still the smoked salmon made me crave a bagel and cream cheese…..After that we go down hill.

The rest isn’t spoiled and is passable but not good so I didn’t enjoy.

We end by sharing the salmon kama (fish collar). Before it came by husband could see it going in the microwave with the open kitchen.

I could hear the microwave door shut. Then he pulls it out and microwaves it again. (This restaurant shouldn’t have an open kitchen when they cook like that!)

Soon someone runs it out but doesn’t even think about clearing our dirty plates on the left side of photo below.

The collar was over cooked from the microwave. The fatty ends of the fish are actually boiling. The fish also isn’t the freshest and is over cooked and dry. This is the WORST collar that I have tried anywhere…..I used to think that fish collars were good everywhere. They are the most flavorful fattiest parts of the fish…..I usually only had very good ones.

The girl who ran it out did ask how it was……I said that it was over cooked and she had no response.

Based on only one visit I can’t recommend Sushi Little in Glendale AZ.

Sushi Little was only a Little Good.

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

5940 W Union Hills Drive Glendale AZ

602-698-1016

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Tacos Chisco Glendale AZ – Newly Opened!

Tacos Chisco is a small casual taco restaurant in North Glendale Arizona in the area known as Metro Phoenix Upper West Side. They are open seven days a week for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

For breakfast they offer breakfast burros and breakfast tacos.

The regular menu offers five kinds of tacos (asada (steak), carnitas (braised pork), cochinita pibil (baked pork), nopal (cactus), pollo (chicken).

They also offer bowls, salads, elote, burritos, quesadillas, kids meals, soft beverages, aguas frescas, margaritas, and paletas (popsicles) and more!

It’s a small place with only five or six tables. One table is outside. Most of the indoor tables are high tops.

inside

You order and pay at the counter and seat yourself by the bright cheerful wall.

inside

When your meal is ready you pick it up at the counter.

Today we tried a variety of tacos and elote in a cup. They don’t sell the tacos by the each and you are suppose to pick three of the same type of taco. We came just before they got busier and was told when they are slow you can mix them up a little.

carnitas, chicken, and cochinita pibil

two chicken tacos and asada steak

elote in a cup

Our mutual favorite taco was the chicken tacos. They were tender delicious and the most flavorful of the tacos. All the tacos came on grilled corn tortillas that were good. The steak was tender but lacked that char, fire, or charcoal taste that taste good with asada. The elote is boiled corn in a cup with mayonnaise, shredded cheese, and some seasoning. It wasn’t drained as best as it could have been and the bottom of the cup is full of water.

Tacos Chisco Glendale AZ – Newly Opened!

18425 N 51ST Ave Glendale AZ

602-775-9688

www.TacosChisco.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Le Sans Souci French Restaurant Cave Creek AZ – 4 Course Brunch & Dinners – Yesteryears Prices

Le Sans Souci is a French Style full service family owned restaurant located in Cave Creek Arizona. They offer lunch, a regular menu, inexpensive early bird specials, inexpensive 4 course brunch, and inexpensive four course dinners. (at this time August 2022 subject to change the 4 course brunch is only $20.50 and the 4 course dinners aren’t so much more and are far less than even restaurant week pricing at around $27.50)

inside

They start you off with complimentary thin crisp bread, butter, and soft Arizona style bread.

For the 4 course Sunday Brunch ($20.50 subject to change) They start each person off with a tasting plate of smoked salmon, pate, avocado, shrimp, hard boiled egg, tomato, cornichon pickle and rice crackers.

Second course is a cup of soup.

Above is French Onion (with cheese $1.00 extra) and soup of the day (watercress soup…..taste very verdant)

My husband had the veal scaloppini a la Francaise.

Lemon, white wine, butter and capers on pounded tender veal. The entrees also came with braised cabbage, broccoli, and French style potatoes. This is not too shabby either.

I tried the grilled salmon with olive oil. I asked for medium but it was prepared well done.

