Mora Italian Restaurant isn’t your typical Italian Restaurant in Phoenix. It’s more like not your Grandfather’s  Italian Restaurant…..It’s like Las Vegas Quality with Approachable Pricing. The Co-Owner is – James Bead Award Wining, Celebrity Chef, Cookbook Author, Restauranteur, Food Network’s Chopped Judge………and recent Phoenix Transplant…Scott Conant.

Picture taken at recent AZCENTRAL Food & Wine Festival

Spotted Chef Conant on the line on my way in.

From my seat the entrance looks like this.

I turn around and see an attractive patio that surprisingly overlooks a busy street.

The dining room features wood, leather or leather like seating, lots of Ferrari Red and Italian Pop Culture adorning the wall.

The Spaghetti Eating Heathen Women are quite memorable.

We start out with Polenta with Mushrooms and Truffle Sugo.

It’s rich and creamy with a variety of well developed mushrooms of different textures. It’s seasoned just so…It’s special occasion delicious!

New we share the Ricotta and Mascarpone Gnudi.

They are like ravioli fillings…Sort of like if a ravioli had a baby with angel food cake, topped with concentrated tomato in a buttery thin sauce.

My husband had a very unique kind of Short Rib. He said it didn’t seem braised and seemed more like a grilled steak. He said it was surrounded with interesting ingredients. He thinks he remembers ingredients like artichoke, arugula, Calabrian Peppers and pumpkin seeds.I think I see endive and radicchio on the plate too. He said it was really all great together.

I had the Whole Boneless Orata ( Gilt Head Bream Fish).

It was so tender, moist and sweet. It just melted in my mouth. Even the skin was crisp and seasoned nicely. The plate came with melted leeks, faro and a grilled lemon. This was just a really great dish….I remember I had this same fish at Bartolotta’s in Las Vegas.

I was too full for dessert 🙁

I’ll save room for dessert next time 🙂

Mora Italian is Worth a Fork….but…it’s important to read below

Worth a Fork! I NOTE at the time of this review Mora Italian is a newly opened restaurant and is subject to mishaps in service and delays in the timing of serving food……but what I tried was outstanding so I’m giving them the Fork.

www.MoraItalian.com

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

The Forking Truth

Scott’s Generation’s Deli was sort of a fixture for close to 30 years on 7th Street and has relocated in a nice new fresh restaurant only a mile and a 1/2 away. The story is that they closed around 2:00 Friday afternoon, moved everything and opened for business bright and early Saturday morning. The new location is bright and cheerful looking. The deli case is still there in the front of of restaurant and a big portrait of Scott with his Father graces the front by the door.

I got seated in the back dining room.

I ordered one of my favorite plates on Scott’s Menu.

It’s actually among the finest smoked fish plates that you can get in Metro Phoenix AZ. The Smoked Fish Supreme Plate. You pick three smoked fish. The Choices are, Lake Sturgeon ($3.00 extra) Sable, Belly Lox, Nova Lox, Baked Salmon or White Fish and it comes with your choice of NY Bagel. It’s really a great value because it’s enough for two meals and not all but the majority of fish choices cost $40.00 or more a pound! The Belly lox is silky, the Sturgeon is sweet, meaty and careful laced with smoke. White Fish is just yummy! As far as I know NONE of the other NY Style Deli’s in Metro Phoenix offer Sturgeon, Sable and only one other (Chompie’s) sells Belly Lox. You are truly getting a NY Taste. It’s not a deal breaker but the bagel is among the very few served in Metro Phoenix that is similar to a real east coast type of bagel. It’s the size bagels are suppose to be and are not like the giant bagel shaped rolls they serve at most sandwich places. The texture differs slightly but it’s close.

My husband got the “Scottwich” Pastrami Sandwich.

A very stuffed sandwich of Pastrami, Kraut, Swiss Cheese, Grilled Onions and grilled Garlic Rye Bread. It certainly is a delicious sandwich. We both think the pastrami they serve here is the closest to what we remember pastrami tasting like from back east.

