Tacos Jalisco is located in South Scottsdale and serves mostly Jalisco Style Mexican Food. This is not a fancy place. I can tell you the food is legit and you don’t have to “peso much” here. (excuse the bad pun) But honestly speaking your dollar truly stretches very far here and the food is good..The two rarely happen together.

This is what it looks like when you walk in.

It’s busy and it’s hard to take pictures.

Here’s the dining room.

Tacos are only $1.51 EACH and are made with in-house made tortillas and slow roasted meat. I thought for $1.51 how big can they be? I thought they would be bite size with very little meat but boy was I wrong.

4 chicken tacos were $6.04 and 4 carne asada tacos were also $6.04 (at this time 7-17)

Just like in Mexico they double shell the tacos and they are generously packed with seasoned meat, cilantro, sauce and onions. They also gave us chips and we picked up some house made condiments from the salsa bar.

The tacos were both moist and flavorful. I still can’t get over the $1.51 price for each taco. It seems a BOATLOAD of blue-eyed taco restaurants have mushroomed all over metro Phoenix and not all but many of them sell much smaller lesser filled not as tasty tacos for around $5.00 each!

Since we didn’t imagine getting so much food we also decided to share a Chile Relleno Plate ($7.78)

Not one but TWO stuffed mild but tasty battered poblano peppers stuffed with mild milky gooey Mexican Cheese. The hefty platter also came with house made creamy refried beans, flavorful rice, salad, creamy avocado sauce, chips and house made tortillas. These Chile Rellenos were a lot tastier than some others I’ve tried at other places that cost much more! Tastier real roasted poblano instead of a canned chili like some places do and the real cheese not a pre-shredded blend that doesn’t taste as good.

Much Cheaper and much better than not all but a lot of places!

No website you just have to visit them at 3060 N 68th St Scottsdale AZ open 7 days a week starting early at 8am and open not all but some holidays.

Tacos Jalisco is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! If you find yourself in South Scottsdale maybe at the Zoo or near Tempe you might want to give this place a try if your in the mood for Jalisco Style Tacos.

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

The Forking Truth

Ummmm Dougnuts……Hot Toasted Doughnut Sandwiches stuffed with small batch handcrafted artisan Ice-Cream. Ummmmmmmmmm! Novel Ice Cream is a very small Ice-Cream Shack located in Down Town Phoenix AZ.

It really is a shack…surrounded by other small shacks!

The inside is very small…small like a really big closet or master bath.

Here are some of the Ice-Creams.

Here is the whimsical fun wall behind us. The owner Brandon told us a local Mexican Artist painted the wall with the anthropomorphic cones.

You should treat yourself to delicious creamy ice-cream that you can enjoy in a variety of ways. In a fresh made waffle, maybe topped with cereal topping? Maybe your favorite flavor of ice-cream stuffed into a fresh hot glazed doughnut!

The shack is very small and there is no room for indoor seating.

The Doughnut Sandwiches are mighty delicious. Creamy flavorful ice-cream. I had the Panna Cream with imported Italian Cherries and my husband had Quality Chocolate stuffed into Hot Toasted Doughnuts. Totally worth the calories…delicious! Good thing this place is pretty far for me so I can’t indulge as often as I want.

The only seating is outside on the deck patio.

I see something strange from the patio.

WTFork!

I’ll get a better look on my way out.

No website but you can find Novel Ice-Cream on Facebook.

Novel Ice-Cream is Worth a Fork!

Great ice-cream if you happen to be in the area but no restroom and no escape from the 120 degree dry heat.

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

The Forking Truth

Without a navigation system you might pass El Alboroto Mexican Seafood Restaurant by.  One year after opening they still don’t have an outside sign on the building. When you get closer you can see that you are at the right place.

What does El Alboroto mean?  According to the dictionary Alboroto translates to an uproar, a  disturbance or a riot. Maybe it translates to riotous seafood?

This isn’t a fancy place and Mexican TV is on. Our waitress speaks Spanish to most of the guest but switched up to English for us.

The menu is in Spanish with English but lacks descriptions.

I asked what the Pescado Relleno was like.

The waitress said the fish is stuffed with octopus.

I ordered the Shaken Grilled Fish. I asked what it was and was told it was fish that comes with peppers.

I received this.

My fish is fried crispy. I don’t know if it was grilled too? And yes there are some peppers there. Looks like Ranchero Fish? ….anyway….It’s tasty and is a large portion. It’s like someone’s  Mexican Mom made it for you. It’s very home style.

My husband had the Diablo Shrimp. He said the shrimp were a little bbq like in the taste.

Last time I had the wrapped fish (sea bass). It was very good and maybe better than a similar plate I had in Mexico. At the time it was the best Mexican fish dish I had in Metro Phoenix.

This dish had a great presentation.  It appears and taste like they had a different chef then.

My husband had the same shrimp dish and it also differs in appearance and taste.

Still good but a little more home style now.

El Alboroto doesn’t have a website but you can find them on Facebook.

Not big on atmosphere.  if your in the neighborhood and you don’t want the usual Sonoran Stuff and  if you don’t feel like trekking to downtown Phoenix for Mexican Style Seafood…….here it is!

The Forking Truth is that EVERY FORKING THING is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ!

The Forking Truth

The owner is James Beard Award Wining Chef Chris Bianco. He might be the only chef that has won a James Beard Award for Pizza. His pizza is legionary. It’s Arizona fused with Italy and the East Coast. Bianco’s Pizzas are considered to be the very best pizzas in the country by many publications and food TV shows. Oprah Winfrey herself and many other celebrities have dined at Pizzeria Bianco announcing to the world that this pizza to be the best.

What are Pizzeria Bianco Pizzas?

The pizzas are Neapolitan in style with a thin crust that’s blistered and charred with a wet middle. They dough is made with special Arizona Heirloom grains that are ground fresh for Chef Bianco. The milky cheese is Bianco house made and the sauce is made from tomatoes that are authentic in style specially grown in California for Chef Bianco.

Between me and my husband we had all the pizzas a number of times.

I do apologies for not indulging in pizza today after I might have wet your appetite for a slice.

I’ve been to this restaurant several times and had many different experiences here.

Here’s a little bit of the history and hopefully I am recalling it correctly.

If I recall correctly this restaurant opened as Italian Restaurant and offered a more involved menu. Somehow the name of the restaurant didn’t quite fit and latter the restaurant was split in half as two restaurants and the front dining room was called Pizzeria Bianco and the back dining room stayed more formal and was know for a short time as Trattoria Bianco serving pastas and dinners.

Now this restaurant is just known as Pizzeria Bianco. It’s not a fancy place. It sort of has the look that it’s been here forever.

Here is the current menu.

They started us off with complimentary house baked crusty bread and high quality extra virgin olive oil.

I soon received my Two Wash Farms Chicken Salad served with AZ Creamer Potatoes and Local Greens.

The greens are simple and very plain. The chicken is a mix white and dark meat. It is extremely tender, moist and very lightly dressed but flavorful. The salad contains some sweet chunks of apple, fresh herbs and crispy celery. The potatoes are cooked till they are very creamy and are tossed in a fresh tasting sweet whole grain mustard and mixed with bread and butter pickles, onions and seasoning. Pretty darn tasty!

My husband had the Francesca’s Meatball Sandwich.

Well my husband didn’t have any trouble finishing this off so I guess it was good!

The Italian Ice is like no other….it truly is Amazing so we had to have it!

On the left is nutmeg and on the right is chocolate. The Italian Ice is slightly creamy….I grew up on the East Coast were Italian Ice is very popular and I have never come across Italian Ice like this before but it is also delicious. Today they served the Italian Ice with very rich but also delicious shortbread cookies.

Pizzaria Bianco is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork! The Food is simple but good and is made of local and quality ingredients. The Pizza is legendary…..It’s up to you to decide on the Pizza!

www.PizzariaBianco.com

The Forking Truth is that EVERY FORKING Thing is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

Dishes from the past we had here.

Swiss Chard Lasagna

Beef Bolognese Pappardelle

Market Salad

Arancini

Chicken Salad

Grilled Mortadella and Cabbage Sandwich

Pasta E Fagioli

Ocotillo is among one of my favorite restaurants in Downtown Phoenix.  It might be a one mile square compound filled with multiple patios, an outdoor coffee bar and an outdoor cocktail bar in addition to the restaurant.

115 degrees F today

empty at 115 degrees F

Ocotillo offers a large ever changing menu that’s broken down into salads, vegetables, small plates, sandwiches and large plates. Everything is quality and much of the menu is locally sourced.

They were very busy today at lunch time and the dining room was full since it was too hot to dine on the patios in the 115 degree F heat today. They asked us to wait an hour or to sit at a lone table they added to the bar so we sat there.

This seat wasn’t bad. We are away from the dining room but we gained full view of the kitchen and bar.

We started by sharing a Tomato Tartine off the Vegetable Menu….I sort of forgot what a Tartine is…….I was thinking tart……but I was wrong a Tartine is really a French Bruschetta. Anyway is was delicious.

It started with quality toasted bread that was topped with what tasted like fresh made ricotta cheese and fresh herbs. There was shaved squash, nuts and the sweetest grilled tomatoes ever. This was very good!

I tried the Korean Style BBQ Brisket Sandwich.

Wow! What an enormous portion. This is enough to feed a lumberjack. It smells delicious. Here’s a better look at the sandwich.

It’s a generous amount of tender and not too fatty brisket topped with kimchi slaw, lettuce and Sriracha mayonnaise. It’s very tasty and I get to bring home the other half for another day. The fries are very above average and are very good. Really super fluffy moist interiors and crispy and seasoned well on the outside. I think they were fried at least twice to make fries this good.

My husband had the Roasted Pork Torta.

The sandwich came with a spicy sauce.

I’ve always been to full to think of dessert at Ocotillo so sadly I’ve never tried dessert here.

Here are some but not all of the plates we tried in the past at Ocotillo.

Salmon and spinach salad

Thai Style Chicken

Tandoori Style Chicken Sandwich

Japanese Style Fish and Chips

Chicken Mole Salad

Ocotillo is Worth a Fork!

www.OcotilloPhx.com

Worth a Fork! You might travel across town to dine here because it’s a very nice restaurant that offers a very nice menu.

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

The Forking Truth

Fabio on Fire is well known and established as a mobile food service that specializes in Italian Food. They feature hand made baked goods, pastas and Neapolitan Pizzas. You might come across Fabio on Fire at local festivals and Farmers Markets. Now Fabio on Fire has a Brick and Mortar location in Peoria AZ. The restaurant is fresh and new looking. It’s casual with an open kitchen so you can see all the action.

The menu offers appetizers, mostly authentic style Neapolitan Pizzas, house made pastas, breads, baked goods and house made gelato.

For our fist visit we decided to try the pizza and went with a Diavola and a Marinara.

Diavola

Marinara

The crust is blistered and charred but not burnt. The pizza has a chewy crust with great structure and is developed with flavor. The pizzas are both very thin and also typical of the Neapolitan Style with a wet but not too wet center. The Diavola is topped with milky cheese, certified tomatoes and a hard to come by quality spicy salami. The marinara is topped with a wildly flavorful sauce that is also very garlicky. Both of these pizzas are light and don’t weigh you down. Thanks to my husband we had room to try the house made gelato.

The chocolate is different and has a great mouth feel and taste like Italian Chocolate. The Strawberry is Amazing. Taste like the very best strawberries ever. It’s so amazing I can only dream that they open a gelato shop next door……..

Fabio on Fire at the time of this first visit has only been open a couple days and is already a gem of Peoria.

The pizzas already are among the best on the west side of metro Phoenix.

www.FabioOnFire.com

Fabio On Fire is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

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

The Forking Truth

Original Cuisine Chinese Restaurant was on my radar for a number of weeks. This week I happened to read a glowing rare 4.5 star review from the Arizona Republic so Original Cuisine got catapulted to my short list on new places to try. I must start by saying that Original Cuisine specializes in Fiery Mouth Numbing Sichuan Food. Not everything they serve is spicy but they serve mostly foods you don’t find at American Chinese Restaurants. Like Pork Blood Intestine in Hot Chili Oil and Spicy Duck Feet.  If you are only used to take out Chinese like Beef and Broccoli, Shrimp Lo Mein or Orange Chicken it’s possible that you won’t enjoy yourself here because this is real Chinese Food. Here’s the menu and see what you think.

One might think of formal dining with a 4.5 star rating but the rating might be mostly based on the food. This isn’t a fancy place but the hanging lights are kind of fun to look at.

This restaurant looks like it used to be a fast food restaurant to me. It has the same woody fake brick floor I remember from the OLD Burger King and Hardy Fast Food Restaurants by my childhood home. The walls here are covered with a variety of wall papers. Some of the wallpapers looks like brickwork. Some wallpaper looks like paneling and some are sort of Asian Cartoonish. On my visit service was ok it was fast and my order was efficient but I never got the extra napkins we asked for……….that we really needed.

They use the tiniest peanuts I’ve ever seen to hold the chop sticks.

All the Dish-ware is cute.

We made our order and decided to share three plates….One of the plates we asked for was Spicy Fried Chicken with Chilies. We were there when they were only open less than an hour and they were already all sold out…..

So we started with Pan Fried Rice Balls with Sautéed Bell Peppers.

The Rice balls are thin shells that are made of pounded rice filled with black sesame seeds that are creamy like tahini. They kind of burst in your mouth when you eat them. Our rice balls were seasoned with something brine-y and sautéed bell peppers. The rice balls are tasty so if you like things like hummus you should enjoy them. I do warn you the rice balls are tasty but seem very rich so you will only want to eat 3-4 balls in a sitting.

The one dish I always wanted to try from Miu’s Cuisine (now closed for business) was the Lettuce in Garlic Sauce. We saw that dish here and also remembered The Food Critic from the Arizona Republic Review enjoying this dish so we decided to try it.

This dish reminds me of my Aussie Shepard because one of her favorite treats is the crunchy part from Romaine Lettuce. She actually slaps my leg when I prepare salads and begs for the crunchy romaine middles. The Lettuce in Garlic Sauce seems like a crunchy romaine leaf in a mild garlicy chicken sauce. The middle of the lettuce stays crunchy and the leafy part is almost unnoticeable. This dish is tasty light and mild and cuts the heat from our main dish.

We shared the House Special Barbecue Fish that is a whole catfish bubbling with molten hot oil, spicy chilies, mouth numbing ash berries (Sichuan Peppercorns), potatoes, peanuts, lotus root and wood ear mushrooms. It’s quite a feast.

I normally don’t care for catfish but I have to say this was really delicious!  I was able to eat some of the fish like pieces of fried chicken. I pulled off the crispy ends and just picked it up and ate it like a leg. It’s spicy but not too spicy because of the mouth numbing pepper. My nose is running yet I am almost craving more heat. But it’s so tasty….

Original Cuisine in Mesa AZ is Worth a Fork for Sichuan Food

No Website you just have to visit them at 1853 W Broadway Rd in Mesa AZ

Worth a Fork! You will travel across town to get the best there is in Sichuan Cuisine.

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

The Forking Truth

La Barquita isn’t a fancy restaurant nor is it in the best part of town. It a hole in the wall kind of place that serves up made from scratch Mexican Foods and Breakfast all day.

They started us off with complimentary chips and very good salsa that was served warm.

My husband picked well and went with maybe the signature dish……..The Molcajete.

A flaming hot (in temperature) Cauldron with bubbling flavorful sauce topped with tender steak (carne asada), chicken, house made chorizo, fresh cut cactus pad, and blocks of cheese. The meat fest included very good guacamole, house made refried beans and very good house made tortillas. All the meats were tender and flavorful. Nothing was too spicy just tasty.

I wasn’t as successful with my pick……the Fried Perch.

The flesh on my fish was a little crisp.

It was like most of the flesh evaporated and was mostly hard and crunchy.

The mushrooms that topped the hard crunchy fish were drowned with what tasted like half a jar of jarred garlic and a few generous handfuls of salt.

Fries were oozing with oil and the rice was porridge-like.

If someone asked me how my meal was I would have told them some of this…but not all because that is too much.

The Mocajete was very good and you should have a positive experience with the Mocajete.

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

La Barquita doesn’t have a website so you just have to visit them at 2334 E Mcdowell Rd in Phoenix AZ

View from parking lot

The Forking Truth

Flower Child is a casual health focused restaurant that’s suitable for vegan, vegetarian and low gluten or meat eaters diets. The menu is mostly vegetable focused. They offer salads, vegetable bowls, wraps and more. You have the option to add proteins. The restaurant is very casual as you order at the counter, grab a number and seat yourself.

In the comfortable potting shed style dining room.

Or the attractive patio that’s comfortable via great misters in even the hot 100 degree days .

I go to pick my tea and went with the Black Passion Fruit.

We decided to share several things.

I went for the Thai Cashew Quinoa bowl with added salmon. (Here is how it looked the first time)

The salmon was a nice portion and was cooked reasonably well. I really enjoyed the snap peas. They were so sweet, fresh and crisp and were just as good as a snap pea can be. While my plate was  ok it was not very flavorful……

I felt cheated as my plate lacked shiitake mushrooms, jalapeños and Thai Basil that my plate was suppose to contain. Below is a better look to see what I had from my fist visit.

I felt cheated so I thought it would be a good idea to let the restaurant know about what I was served. The restaurant offered me a slight discount to come back. I came back and ordered the same plate again and it is not much but slightly different.

This time I came across three pieces of Shiitake Mushroom and one leaf of Basil. Both me and my husband didn’t recognize or taste Jalapeño in the dish but it was ok. The plate didn’t contain enough basil for any flavor. Did the bowl contain any fragment of jalapeño?……….I don’t think so…… If you order this plate you MUST ask for extra Thai Basil and extra Jalapeño or you won’t get enough to notice any. Well this time I can’t say the mushrooms were missing. I was surprised that nobody checked on me and asked if everything was alright since they were aware I had an issue the last time I was here.

Well any who……….

We decided to share a Mix and Match Vegetable plate since it sounds so appealing. On our first visit we tried a combination of Sweet Potatoes, Indian Style Cauliflower and Japanese Eggplant. The Eggplant was our favorite! It wasn’t oily like real Asian Eggplant but it was flavorful and tasty!

The Vegetable Plate we picked the second time was really Great!

Mashed Potatoes…Ummmm, Japanese Eggplant and the surprise was the tasty Asparagus with mint and whole grains. I would get this again as my meal. It was really good!

My husband got The Rebel Wrap and it  is described as contained grass fed beef, charred onion, port salut cheese, horse radish yogurt and arugula on a house made whole wheat flax and chia seed wrap.

My husband said the wrap was flavored nicely and he really liked the port salut cheese but the steak was chewy (the first time) and the wrap only contained a small portion of steak.

Since the amount of beef was so light on our first visit my husband asked for extra beef in his wrap for our second visit and received this.

The steak was tender, abundant and delicious this time.

www.IAMAFLOWERCHILD.COM

THE FORKING TRUTH is that your experience may indeed DIFFER and FORKING EVERYTHING is subject to change.

The Forking Truth

Match Cuisine & Cocktails is located in the Boutique Hotel called the FOUND:RE in down town Phoenix AZ. This small hotel is really part art museum that displays a mostly changing gallery of unique artwork.

This new restaurant Match Cuisine & Cocktails is sort of new again as they have a new chef that is introducing new menu items. I thought this would be an interesting pick for restaurant week and it was…….

We arrived slightly early for our reservation so we were asked to sit in the lounge.

We were hoping to partake in some happy hour food and drink since we rarely ever take advantage of that anywhere.

I didn’t notice any reduced pricing on any of the food but did notice a couple dollars off on a few drinks I wasn’t interested with so we walked around looking at the artworks some more.

Interactive Projection on the floor

We do get seated with menus and both decide to order off the restaurant week menu.

They start us off with wines that pair expertly well with our appetizers.

My Farm House Salad might have been the most detailed salad I ever had anywhere. It must have contained about 50 ingredients. The salad was packed with a whole farm of local shaved baby vegetables, flowers, different sauces, dehydrated items gelled things and even more. It was like a journey around the world with changing seasons. It sure was Forking Interesting. Every bite did taste different. My husband had Fire Roasted Oysters with Chinese Pork Sausage, Takana, Miso Custard and Smoked Soy. It was so different he didn’t know how he felt about it.

Dinner was….Whole Deboned Roasted Sea Bream with Pardon Peppers, Olives, Tomato, Arugula, Fennel and Burnt Lemon Vinaigrette and Wood Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Morels (served after we noticed they were missing), Salted New Potatoes, Ramps and Burnt Carrot Madeira Reduction.

My Fish seemed fresh as could be…..and didn’t taste like most fish you get in Phoenix….more like fresh like fish from California or fresh fish sent to Las Vegas……It was a very large portion that was prepared reasonably well. The only problem was the timing of arrival. My plate arrived well after the fish was prepared and it was near cold…..I figure I took too long eating the salad so the timing was off. My plate also came with a truck full of vegetables. One of the vegetables were the best Heirloom Tomatoes I had in some time. They were so good that if there was such a thing as Jesus these tomatoes I had would make hime weep….Best tomatoes ever! I ate too much and was very full. My husband had the Beef Tenderloin Platter. Even he said the beef was good and he really thought the Ramps were interesting but even more interesting was the Burnt Carrot Madeira Reduction. I think he liked his plate but for him the portion was small. Both dinners also came with generous wine pairings that were amazing with the food.

For dessert we both had the Chocolate Pot de Creme. It was presented in a very non-traditional way.

A sweet ending to an interesting meal.

www.MatchPHX.com

Worth a Fork! Not Perfect but the highest quality fresh ingredients presented in an interesting or non-traditional way…

The Forking Truth is that your experience may or may not differ and everything is subject to change.

The Forking Truth