Ono Hawaiian BBQ is a Californian chain of casual Hawaiian restaurants with around three locations in Phoenix Arizona. The popular entree at Hawaiian BBQ restaurants is called the Hawaiian Plate Lunch. Maybe you are not familiar with the Hawaiian plate lunch? The Hawaiian plate lunch is usually a large Styrofoam container filled with two scoops of steamed rice, a scoop of creamy macaroni salad, some steamed vegetables and a generous serving of a protein or two. I finally tried the newer Ono Hawaiian BBQ Glendale Arizona location.
It’s casual. You order and pay at the counter.
insideinside
Seat yourself.
Our name was called and we picked it up.
Here’s the white fish and BBQ chicken.
whitefish and BBQ chicken
Two scoops of steamed white rice, macaroni salad that is on the dry side today. The fish is very greasy…and taste like grease. The chicken really is nicely caramelized and is tender……It’s also a very generous portion but it taste like soy sauce. Under the fish and chicken is mostly what they call steamed cabbage and some broccoli. I tried to eat the cabbage but it is very oily and too tough to cut with a plastic knife. The broccoli drips with oil but is next to raw. I can’t eat the vegetables or much of this.
Here’s the BBQ Combo (short rib, BBQ chicken, BBQ beef)
BBQ Combo
All the beef is tender but oddly leathery…….And it all taste like soy sauce. Vegetables, macaroni salad, and rice are same as above.
Ono in Hawaiian usually means good or delicious…….Tonight Ono at the Glendale AZ location means Oh No!
Bigs is an American Casual Comfort Food and Sports Bar kind of place with two locations. The original location is in California and the one I went to is in Peoria Arizona. It’s in the entertainment and sports area called P83.
It’s a sports bar so there are a lot of big screen TVs inside and a lot of high top community tables.
inside on a non-sports day
We sat at one of the few traditional tables on the patio.
We started out by sharing the mac ‘n’ cheese balls.
mac ‘n’ cheese balls
They are deep fried panko coated white truffle mac ‘n’ cheese that sit in what they call Asian zing and chipotle ranch. The balls are fried very nicely and don’t seem greasy at all. The inside is strange.
inside
They are made with chopped up pasta. The strangest part is that they don’t even taste like cheese. To me they taste more of butter than cheese. They aren’t terrible but don’t taste like what I was expecting. Neither of us cared for the Asian zing sauce. I thought the chipotle sort of overpowered everything in the ball but it was ok that way.
For my main I had the seared ahi quinoa salad.
seared ahi quinoa salad
It’s a very large salad with mixed very fluffy greens, thin slices of avocado, crispy cucumber, tomatoes, little bits of quinoa, cajun seared ahi tuna, and honey ginger vinaigrette. Everything seems fresh! It all taste good. But there are so many greens…enough for two big salads.
My husband tried the chili verde plate.
chili verde plate
It’s a big bowl of slow cooked pork in tomatillo sauce with neutral rice, refried beans, and tortillas. It’s different…..There is a lot of pork that is cooked nicely. The tomatillo sauce is good but kind of plain…..They do have a variety of condiments that can be added. The tortillas were nicely heated but we received flour instead of the corn tortillas ordered.
PT Pho Express is a casual Vietnamese local chain of restaurants in Metro Phoenix Arizona. They offer most of your Vietnamese favorites…..The offer appetizers like spring rolls, crispy egg rolls, and wings. They also offer a chicken salad, sandwiches, a Vietnamese burrito, 8 varieties of noodle soup called Pho, noodle bowls called bun, stir fry noodle dishes, plenty of rice dishes, teriyaki, curry, orange chicken and more. They offer many of your usual beverages and they also offer Vietnamese coffee, mint lemonade, and smoothies. They offer macarons for dessert.
It’s casual inside. You get partial wait service. They take your order. They run out your food and beverages. When you are done you walk up to the counter and pay.
inside
We started out with chicken spring rolls.
Vietnamese Spring Rolls
They are larger than others I’ve had and do have a nice dramatic presentation. They seem free of herbs. Chickens is tender in them. The sauce is a slightly flat.
Tried the PT Chicken Curry.
The sauce is good. I get fresh lemongrass, and fresh ginger, I added one slice of jalapeño and it is also pretty hot. The chicken in it is tender but it taste undeveloped with flavors. They were very generous with the carrots and potatoes in this dish. Some people might make two meals out of this.
My husband tried the Hot & Spicy Bun Bo Hue.
It’s a slightly spicy beef/pork broth with rice noodles and sliced beef. It also is a very large portion.
Worth a Try!
That was my visit to PT Pho Express in Glendale AZ – Newly Opened
Mochilero Kitchen is a full service Mexican Restaurant located in Peoria Arizona. The menus and hours do change from time to time. On the current menu (Nov. 2022) Some of the appetizers they offer are – Brussels sprouts with apple cider gastrique and creamy guajillo-peanut sauce, guacamole with plantain chips, and papas pequenas with ancho Chile butter. TEN kinds of tacos are on the menu. They also offer salads, enchiladas, bowls, burritos, tortas, a kids menu and some of the dinner plates are bone in rib eyes with shrimp, pork chops, and scallops. Saturday and Sunday brunch is offered 9am-2.
They offer some patio dining for when the weather is nice.
patio
They also have indoor dining and seating at the bar.
insideinside
One night we shared an appetizer of esquites.
esquites
Fresh almost still crispy corn kernels, crema, cotija cheese, a small amount of guajillo pepper, and lime.
