Category Archives: Forking Restaurant Reviews

Honest unbiased reviews based on actual experiences

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

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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

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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

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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

Singh Meadows in Tempe AZ – Detailed Breakfast/Lunch Plates with STUNNING VEGETABLES – Worth a Fork!

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Singh Meadows is a farm with a farmers market and breakfast/lunch cafe. The cafe is only open on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays 8am-1:30pm. The farmers market is taking a break after today. You have to check the Singh Meadows Facebook page for a re-opening date.

It looks like this when you walk into the market. (this picture was from March…less produce this time)

Then we wait in line to order at the cafe.

Here was todays menu.

The food is so detailed, delicious and special….It’s really hard to decide.

We order, pay and get a pager. Now we pick a table either inside.

On the patio

Or grab a blanket and get comfortable in the meadow.

Maybe by a pond….

Or by some vegetables.

It was pretty hot today so I grabbed a table inside.

Soon our pager goes off so my husband picks up the platters at the pick up table outside the door.

We start by splitting the buttermilk fried chicken sandwich ($13.00)

I sort of forgot how extra large the portions are…..even half is very large. But this is a lovely detailed and extra special plate. We received lots of crunchy battered chicken that was paired with these FORKING AMAZING heirloom tomatoes that were beyond belief. There also was pickled zucchini, arugula, tarter sauce and spicy honey. It was a super delicious sandwich but also was a delicious mess……If that wasn’t enough…..I found fancy greens on the plate with a whole BUNCH of these delightful lightly pickled beets….and we aren’t done yet…TWO good sized pieces of watermelon seasoned with a mild hot fruity pepper that I am guessing might have been Urfa pepper. WOW!

The Grilled Sweet Potato Fattoush ($12.00) turned out to be a more substantial plate than I anticipated.

This plate is packed with grilled sweet potatoes, red lentil hummus, charred cabbage, crisp pita breads, grains, harissa vinaigrette, seeds and sheep milk feta. We tasted it and it’s similar flavors that take you so maybe the best falafel you ever had but with sweet potato. It’s all delicious with all the pops of different flavors and textures but we got another plate so this one is getting packed up to enjoy another day.

We moved on to share the Apricot and Ricotta Napoleon.

Here we got apricots, sweet creamy fresh made ricotta cheese, crisp thin sweetened phyllo dough with pickled cherry vinaigrette and arugula….This all seems so light (but I know it isn’t) It’s easy to inhale. All these flavors go well together like magic Bitter arugula, sweet phyllo and apricots……unusually very good creamy sweet ricotta and then that cherry vinaigrette just taste so Forking GOOD!

Plates from our last visit were…….

Korean Beef Stew
Swiss chard falafel sandwich
Beet Toast

Singh Meadows Farmers Market and Cafe are Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.SinghMeadowsTempe.com

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

The Forking Truth

Los Arbolitos De Cajeme Restaurant Phoenix AZ – Worth a Fork! North/Central Phoenix gets a New Higher End Mexican Seafood Restaurant

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Los Arbolitos De Cajeme is a slightly upscale but casual Mexican Seafood and Steak Restaurant located in Phoenix towards the North Side.This is an established group of Mexican Restaurants with eleven locations in Mexico and Phoenix is home to their first location in America.

It’s bright modern and beautiful at the entrance and the first thing you notice is the bar with a really high ceiling with fish decorations and glass that lets in lots of light. The restaurant is sort of “L” shaped with the bar in the middle of the “L.”

On the other side of the bar is a dining room that isn’t being used today.

Straight ahead is where we are being seated.

There’s modern fixtures. Fish decor and neon. You can view the kitchen action threw the glass if you want to.

They started us off with chips, a sauce, a pickled onion condiment and fresh limes.

We started with an appetizer called Toritos de Marlin ($10.99…price is subject to change)

These are blistered yellow peppers are stuffed with Marlin and are in house made soy sauce. (this is a traditional taqueria dish) The yellow peppers are unlike similar looking yellow peppers I’ve purchased…..Each one taste different. They go from almost tasteless to hot jalapeño HOT! Most were on the milder side. For the most part this is a tasty milder dish….I think if you like tuna that you’d probably like this marlin. This appetizer dish was very generous in size.

