Category Archives: Forking Restaurant Reviews

Honest unbiased reviews based on actual experiences

Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale AZ – Worth A Fork*****Now Ginny’s Same Owners New Menu

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Twist Bistro and Gallery is a restaurant and art gallery located in north Scottsdale Arizona. They opened during the pandemic around May of 2020. Twist Bistro and Gallery offers a seasonal menu of modern detailed foods that swing towards Mediterranean cuisine. This restaurant is a husband and wife team. The husband is the chef and the wife runs the front of the house and did all the beautiful artwork on the walls that are also offered for sale.

To the left is a long bar with bar stools

Today we sat on the patio and they started us off with a generous serving of these delicious fresh warm complimentary feta and dill studded muffins with scallion honey butter. (YUM! these are really great!)

My husband tried one of the special crostini.

It was made with that special luxury Iberico ham from special black footed pigs that eat mostly acorns from either Spain or Portugal. This kind of pork is more marbled and red than regular pork. There was also melty brie cheese and blackberry mostarda on the toast.

Then we shared the farm to table salad that they were offering today.

This salad had all kinds of things in it tied together with some sort of lavender vinaigrette. There was grilled squash, arugula, radicchio, almonds, cheese, cranberries, and apples. It sure was unique and different!

I tried the chef’s fish special.

It was broiled wild caught mild fresh tasting lemon sole in a basil white wine broth with house made pasta and topped with fennel salad.

My husband tried the Sonoran Paella Verde.

It was a very detailed dish that was packed with grilled Main scallops, gulf shrimp, chicken, chorizo, crusty – green chili tomatillo rice, pumpkin seeds, hominy and tortilla hay. My husband kept saying that this was really REALLY good!

Since I wasn’t doing take out I didn’t have to worry about my dessert melting. We tried the light refreshing lemon sorbet.

I was surprised that it was topped with mixed berry jam. I am surprised again…This lemon sorbet taste just like Rosati Italian water ice to me. I haven’t had this since I left Pennsylvania. That water ice is everywhere there. Haven’t tasted water ice like this in a long time.

Here are some of the other foods we tried from Twist Bistro and Gallery.

black truffle ricotta mushroom crepe

loch Duart salmon – black rice, vegetables, tomato salad, pistou sauce

shrimp and sausage diablo – vegetables, cheesy polenta

beignets

everything flatbread with house made lox, wild boar meatballs with gnocchi, chicken and dumplings with goat cheese and blackberry mostarda, strawberry rhubarb cobbler and muffins

falafels, steak sandwich pallard, a very detailed Mediterranean salad with added salmon and mascarpone cheese cake

southern breaded shawarma kabobs with minted cucumbers, olives, jalapeƱos and preserved lemon basil syrup, loch duart salmon, shrimp and sausage diablo, muffins mascarpone cheese cake

Moroccan festival soup, grilled Hawaiian opah special, steak sandwich.

Everything from every visit was delicious!
*****TWIST BISTRO IS NO MORE******SAME OWNERS TURNED THIS INTO GINNY”S WITH A NEW MENU

Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale is Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.Twist-Bistro.com

Every THING is subject to change and your experience can possibly differ.

The Forking Truth

Confluence Restaurant Carefree AZ – Always Worth a Fork

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Confluence is a small but upscale restaurant ran by a husband and wife team in Carefree Arizona that is just north of North Scottsdale. The food that is served is high quality modern American Cuisine. The changing seasonal menu usually contains a few hot and cold appetizers, a few fresh fish options, a few meat options and a few desserts. Tasting options are also available. Currently Confluence offers lunch and dinner every day but is closed on Sundays.

Today we sat on the patio. It’s around five degrees cooler in Carefree than Phoenix. Tonight it is almost too cold to dine on the patio but with the fireplace and a heater it’s very comfortable.

Everyone else is dining inside.

We started out with thick slices of the most delicious fresh baked country bread with high quality olive oil and the very detailed white wine poached sea trout.

