The Bluewater Grill in Phoenix AZ is one of a Family of Seafood Restaurants located in Resort Communities usually by water. According to the Bluewater Grill Website they serve sustainable    caught Seafood and Harpooned Swordfish caught from their own Harpoon boats.

It looks like they might prepare crab boils on the patio at times?

Inside is a small fish market.

Inside doesn’t look like Phoenix at all…….It’s very Old Fashioned with worn looking floors so it gives the illusion that the restaurant has been here for many decades. The old fashioned looking chairs also sport a fun to “catch” fish motif.

Our server seemed very professional also welcoming and took our order.

Soon a very large loaf of bread and chilled butter arrives.

WOW…The bread is extra sour just like from San Francisco.

Next our meals arrive.

I tried the Canadian Walleye with Sautéed Spinach and Red Quinoa Salad. I give them credit for removing the skin…as most places don’t remove the skin on walleye…and credit for the nice lemon half……….But it seemed someone brand new to removing fish skin handled my fish and it came to me in several pieces. The fish tasted OK…..It wasn’t undercooked but maybe just a hair overcooked and just warm. The lemon caper sauce was a bit lip puckering…  The Spinach was really great. It seemed really fresh and was hot and tasted buttery. I really liked the spinach! The Red Quinoa Salad was different. It was made with almonds, a few things I blocked out that could have been either cabbage or maybe chard stems. I thought I pulled out a piece of a beet??? I also came across some bitter tasting black colored greens in it …………. This salad was very strange tasting to me.

Here’s a close up.

Well any who…..

My husband tried the San Francisco Cioppino.

The Blue Watergrill variation of Cioppino included very thick marinara sauce, clams, mussels, crab, shrimp, scallops, fish and seasoned toast. The server suggested getting the linguini for an additional charge. I was told the Shrimp in the dish were excellent, most was ok but the scallops  and clams were very over cooked.

1/2 a Fork….HIT and Miss

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

Slight update 1-2-18 I already was contacted by the manager of The Bluewater Grill. The manager thanked me for my review and said he will be seeing that Bluewater recipes are followed. He hopes that I return again.

www.Bluewatergrill.com

The Forking Truth

UPDATE Now Closed for business*******James Beard Nominated Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza opened and runs the Barrio Cafe Grand Reserva. This TINY at the most 8 small table restaurant that serves fine chef crafted Mexican Food that is very unique.  The food is prepared with hard to find imported Mexican ingredients. These ingredients are very seasonal so the flavors will change with the season….The restaurant offers a menu that includes the dishes that the chef is famous for such as her famous chunky Guacamole topped with Pomegranate seeds, Cochinita Pibil (marinated slow roasted pork) and Chiles en Nogada (poblano pepper stuffed with fruits nuts (sometimes chicken) and topped with a cream sauce). The Menu at Barrio Cafe Gran Reserva also contains new favorites. They offer a five course tasting menu with meat or a similar vegan style menu with optional Mexican Wine pairings…..You sure aren’t going to find anything like this anywhere else!

Like the food the atmosphere is very unique. It starts on the outside….The parking lot and all around the restaurant are all whimsical and is decorated up like nothing you ever seen before.

Inside are beautiful hand painted paintings of Mexican Folklore by Mexican Artist.

Remember I told you that this is a Tiny Restaurant…This is the WHOLE DINING ROOM. I am in the bar looking in. It looks like a vestibule.

We did the tasting menu….It differed slightly from last time mostly due to the seasonal ingredients.

They started us off with a spicy Mexican trail mix of tortilla chips, seeds, nuts and spicy hot chile dust.

Next was a melon amuse bouche.

Here’s the tiny bar.

Here’s the Vegan Spicy, Sweet and Tangy Fruit and Vegetable Salad that wakes you up!

This is the small tight area where everything comes out of the kitchen and bar.

The next course contains Hoja Santa Leaf….a key ingredient to certain Mexican dishes. I know of a very delicious Mexican Peanut Chicken dish where the Hoja Santa Leaf is essential. Here the leaf is paired with sweet grilled pineapple and a 14 chile oil with menonita cheese. Umm Tasty.

Here’s a peek where some of the magic happens.