The salmon had nice grill marks and the skin and most of the bloodline was removed. It also was a bigger portion than I expected.

For dessert we shared the banana cake and the chocolate mousse cake.

They taste like lots of Cool Whip to me on not the best cake. It might be better to pay extra and get the soufflé. I noticed the table next to us got one of the soufflés.

On a different visit we tried the 4 course dinner specials.

They come with a soup or fruit cup, salad, a choice of fourteen different dinners, and dessert.

We started with cups of vichyssoise and French onion (slight extra charge for French onion).

Next course was salad.

My main was the filet of sole meunière (lightly floured fried in butter with lemon).

It’s a larger portion than I was expecting. It’s not fish house quality but everything seems fresh tasting. The broccoli was prepared tender crisp and the zucchini was prepared very squishy.

My husband went for the beef brochette (tenderloin and bacon in mushroom sauce).

He said that it was pretty good.

Desert was a Napoleon and strawberry shortcake.

The desserts are neighbor or relative quality but hey….. four courses only were around $27.50 each.

Maybe I should have paid extra and tried a soufflé…..?

4 course brunch $20.50 and 4 course dinners (around $27.50) Yesteryears Prices! It’s cheaper than Restaurant Week every week! (even if you pay extra for a soufflé!)

www.LeSansSouciRestaurant.com

7030 E Bella Vista Dr Cave Creek AZ

480-488-2856

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Phoenix Phresh Glendale AZ – Low Cost Healthy Style Foods

Phoenix Phresh is a casual/fast healthy style focused food cafe located in Glendale Arizona. They offer breakfast, wraps, sandwiches, salads, bowls, acaia and pitaya, smoothies, and juices. Calories and nutritions are posted on their menu. They also are located in a strip mall by a gym. Of course healthy beverages are offered here. The side refrigerator contained a few different waters and teas. Between the counter and refrigerator was complimentary cucumber water (that really was delicious).

It’s a small casual place. You order and pay at the counter and seat yourself.

inside

Soon someone runs the food to our table.

inside

Today I tried the 490 calorie mixed berry salad (romaine, strawberries, blueberries, walnuts, cranberries, blue cheese, chicken, and strawberry dressing……It was only $10.99 ((subject to change))

mixed berry salad

It’s a very large entree salad. I saw in the restaurant that Boars Head lunchmeats were used here but I only expected them on the sandwiches and wraps. I was surprised that lunchmeat was used for the salads too. There is a lot of fresh fruits here but the lunchmeat chicken has sodium phosphate in it and doesn’t seem that healthy?……but maybe it is healthy for watching your weight because it is only a small amount of lunchmeat……(maybe 1-2 ounce??) The strawberry dressing does run a little sweet. For it’s price point it’s A-OK. My salad seemed big but for some reason I was hungry a few hours latter????????

My husband tried the 670 calories El Diablo Bowl (brown rice, black beans, spicy Boars Head Chicken lunch meat, pepper jack cheese, jalapeños, eggs, chipotle sauce (($10.99 subject to change))

el diablo bowl

It might be hard for you to see but this bowl is very small and is half the size of my salad. My husband said that it actually does taste good. He also added that if we go back he’d order two bowls next time. (I don’t think that this would be enough food for most men…..my husband left still hungry)

That was a little taste of Phoenix Phresh – Low cost healthy style foods. Very good for dieting. Calories and nutrition is on the menu.

Phoenix Phresh Glendale AZ

5830 W Thunderbird Rd Glendale AZ

602-730-8601

www.PhoenixPhreshCafe.com

Every THING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Seydi’s Pupuseria and Grill Phoenix AZ – Crazy Great Pupusas – Worth a Fork!

Seydi’s Pupuseria and Grill is a little casual Salvadorian restaurant located in North Phoenix Arizona. They specialize in serving these crazy delicious Salvadorian stuffed flatbreads called pupusas. Prices are low! Portions are large! Pupusas are crazy delicious!