The flavors all go together well and the fish is prepared to perfection. The flavors dance a bit in your mouth. Sweetness from a little apricot. Pickled shallots cut the fat and sweet. Key lime poppy vinaigrette ties everything together.

For my main I went with the hamachi. The fish dishes are maybe the best fish dishes in all of metro Phoenix. All of them are expertly prepared and are surrounded by interesting and surprising flavors.

The mild white fish is meaty but very tender and melts in your mouth. It has a nicely seasoned exterior that is crisp. The magic here is the way the flavors go together. These blacked figs are really heavenly. They are seared with crispy exteriors and go insanely well with the black garlic and labne. The broccolini is the crunchy neutral player here. Enjoying this plate is like a gift. Now I know that figs, black garlic and labne is a magical combination. I can even imagine these flavors as a not too sweet dessert!

My husband went with the Iberico Puma.

Iberico pork is very special. It comes from free range pigs from southern Spain and Portugal. The pigs eat mostly acorns and their meat is very different than from regular pigs. Iberico pork looks more like beef with the red color and marbling. It’s a more juicy pork with a unique flavor enhanced from acorns. Here it was accented with sweet potato, blue corn – corn bread, green chili, pepitas, and cipolllini onion.

It would be a big mistake to skip dessert here. The desserts are usually just as spectacular as the food.

Tonight we enjoyed sake poached pear with angel cake, candied pecans and yuzu curd. This is just wickedly amazing. That yuzu curd is a bomb that goes crazy well with the soft as a feather angel cake and sake poached pears. The candied pecans add that yummy sweet nutty salty just right crunch to complete all that taste sensations.

Confluence in Carefree AZ is Always Worth a Fork!

Worth A Fork!

www.RestaurantConnfluence.com

Everything is subject to change and your experience could differ.

The Forking Truth

Taco Tasting at Tacos Calafia in Peoria AZ

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The only sign with the Tacos Calafia name of the restaurant is on the back of the restaurant. Tacos Calafia is a casual restaurant that serves what they call street size tacos of five varieties, quesadillas, mulitas, vampiros, burritos and taco nachos.

According to The Arizona Republic they say that Phoenix Magazine awarded Tacos Calafia as the BEST tacos in Phoenix. The Phoenix New Times wrote that it is worth driving from all corners of the valley to taste Tacos Calafia Tacos. On The Phoenix New Times this restaurant is mentioned often as a BEST so since I’m a foodie I wanted to try it for myself. I am very picky about tacos. Most I taste are not my favorite. I’ve been to Mexico a number of times. I don’t claim to be an expert on tacos but I ate many tacos in the streets of Mexico. I thought most tacos that I tasted in Mexico were more delicious than the majority of tacos I try here in metro Phoenix. They were more developed with flavors. Most tasted very slow cooked. They all had a special freshness to them as well. That is why (not all) but most tacos here are not as good and I’ve also tried tacos from many taco festivals. Well I’m giving Tacos Calafia a try today.

I see they have a patio so I will eat outside today.

Here’s the menu.

According to the Phoenix New Times Tacos Calafia was a BEST NEW Restaurant in 2017. Also according to Eater Tacos Calafia is one of the 11 Hottest restaurants in Phoenix.

It’s very casual inside. You order at the counter, pay and pick up at the window. Then you make a trip to the taco bar and load your tacos up.

Here’s the taco bar.

We wore gloves to use the taco bar.

Our tacos came out like this. They are generously stuffed with meat.

pastor, cabeza, cabeza on corn tortillas
chicken on corn tortillas and carne asada on flour tortillas

Then I made them look nicer with the taco bar and we tried a variety of salsas.

The first taco I try is the grilled chicken.

I add lime to all the tacos. The green and red salsas are a very thin consistency ……almost like water. The green salsa has a nicer flavor than the red so I try a little of that and a little bit of guacamole cream on the chicken taco. …………It’s ok and not bad. The tortilla is not as flavorful as others I’ve tried. The chicken is very average. It’s not bad because it is tender but it doesn’t have a lot of flavor or char taste to it. It taste like plain grilled chicken.