For my main I tried the Filete Al Ajillo Con Nopal (grilled lemon sole with guajillo, garlic and cactus) ($18.00…price is subject to change)

Hot steamy tortillas, rice and vegetable garnish are served with the entree. I don’t always like cactus but here it’s very good. They cooked it so well it’s almost like eating green beans. It’s garlicky, a little spicy but not too spicy. There’s a generous amount of mild white fish.

My husband tried the Camarones a La Diabla. (deviled shrimp in a chipotle chiltepin cream sauce) ($18.00 price is subject to change)

This dish was served with rice and steamed fresh vegetables. The comment was that it was that this was delicious with well cooked shrimp but didn’t run as spicy as other shrimp diablos we’ve tried from other Mexican Seafood restaurants we’ve been too.

I’d say our first visit to Los Arbolitos De Cajeme was Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.MariscosLosArbolitos.com

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

The Forking Truth

NEW Restaurant ALERT Lychee Kitchen – North Phoenix AZ

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Lychee Kitchen recently opened in North Phoenix a short distance from the Happy Valley Mall Area. This is a Chinese Take Out Sushi and more kind of place. Alcohol is offered, a couple pan Asian dishes, fish dishes and hots pots are on the menu.

During daylight hours it’s bright inside from lots of natural light that comes in threw the windows.

We started out by sharing the pan fried dumplings.

We received four plump hand made dumplings stuffed with tender white meat chicken and a tasty Asian dipping sauce. All is good here!

I ordered the Korean Spicy Chicken.

I received a generous portion of lots of tender chicken slices studded with onions and scallions in a sauce that looked like it was made from paprika but tasted almost like sweet tomatoes and sweet bell peppers. It wasn’t spicy and had no other flavors to it.

My husband ordered the Szechuan Spicy Chicken.

This plate also was made with tender white meat chicken and came with mixed bell peppers, broccoli and onions and was in an unusually sweet brown sauce that looked spicy from visible crushed chili flakes but was only slightly spicy. (he ordered extra hot) I would rate the heat level as a number 2 out of 5 on a Thai Scale. I can’t say it had no heat. You really couldn’t detect heat at first when you ate it. You just got an ever so slight building heat. Possibly the high level of sweetness blocked the heat and other flavors here. This dish ran very sweet.

Based on only trying the dumplings and two of the spicy entrees Lychee Kitchen might be perfect for those seeking Chinese Food that is less seasoned, more sweet and less spicy with large portions and tender chicken.

www.LycheeKitchen.com

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

The Forking Truth

Ingo’s Tasty Food in Phoenix AZ is Tasty Food – Worth a Fork!

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If you have driven around the Arcadia area of Phoenix you might have noticed an unusual small round building that is Ingo’s Tasty Food. This is a small casual restaurant that serves a petite casual menu of reasonably priced quality burgers, sandwiches, salads and a few other items. They also serve some cocktails, draft beer, wine and more. They offer patio seating.

They also offer a walk up take out window.

Or you can dine inside at the circular counter that wraps around the open kitchen.

We started out by splitting the Ingo’s Chopped Chef Salad. ($9.25 subject to change)

The kitchen was nice enough to split the salad for us.

The salad is made of romaine, local Arizona dates, white beans, avocado, cheese and almonds.

Today I tried a burger with lettuce, tomato, pickle and Russian Dressing. ($8.75 subject to change)

I was told that the beef used is grass fed beef and not commercial ground beef. I was told that they grind the beef. (It appears that the kitchen is too small to ground it here so I assume they grind the beef at one of the neighboring sister restaurants.) I see that my burger is not too large and it’s nicely caramelized. I take a bite. The things that stand out is that the burger is juicy and I think the roll is extra good and not average. It looks like the rolls are fresh baked here because they are on a baker’s rack of sheet pans covered with parchment paper…….(don’t know but the rolls could have been wheeled over from just across the street.)…….The roll is soft, lightly sprinkled with poppy seeds and seems very light as air but it is study enough to hold up to the juicy burger and fillings. Yes…It’s tasty!