On another night we tried a half order of the papas pequenas.
half order papas pequenas
They are small fancy potatoes that were tossed in ancho chile butter, cotija cheese, and fresh cilantro.
For dinner I tried the red snapper zarandeado.
red snapper zarandeado
It came with a nicely grilled lemon, SIX blue corn tortillas, a vegetable medley of squash, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. The fish was grilled with a mild chile laced tomato based sauce. The fish was prepared reasonably well and it was tasty.
My husband tried a taco platter with one extra added on taco.
taco platter with an extra taco
He tried carne asada, barbacoa, carnitas, and shrimp tacos with rice and refried beans. They were all flavorful and good.
On another visit my husband tried another taco plate with another added on taco.
taco plate
He tried chicken tinga, barbacoa (he forgot he already tried it), mushroom and
fish taco
All the tacos were at least good but the favorite of this bunch was the mushroom taco because of the delicious salsa matcha followed by the fish taco.
When they first opened during the pandemic we did take out here.
take out chips and salsa, chicken pibil bowl, short rib bowl, papa bravo taco
Honestly I really enjoyed the potato taco but we weren’t thrilled with the bowls so we didn’t go back for a long time.
On my most recent visit I tried a bowl again….This time the roasted vegetable and avocado bowl with added fish.
roasted vegetable bowl with added fish
Its description is beans, corn, romaine, cilantro lime rice, and cotija cheese. I did also get sweet potato and pico. It’s a very generous plate. It can be two meals for some people. This is good but would be very good with an added sauce or salsa…..The fish is plain and the lettuce is without dressing.
That was a little taste of Mochilero Kitchen Peoria AZ.
The Rec Pizza & Detroit Eats Offers Detroit Style Pizzas, other eats, canned adult drinks, and more now. This restaurant has gone threw a lot of changes in the past few years with recipes and ownership. The new owners are from Michigan and lets see what they are offering now.
They got rid of the outdoor tables. Inside still has Detroit memorabilia but it does look different and they have some large screen TVS playing sports and have added a few arcade games.
Order and pay here
Some of the appetizers that they offer are tempura pickles, fried dough balls stuffed with mozzarella cheese, wings, and chili. They also offer something like slider burgers called slim shadys. They offer Coney dogs, salads, and of course PIZZAS.
Slim Shaddys……Pickles are very good but the burgers are kinda dried out today
Besides offering a variety of sizes pizzas …..personal, medium, and large….in cheese or meat and cheese varieties.
They also offer cauliflower crust and vegan options.
I went for the plain personal sized pizza.
It really is a nice personal size. I didn’t have a ruler on me but it might be less than a 6 across and long. It has nice crispy cheese edges. A rich tomato oregano laced sauce, and a good quality melty cheese.
But it’s a soft fluffy dough.
Here’s the same pizza but with pepperoni and sausage.
That was a little taste of The Rec Pizza and Detroit Eats in Peoria AZ.
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.
Fabio at workinside
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…
ciabatta puglese
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.
bufalina pizza
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!
butternut squash ravioli
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.
wood roasted lamb
The most delicious desserts and BEST gelato can be found here.
The baked goods do change up now and then.
strawberry rum cake
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!
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.
The FANTABULOUS Dish means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen, and dynamite! WOW what a great surprise . You just don’t always know when a FANTABULOUS dish will show up. This salad just blew both of us away. It’s only named Arugula salad. I picked it to share as an appetizer instead of chips because it sounded lighter and healthy. I wasn’t expecting jaw dropping fireworks of flavors……
The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar in Peoria AZ
This salad is made of avocado, watermelon, red onion (pickled), pico, toasted pepitas, cotija cheese, and this MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette.
I need to mention as astonishingly delicious as this salad is ………I must mention that it is spicy HOT. Borderline too hot for me but it was so DAM delicious I had to keep eating it. You get sweet from the watermelon, creamy from the avocado, hot and delicious from the MAGICAL chili-lime vinaigrette, Umami from the cheese, yummy from the pepitas and the right amount of bitter from the arugula. It’s far more delicious than I can describe. You can also add on protein to this dish if desired.
The Arugula Salad from REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar is an official FANTABULOUS DISH and is WORTH A FORK!
REVOLU Modern Taqueria & Bar
15703 N 83rd Ave Peoria AZ (a second location is in Phoenix)
Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi Restaurant is located in the P83 area of North Peoria that is near to the Peoria Sports Complex. This area is also known as the UpperWestSide in Metro Phoenix Arizona. Everything that Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi restaurant serves is never from frozen. They also offer a full bar, thirty two taps and lots of big screen TVS for watching sports. As for food they offer lots of starters, wings, burgers, pizzas, salads, sandwiches, big plates, sushi, sushi rolls and some fun sushi fusion like the FORKING TASTY Sushi Burger. FORKING Tasty just means FORKING Tasty. It’s unusually good tasting. Recently I had a high quality fish sandwich from somewhere and it didn’t taste nearly as tasty as this Sushi Burger from Headquarters.
The FORKING TASTY Sushi Burger
The FORKING Tasty Sushi Burger is made of really (FORKING) tasty fried rice patties, spicy tuna, shredded krab (faux crab…usually does not contain crab and is usually made from lower costing pollock fish), soft greens, cucumber, avocado, eel sauce (sweetened soy based sauce), and spicy mayo. Somehow this combination is unusually FORKING TASTY. A little dab of of that thick neon green wasabi paste and it’s even a little MORE FORKING Tasty.
The Sushi Burger from Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi Restaurant in Peoria AZ is FORKING Tasty!