Next I try the carne asada. The meat is tender but also lacks any flavor and even a char taste. I use a small amount of the spicy smoky thick sauce on this one to give it some flavor. Flour tortilla is average. Don’t take what I say the wrong way…..This is not bad taco…I’ve had much worst……..but it’s not up there for me.

My husband eats one more tacos than me and tries the pastor. He said it was different but I couldn’t get him to explain to me why it’s different. he said it was ok….he thought good but he said it was like the asada…not so flavorful.

The last taco I try was the cabeza (pulled beef cheek) This one is much different from all the other tacos. This taco is very good. …..(finally)….The meat is infused with a good slow cooked beefy flavor. I’m not a beef person but this is the best and most flavorful of the tacos that I tried today. My husband agrees with me.

Well that is how the tacos from Tacos Calafia were today. I imagine that it is possible that when the Phoenix New Times, Phoenix Magazine and Eater were here they made some of the tacos different. Did they changed their recipes since???????….. Or maybe it’s just someone different cooking today?

That was my trip to Tacos Calafia in Peoria.

www.TacosCalafia.com

Every THING is subject to change and your experience may indeed differ.

The Forking Truth

My Brunch at The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen in North Scottsdale AZ

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The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen is an American Restaurant and distillery in North Scottsdale AZ. If you were a fan of the fine dining Italian restaurant Sassi then you might be a fan of this restaurant because the same chef is here now. This restaurant offers a big dog friendly patio that wraps around the restaurant.

They also have garage door style windows that add even more patio space during nice weather days.

Inside is open, modern and airy.

Another dining area and the distillery is on the other side.

On my last visit we did take out but I thought if I got here early that the patio would be quiet.

Two weeks back I got to order from the all day menu but they now serve brunch on the weekends.

From my take out last time I did try the AZ Hot Chicken Lollipops over blue cheese slaw. They were tender and tasty but not really hot. We also tried the wagyu pastrami sandwich and the hammer and anvil porchetta sandwich.

I asked the waitress about the fried AZ hot chicken biscuit sandwich and she said it was the same heat as the lollipops. I prefer more heat when I eat something hot so I ordered something else. I left my normal comfort zone (chicken and fish) and decided to try the Distillers porcini crusted burger with a side salad slightly special ordered. I LOVE cheese but I think cheese makes my burgers too salty so I asked for the cheese on the side so I could put it on my salad.

The burger is large and is a blend of brisket and short rib. It is topped with caramelized onion, arugula and garlic aioli and a soft fresh brioche bun. The mushroom rub gives the burger a unique taste. I like that they prepared my burger to a perfect medium like I asked for. The side salad is especially good. Everything taste very farm fresh…..

My husband tried the short rib hash.

The eggs didn’t come seasoned so my husband had to ask for salt and pepper. The short ribs in it are fatty and succulent.

This spacious restaurant is almost empty-

and suddenly three tables walk in and the hostess clusters them all around us……

That was our brunch at The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen.

www.TheCraftsmanAZ.com

Every THING is subject to change and your experience may indeed differ.

The Forking Truth

Just a Little Taste of The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen in North Scottsdale AZ

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Here is just a little taste of the newly opened The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen in North Scottsdale. By the time you go there a permanent new sign might be on the building. They offer lots of patio dining that wraps around the building. There are also windows on garage type doors that open up to extend the patio.

The inside is bright, airy, rich and modern.

To the left of the entrance is an in-house distillery and also another dining area.

To the right is the main area of the restaurant.

The menu offers many interesting sounding things to try. The menu is mostly American. The chef is from the fine dining Italian restaurant that used to be located in North Scottsdale called Sassi.

For our first visit we did some take out.

We started out by sharing (top left) a small order of lollipop wings over blue cheese slaw. They were manicured very nicely and were tasty and tender. They were not too tangy or too hot so most people would like them. The slaw seemed fresh made and liked getting the big chunks of blue cheese every now and then.