My husband got the Paris Texas Burger. ($9.00 subject to change)

He got a medium rare nicely caramelized burger with apple bbq sauce, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce and dill pickles on a soft bun. What’s not to like it was Tasty!

We were checked on often and plates were cleared quickly.

They are set up with salted chocolate chip cookies by the door so you leave with a sweet ending.

From previous visits we had…..

Toni’s Deviled Eggs made with German Mustard and beets

Farmer’s Daughter Burger -Dijonase fol epi cheese and sauerkraut

A previous Paris Texas Burger

No longer available – Ahi Grade Tuna Burger – No longer available

Fresh Shattered Potato Chips (these came with a Lebanese Yogurt Topping….not sure if this topping is still offered)

Ingo’s Tasty Food does serve Tasty Food.

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.IngosTastyFood.com

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

The Forking Truth

My Trip to Agave del Scottsdale in Scottsdale Arizona

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Agave del Scottsdale recently opened in the Mercado de Largo Plaza in Scottsdale Arizona. It’s difficult but not impossible to locate the entrance from the parking lot because the only sign is the one pictured above from the other side of the street. (at the moment subject to change) Agave del Scottsdale serves Mexican Cuisine. Everything is fresh made to order. They serve lunch and dinner and Mexican Breakfast on the weekend.

This is the entrance.

A few steps in here is what you see.

The main dining room features beautiful crystal chandeliers. Curio cabinets housing tequila, exposed brick, wooden tables and bright pinkish velvety looking benches.

A few steps latter you come across a tequila serving cart and a wall embellished with stone.

Around the corner is the bar, dining area and beautiful large patio with a nearby water fountain.

This is my view from my seat.

They started us off with three sauces and chips.

Theres tomatillo based salsa, in the middle is a warm bean sauce and on the end is a spicier sauce that’s made with Serrano peppers, habanero and chili de arbol peppers. The sauces seem like they have a slight creaminess or richness to them.

We started out by sharing the Tlacoyos (elongated masa ) de Huitacoche (corn smut also known as corn truffle).

How easy to share! They served us two!

We received TWO blue corn masa that was topped with beans, huitacoche, quest fresco, onions and cilantro. This is very flavorful and tasty. This huitacoche is the same as what I tried in Mexico. This is the real stuff. I think most places use bottled or canned….This is real. The blue corn is special…it’s a little sweeter than yellow..This really is a treat! This is excellent! All the flavors are marvelous. It’s better than how I ate huitacoche in Mexico…There most people just eat it in a tortilla…

For my main I had the Pescado Al Pastor.

I received three double shelled street sized tacos. The seasonal fish today was red snapper. It was marinated and served with pineapple, cilantro and onions. The tacos are well packed with food. The tortillas seemed like fresh made and ran sort of thicker than Mexican tortillas so I only used one tortilla. The tacos weren’t spicy but were tasty.

My husband tried the Huarache Con Carne Asada (elongated open faced masa tortilla).

It’s grilled beef on top of a masa tortilla with a little bit of beans, salsa verde, salsa roja, sour cream (left off at my husband’s request) and quest fresco. This is mildly seasoned. I think the beef would be more flavorful if it had a sear. This plate is for someone with a lighter appetite.

Our server was welcoming and friendly. She spoke English well and seemed well trained on the menu.

That was my trip to Agave Del Scottsdale in Scottsdale AZ.

www.AgaveDelScottsdale.com

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

The Forking Truth

The Social on 83rd at P83 in Peoria AZ – Great Appetizers that are Worth a Fork!

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The Social on 83rd is a relatively new restaurant in the P83 (across from Peoria Sports Complex on 83rd ave = P83) area of metro Phoenix that is considered to be the upper west side. This is a New American Restaurant that offers mostly American Foods some with global touches, Weekend Brunch and more!