Next course was Halibut with salsa and pervano white beans.

I guess I accidentally confused the bartender that took my order and got the vegan plate that came with cactus instead of fish. My husband asked to correct things with the bartender while I said I’d keep it….All of a sudden the Chef comes out and she insist that she will have halibut out for me in a minute….WOW wasn’t that great!

I have to say the Halibut was really great. It had a delicious char and was so moist and fresh. It was a 100 times BETTER than the fish I recently had at a fish Restaurant in Phoenix. I personally don’t care for the texture of cactus pads because they are similar to okra but they did have a really great flavor. The SALSA was super awesome. This salsa should be sold at supermarkets. Incredibly delicious as well as the fresh made beans. Very Very good. The beans had a nice sweet creaminess about them.

Everything was great but I thought this course was the most complex and special.

Everything…each component on the plate can tell a story. Each is full of many flavors but they all go together. There is a mole squash (or duck) taco that is full of flavors and is on a house made nixtamalized tortilla. The carrot was candied, green beans are layered with flavors, there is smoked sweet potato with pecans, an interesting chayote also known as pear squash, a potato. This was a really stellar plate.

We ended with Yams with Guavas and Chocolate Mousse. It was a sweet ending to a lovely meal. The whole staff was very welcoming to us and made light conversation with us. Philip also made an extra effort to welcome us and thanked us for dining and he wasn’t even our waiter.

www.BarrioCafeGrandReserva.com

Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! You would travel across town to dine here!

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

The Forking Truth

UPDATE*****CLOSED and ReOPENED as Vaigai South Indian Restaurant.

Chennai Cafe recently opened in Glendale AZ on Bell Rd in the Walmart Shopping Strip by 59th Ave. This is a South Indian Restaurant that offers a Buffet at lunch time and a menu for dinner. I thought for my first visit I’d try the buffet. Service was typical for a buffet. There was no interaction with servers but they did clear plates. They gave us a pitcher of water and pretty metal cups with a tray were already on the table. I don’t think this establishment offers any other beverages but I could be wrong about that. I didn’t see any other beverages in sight and they had an empty Cocoa Cola refrigerator that just looked like it should contain beverages.

Desserts were first on the buffet and they had a lot of them followed by vegetarian soup.

Next was more than ten pans of vegetarian food and the last 5 or 6 pans contained mostly chicken on the bone dishes and one mutton dish.

When i passed the desserts it was difficult to tell what the names of the dishes were because someone wrote with marker on the pans and it sort of steamed off. I tried a good amount of the offerings.

This was the first time I ever saw the Naan Bread on a buffet. Usually they just bring it to you fresh from the kitchen. For being on a buffet the naan bread was still in good shape. Most of the Chicken dishes were moist and flavorful and on the bone. We both favored the vegetarian biryani over the chicken biryani. It had much more flavor. I also tried some eggplant, some okra and a few other things. All good….

Then I tried a sampling of most of the desserts.

I thought the most delicious of the desserts was the Gulab Jamun (the soaked doughnut). That would be the only dessert I would try next time.

When we were finished…….

No-one presented us with a check so we walked up to the register and waited till someone would take payment.

It really is very cool that this New South Indian Restaurant opened in Glendale!

Today it was an amazing value…..for so much tasty food……I don’t like posting prices because I do expect the price to change….but it was only $21.00 for two people. I also am fearful about posting anything about buffets because buffets do tend to differ by the hour.

www.ChennaiCafe.com

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

***********UPDATE CLOSED and ReOpened as Vaigai South Indian Restaurant.

The Forking Truth

The Sicilian Butcher is a very unique newly opened Sicilian Restaurant located in Phoenix. The specialty of the house are the Craft Meatballs in about 9 varieties that you mostly customize with a choice of sauce and a house made pasta or polenta, risotto, bread or salad. They also offer Charcuterie Boards, Pane Cunzatu (Sicilian Style Bruschetta Boards), Schiacciata (flatbreads), Salads, Panini and more!

The atmosphere is clean, airy and whimsical. My photos don’t do justice. There are so many details to see, such as a see through meat case and Butcher Hook light fixtures. They some of the playful reminders to remind you of where you are. Patio dining is also offered.