All the pupusas are stuffed with cheese and some contain a vegetable, wild flower, or meat. They offer TWELVE different kinds so there is something for everyone. (plain cheese, bean, wildflower, jalapeño, zucchini, spinach, green pepper, pork, chicken, steak, shrimp)

They are really cheesy inside. You really are suppose to eat them with your hands. But if you use a knife and fork it’s up to you.

You eat the pupusas with Salvadoran slaw and rojo sauce. The slaw is very unique. It’s fermented but isn’t sour like sauerkraut. It’s also not strong tasting like kimchi. It’s just really good and cuts the fat to make it pop. The red sauce is thin but it has a sort of salsa taste. It’s all very delicious on the pupusa.

Besides pupusas…..They also offer breakfast like fried plantains with rice and beans, an egg and sausage burrito with rice, beans, and jalapeños. Or maybe you are a little hungrier and want a ten ounce New York Steak with eggs home fries and toast.

They offer appetizers like yucca fries with pork, Salvadorian Cole slaw, and tomato sauce, Salvadoran chicken sandwich (yes on the appetizer menu), This one other appetizer can feed a family…..It’s a chicken tamal, yucca fries and pork, Salvadorian pie, one papusa, Salvadoran slaw, and tomato sauce.

They offer combination plates that include two tortillas. A few of them are-…………grilled steak with two pupusas,

grilled steak with two pupusas

stewed beef with rice and salad, fried tilapia with rice, beans, salad, jalapeños (pictured below),

fried tilapia with rice, beans, salad, jalapeños, lime

twelve grilled shrimp with rice, beans, salad, breaded chicken with rice, beans, salad, jalapeños.

They offer two soups. One is farm hen vegetable and the other is beef stew with rice. Both come with tortillas.

farm hen vegetable soup

The farm hen vegetable soup contains maybe half a small bone-in skin-on chicken with all kinds of vegetables (zucchini, potato, carrot, maybe cassava?, cabbage, and peas). It also comes with hand made tortillas, vegetable studded white rice, lime, and a small condiment of chopped onions, cilantro with jalapeños to give the soup some punch. It’s also a very large portion.

Or you can just order pupusas…..and if you can fit it in they also offer two desserts. One is plantain empanadas and the other is cassava and honey.

It’s not a fancy place but it seems clean.

You order and pay at the counter and then you seat yourself.

inside

And you would be nuts (unless you are lactose intolerant) to drive here and not enjoy a crazy great pupusa.

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

Seydi’s Pupuseria and Grill

2625 E Greenway PKWY Phoenix AZ

602-404-7634

www.Seydis-Pupuseria-Grill.business.site

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Clean Eatz in Glendale AZ – You can lose weight eating here

Clean Eatz is a casual chain of restaurants that offer healthy….meal plans,,,,,,,,,,

Grab & Goes

grab and goes, an eat-in cafe, and more. I went to the location in Glendale Arizona. This is a fast growing chain of restaurants with around 80 locations. Two new ones are coming to Arizona in Phoenix and Surprise.

The cafe offers a menu of “Good for you snacks,” Build a bowls, build a salads, build a burgers, wraps, flat breads, a kid’s menu, smoothies, and more. Prices are very low so I wasn’t expecting the best quality.

You order and pay at the counter. They don’t sell many beverages that most places sell. Only what is considered health conscious. They don’t even sell plain bottled water. We went with the complimentary orange-mint infused water.

We sat ourselves and in reasonable time someone runs out our bowls to us.

The bowls are small, medium, or large protein I went with medium. My base was sweet potatoes, my three vegetables were carrots, asparagus, banana peppers, protein was salmon, sauce was sweet potato chipotle, and heat level was swole N spicy.

I received much more salmon than I expected but it’s not the best. It’s over cooked, fishy tasting (NOT SPOILED but fishy like frozen fish from Safeway) and is topped with powdery stuff that is weird. I am undecided if I can even eat it. My husband generously offers to leave and go someplace else. I decide that I can eat it but it’s not good. The sweet potatoes are really weird and sponge-ee. I have no idea on how sweet potatoes can be made that way. The carrots are between raw and cooked and the asparagus are mostly overcooked and squishy. I picked the sweet potato chipotle sauce…..It’s just weird tasting……It doesn’t taste like real food……. I can see how you can lose weight eating here.