For my main I tried the wagyu pastrami on pretzel bun with a side salad.

The pastrami is flavored very nicely. The pretzel bun is also very good and is toasted to perfection. I got some crunchy fresh slaw on the side. But the roll It’s just too large for my taste so I eat the sandwich on just the smaller bottom part of the bun and I still have a good amount of bread. They forgot to give me the caraway mustard that it is suppose to come with so I don’t know how that would be. I do have to say that the side salad was very above average for a side salad. All the vegetables tasted unusually fresh and flavorful. Even the carrots didn’t taste like supermarket carrots and I like the flavorful house dressing too.

My husband tried the hammer and anvil porchetta sandwich on ciabatta with house potato chips.

He got a sandwich packed with pork shoulder, Craftsman sausage, rapini, cheddar, and for him herb aioli on the side. Perhaps from the car ride home the porchetta got sort of dry……But need to mention that the sausage, rapini, herb aioli and cheese were exceptionally good. The potato chips were also very good. Nice and thin and seemed free of oil.

That was just a little taste of The Craftsman Cocktails and Kitchen in North Scottsdale.

www.TheCraftsmanAZ.com

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

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of JalapeƱo Inferno (N. Peoria) Just Biryani (N. Phoenix) in North Phoenix AZ

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Two weeks in a row I got to visit two brand new restaurants in North Phoenix. Last week I got to try out JalapeƱo Inferno in Peoria at Park West. It is a Sonoran Style Mexican restaurant with a few outside patios and a beautiful bright modern decor and lots of outside patio seating on multiple patios.

This time I did take out.

We started out with chips and salsas.

Their red salsa is extra mild and is only mildly seasoned. The jalapeƱo inferno sauce (green $3.00 extra) is so hot that you can’t eat it. It does have good flavors to it but as someone who likes hot food I can only use a drop of it on my food.

For my main I went with the naked poblano.

I thought the poblano would be stuffed but it is on the side of cubed chicken breast, corn and black beans in a creamy corn sauce that was sprinkled with pomegranate. It’s tasty and doesn’t seem too heavy. A little fresh cilantro and scallions would go a long way here….but it’s still good.

My husband went with a combo plate.

He got a tamale, a burrito and a chili relleno with rice and beans. He was happy with it and said that everything was tasty.

That was what we tried from JalapeƱo Inferno in Peoria at Park West.

www.JalapenoInferno.com

This week I got to try Just Biryani in North Phoenix. It’s an Indian Restaurant with over 20 different Biryani dishes on the menu. It’s also a cheerful and clean looking restaurant.

Today we did take out.

We started out by sharing the samosa chaat.

It’s chana masala (seasoned chickpeas) with sauces and wet bread (might be the samosas but it seems like bread in here). It’s full of exotic flavors herbs, onions, fried vermicelli and some mild heat. I think the sauces on the side might be chutney and raita but are unlike any I had before. These are both have a water-like consistency and are ultra delicate with flavor.

We then shared the gongura chicken biryani.

It’s mainly fluffy rice with a little raw onion, half an egg and some seasoned very tender boneless chicken with some exotic flavors and slight heat.

We also shared the ulavacharu chicken biryani.

This one is also mostly fluffy rice, raw onion and half an egg with a small amount of chicken on the bone. This dish has very little flavor. I never had an Indian dish like this before.

www.DosaGrillAZ.com (this restaurant was previously a Dosa Grill)

Those were my experiences at JalapeƱo Inferno at Park West in Peoria and Just Biryani in North Phoenix two of the new restaurants in North Phoenix AZ.

Everything is subject to change and we hope things do change for the better.

The Forking Truth

A Little Taste of Little Saigon Vietnamese Restaurant in Old Town Glendale AZ

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Little Saigon is a small but charming Vietnamese Restaurant located in Old Town Glendale Arizona. They offer a large patio out front.

The building is lined with lots of plants and I noticed many pomegranates.

The first thing that you see when you enter is a large but clean fish tank. The last few times that I was here I got seated in the small dining room to the side. Here is another dining room were we picked up our take out.

Our timing was perfect and was ready and placed on a table the moment we walked in the door.

We started out by sharing the Bo Cuon La Nho (beef wrapped in grape leaves with vegetables, fresh herbs and rice paper.

If you never had this before then you can think of it like making a fajita but different. On the right is the rice paper. You have to soak a sheet of rice paper in warm water to make it soft. Then you add a stuffed grape leaf. Top the grape leaf roll with some rice noodles, fried shallots, peanuts, mint, cilantro, radish and roll it up like a burrito.

You’re not done yet. Your mini Vietnamese burrito gets wrapped in lettuce and then you dip it in fish sauce. Enjoy! After we finished these off I went to my main. This time I tried the Ga Xao Xa Ot (Chicken & Vegetables in lemongrass soy fish sauce)

This is not like anything I tasted before…It’s moist dark meat boneless chicken with broccoli and carrots in this sweet and funky sauce that has mild heat to it.

My husband tried the Tom Xao Thap Cam Cay (spicy shrimp stir fry with vegetables).

It looks like a nice assortment of vegetables. It has cabbage, snow peas, tomatoes and carrots. I was told that it was good but was very light with the heat.

The last time that I dined in I had the chicken and cabbage salad. It was refreshing crisp and light. It was just right on a hot Arizona day.

My husband had a pork rice plate with shrimp.

There are many more dishes that I want to try here so more are coming in the future.

That was a Little Taste of Little Saigon Restaurant in Old Town Glendale AZ.

I haven’t found a website for Little Saigon.

They are located at 7016 N 57TH Ave Glendale 85301

Call them for more information 623-939-6136

Everything is subject to change and we hope things do change for the better.

The Forking Truth

My Four Take Outs from Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale AZ

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Twist Bistro and Gallery is a small modern Mediterranean style restaurant, bar and art gallery located in North Scottsdale Arizona. They opened for business during the coronavirus pandemic sometime around May 2020. I haven’t stepped in yet but my husband snapped the next two photos.

It’s colorful and cheerful. The walls are accented with colorful artwork.

On the other side (not shown) is the bar.

All four of our take outs included complimentary biscuits with honey butter.

The biscuits did differ some on every visit but all of them were tasty. Most of them were studded with feta cheese and some had fresh dill. The texture differed. Some were scone like and others were light as a feather.All were delicious.

On one visit we tried a mushroom crepe that was stuffed with black truffle ricotta cheese.

On two of my visits I had the Loch Duart Salmon. It’s EXTREMELY GREAT! It’s prepared to perfection. It came with delicious seasoned black rice, vegetables, tomato salad and pistou sauce. It’s very rare in metro phoenix to get salmon that is this good and prepared this well. …It’s grilled nice and is medium/mediium rare in the middle.

My husband enjoyed the shrimp and sausage diablo just as much as I enjoyed the salmon and he also had this meal twice. It comes with cheesy polenta.

We tried the house made beignets.

They are powdered doughnuts with delicious house made sauces.

Then we did take out again.

In the upper left hand corner is the southern breaded shawarma kabobs with minted cucumbers, marinated olives, jalapeƱos and preserved lemon basil syrup. We had the same dinners as last time (salmon & shrimp and sausage diablo). This time we tried an amazing dessert (left hand lower corner) It was the mascarpone cheese cake. It came with pistachio praline, salted caramel, whipped cream and fresh strawberries. It was a really great dessert. Just like from a fine restaurant that has their own pastry chef.

We tried a few different things on our third take out.

In the middle is an everything flatbread topped with house made lox. (yum!) On the right are two different dinners. Upper right is willed boar meatballs served with an different style of gnocchi. Bottom right is their “Twist” on chicken and dumplings. It’s really delicious marinated chicken that is moist and flavorful but because of my 30 minute car ride home in the hot heat the sauces and dumplings sort of baked together. It would have been much better to dine in with this one. However it still was delicious. There was all kinds of goodies here like goat cheese, berries, braised greens and a different kind of dumplings that they call gnocchi. On the left are the complimentary biscuits and a strawberry rhubarb cobbler (minus the ice cream because I knew it would melt).

My forth take out was really great too!

Top left corner we shared the Moroccan festival soup. It’s a vegetarian soup with spiced vegetables lentils, chick peas , preserved lemon and cilantro. It’s deep earthy and fabulous! I went with the grilled Hawaiian opah. The fish was prepared to perfection and came with a orange basil beurre blanc sauce, vegetables and scallion almond rice. My husband had the steak sandwich pallard. It’s a grilled tenderloin with mustardy horseradish sauce, mozzarella cheese, demi sauce on a garlic Noble Bread baguette. I tried a small piece of the tenderloin and it was so tender with a really great taste. WOW it was crazy good!

Those were my first four take outs from Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale.

www.twist-bistro.com

Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.

The Forking Truth

My 2nd Patio Dining Out During The CoronaVirus Pandemic – Cucina Tagliani Glendale AZ #UpperWestSide – Healthy options and comfortable patio

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Nothing is for certain. Leaving your house can be deadly during a pandemic. You can never know if you are careful enough to avoid catching the coronavirus. For me it is far too dangerous to dine in with others. I feel somewhat comfortable with take out because I wear a filtered mask and eye goggles (my onion goggles that don’t look too bad) I feel that I am 80% safe and won’t fully catch the virus protected that much. Some scientist believe with distancing that you won’t catch enough of the coronavirus in outside air to be deadly. With that information I feel less risk dining outside. This past Saturday the temperature wasn’t too high for Phoenix so we took a chance and dined out on the Cucina Tagliani Patio in. This is an American Italian Restaurant that offers most of your usual American Italian favorites and also several healthy options and lots of vegetable choices. I don’t know of any other restaurant that offers around a dozen different vegetables that you can add to a meal or have on the side.

Today I ordered a Caesar salad with salmon and added on artichokes and pine nuts.

Got a decent piece of salmon and it’s prepared reasonably well. The greens are fresh and the dressing is house made. I guess they forgot the croutons but I don’t need them anyway because there’s complimentary garlic toasts on the table. Oh did I mention that the patio is officially dog friendly?

My husband got the spicy rigatoni with added sausage.

I think they gave him extra sausage?……….Well that was nice.

I can’t believe how quiet the patio is today.

We were the only ones dining here at lunch.

We’ve been coming to Cucina Tagliani for years. It’s close to home, I like the healthy options, my husband likes the American Italian food and we enjoy the comfortable patio with misters and funny old fashioned Italian music that fills the air here.

Louie is no longer with us but was a big fan of Cucina Tagliani.

The Papa’s Platter (with Louie) Veal Parm, sausage lasagna and two manicotti

salmon with asparagus and spinach

SPAGHETTI SQUASH lasagna

My usual goat cheese, strawberry and chicken salad.

chicken piccata over SPAGHETTI SQUASH instead of pasta

Chicken Caesar salad

chicken pasta pepperchini

chicken wrap with healthy fruit side

Stromboli

GRILLED chicken parmesan (instead of fried) over SPAGHETTI SQUASH

sausage lasagna with meatball

minestrone

steak gorgonzola over SPAGHETTI SQUASH

chicken dynamite

take out salmon dinner with asparagus and spaghetti squash

I don’t get dessert here often but the chocolate mascarpone cake is very good.

“Don’t worry we are in this thing together” “We also are available to help you with your leftovers from Cucina Tagliani any time”

That was my second patio dining during the pandemic at Cucina Tagliani in Glendale. I appreciate the healthy options and the comfortable patio with misters.

www.CucinaTagliani.com

Everything is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.