They offer a lovely modern atmosphere and a variety of all kinds of seating.

Traditional tables, booths, benches with chairs, high top options…..

Seating at the bar.

Seating on the outside patio and the outside bar.

I’ve been here a few times now and so far I’ve found that the appetizers are especially notable….Possibly among the best to be found in the upper west side.

They took the Korean Style 24 hour short rib bun(s) off the menu but they were exceptionally delicious.

They’ve been replaced with Korean Style BBQ Tofu that has the same flavors and is just as delicious.

Here’s the Scotch Egg with Deep Fried Mustard Vinaigrette Greens. This was really good! The greens were made unusually tasty.

Another winning appetizer is the NY Strip Sliders.

These are very developed with flavors and the meat was tender like butter.

The next one isn’t the prettiest but it was the best fried macaroni and cheese ball that I tried so far.

Mac ‘N’ Cheese Balls from The Social on 83rd in Peoria at P83

The ones they served me were so cheesy and so flavorful. The pasta had perfect texture. They also seemed free of grease but I know they weren’t. The exterior breading was so crisp and thin. These were really REALLY GREAT! They also sat on top of a lemon herb aioli.

From a couple different visits the two salads I tried were very solid.

Jerk Chicken Caesar with Mango Caesar Dressing.

Cali Cranberry Salad with added chicken.

I hit them on an off night for dinner.

Someone new was cooking and dinners had under cooking and over cooking issues.

We did let them know about the dishes and our server and the chef were very apologetic. Dishes were re-made and were better …………………

I do note that every appetizer each time that I was here was delicious and very notable! Salads were GOOD!

The Social on 83rd in Peoria at P83 serves great appetizers that are Worth a Fork!

www.TheSocialAZ.com

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

The Forking Truth

Boondocks Patio and Grill Scottsdale AZ – Worth a Fork! – BIG Patio – Lots of Games – Better Bar Food

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Boondocks Patio and Grill is located in Scottsdale by Old Town. This restaurant serves better or maybe just more creative more interesting and detailed bar food like duck fat fries, roasted corn on cob with Mexican tahini sauce, salads, half pound burgers, sandwiches and some entrees. When we arrived the atmosphere was energetic with classic rock and roll. Boondocks also offers an indoor-outdoor bar, inside dining and a massive patio that I wasn’t able to photo because the entrance to the patio was clogged with people today.

I noticed that most of the people arrived via several of The Arizona Party Bikes.

Boondocks offers community high top tables and booths in the dining room. There are several big screen TVs and Digital Darts inside. They also offer pool tables, bag toss, ping pong and more.

I ordered the Grilled Tacos Pescado.

I received three full sized tacos stuffed with grilled blackened (spicy) seasonal whitefish, lime shredded cabbage, tomato, big creamy wedges of avocado and these really tasty pickled onions on well made tortillas (I picked corn). I was pleasantly surprised….these tacos are actually better than most I eat out. The fish is meaty and very flavorful and spicy. Then combined with lime cabbage, pickled onions and creamy avocado they are very good! A large amount of very crisp corn chips and tomatillo salsa finish the plate.

My husband got the Sin Burger.

It’s a half pound of American raised beef, jalapeño marmalade, pickled cabbage, lots of avocado, a thick blanket of good pepper jack cheese, cilantro mayo (left off by my husband’s request), and a big roasted jalapeño on a big soft eggy bun. WOW! a perfect medium rare! (that rarely happens) My husband said that this is another of his favorite burgers. He picked potato tots as his side. They seemed free of oil and had crisp exteriors and were chunky and potato-ee inside.

Our meals last time were Worth a Fork! (same burger and another that was discontinued)

Our meals this time were also Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.BoondocksAZ.com

Boondocks Patio Bar and Grill Scottsdale AZ – Worth a Fork! BIG Patio -Lots of Games – Better Bar Food

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

The Forking Truth