My husband went with the large portion bowl. He picked rice noodles, corn & beans, asparagus, banana peppers, shrimp, salsa, and smokin chipotle.

His bowl turned out a little better than mine.

He could tell that the shrimp are from frozen but were ok. The worst part of his bowl were that the noodles all stuck together. He said that his wasn’t really bad. Not great either……but not bad.

You can lose weight eating at Clean Eatz.

5870 W Thunderbird RD Glendale AZ

602-374-3806

www.cleaneatz.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

African Kitchen Phoenix AZ – Seems like the REAL DEAL

African Kitchen is located in Phoenix Arizona not too far from the Metro Center Area. They offer mostly Liberian and other African Cuisine like Nigerian and Ghanaian. It’s a casual small restaurant. I noticed many people with a similar accents to the man serving us doing take out and dining here. Soft beverages and some unique soft beverages like ginger juice are offered. The atmosphere is loud. They have a TV on with a soccer game playing. The people dining here are into loud conversation while dining.

the whole inside

The menu is on the green board at the rear of the restaurant. They also have printed menus. There are many foods that are seldom found at any restaurants that I know of. They offer foods such as ahieke (a fermented kind of couscous), potato greens, torborgee soup (a spicy bitter Liberian stew of beans, palm oil, dried meat), chuck rice (Liberian green rice), egusi soup (Usually Nigerian or Ghanaian melon seed, bitter leaf, and meat soup).

menu

Ingredients are listed on the wall with the menu.

My husband was going to order the torborgee soup but was warned if you aren’t used to the ingredients in that soup it has very unpleasant effects on you that aren’t good to talk about while you are reading about food……….So he got the palaver sauce soup that comes with rice.

It’s a popular West African stew of beef, turkey, skin-on chicken ….It seems like it was prepared well but is very different from American Food or any food that I have tried before…..Besides the unfamiliar flavors and funk (maybe bitter leaf, palm oil, smoked dried fish, melon seeds)…..The amount of rice is enormous. The protein amounts really are very small in the two dishes that we tried. Maybe two – three ounces at the most.

I planed to order the chuck rice (green rice) with fish gravy but was told that they weren’t serving that today and made a quick switch……

I had the tilapia with dry rice and plantains. Again an enormous amount of rice. The rice fills the whole plate and is higher than it looks.

The fish is prepared reasonably well. The plantains are nicely fried. The rice is very unusual to me. It’s not dry like the name implies. It’s actually kind of slime-ee in an okra kind of way. It probably contains okra and little bits of fish and cubes of beef that are similar to lunch meat or hot dogs. This rice might be delicious for an acquired taste.

I did notice that everyone dining there had enormous plates of rice that they actually were finishing. It looks like that is how African people eat.

African Kitchen in Phoenix AZ sure seems like the real deal.

Try it for a taste of Africa.

African Kitchen Phoenix AZ

3543 W Dunlap Ave Phoenix AZ

480-532-5512

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Chula Seafood Fish Market Restaurant & Bar Scottsdale AZ at Greyhawk – Newly Opened

Chula Seafood is a high quality family owned seafood market, casual restaurant and bar with three locations in metro Phoenix Arizona and their original location in San Diego California. They offer sustainable sourced high quality seafood and prepared seafood. From San Diego they hand harpoon swordfish (Their specialty) and bring the best seafood of the pacific coast for us to enjoy.

The new location in North Scottsdale at Greyhawk has the most seating of the Arizona locations. They have a large patio and lots of indoor seating and bar seating.

You order at the counter.

The counter

If you are dining in then you get a number and seat yourself.

bar and main dining area

They seem to offer less fresh seafood than from the two other Arizona locations. This was the fresh seafood offered today at Greyhawk.