Sadly I have yet to try a dessert because I’m always too full. The Brownie’s sound fun. They offer Male and Female Brownies. (with or without nuts)

Other things we tried at the Scott’s Generations NY Deli

The Reuben Reuben

Potato Knish

The Harvey Triple Decker

“The Cuisine of the Delicatessen comes from a world that no longer exists.” from the movie Deli Man.

Deli Food is made by people preserving not only corned beef and pickles but history. (that quote is from me!)

www.ScottsGenerations.com

Worth a Fork!

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

The Forking Truth

The Great Wall Restaurant in Phoenix AZ is considered to be the best for Dim Sum in Arizona. In case your not familiar with the term Dim Sum it sort of translates to a lingering Chinese Brunch. Many different carts of foods get pushed around the dining room and some of them stopped at our table. The server says to you, “do you want something?” I admit I’m not the most familiar with dim sum and had to ask what they had on the cart.

The first plate we try are the familiar looking Sesame Balls.

I had sesame balls before but these were different. Instead of being filled with sweetened bean paste these were stuffed with fruit.

Not what I was expecting but still tasty.

The only chicken they offered us were chicken feet and fried chicken so we went with the fried chicken.

What was special about this chicken was the ultra crispy coating that was amazing and delicious. This chicken had many good flavors going on.

We also enjoyed the Chinese Broccoli. This vegetable looks like the Yu Choy my local Asian Market sells.

It taste better than broccoli and is more like spinach on tender not bitter stems.

We took a chance with Bean and Mushroom Stuffed Tofu Skins and Sticky Rice. We’ve had these before at other Chinese Restaurants…..but these items prepared from Great Wall are for an acquired taste.

The check came out to around $27.00…not bad for all we tried.

I saw the fresh fish tanks in the restaurant and asked the cashier what time they start serving the menu. She just recited the opening hours so I figure that English is her second language and she didn’t understand me.

Great Wall doesn’t have a website but you can find Great Wall in Phoenix AZ on Facebook

The Forking Truth

The Canyon Cafe is located in Downtown Phoenix Arizona. They serve Tex-Mex -Spanish Inspired Food. The weather was nice so we choose to be seated on the lovely large patio.

Soon a waitress drops off a generously sized basket of assorted chips and some house made salsa while we’re deciding on what to order.

The chips are very interesting, colorful and fun. The basket contains sweet potato chips and several varieties of crisp corn tortillas. Some are savory, some are sweet and some are plain with different textures. The salsa is very heavily laced with lime.

I ordered a Blacken Salmon Caesar Salad.

The greens were slightly warm and wilted. The salmon was ok but the salad tasted quite bland. Perhaps the kitchen must have been very busy and ran out of anchovy, Worcestershire and black pepper because the only things the dressing tasted like were watered down mayonnaise with lots of  lemon.  I gave a piece of lettuce to my husband to try the dressing and he said he couldn’t taste anything but the cheese on the romaine. I didn’t want to complain or send it back because you never know what kind of person is working in the kitchen.

My husband had the Chile Relleno stuffed with Fajita Steak and a side Paella Rice.

The beef inside was tender and flavorful. The Paella Style Rice was fluffy like regular rice and was infused with a great amount of smoke.

With the check they present a complimentary sweet ending of white chocolate pecan Tamale.

Lunch wasn’t perfect but there were some good things going on.

For more information please visit www.CanyonCafe.com

I note that everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

Daawat is a newly opened casual….mostly take out Indian Restaurant in North Phoenix AZ. This isn’t a fancy place with wait service. This is a hole in the wall kind of place. Here it’s no frills and you order at the counter and grab your plastic silverware and wait for your meal served on the finest styrofoam. Daawat serves a variety of styles of Indian Foods…..North Traditional Moghali, South Hyderabadi, Indo-Chinese and on the menu they say THEY Serve the Best Dhum Biryani in the Valley! The menu is interesting but lacks descriptions. Daawat offers some hard to find items that are not offered at some of the other Indian Restaurants in this area. You might need your cell phone to google some of the menu.

We started with Cut Mirch –  toasted garbanzo bean battered spicy pepper fritters. The peppers were served with a cooling sauces of tamarind and a cilantro mint sauce.