I thought for my first visit I had to try one of the Meatball offering with one of the House made pastas.

Went for the Sicilian Ahi Tuna made with raisins, pine nuts, pecorino cheese, lemon and herb bread crumbs in arrabiatta sauce.

Oddly my first meatball was already cut in half but arrived looking like it was together.

This meatball seemed to differ from my other two meatballs. It seemed dryer, dense and didn’t have as good as a flavor as meatball #2 and #3.

Number #2 and #3 had more raisins, were moist and were much better tasting….I don’t know why?????? Was it because the last two meatballs had more raisins they seemed much better or if it was because they sat in the sauce longer?????? Or perhaps it was a combination of the two…? ???? Don’t know….. (If only the meatball could talk)

Well any who two of the Sicilian Tuna Meatballs were good but the sauce and pasta were VERY GOOD! The Arrabiatta Sauce was very flavorful and MUCH more spicy than I was expecting. That sauce sure isn’t for the masses. That’s a one spicy sauce! The Paccheri Pasta were wide open tubes.  When you ate them they were like mini lasagnas in your mouth. I liked the way they held sauce and cheese. It was like putting a little gift in your mouth.

My husband had the Sausage Meatballs (pork, veal provolone, fennel, wine braised green onions, garlic and Calabrian Chili) also in Arrabiatta Sauce. But with Mafalde Pasta (long ribbons). He loved it!

I wasn’t able to finish my meal but I did want to try dessert.

We took out a hard to come by Sicilian Cassata for later.

It was a well crafted melt in your mouth sponge cake with all kinds of surprises. There was citrus, a little marzipan, ricotta, imported cherries and it was all yum!

Our server Christie was awesome! She was friendly, efficient and knowledgeable on the menu. She checked on us often. Gave and offered us things like extra ice, cheese, crushed peppers without us asking for them. She was on top of everything!

Sicilian Butcher is newly opened …..maybe not 100% perfect but seems to already be Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

I went back and my second visit did differ…….

We sat on the patio. The menu has changed little bit and the Tuna Meatballs are no longer on the menu. I went with the eggplant parmesan meatballs and stuffed gnocchi. We were served and nobody offered us grated cheese……

The gnocchi were mushy and served in oil but they were stuffed with spinach and cheese….maybe an off batch?

The Eggplant Parmesan Ball was very mushy and COLD!!!!!!!! in a sauce that differed from the delicious spicy arrabiatta sauce I had last time. Maybe they gave us marinara sauce???? Sauce was good just not the same. Nobody checked on us during out meal. We did inform someone that acted as a manager. I left the two mushy balls in my dish. I ate one because I was very hungry and I managed to eat the mushy oily gnocchi….I was asked if I wanted the remaining balls wrapped but I didn’t because they were awful. The woman acting like a manager said she’d tell someone who could do something about the situation. We were offered a dessert by our server and that was it.

Any who…….

www.TheSicilianButcher.com

Everything is subject to change and your experience (OR MY EXPERIENCE) may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

Tim Finnegan’s Irish Restaurant and Pub is located in the 59TH Ave and Bell Road Strip Mall that’s anchored by a WinCo Grocery Store. This is a small but cozy Irish Pub. The decor is lots of dark wood, decorated with homey artifacts and a big well stocked bar.

The soft opening menu offers Modern Irish Food, Not so Irish Food and Traditional Irish Favorites. On Finnegan’s Website you can watch a “Check Please” Video of when this restaurant (from former location) was a feature. On the Video they say that they are actually Irish Owned and Operated. I saw in the video and was told in the restaurant that everything they serve is made by scratch in house.

We started out by sharing a Wasabi Caesar Salad.

We received fresh crisp romaine leaves that were tossed in a DELICIOUS dressing mixed with parmesan cheese. The salad was topped with extremely crisp and flavorful croutons. It was a very tasty salad.

For dinner I had the Large Fish and Chips.

Everything on my plate was great! I received a lightly battered meaty juicy filet of Cod in a thin but shatteringly crisp batter. I also received a generous portion of hand cut seasoned fries, a well seasoned tarter sauce and delicious tasting fresh cole slaw. The cole slaw was a bit wetter than I like but it still was delicious and seasoned just so.

