Ocotillo is a Compound that looks like it takes up an acre and consist of a coffee shop,

an outdoor bar with all kinds of outdoor seating

and multiple patios (also another larger patio that spills out of the inside dining room that I didn’t photo) and a big sleek modern light and airy restaurant with comfortable seating. The menu is very varied but is Modern American that changes with the season with International Accents. Ocotillo offers breakfast items, detailed salads, small (but not so small) plates, hot plates cold plates big plates. Interesting vegetable plates, sandwich plates, house made pastas, A selection of roasted chicken plates and much more! From what I tried the food seems to be quality casual detailed food at reasonable prices.

I’ve been at Ocotillo a few times and this is what I tried so far…..

A well thought out detailed Spinach Salad with Smoked Salmon. The salmon was rich and buttery. Everything tasted perfect together. The eggs were prepared medium and weren’t chalky. Fresh herbs were used and brightened everything up and crisp capers added that perfect crunch.

The Mole Chicken Salad. Also delicious but far more substantial than the Spinach Salad. If I only ate the spinach salad with smoked salmon I’d still be hungry. I ate around 1/3rd of the chicken mole salad and was almost full. I’d be willing to put it out there that if you don’t like mole or never had mole you will still enjoy this salad for a few reasons. The chicken in all the dishes I tried from Ocotillo are exceptional. Very good quality chicken that’s prepared to perfection that happens to be delicious. The chicken is only lightly kissed with mole. You have just enough to taste it but it’s not blanketed with mole. Everything in the salad is very good from the heirloom cherry tomatoes to the fresh marinated avocado. The pepitas are also roasted and are bursting with flavor.

On the small plate menu are Japanese Fish and Chips.

The plate is not so small. Big Sweet Pieces of Panko Covered Cod that are served with Seaweed and Sea salt Seasoned Fries. The fish was so mild and sweet I didn’t even think this could be cod. Fries with just a light touch of seaweed were tasty too. Everything seemed like it was oil free.

The Tandoori Style Chicken Sandwich is delicious. Besides many exotic spices it has this red lentil hummus kind of spread on it that elevates the already delicious charred chicken in it. This sandwich was very layered in textures and flavors. Crispy slightly bitter greens the charred in a good way moist flavorful chicken with tomatoes that added sweetness and cut threw the richness of the lentil hummus. I had my choice of fries or the side dish of the day, the watermelon and tomato salad with mild chiles. It was light and not spicy but interesting. The light bread seemed like it was fresh made and didn’t get soggy even two days latter when I ate the other half. I thought this was a real bargain for only $9.00.

My husband had the Grilled Steak Sandwich but I tasted a small piece of the steak.

The Steak was tender,  moist and flavorful. The tabasco horseradish cream on the side was amazing. It was suppose to be served spread on the sandwich but my husband wanted it on the side.

So far I only tried one of the roasted Chicken dishes.

It was the Thai Style Roasted Chicken. The Chicken was moist and developed with flavors and had a delicious red curry style sauce on it. I thought this was a large portion and this was shared the day I ate it.

Can’t wait to go back and try more.

Everything I tried was delicious so far. Unfortunately I didn’t have have room to try a dessert here yet.  I thought the prices were reasonable. Atmosphere is attractive and comfortable.

For me service was like from most restaurants.

On my first visit service wasn’t so great because the hostess sat me at a table that was being used as a bus-stand. On my fist visit the server I had knew little about the food and didn’t pace our plates. Perhaps that was just opening growing pains and the bugs were worked out because on my next visit the service was greatly improved. This server could answer questions about the food and we were checked on and served in a timely manner.

Between the menu and atmosphere you might want to come here if you are from out of town for a solid good casual detailed meal that isn’t too expensive.  If you live here you might want to travel across town for a  very nice meal out.

Ocotillo is Worth A Fork!

Worth a Fork….. You might Travel across Town to Dine Here

The Forking Truth

New Asian Kitchen is a small Chinese Restaurant located in an older strip mall in Phoenix AZ. For my taste this is the forking BEST small independent Chinese Restaurant in a several mile radius of it’s kind. They offer a variety of Mostly American Chinese Favorites, Cantonese Style, Mandarin Style, Szechwan Style and Mongolian Style dishes.

I haven’t found any of the other nearby Chinese Restaurants offering foods packed with so many fresh vegetables. Or food layered with so many flavors. I’ve been coming here for years and the chicken 100% of the time is always tasty and moist. I usually eat only chicken but I also note anytime we had a meat other than chicken it was also prepared well.

The majority of Chinese Take Out Restaurant do not have the Cantonese Dry Sautéed Beef Chow Fun on their menu. That is because that dish is considered a major test for Cantonese Cooks for their cooking. I’m NOT a big fan of beef personally but I do enjoy the Cantonese Dry Sautéed Beef Chow Fun from New Asian Kitchen. It is FORKING delicious and made with melt in your mouth buttery beef that’s very tasty. It’s among the best beef dishes I had at any Chinese Restaurant.

Dry Sautéed Beef Chow Fun

I don’t have a good photo of the Curry Chicken but it’s the only Curry Chicken that taste like what I was told was authentic Chicken Curry when I vacationed in Hawaii. In Hawaii I went on a food tour and an Asian Person made a point of having us taste Chicken Curry. She told us that this is what authentic Chinese Chicken curry should taste like and New Asian’s is just like it.

The killer dish that New Asian Prepares is the Szechuan Chicken.

Szechuan Chicken

You’re not not going to find anyone anywhere that prepares this dish this way but this dish is absolutely amazing. It’s a flavor BOMB! Not for wimps or little ones. The sauce is spicy and layered with many flavors. You also get a variety of many fresh vegetables of different textures and flavors that turn into magic in your mouth. It’s just a treat!