The Forking Truth

Angelina’s Pho & Grill – Lemongrass Vietnamese Bistro – VERY GOOD Modern Vietnamese Food Glendale AZ #UpperWestSide and my take out

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Angelina’s Pho & Grill is a modern Vietnamese Restaurant that is always changing. The decor changes often. The menus change about every several weeks. Now even the name might be changing according to Lemongrass Vietnamese Bistro according to their Facebook Page and latest menu.

But one thing doesn’t change and it’s the pho that is painstakingly made with a 24 hour broth. The pho here made a top pho list of metro Phoenix from the Arizona Republic Newspaper.

A few years ago they added sushi to the sign out front. Periodically some sushi has made it to the menu but I haven’t seen sushi here in a while.

The chairs, the wall color and decorative accents have changed a number of times over the past few years.

entrance to the patio

Today it looked like this.

I must have been here well over 20 times and every time I visit I see a new menu.

From my last dine in visit only days before Angelina’s closed due to the pandemic is next.

Yum this new appetizer sounds delicious! Miso lemongrass Chicken Tots with Cabbage. We order it to start with.

Soon our dinners arrive. My husband said to the waiter that he might as well take the appetizer off our bill since we didn’t get it. The waiter replied that he forgot to order it so it wasn’t on the bill anyway… šŸ™ I hate to be overly honest but I do have to tell THE FORKING TRUTH….Service can be very poor here at times…Often someone takes our order and never comes back. It’s rare that a server here will ask if you want a beverage. Usually they just drop off water and run. I don’t think anyone has ever re-filled a beverage here. Usually nobody clears your plates. They put in a nice dessert case a few years ago. Not once has anyone asked if I’d like to order dessert. I come back only because the food is very good and very reasonably priced. (on my take out visit I didn’t notice the dessert case)

Tonight I tried the Spicy Chicken Pho in Coconut Broth Special $11.00.

WOW IT’S SCRUMPTIOUS DELICIOUS!

It is spicy but not too spicy. It has this perfect acidity to it with a delicious twenty four hour chicken laced coconut broth. There are large slices of chicken breast in the soup with lots of long rice noodles. I added some Thai Basil, Bean Sprouts and one lime wedge to the pho. WOW really delicious!

My husband had the #18 pho.

This one is called beef hue style bun bo hue $10.00. It’s beef shank, pork rolled in banana leaf, with smooth thick noodles and Thai Mint in spicy 24 hour beef broth.

Some of the past plates we tried are below but I note many have been replaced by new dishes.

fried rice with shrimp and sausage
steak on screwers
salmon papilotte
poulardine
tofu eggplant stack
lettuce wraps
chicken bird’s next
salmon cakes
green tea noodle mango tuna roll
pho
la vong style cod (Hanoi’s National Dish)

I always call before bringing my dogs. They always tell me that my dogs are welcome.

Smoked salmon salad

Angelina’s Pho and Grill did close during the pandemic and newly reopened only a week ago. I did take out since I don’t feel comfortable yet dining in but I would consider patio dining if it isn’t too hot in temperature because there is less virus risk outside in the open air. To walk into the restaurant I wore a mask with a five layer filter and shielded my eyes with onion goggles because some scientist believe you can catch the virus by your eyes. I also used Angelina’s (or is it Lemongrass) hand sanitizer. Nothing is for certain and this still is a risk.

Here’s my take out.

On the left is my husband’s three rice plate (shrimp, chicken, beef) and I got the yellow chicken curry. The flavors in the curry are very brilliant and delicious. It’s ULTRA flavorful. I’ve had it here before here a few times. They always add lots of vegetables that nobody else adds like cauliflower (and today some cucumber) The chicken is so tender it’s falling apart. I LOVE how so much Thai basil is penetrated into the flavors.

Angelina’s Pho and Grill – The Food is Worth a Fork!

The food is usually very VERY good……..service can be hit or miss

I haven’t found a website for Angelina’s Pho and Grill but they are on Facebook and might be changing name to Lemongrass Vietnamese Bistro…..

Every THING is subject to change and we hope it does for the better.

The Forking Truth