My husband had the Lamb Shepard’s Pie.

It came with a great mashed potato topping and brown bread. I hear it was really really good!

Everything was a win and the service was phenomenal too!

I think Irish Eyes and Non-Irish Eyes are smiling because this seems to be a very good restaurant that just moved into the neighborhood!

Tim Finnegan’s seems to be Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.TimFinnegans.com

EVERY FORKING Thing is subject to change and YOUR experience may or may NOT differ.

The Forking Truth

Pa’La has been one of the most anticipated restaurants of the year to open in Phoenix. The Co-Owner and Chef has done the most amazing culinary creations at several of Phoenix’s most cherished restaurants. This isn’t your usual restaurant. The menu is very limited to a few tapas plates, a couple seafood grain bowls and an open sandwich but the ingredients used are the highest quality. Pa’La is a small but a cozy restaurant. The exterior is a small old homestyle bungalow but inside is sleek and modern.

Outdoors is a slightly larger patio.

Pa’ La (at this time December-2017) offers a limited daily changing Monday-Friday casual Lunch Time Menu. The food seems to have an Italian accent like the Chef but it’s mixed with other accents. Like Spanish for Manchego Cheese and Asian for Soy Sauce.

On my visit the menu was broken down to a few small Tapas Plates, Two Fresh Seafood Muti Grain Vegetable Bowls, a Schiacciata (Open Faced Tuscan Style Sandwich) and Farro Cookies.

Pa’La is casual restaurant…You order at the counter and pay. Before you seat yourself you can see the postage sized kitchen with the Chef, help, a wood burning stove and grill.

We shared one of the Tapas Plates….The Artichokes in Extra Virgin Olive Oil.

The Artichokes seemed like they were marinated in a good quality olive oil and were seasoned with a mild fruity pepper and were served with Taraccini (Italian snack cracker). Have to be honest and admit I know Tapas means small plate but these artichokes are much smaller than my picture shows. This was about a quarter of a very small artichoke. ($5.00)

We shared the Harpooned Swordfish Ranon Navarro Bowl (Grain Bowl) and-

The Schiacciata (open faced Tuscan Style Whole Grain Bread Sandwich)

Both plates were detailed with many quality ingredients. The Swordfish Bowl was topped with a generous portion of fresh Harpooned Fish from Chula Seafood. The fish was carefully seasoned and had a mild wood taste to it. It was more moist than most Swordfish I had before. The fish rested over an assortment of a salad of nutty chewy grains with several roasted vegetables and seeds. My bowl also contained insanely expensive Wu Wan Wo Soy Sauce ($40.00 for about 8.5 oz.)  but it was used very sparingly and I couldn’t single that taste out.

The Schiacciata (open faced Tuscan Style Sandwich) was served on a flavorful fresh made grain flat bread and was topped with assorted greens, rosemary ham and manchego cheese.

We saved room to try the Farro Cookies with Grapefruit Jam.

These cookies seem like what could be an Italian Variation of Thumb Print Cookies.

The Farro Cookie is like a nutty kind of shortbread to me and that Grapefruit Jam was mighty powerful and tasted like a genuine bitter grapefruit. It was sort of refreshing in a weird way and really woke me up because up till now everything I tried was delicate and very natural tasting.

Pa’La is brand new and isn’t ready for dinner service (at this time 12-2017) The Best might be yet to come!

www.PaLaKitchen.com

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

The Forking Truth

At the time of this review The Herb Box Restaurant is in two locations in Scottsdale (North Scottsdale and Old Town Scottsdale). The Herb Box Restaurants are independently female owned restaurants. The menu offers a heavy focus on healthy vegetable based dishes. They serve as much as possible locally sourced foods, cage free eggs, hormone free natural meats and nitrate free bacon. The atmosphere is small and cozy but energetic. They also have an indoor/outdoor bar and a patio with live music.

The Herb Box offers many different appetizers that are “out of the box” and very different. We decided to start with the Vegan Nosh Board.

We received 4 small bowls of fried vegetables that were really different.

The bowl on the far left are the Crip Brussels Sprouts Chips. The Brussels Sprouts leaves are fried till crisp, taste sort of nutty and somehow are very light and seem oil free. I didn’t notice the yellow pepper aioli in the bottom of the dish till I got there. They are very tasty and easy to shovel in. Second bowl from the left are the Kale Pakora Chips with Corn, Sweet Onion, Sweet Hot Serrano Glaze and Vegan Yellow Pepper Aioli. (This one was one of my favorites) These chips were layered with flavors and texture. They had that hot sweet savory crunchy thing going on. They almost had a toffy crunch feel in the mouth.They were surprisingly delicious! Edamame Hummus were just simply fried and had a light dusting of some kind of better tasting sea salt. I don’t get the hummus among us connection here. Nor did I get hummus………Another of the favorite dishes was the Korean Fried Cauliflower. I only got a small taste of it but the Cauliflower was wildly flavorful with Korean Hot Pepper Sauce, Asian flavors and were tossed with quinoa, some pea sprouts and pea pods. I have to say that was one interesting Vegan Plate!

Another starter we tried was the Smoked Trout Beignets (I think it was spelled Beinegts on the menu…..?. Well anyway it basically was a Smoked Trout fish fritter or croquette that was served with a Roasted Red Pepper Aioli. It was also suppose to come with Cornichons that we didn’t receive.

I tried one Smoked trout ball by cutting it in half. It was too smokey for me….all I tasted was smoke…….but then I tried the other half with the Red Pepper Aioli and then like magic it was better and delicious!  Well any who the Smoked Trout Balls were delicious with lots of the Red Pepper Aioli.

We decide to share another plate and try the Urban Market Steak Salad.

Its very buttery tender Grilled Beef Tenderloin in a ancho Bourbon Demi with a detailed salad of Smokey Blue Cheese, Avocado, Watercress, Sugared Pecans, Dried Corn, Bacon, a few other things with a Blue Cheese Vinaigrette. The salad was much lighter than it looks and the blue cheese was used very sparingly not to over power anything.

We could stop now but desserts are a big feature here so we had to try one.

They all look great!

What to pick?

Went with Pumpkin Pie because it’s that time of year for Pumpkin Pie.

This pie is unique. (My phone didn’t capture the edible glitter on the top.)

The cream taste sort of like like cannoli filling. It’s also not too sweet.The custard is creamy, not too sweet and swings towards nutmeg.The crust is thin and is better than most pie crusts you get out because it’s edible and doesn’t taste like a block of flour like the average pie crust.

My first visit to The Herb Box was interesting! I enjoyed the food but it seemed like management was off on my visit because of the missing items on plates. If management was on   their game I think the plates would have have been complete.  I’m surprised that the server didn’t  recognize or care that two of the plates weren’t complete. There should have been some kind of  COMMUNICATION by the server or management…..I would be very understanding if someone said something to me….like I’m sorry we are out of that instead of just giving me the plates and hoping or not caring I won’t notice………… I also happened to come across on review sites that my Vegan Nosh Board was significantly smaller than what other people were served. I sent the pictures of the two appetizer plates to The Herb Box hoping for a reply….so I just don’t stew or speculate on what the issues were….. As of this date nobody from The Herb Box replied to me.

The food is good but I recommend to take a photo of the menu while dining to make sure you get everything that you are expecting.

www.TheHerbBox.com

The Forking Truth is that EVERYTHING is subject to change and YOUR experience or MY experience may or may NOT differ.

The Forking Truth

FnB Scottsdale AZ

FnB Restaurant is located in Arts District of Old Town Scottsdale AZ. This is a contemporary restaurant that serves an ever changing innovated menu of vegetable and farm focused globally inspired foods. You might find things such as Bagna Cauda (warm hot Italian Dip), Shiraz Salad (Persian Tomato & cucumber salad), Sauce Gribich (French cold hard yolk sauce), maybe you also might find Langos on the menu (Hungarian Fried Bread). FnB also offers a well thought out wine list that happens to showcase many of Arizona’s Finest Wines. For the last several years the Chef has been nominated for the James Beard Award of South West Best Chef so let me tell you the food is so let me tell you that the food is really Forking Special Here!

FnB offers formal but casual indoor seating and a small but cozy patio.

They start us off with Locally Made Good quality bread and Olive Oil.

It’s always difficult to decide on what to order because they offer SO MANY small plates that all sound Amazing! Our host the Co-owner is always remembers us and is very welcoming and helpful. He explains the more unusual menu selections.

We decide to start with the Langos (Hungarian fried bread made with potatoes)

My Half

Oh My! This is the Most Elevated Potato Chip Sandwich I could have ever dreamed of. The bread is tasty, crisp and seems light as a feather. It’s topped with a garlic-ee aioli. On top of that is shaved fennel, fresh made potato chips, heirloom radishes and grated cured egg. Wow…it’s really great!

We also try the Butterkin Squash Plate.

The Butterkin (a Butternut crossed with Pumpkin Squash) taste amazing with pippin rojo, (a sort of Dried Chili, sesame and pumpkin seed mole) A little quinoa and pepitas garnish the plate.

The dinners are usually very large in portion size. Usually I get my own and bring half home. This time we split the Pink Grouper for dinner.

This is 1/2

Grouper is a harder unforgiving fish to prepare and this one here is perfect. The wood grill adds a wonderful flavor to the moist fish. Bok Choy, Chanterrelles and very sweet firm corn go together like magic in a onion(i’itoi)  ginger sauce.

I’m really full and need to stop eating but we go for dessert because it’s always great here.

Got the Apple Sharlotka.

It’s basically like an apple cake.That is suppose to be made with tart apples and sugar, flour and eggs. It’s a cake that lacks milk and butter. It’s very natural tasting and almost taste sugar free. The apples are sort of tart but the powdered sugar add just enough sweetness.

FnB is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! You will travel across town to dine here!

www.FnBrestaurant.com

Everything is subject to change and your experience may differ.

The Forking Truth

Ocotillo serves quality casual detailed American Food with International and Local accents. The menu is wonderfully enormous with an astonishing variety and changes with the seasons. There is more than a Modern Stylish Dining Room to dine in. They also offer a Beer Garden, a Coffee Shop and Multiple patios. This might be an acre foodie paradise Compound in Phoenix.

Ocotillo is among my favorite restaurants in Metro Phoenix and I do drive across town to dine here.

It was extremely difficult to decide on what to order. They had about THIRTY items on the menu to try that all sound delicious and special. The menu was broken down into Salads, Vegetable Plates, Small Plates, Sandwiches, and Large Plates.

We started out by sharing one of the Small Plates…..but as you can see by my photo the plate isn’t actually small.

Here was the House Smoked Salmon Plate with Crispy Potato Cake, Celery Root Puree and Apple Herb Salad. The salmon was nicely seasoned and was rich and buttery with a careful amount of smoke. It was resting over a very delicious crispy potato cake that was zippy with a little hot pepper. The apple herb salad was light and refreshing and balanced out the rich parts on the plate. The creamy celery root puree was different and creative and ties all the flavors together. I would have been happy just to have this plate as my meal.

For my meal I ordered the Fried Korean Chicken Sandwich.

My photo really doesn’t do this sandwich justice….or shows how ENORMOUS this sandwich really is. The sandwich is delicious and wonderfully spicy. It was made with Juicy flavorful chicken. The sandwich was made with gochujang (a spicy fermented sort of ketchup made with Korean peppers), grilled scallions and kimchee slaw. It’s powerfully flavorful. I don’t believe a sandwich has to be gigantic to be good but it doesn’t hurt a bit to enjoy the rest of a delicious sandwich a second time either. I didn’t weigh the amount of chicken in this sandwich so I don’t really know how big it was but I am guessing that they gave me 8 ounces of chicken (at least…..maybe more!). Off on the side was a detailed grain salad with vegetables.

My husband had the Crispy Pork Flautas. (off the Large Plates Section)

Three Pork Flautas, Green Chili Hominy, Crema, Pico De Gallo, Queso Fresco and a Fried Egg that has also been Grilled. You can see this plate is very detailed.

Beautiful food so far I always enjoyed myself here!

I have to say Ocotillo is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

www.OcotilloPHX.com

As we ALL KNOW everything is subject to change and your experience may or may NOT differ.

The Forking Truth