Today we shared the hatch chile tuna melt (spiced Oaxaca cheese, hatch chile, Noble bread and chimichurri) with an upgraded side of Caesar salad.

and the tuna confit sandwich (albacore confit, greens, house made giardinia, smoked paprika aioli, avocado on toasted Noble bread with an upgraded side of potato macaroni.

We both like the taste of the tuna confit sandwich more than the tuna melt today. It just taste better…….more clean tasting and delicious today. Here’s what this sandwich looked liked from the Phoenix location.

confit tuna sandwich with side salad

Here’s what the tuna confit sandwich looked like from the uptown Phoenix location.

tuna confit sandwich with Moroccan Carrot salad

Below are a few plates from other Chula Seafood Restaurants that we’ve tried so you can get an idea of what kinds of food you might be able to try (not all but most are specials).

Fish sandwich with potato macaroni salad
Friday Hawaiian Lunch Plate Special
oysters
locally made bagel with cream cheese and house smoked lox
in house smoked fish plate
okonomiyaki fries special
bulgogi tuna burger – special
kale salad with salmon
to go – halibut collar for two special
to go – hatch chili tuna melt, chopped salad with salmon, spam macaroni salad
to go – bbq fish collar special

Chula Seafood Greyhawk Scottsdale AZ – Newly Opened

20581 N Hayden RD Scottsdale AZ

480-597-9125

www.ChulaSeafood.com

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

A Taste of Chilli King Chinese Food Glendale AZ – Very Flavorful and Ultra Spicy -Not the best Take Out Service but the Food is Worth a Fork!

Chilli King Chinese Food is located in Glendale Arizona not too far from Old Town Glendale. They offer American Chinese Foods, Hot Pots, some other dishes that you don’t find everywhere like scrambled eggs with tomato and Yangzhou fried rice (shrimp, sausage, pork, eggs, peas, carrots, scallions). The foods we tried so far were all flavorful. They also offer the ultra spicy foods. Portions are large and prices are low………The only downside is that service is usually poor when you do take out. They have their young son run the restaurant. He does a good job at taking orders and payments but there are issues with take out. …..Usually you need to wait about 40 minutes for your order to be done even if you prepay your order. They don’t start making your order until you show up. We waited around 45 minutes every time we did take out. My husband tried to speak to an adult about this but couldn’t because of the language barrier with the chef. On our first visit the boy’s mother helped with service. This restaurant is mainly open for take out. They do have four small tables inside that you can dine at if you wish. Soft beverages are offered here.

They offer the usual appetizers like –

spring rolls

crispy chicken dumplings.

On the menu they offer-

Szechuan beef (tender beef flavorful and spicy)

spicy chicken (tender chicken, very flavorful….this one was REALLY very hot spicy…this was one of the Ultra Spicies)

coconut curry chicken with steamed vegetables (flavorful and tender chicken)

sautéed vegetables with chicken

They offer sides such as chow mien, fried rice, steamed rice, and steamed vegetables

Above are chow mien and fried rice

This dish is very different to us….

shredded potatoes in red spicy oil….

They are kind of funky and spicy…………..texture is weird ……maybe slightly raw………really different…not sure if I like or not?…………too different for me.

Now for more Ultra Spicy!

MY favorite dish here (so far) is next.

Spicy boil chicken with greens and sprouts….The chicken is so tender and moist and this spicy (really good spicy with Szechuan peppercorns is magically delicious)

Here’s the what they call instant boil hot pot (they say it’s an authentic Chinese Soup)

sausage (we think they are hot dogs?), beef, chicken, potato, tofu, cabbage, mushrooms, steamed rice) Spicy and flavorful. Proteins are very moist and tender.

Oh and did I mention that portions run extra large?

The food is very good and a good value…Service….well ….usually isn’t the best.

Still Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.ChilliKing.US

4721 W Olive Ave Glendale AZ

623-440-1900

Call for hours as they change often.

Everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth