Category Archives: Forking Restaurant Reviews

Honest unbiased reviews based on actual experiences

Lunch at Elements at Sanctuary Paradise Valley AZ – Worth a Fork

Elements Restaurant is located at the Sanctuary Camelback Mountain Resort and Spa. This resort is on the north face of Camelback Mountain on fifty three acres in the beautiful Paradise Valley Section of Scottsdale Arizona.

The executive chef is celebrity chef Beau Macmillan. He been be seen on many various Food Network TV Shows. The food served at Elements is mostly changing menus of seasonal Asian Inspired American and Global Foods. Upon arrival you stop at the valet and then make your way to the restaurant.

They offer formal dining seating.

They also offer booths on the end of the dining room with views of Paradise Valley that you still can see even when the sun screen is in use.

They started us off with delicious super crusty locally made MJ sour dough bread and seaweed seasoned butter.

Today I went with the Miso Scottish Salmon Bento Box ($26.00 subject to change)

I received a very tender grilled salmon with nice grill marks. The fish was very buttery in texture and just melted in my mouth. The miso glaze went really great with the quality salmon. Off in the left hand corner are steamed organic vegetables. I’m reasonably sure that some of the vegetables were an Asian Broccoli that has an edible stem similar to asparagus and it was mixed with a flavorful mushroom that tasted like shiitake to me. To the right was a cucumber salad that ran very acidic today for me. On the bottom left was Asian seasoned chewy brown rice.

My husband tried the House made Cavatelli with Duck Confit. ($22.00 subject to change)

Look at all those hand made cavatelli! They are mixed with duck confit, peas, pea tendrils, pearl onions, garlic and parmesan.

We shared a dessert because the last two we had here were very good.

Today we tried the Cherry Ice Cream Sundae.

I tell The Forking Truth and this dessert wasn’t the best for me because I am super picky when a dessert has chocolate in it…..This chocolate tower is sort of waxy like like a coconut oil coating. But The ice cream inside is unusual, not so creamy but more fruity also lighter and nicely flavored with the tart cherry compote that I like. Candied pistachios, fresh raspberries and a chocolate coated gold accented dark cherry adorned the plate.

From previous lunch visits we had-

Tea Brined Chicken
Five spice beef tenderloin
Lemon Meringue Pie
A different variation of tea brined chicken
Five spice duck
Key lime pie

Everything here was delicious and top notch in a great environment with the greatest service and amazing atmosphere.

Only a couple things weren’t perfect for me but for the most part Lunch at Elements is certainly worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.SantuaryCamelback.com/dining/Elements

Every THING is ALWAYS subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

My Summer 2019 Trip to L’ATELIER de Joel Robuchon Las Vegas NV – Magic still remains after The Master is gone – Worth a Fork!

L’ATELIER by Joel Robuchon is a high end exhibition French/tapas restaurant located in the MGM Casino/Hotel on the Las Vegas strip in Nevada. The late chef Joel Robuchon was the most Michelin stared chef in the world and was also known as the chef of the century.

This is FORKING NICE PLACE

They changed the menu slightly since my last visit last year and now the three course special menu ($85.00 subject to change) is only offered as an early bird special 5pm-6pm.

You get seated at the high top counter with view of the exhibition kitchen.

I don’t know what you have to do ……….or how much money you have to lose in the casino to get one of the few tables in front of the bar.

Anyways-

For the last several years they start you off with an Amuse Bouche foie gras with parmesan foam shooter.

Or a vegetarian Amuse Bouche if you ask.

Then you get a basket of the most amazing breads and delicious French Butter.

My first course was an Eggplant/Avocado Fondant with pixie sized turmeric croutons.

This was powerfully flavorful……you go wow! How did they do this?

My husband had a polenta, egg and ham starter…….(well not just any ham………actually ham that was kissed by Jesus Ham……….that comes from pigs with black feet and eat nothing but acorns ham……….Ham that cost like $25-30 an ounce ham)

For my main I had Halibut Flakes with Lemongrass Foam and Robuchon Potatoes.

Everything is so Forking perfect……………The micro herbs are so flavorful and go so amazing with the tender mild fish and lemongrass……..The French Pepper is perfect…it’s just the right amount of flavorful mild heat. The potatoes are amazing.

My husband had the Beef Short Rib.

He said it was the best short rib that he has ever had……I had a tiny taste…….WOW! I never tasted beef that was that beefy before.

For dessert we both picked the tarts….called Les Tartes.

