Tarbell’s is a New American High Quality Restaurant owned by a very decorated chef Mark Tarbell. Chef Tarbell has been featured in numerous publications and TV shows including The Talk, and Food Network’s Iron Chef. On Iron Chef he chef Mark Tarbell won the cooking battle. Not only is chef Tarbell a famous chef he also is a wine expert, a serious skier, a pilot, a dancer, and a musician. He owns at least three businesses in the central Phoenix Corridor. His casual restaurant called, The Tavern. His wine store called, The Wine Store and of course his namesake restaurant called Tarbell’s.

Recently they added a nice patio inn front of the restaurant.

Inside there is a long bar and traditional tables and booths dressed with crisp linen, and set with heavy silverware.

There are some good deals on the wine list if you know your wine….

They started us off with complimentary hot from the oven bread and herbed oil.

We shared the cotija cheese crusted cauliflower.

You can’t tell by my photo but it seems that the cauliflower was steamed. I wasn’t expecting the cauliflower to be steamed…..It’s very soft and almost collapsing. This plate is also adorned with tomato braised lentils, red bell pepper, radish, beets. The description also reads butternut squash puree and creamed peas but the squash and peas are there to color the plate…you can’t scrap much off the plate to taste. This plate is mostly mildly seasoned and the cauliflower is extra soft. I don’t mean to complain but this cauliflower is so scant with the cotija cheese that it doesn’t seem cotija. crusted.

The dinners were both excellent.

I had the pan seared Argentine Sea bass.

The flaky, moist, mild, seared fish is topped with tasty tomatillo and pumpkin seed relish and sits over curry tomatoes, carrot, spinach, saffron rice, butternut squash puree, and coconut reduction. The flavors all go together well here.

My husband had the Tarbell’s Bolognese.

All I know about this plate is that it was made with a combination of beef and pork and takes four days to prepare…….My husband said that it was the best bolognese he’s ever eaten……..

During our dinner they sat a party next to us.

It might be hard to see in my photo but the party sort of overflowed into our space…..It was impossible for me to exit on my side and we had to be careful not to bump into the woman hanging off the end of her table. I’m surprised at a nice place like Tarbell’s that they would squish that table so close to ours when the table on the other side of the party wasn’t being used.

I was too full to try dessert so we were done.

Suggested tipping at Tarbell’s is 21-29%

They did hand us fresh baked cookies on our way out.

That was dinner from Tarbell’s. I’d recommend the sea bass and Tarbell’s bolognese.

www.Tarbells.com

3213 E Camelback Rd PHX AZ

602-955-8100

Vic and Ola’s Tavola Italiana is an Italian Restaurant located in North Scottsdale Arizona. They offer much of the usual Italian dishes that you would expect like meatballs, arancini, house made pastas, pork chops, veal osso buco, and more, many of the dishes are laced with Calabrian chilies and they also offer a lot of seafood dishes that you might not expect from a smaller restaurant like this.

This is most the the dining room.

Above is the bar area. This is where you will be sat if you don’t have a reservation.

On another visit I had a reservation.I thought I’d get a table inside but was sat outside during our coldest weather (If I knew that my table was going to be outside I would have worn a coat).

They started us off with delicious (cold) bread and herb butter.

You might want to start with an appetizer like the Roman Style Artichoke because that was delicious both times we had it.

The paolanzana (grilled eggplant) wasn’t as enjoyable to us.

While the cured olives were oh so delicious the combination of olives, raw tomato slices, basil and rubbery cheese was so overpowering to the eggplant you really couldn’t tell that eggplant was even there.

Or maybe you’d want to share a pasta like the cacio e pepe (spaghetti, black pepper, pecorino (we found this to be very buttery tasting and a little light with the pepper and cheese)

One of the many fish dishes is the branzino with farro, roasted red pepper, butternut squash, pumpkin seeds and figs. This one was good!

Or maybe you want something meatier like the veal osso buco (ok …could have improved since we had it)

On our last visit my husband had the Shrimp pasta dish called pasta Isabel.

It’s gemelli pasta (that was slightly over cooked), broccolini, jumbo shrimp, garlic, e.v.o.o., and whole Calabrian chilies. My husband thought that this was under seasoned. He also would have preferred that the Calabrian chilies had their stems removed and could have been chopped up in the dish so he didn’t have to do that. He was going ti say something to our server ….but….

Our server asked us how things were before we tried the food and we didn’t even see him again until after someone cleared our plates and then he asked us if we waited dessert.

I noticed that almost every table had a salmon tortelloni. I also over heard table next to us. I heard someone say that the salmon tortelloni is their favorite dish at this restaurant. So I went with the salmon tortelloni.

It looks delicious! I can tell you that it is in vodka sauce that is very good. I can tell you that the pasta on this plate is perfection. The filling does seem to differ some from the menu description.

The filling is suppose to be salmon, mascarpone cheese, and spinach. You don’t see it in this slice but this is packed with TONS of dill……All I taste is dill and dill doesn’t taste good with this sauce. If there is cheese in here it is such a small amount that it is impossible to detect. I don’t know if this is how they normally make the dish?

We left and nobody asked how things were.

That was Vic and Ola’s Tavola Italiana in Scottsdale a bit hit or miss. Go for the hits.

Vic and Ola’s Tavola Italiana in Scottsdale AZ

20775 N Pima RD Scottsdale AZ

480-513-2048

Everything is subject to change.

Chula Seafood offers sustainably sourced high quality seafood and prepared seafoods. They come to us from San Diego where they hand harpoon swordfish (their specialty) and bring the best fish of the pacific coast to us. Currently in Arizona they have two locations (Scottsdale, Phoenix). A North Scottsdale location is expected to open early this year. (2022)

It’s casual here. During the day you wait in line and order and pay at the counter.

You will see all kinds of fish and more in the counter.

Up above is a menu board. They offer daily specials, starters like oysters, and sashimi platters. They also offer bowls and salads. They have various plates like swordfish burritos, fish sandwiches, fish and chips, fish tacos, fish plate entrees, and more!

Then (during the day) you seat yourself and when you meal is ready they will call your name.

Today my husband started out with the fried oysters.

My husband said that these fried oysters with chili oil were really very good and they were served on delicious toasted and seasoned Nobel Bread.

Today I tried the Friday Daily Lunch Special.

Today it was a Hawaiian Lunch Plate.

The fish is crispy seared albacore katsu.

It came with blistered shishitos, jalapeño onion jam, soy marinated egg, kewpie slaw, bulldog sauce and sushi rice. Everything taste amazing. Today the jalapeño onion jam is really delicious but almost too spicy for me to eat….(Almost). I like that the slaw is almost dry…..I tell The Forking Truth so as amazing as everything really does taste…I have to admit ……It is strange to me that every single thing on my plate was served cold….I think if I could tweak this slightly it’s the rice and peppers that I would like better warm.

My husband got the crispy fish sandwich with potato mac salad.

He started with the parts that were spilling out of the sandwich and he said that it was very good. Then he went to pick it up…………(I tell The Forking Truth)…………

The whole bottom of his bun was coated with a creamy dill flavored sauce….so he didn’t eat the bottom bun.

Below are previous things that we tried from Chula Uptown (Phoenix)

That was Fintastiic Seafood from Chula Seafood in Phoenix.

Worth a Fork!

www.ChulaSeafood.com

100 E Camelback Rd PHX

602-354-3599

Everything is subject to change.