Some dishes do shine more than others but I never had a bad dish here.

Spicy Pineapple Chicken

The spicy pineapple Chicken is a very large portion and can feed three people. The white meat chicken is flavorful and moist. I really liked the fresh pineapple in this dish. The sauce was more savory than sweet with lots of pleasing flavors and it’s spicy. I would have liked the chicken a little more crispy  like they prepare it back east but the sauce was so yummy I don’t care. This dish seems like a grown up more sophisticated version of the American Favorite orange chicken.

A few of the other dishes we had at New Asian Kitchen were………

Kung Pao Delight

You Shan Pork

Bean Curd with Vegetables

General Tso’s Chicken

General Tso’s Chicken is spicier and not as sweet as from most places.

Kung Pao Vegetables

Mushroom Chicken

Not spicy but very mushroomy. Not as layered in flavors but still very tasty.

Moo Goo Gai Pan

Tastiest Moo Goo Gai Pan I ever had!

House Wor Wonton Soup

The Chicken Corn Soup is also really delicious don’t have a photo here.

Yui Shan Chicken

I often get the Yui Shan Eggplant. It’s just a really delicious eggplant dish. I just wish it had a tofu or chicken option.

The Szechuan Chicken is just so forking good I have to mention it again. It’s their “Killer Dish.” It might be worth taking a drive for……..It’s very unique….didn’t seem like authentic Szechwan but way more delicious than than any other Szechuan American Style chicken I had before.

The service is always fantastic. Portions are very large and prices are very low. It’s not a fancy place but it seems clean.

Your not going to drive across town to dine here but if your in the neighborhood this place is suggested.

Worth a Fork

For more information visit www.NewAsianKitchen.com

The Forking Truth

The Chicken and Asparagus Salad from Angelina’s Pho & Grill Glendale AZ

This is a small sleek and modern Asian Restaurant located in a strip mall with an outdoor patio. It’s hard to do a review on this restaurant because they make changes to the menu often.

Angelina’s opened up a few years back as a Vietnamese Restaurant. In the opening weeks they had some problems with service and Pho dishes weren’t being served with the correct condiments possibly due to service and management.

Angelina’s has come a long LONG way since then. At this time you can still get a variety of Pho, Pho like dishes, Thai Style Curries, Stir Fries, Beef Tenderloins, Salmon Consommé, weekend sushi, a bar and much much more.

I think one of the tastiest meals I had in all of Glendale recently was the Chicken and Asparagus Salad from Angelina’s. The dark meat Chicken was moist, infused with flavors and brushed with an exotic sauce. The salad was made with fresh crisp vegetables, grilled asparagus and crisp noodles. I think the clear sauce was fish sauce to use as a dip for the chicken but I never tasted fish sauce that was so layered with flavors before. The white sauce for the salad was also mysteriously delicious. I forking don’t know what it was but it was so good they should sell it. This salad is one of the most delicious dishes you can find in Glendale. I know a salad like this would cost $12-$14. in Scottsdale. I hope the menu isn’t a misprint because Angelina’s was only charging $7.09 for this great salad. I note I would still be happy with this salad if it cost more.

Luc Lac Beef

The Luc Lac Beef is flavorful moist and tender beef tenderloin. It was delicious and at the time was priced at $15.00. This dish was delicious, I think anyone would forking like this dish.

Green Curry Chicken

The Green Curry Chicken was made with tender chicken and a whole bushel of vegetables in an aromatic spicy sauce.

Yellowtail Sashimi

Angelina’s offers Thursday-Sunday Yumi Sushi. It’s among the best and freshest sushi you can find in Glendale as it never get old and forking gross.

Yumi Signature Roll

I don’t know of any other Asian Restaurant that serves an Asian Salmon Consommé.

Salmon Consommé with fresh dill

This dish I had a while back but I still remember how fresh the salmon tasted and it just melted in my mouth. This dish was very fragrant and unique. It was like an inspiration of Vietnamese, Thai and French all in one.

Hot and Spicy

My husband had this one. It was something like Pho but with a twist and was spicy. My husband almost always orders the Pho and pho like dishes here because it’s his favorite from the Vietnamese Restaurants we tried. It’s never watery and seasoned so well you don’t really have to add the sauces to the pho to get the right taste. I’ve had beef pho here it a long time back from here and all I remember is that it was a more intense of a beef flavor than other pho’s I tried. It seemed richer and the beef was tastier.

Yellow Curry Chicken

This might have been the best Yellow Curry I ever had. I still remember that it was very infused with Thai Basil and the chicken here is excellent. This dish also had an unusually large varied amount of vegetables in it including cauliflower, green beans, bok choy, and several other vegetables.

Rare Beef and Brisket Pho

Tasty fresh beef in a rich aromatic beef broth.

Chicken Pho

The Chicken is always good in any dish you pick at Angelina’s. I’ve had Chicken Pho at other Vietnamese Restaurants in the area and none of them were close to as good as the way Angelina’s makes it. It wasn’t lacking in chicken taste and the chicken in the bowl was moist and flavorful and an extra generous portion.

I’e been going to Angelina’s for years. The food has always been good. They always offer dishes you won’t find at other Vietnamese Restaurants like the La Vong Style Alaskan Cod in Turmeric and fresh dill, the menu is always changing, pricing is reasonable (I don’t think anything is over $15.00). The atmosphere is stylish and modern.Patio seating is available. I do note service is usually good but a few times it was a miss just like most restaurants.

Angelina’s Pho & Grill       5350 West Bell Rd Glendale AZ

Worth a Fork! You might not drive across town to dine here but if your in the area this is a very good choice.

“This place is Forking good”

“This place is Pho-nominal”

The Forking Truth