This dessert plate just might be the most fabulous dessert in the country. Every tiny tart is so detailed and delicious…..Each tart is perfection……..This plate doesn’t just knock it out of the park…..It knocks it out of the galaxy!

Then they surprised us with these FORKING INCREDIBLE hazelnut madeleines.

Oh GOD I wish I could buy a sack of them!

The master is gone but the magic still continues.

I thought I’d post a few of some of the previous stunningly beautiful plates we’ve enjoyed here.

Worth a Fork! Worth buying a plane ticket to try!

www.MGMResortsInternational.com

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

The Forking Truth

2019 Visit to Gordon Ramsay Burger – Las Vegas NV

Gordon Ramsay Burger Restaurant is a slightly upscale full service burger restaurant in the Planet Hollywood hotel/casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The burger meat for these burgers is fresh ground in the main kitchen in the Paris hotel/casino. The burgers served are 7oz burgers. The atmosphere is accented with flames, pictures of chef Gordon Ramsay and the British Flag. There are several big screen TVs on the walls and most were tuned on to sports stations.

We started out by sharing an order of plain fries called “Just Fries” (last time we had the Truffle Parm Fries and all the stuff was heavy on the top and was too salty and had nothing under the top layer).

These fries came out hot and most under the top were the small ends that were slightly over cooked. We received curry ketchup and chipotle ketchup as dipping sauces.

This time I tried the Fish and Crisps Burger.

I received a thick large piece of thinly but crisp beer battered coated cod. It was drowning in about a 1/4 cup of citrusy yuzu dill mayo with a big handful of salt and vinegar potato shreds on a fluffy buttered and toasted sesame bun………..The flavoring wasn’t too exciting here……and……..This was far heavier than I was expecting it to be…..I enjoyed the Gordon Ramsay fish and chips from his casual fast restaurant but this fish sandwich could use something ………….or some sort of change……..maybe something to freshen and lighten it up some. I fixed that by removing one bun, scraping off most of the heavy creamy sauce and scrapping off half the crisps. I added some of the curry ketchup and it was lighter and much better tasting to me.

My husband tried the Mangalitsa Pork, Bacon, BBQ Pork, white cheddar, pickles, crisp onions and slaw burger. (requested slaw on side)

I should have taken a photo of the pork……It was a solid dense disk of pink dry meat. Topped with bbq pork, bacon, cheese and fried onions. My husband wasn’t happy with this burger but didn’t tell the waiter while he was eating.

Last time our burgers were FORKING AWESOME!

I had this Tandoori Chicken Burger that was screaming with all kinds of delicious flavors. It was so amazing that my husband also enjoyed it too and he usually doesn’t like these flavors….but this really was amazing. I can’t believe it’s no longer available.

He had the Hell’s Kitchen Burger and thought it was excellent.

That was my 2019 visit to Gordon Ramsay Burger………

1/2 a Fork…Could be great! Could also suck!

www.Caesars.com

Every THING…EVERY FORKING THING is subject to CHANGE and your experience may or may NOT differ.

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Mian Sichuan Noodle of Las Vegas NV

Mian Sichuan Noodle is a small casual restaurant that specializes in serving Sichuan Noodles. They are located in the Las Vegas China Town in a two story strip mall next to the China Town Plaza.

This isn’t a fancy place.

The tables are set up with placemats that give you instructions on how to eat the food.

They start you off with sweetened mung bean water called soup that you drink after eating mouth numbing spicy food to cool you down.

We started out by sharing the Spicy Radish ($1.99) and a small bowl of complimentary sweet, sour slightly spicy cabbage was served almost instantly.

The radish is crunchy, interesting and also spicy. I’ve never tasted anything like this before. They transformed a radish into something completely different. It got me really excited to try Szechuan Cold Noodles!

My Szechuan Cold Noodles Arrives ($7.99).

I mix it up like I’m suppose to do. The noodles are silky, sturdy, smooth and long with nice chewy texture. The noodles are cooked to perfection. This dish too is not flavored like anything I ever had before. It has a slight sourness to it, some other flavors with slight amount sweetness. It is strange and unusual to me…….It’s not very spicy…..it’s actually almost not spicy….Maybe more like the cabbage. I am slightly disappointed because I was expecting fiery mouth numbing food.

My husband got Za Jiang with Peas (basically Pork Spicy Noodle $9.99).

This is a more detailed plate. I’m a little jealous and his plate is at least twice as spicy as mine. Although this plate is twice as spicy as mine it’s really only as spicy as the radishes. Spicy but not real spicy….like not even close to a jalapeño ……less than sweet/hot cherry peppers. (My husband asked for as spicy as you make)

Maybe the waiter thought he heard us say mild instead of spicy?

I haven’t found a website for Mian Sichuan Noodle but they are on Facebook.

That was my trip to Mian Sichuan Noodle in Las Vegas NV

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

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Chica Restaurant Las Vegas NV – Still Great Food – Service hit or miss

Chica is a Latin Restaurant located in the Venetian Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip. The restaurant is located just off the casino floor. The menu offers Chef Lorena Garcia’s spins on classic Latin Foods and flavors.

The atmosphere is on the dark side.

They have a ceviche bar in the middle of the restaurant and a rotisserie in the back. Our server suggested that we need about two plates a person so we ordered two appetizers and two dinners.

Both of our appetizers were brought out at once. We decided to start with a Peruvian Snapper Ceviche.

It was bright from citrus, spicy from chili, sweet from sweet potatoes and crunchy from Peruvian corn. It was served with crisp thin sliced plantains that were very tasty.

We almost got to the Trio of Picos we ordered…..At the time we were still in the middle of the ceviche and our dinners arrive.

We pushed our dinners to the side and tried the arepas because they were warm and fresh made. One was corn flavored, another was cilantro flavored, we had a beet root one and a purple corn arepa. We had the rest packed up but we didn’t get to eat it so this appetizer was just wasted.

It seemed like the waiter was trying to rush us out. I don’t know why because there were hardly any other customers at the time.

I had the Pacific Striped Bass. It came out with a crispy skin that turned soggy fast but the fish was tender and perfect. It rested over Peruvian Corn Succotash and a guajillo chili sauce and corn salsa that was delicious.

My husband had the Slow Roasted Suckling Pig Porchetta.

It sat in a pool of pork jus and was topped with spiced plantains, pickled onions and water crest. He enjoyed it very much. He said it was even better than the one he had last time here.

The manager did apologies to us for all our food coming out at mostly the same time. She did offer to re-make our dinners so we could enjoy the appetizers. I declined because I know what not all but what some cooks do to food when they have to re-make it. She also offered a complimentary dessert that I declined because I was full.

Last time I had the rotisserie chicken.

My husband had a different plating of the Porchetta.

All the food we tried was Worth a Fork!

I tell The Forking Truth and this is how it was.

Last time we received very good food and they treated us like VIPS here.

This time the food was still very good but the service was more like from a diner.

That was my trip to Chica in Las Vegas – Still very good food but service can be hit or miss.

www.ChicaLasVegas.com

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

The Forking Truth

My Trip to The Creek Patio Grill in Cave Creek AZ

The Creek Patio Grill is located in Cave Creek Arizona. This is a casual full service American Neighborhood-Type Restaurant. They offer TWO patios (one patio is dog friendly) and indoor seating with personality.

The dog friendly patio
This patio entrance is from the inside of the restaurant

The middle of the restaurant has seating around a pizza oven.

There’s curved bench seating that circles the pizza oven and bar seating is located behind the pizza oven.

There are multiple dining areas and levels. (not pictured)

Glowing rock decor

My husband started with a cup of chili.

It was meaty with lots of beans and a generous amount of cheese. My husband said It was a little spicy and could taste cinnamon in it.

I had the walleye.

It wasn’t the meatiest walleye but then again this whole dinner only cost $21.00. The last time I came across walleye at AJ’s Fine Foods if I’m not mistaking the walleye was going for $40.00 a pound. This isn’t the same but was prepared reasonably well. It was covered in a lemony bur blanc sauce. Blistered tomatoes, fresh sweet basil and rice pilaf completed the plate.

My husband had the shrimp Alexander.

The grilled lemon elevated the dish. My husband thought the dish was good but could have been seasoned a little more for his taste.

The menu that The Creek Patio Grill offers is large and has a lot of variety. They offer many appetizers such as multiple sliders, kung pao chicken, burgers, sandwiches, pizzas and entrees.

That was today’s trip to The Creek Patio Grill in Cave Creek. It’s a nice neighborhood type restaurant. You visit it if you are in the neighborhood and not from across town.

www.TheCreekPatioGrill.com

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

The Forking Truth

Hattie B’s Las Vegas NV – is Worth a Try but doesn’t seem the same to me as from Nashville

According to the Nashville Hot Chicken Coalition ( www.Hot-Chicken.com ) – Nashville Hot Chicken is only Authentic and is a specialty of Nashville Tennessee. Only 6 restaurants are certified to be authentic Nashville Hot Chicken. They are Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s Spicy Chicken and Fish, Pepper Fire Hot Chicken, Hattie B’s Hot Chicken, 400 Degrees and Deezies in Murfreesboro.