The Cut Mirch were tasty with a nice crunch and seemed oil free but were extremely fiery with heat. I’d say they were next to “Thai Hot.”  Tamarind sauce added layers of flavors and provided first aid to the heat best for me although the cilantro mint sauce was pleasant with good flavors.

We shared Chicken Vindaloo and the Chicken Dum Biryani.

This is another example of Chicken Biryani I never had before. Maybe the most fragrant and very floral….maybe made with rosewater?…I liked all the exotic flavors….they were very long lasting and refreshing in my mouth.  For me the down side was that the chicken in this dish was over cooked and on the dry side but edible. I didn’t care for the chicken in this dish but, the side tomato gravy was good an also very fragrant with good flavors.

But be on the look out for large inedible objects…….at Daawat.

My husband didn’t care for this dish because they didn’t remove all the spices and he came across cinnamon bark and accidentally ate a whole cardamon pod….

The chicken in the Vindaloo was moist, fresh and flavorful. The chili element was forgotten in this Vindaloo because it lacked any heat and tasted more like Chicken Masala…….I think they accidentally served us Chicken Masala…In that case it was a more Flavorful Layered Chicken Masala than I tried from some other places.

Portions were large and pieces are low. Menu is priced from $2.99- $10.99

For more information please visit www.DaawatAZ.com

Newly opened restaurant so it’s too new to rate.

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

The Forking Truth

Ten years back it seemed there was a budget Asian Buffet on every corner. Today many of these places are a thing of the past. It’s very difficult to keep over a hundred items of food at the right temperature and stored correctly and often buffets suffer violations at health inspections. The New China Super Buffet in Phoenix AZ might be the cleanest buffet in all of Maricopa Country at this time. The New China Super Buffet over the past twelve months has earned a grade “A” health inspections. This is very unusual and very impressive for a restaurant that offers maybe over a hundred different pans of prepared foods so it seemed worthy of a try. The atmosphere is a little dated but seems clean. The dining room chairs are extra wide and are on wheels sort of like chairs from convalescent  homes.

This is an inexpensive and very large buffet. I came for dinner on the weekend and the price was about $12.00 for all one wants to eat including beverages.

We weren’t greeted or felt welcome by the people at the hostess desk but were seated quickly in the dining room.

I take a walk around the buffet and this is what I see.

They offer a variety of sushi. I tried a few pieces and it’s it’s good for buffet style sushi.

This salmon is typical example of buffet salmon. Albumin formation is going on here from over cooking. I will pass on the salmon.

From this row I take chicken on a stick. The chicken is fresh and juicy but is very sweet with slight Asian flavors. They have Mexican Hot Sauce on the table as a condiment. I use some on the chicken to cut the sweet and make it a little spicy.

I did try a taste of the macaroni and cheese…It was very unusual looking. The pasta was florescent orange in color and then topped with a cheese sauce. I never saw florescent colored pasta before. It was slightly better than it looked.

Most of the food I tried came from this row. I tried mushroom chicken, spicy chicken and vegetables. They all seemed fresh and were prepared nicely but they all….. even the vegetables tasted exactly like the chicken on a stick. All sweet with slight Asian seasoning. It seemed like they have one universal sauce for the Asian Inspired Dishes. You can eat like a warrior here if you are a fan of the sweet slightly Asian Taste.

A few pans like the salmon contained over cooked meats. My husband tried the pork dish and he told me that the pork was very dry and tasted exactly like all the chicken dishes.

We shared an egg tart. It was the one thing I tried that I thought was delicious. It had a nice thin perfect crust and the filling was rich and smooth. It tasted cheesy and slightly sweet.

The New China Super Buffet offers many desserts, cookies, macaroons, cream filled puffs, iced cakes, peanut clusters, and four kinds of ice cream.

Our server was efficient at serving beverages and clearing plates but also made us feel slightly unwelcome by rolling her eyes and laughing slightly when she served my husband a refill.

Besides dining in…..New China Super Buffet offers a menu of Take Out Chinese Food and Take Out Buffet Food.

1/2 a Fork….better than some of the other Budget Asian Buffets I’ve been too ……Nothing was too oily or too salty…………. grade “A” by Maricopa county for the past twelve months…..downside was that most of the Asian Inspired entrees tasted the same.

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

For more information on New China Super Buffet in Phoenix AZ you will have to visit them or give them a call at 602-424-1660

The Forking Truth

My favorite place to eat a fast casual meal in the Scottsdale Fashion Plaza isn’t in the food court. It’s a cafeteria cafe in Nordstrom’s Department Store called The Market Place at Nordstrom’s. They serve eggs that are cage free, the food is organic and much of the food they offer is locally sourced. The casual menu consist of soups, salads, sandwiches, pasta, pizza, entrees and amazing looking and tasting in house baked desserts.

A few of the house made desserts at Nordstrom’s

I went threw the cafeteria line and we ordered and paid. They gave us a number and we seated ourselves. Other times they have handed us our plates over the cafeteria line then we proceed threw with a tray.

Soon our food arrives.

I got the Nicoise Salad with Herb and Dijon Roasted Salmon. My salad was full of fresh mixed greens, French Green Beans, hard eggs, olives, onion, and delicious creamy and crisp gold potatoes. The dressing that tied it all together was delicious.

Last time I had a delicious Berry Salad that I almost got again…All the salads are great here..I’ve eaten my way threw about half the salads on the menu. I’ve never felt deprived when I tried a salad here!

Berry Blue Cheese and Chicken Salad from Nordstrom’s

My husband got The Grilled Skirt Steak Chimichurri.

The steak was tender like butter and delicious. It came with a generous serving of roasted carrots, asparagus potatoes and cilantro lime vinaigrette. (steak is over the vegetables)

The Market Place Cafe at Nordstrom’s is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

For more information please visit www.restaurants.Nordstrom.com

Your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth

I never have been to Chicago and I’m not real familiar with Chicago Style Pizza. Lou Malnatis is a Famous Pizza Chain from Chicago that’s well known for their Signature Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza.  Lou Malnatis has opened their first Restaurant in Phoenix AZ and that’s a big deal so I thought I’d give it a try.

Lou Malnatis

The inside of the restaurant has a fun retro kind of interior with interesting fixtures and bright lights that spell cheese on a wall in the dining room.

We order our individual sized pizzas and are told it will take at least 30 minutes.

After about 40 minutes we receive our pizzas.

I ordered a vegetable pizza named “The Lou.”

The first thing I notice is that this is an extremely small size pizza. It looks child’s size to me.

My pizza with filled with fresh mushrooms, spinach mix that looked sort of grey, vine ripened Lou’s tomatoes (that were good), cheese blend (mozzarella, Romano, Cheddar) and topped with roma tomatoes (sort of unripe) in what they call Butter Garlic Crust.

You don’t pick up a slice and eat this pizza. You have to eat it with a knife and fork. I try a little end of the crust and it’s thin and fried pie like almost like a crostata. ( a crostata is made with olive oil based dough) The bottom of the crust is slightly thicker but still thin and is more pizza dough like. I don’t get the butter taste it almost seems more like dough that’s fried in oil….

I like the taste of the cheese blend and I also like the fresh mushrooms and vine ripened tomato sauce.

My husband tries the Malnati Chicago Classic. It’s a similar pizza but filled with lean Lou’s Sausage, vine ripened tomato sauce and cheese blend. The sausage is very lean and slightly dry. This pizza is very mildly seasoned.

Lou Malnatis is the first of Three BIG Chicago Chains of Pizza restaurants to open in Metro Phoenix AZ. (the other two chains are opening soon within the year) You might want to give them a try if you want to take part in all the hype about Chicago Style Pizza.

For more information please visit www.LouMalnatis.com

The Forking Truth

Salad and Go is a Gourmet Salad Restaurant. Salad and Go is small local chain that seems to be growing in Metro Phoenix. You either drive threw and order or use the Walk Up Window pictured above. No dining room here but they do offer a Dog Friendly Patio and gave my dogs Dog Biscuits! At Salad and Go all the food is natural and organic and made in house. They offer over TEN varieties of fresh and seasonal salads that can also be turned into wraps. They serve healthy breakfast options, smoothies and more. Prices are very low and portions are surprisingly large. All nutrition values are posted on their website. www.SaladandGo.com

I ordered the Apple and Mixed Greens Salad ($5.74) added Chicken ($1.44).

My salad contained Fresh Mixed Greens, Romaine, Golden Raisins, Candied Pecans, Apples, Blue Cheese,  Balsamic Vinaigrette and added Chicken.The chicken was well seasoned and seemed like it was baked, chilled and cut into bit size cubes. This salad certainly was DELICIOUS and was so satisfying. This $7.18 salad is bigger and better than many $12.00 salads I had out in other places.

My husband had what they called a Santa Fee Salad with added Steak.

The Santa Fe Salad contained Corn, Mexican Cheese, Sweet Grape Tomatoes and Spicy Beans and a Cilantro Lime Dressing tied it all together.

The dogs were well behaved and got to sample the Chicken and Steak too.

Salad and Go is Budget Priced but Quality Food that’s Healthy and a Great Value.

Salad and Go is Worth a Fork!

Worth a Fork!

For more information on Salad and Go please visit www.SaladandGo.com

Anything is subject to change and your experience may differ.

The Forking Truth

Fat Ox is one of the most anticipated new restaurant openings of the year in the Metro Phoenix Area. The Chef has trained in France and is well known for other very good restaurants in the area (The Brasserie, Zinc Bistro and The Mission).  Fat Ox serves Modern Italian Foods such as antipastos, salumi, pastas and main meals. The energetic atmosphere is a mix of all sorts and so are the lighting fixtures as I counted nearly a dozen different kinds of fixtures. It’s loud in here and it’s also very dark despite all the interesting fixtures…..in this very spacious restaurant with a very large Patio.

The Forking Truth is that it’s THIS DARK in the dining room! Often I couldn’t see what was on the plates and ate mostly blind. I took most of the other photos with a flash. I didn’t actually know what the food looked like until I viewed my photos…..FT (ForkingTruth).

We start out with complimentary toasted bread cubes and Calabrian Chili Butter. I like the unique spicy but not too spicy taste of the Calabrian Chili and I have a jar of them in my pantry right now.

Our First Course arrives. It’s the Charred Taleggio Cheese with similar bread, Beet Mostardo, Lemon and Walnut and Olive Oil.

I couldn’t see the Pomegranate Seeds but I felt them burst in my mouth. The Sage, Beets, Mustard and Walnut all dressed up the cheese nicely. This was a great plate!

Our second course was pasta and it was a show stopper.

There wasn’t much of it but what I tasted was amazing. Carefully made perfect to the tooth pasta shaped like little wrappers containing a prize….of…carefully seasoned butternut squash. It was a little sweet a little buttery highlighted with just the right amounts of mostarda, amaretti cookie, parmesan cheese, sage and pomegranate. Our server recommended that we order THREE Plates of pasta….Now I know why. Amazing, Delicious and tiny…any table can fit in three of these sized plates.

My main course was the A La Diavlo Rotisserie Jidori Chicken.

The picture looks amazing but remember it really was dark…dark or darker than the photo below because I moved the candle back to where it was suppose to go.

The Forking Truth is that I didn’t see the vegetables on top of the chicken and when I went to use my steak knife it was like playing MURDER IN THE DARK with the chicken. I sawed off a piece and got an unpleasant mouthful of rubbery moist chicken skin in a tangy but delicious sauce. For me it was a difficult task to remove the chicken skin in the dark. Then it was difficult to find the chicken in the dark…and next…I got a mouthful of fennel when I was expecting chicken. This plate was too difficult for me to eat in the dark. I didn’t know I’d need a coal miner’s hat to eat the chicken. How silly of me to be unprepared.

My husband had the Rosewood Skirt Steak Tagliata.

Because it was dark neither of us saw the oil and balsamic around the plate. Leaving the steak to taste mostly natural tasting. A few baby herbs and baby vegetables accented the plate.

The waitress tells us about desserts but she is by my husband and I’m on the bench too far to hear her with all the music noise in the background. We pass on dessert this time.

I note this restaurant is new and may still be finding their way..

For more information please visit www.ILoveFatOx.com

I do note that everything is subject to change and your experience may or may not differ.

The Forking Truth