Nashville Hot Chicken is marinated, floured and fried. It needs to be sauced either before or after flouring or breading with what they call a dry sauce or paste (wet sauces are NOT Nashville hot chicken). Nashville hot chicken is HOT because the paste is suppose to be 1/3 fat and 2/3 cayenne pepper that gets cooked and reduced till thick. A few other seasonings may be added. Nashville hot chicken is also about flavor. It should be flavorful as much as hot. Authentic places will serve the chicken with dill pickles and white bread to catch up the juices nd flavor.

Hattie B’s in Las Vegas is located in the Cosmopolitan Hotel Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in a food court area. You order at the register and you pick up your platter at the end of the counter when it’s ready.

I ordered a small dark HOT with pimento macaroni and cheese and cole slaw. I ordered HOT because that is the same I had from the Nashville location.

This Las Vegas chicken lacks the cayenne aroma that the Nashville one had. I take a bite. The chicken is tasty and moist but doesn’t start you off with a sting like the Nashville one did. This one is also sweeter. This one is much milder……I thought it seemed greasier…..I thought it had even less crunch to it…….It’s tasty and is GOOD chicken but it’s not the same.

My husband got the same platter and a side of the hottest chicken strips they offer called, Shut The Cluck Up. I taste one.

This chicken is dry and it’s not stingingly hot either…….It’s not mild but it’s not like what came from Nashville….Even the Shut The Cluck Up isn’t as hot or delicious as Hot from Hattie B’s in Nashville.

Here are some pictures from Nashville.

The Hattie B’s in Las Vegas is Worth a Try! but to me doesn’t seem the same as from Nashville. Could be an off day????

www.HattieB.com

www.CosmopolitianLasVegas.com

Every FORKING Thing is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

True Food Kitchen Phoenix AZ – Tried a Healthy Summer Special – Worth a Fork

True Food Kitchen is a full service casual restaurant located in Phoenix at the Biltmore Fashion Plaza in Arizona. They have another location in Scottsdale Arizona and around forty locations in the United States with the largest amounts of restaurants in California and Texas. The foods offered at True Food are based on the science to maintain your best health by choosing foods that don’t contribute to chronic inflammation by celebrity doctor Dr. Weil. He is famous for his alternative medicine. True Food Kitchen offers vegetarian, vegan, gluten free and they are happy to customize meals for you. A few locations of True Food Kitchen also offer healthful yoga brunches.

The Phoenix location of True Food Kitchen offers a foliage accented front patio.

A side patio.

Indoor is bright, woody and accented with green. There are large modern light fixtures. They offer seating at traditional tables, bar seating, half bench tables –

and by food preparation tables. The restaurant is busy and noisy. Music also fills the air.

Today I tried the Limited Summer Red Fish with sweet corn, edamame, onion, scallion, achiote and cilantro. (480 calories, gluten free and $26.00)

The red fish is very soft and moist and seasoned in a delicious way with achiote and other spices. The corn just might be the most delicious corn I ever had in a restaurant. It’s like you bought it from a farm and just grilled it. The corn is so sweet and so flavorful. Everything they mixed into it is delicious….I mean it really delicious!!!!! I liked that it seemed like the perfect amount of food too and it’s really rare that a 480 calorie plate is so satisfying.

My husband tried the Limited Summer Spinach and Mushroom Pizza. (970 calories vegetarian and $15.00)

This pizza was made with mushrooms, organic spinach, garlic, onions, lemon almond ricotta and seasoned with Aleppo pepper. The mushrooms are very flavorful but the spinach is just wilted. The cheese has a really light but grainy texture. My husband is slightly grumpy now and scraps off the lemon almond ricotta cheese that he mistook for regular ricotta with added lemon and almond. I told him to leave a small amount of the cheese to use as glue to hold some of the delicious corn to help remedy the taste and the corn is so good it makes the pizza delicious. He said, FORK some more corn over.”

I thought our server was trained particularly well. She had a great attitude, was helpful about the food, checked on us at the perfect time, offered desert and when I declined she dropped the check. That is perfect service.

I thought the healthy Summer Special of Redfish with the Corn Mixture was Worth a Fork!

www.TrueFoodKitchen.com

That was my trip to True Food Kitchen in Phoenix.

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

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Eataly Las Vegas NV

Eataly is an Italian Food Court, Wine and Gastronomic Marketplace. They sell a variety of pastas, pesto, sauces, rice, grains, crackers, canned tomatoes, vinegar, olive oil, salt, spices, olives, sweets and coffee.

They also offer complimentary daily tastings.

They offer a world of Italian foods and wines to try.

You might want to start with some street foods.

They offer all kinds of sandwiches, fried snacks, chicken and more!

There’s Roman Style Pizza.

There’s focaccia and pizza by the slice.

There’s plenty of fresh baked breads too.

If you want fish they will make you a fish.

They’ll make you pasta.

They assorted meats and cheeses.

There are candies, chocolates, pastries, cakes and other sweets.

But all you really need is Gelato.

That was my trip to Eataly Las Vegas NV.

www.Eataly.com

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

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Mekong Asian Plaza in Mesa AZ

The Mekong Plaza is an Asian Shopping Center that is a mall with a dozen Asian restaurants, an Asian/International Grocery Super Market gift shops and more. Today we thought we’d do some exploring here and mostly tasting.

We started with a full service Vietnamese Restaurant called Com Tam Thuan Kieu.

We shared a dish that is seldom found at most Metro Phoenix Vietnamese Restaurants called Com Do Ga Roti (fried Cornish hen with tomato paste red rice). Today they were out of Cornish hen so chicken was offered.

First came out a cup of broth and chunks of very developed soft pork.

Next we moved on to the main event.

We received a generously sized plate of very moist tender delicious bbq chicken thigh made with house made bbq sauce. I picked fish sauce as the dipping sauce and it went together to make something mighty tasty. The plate also came with pickled vegetables, a fried over easy egg and tomato paste red rice. I’ve had Vietnamese red rice before and this differed as they do from home to home or restaurant to restaurant. Here the rice was on the dry side and contained very little tomato.

Below is com do ga roti from Thao Sandwiches now closed for business. You can see the texture and tomato and seasoning does differ.

Thao Sandwiches (now closed for business)

Moving on next stop was suppose to be a Filipino Restaurant called Wholly Grill for Grilled Tuna with Eggplant Salad but that wasn’t on the menu today so we stopped at Heng’s Kitchen in the food court instead to share a Szechuan Spicy Boiled Fish.

Soon we are served and they are nice enough to split the rice plates for us. The fish is very tender and mild and cooked to perfection. We receive a good amount of bean sprouts and fresh chopped cilantro. There is some heat from hot chili and some Sichuan peppercorns but this is the least spicy Szechuan Spicy Boiled Fish that I’ve ever had…….I saw the chef looking at me when I ordered it……..It’s possible that he thought I looked like someone that can’t handle spicy foods and it’s a possibility that he was trying to spare me too much mouth numbing painful heat?????? I don’t know…..but that’s what I thought. This dish was still very good but super mild for the kind of dish that it is.

The last time I had Szechuan Spicy boiled fish it looked like this from Szechuan Cosine in Glendale.

from Szechuan Cusine in Glendale

See all the peppers…..now this was ultra spicy and mouth numbing.

Now we take a break and walk around Mekong Market. Lets see what we see.

Chestnut Kit Kats!

WOW Sake KitKats too!

Boiled corn with colorful kernels.

Faux fish.

LOTS of real fish. (near the middle is rabbit fish…..rabbit fish?……does it hop?)

Much more fish..thought the moon fish look attractive…..they shine much more than the photo shows.

Lay’s tomato and cucumber flavor chips.

Togarashi

Lay’s Spicy Hot Pot flavored potato chips that actually DO contain Szechuan pepper.

Asian gefilte fish…..who knew?

Fermented mudfish in rice……….?

Best Wild Jelly Fish Head.

Yellow Rock sugar…….I don’t know about yellow sugar??????? Makes me think of a Frank Zappa song.

A whole world of produce and herbs.

We decide we can hit one more restaurant and go to Happy Baos.

They are packed and we have to wait outside.

In reasonable time we are called in to sit at a table.

This is a tiny restaurant that is very packed with tables close together.

I don’t know if they are short on help or just very unorganized today. We’ve had ordering problems and waited abnormally long for our food while others around that came in latter had multiple plates. But this restaurant was written about in the Arizona Republic recently and might be busier than usual????? We finally get served.

Chicken Cabbage Dumplings and a Tofu Vegetable Bao.

The Bao is ok….

There is a possibility we waited so long because they rushed out a batch of dumplings for us. These dumplings seemed rushed because they lack seasoning and the cabbage they were suppose to contain.

That was my trip to Mekong Plaza in Mesa.

www.MekongPlaza.com

Every FORKING Thing is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth