Superstition Meadery is a award wining producer of ancient honey wine called mead. The original location is in Prescott Arizona and they have a location in downtown Phoenix Arizona. The Phoenix location also offers chef crafted food parings of sharing boards, small plates and large plates. Parking is easy because they have their own parking lot.
They have the fanciest bike racks that I have ever seen.
When the weather is nice you can bring your furry best friend or friends on the patio.
The patio is much larger than the view I got. It goes down the whole side of the building.
Inside it looks like this.
At the end of the bar are big bottles of mead and maybe some ciders.
I’m not sure if I ever had mead before…..
We decided to share the flight of 12 for $24. (subject to change)
My favorite was the one called lemonade in retrograde. It was bright, refreshing and had a nice lemon zing and wasn’t too sweet. My least favorite was the one called Tahitian Honeymoon made with Tahitian Vanilla bean mead aged in oak…..
There were many sharing boards, small plates and large plates to pick from.
We started out by sharing the piri piri chicken small plate and the warm cannellini bean salad.
The piri piri chicken is spicy chicken breast covered with crushed peanuts and served with some sliced grilled baguette bread.
The warm cannellini bean salad is made up of beans, farro, spinach, Thai basil, and wood roasted onion dressing.
Our main was the gorgonzola & herbed butter skirt steak. Today it came with wood roasted shitshito peppers, radicchio (Italian chicory), mushrooms and arugula.
I thought we were done but the desert of the day sounded too interesting to turn down.
It was blondies with chocolate nibs with Marion berry mead sauce, caramel and whipped cream.
I thought we were done.
But I was wrong again.
They gave us complimentary cookies with the bill.
Everything was delicious and detailed nicely. Service was very attentive and helpful.
The Miracle Mile Delicatessen is located in Phoenix Arizona. This is a cafeteria style deli that is family owned and ran since 1949. The well known dishes here are hot pastrami, corned beef, beef brisket, stuffed cabbage, and turkey dinners. Lesser known dishes are the baked cod with puffy cheese and the honey dijon veggie wrap of avocado. peppers, carrots, lettuce, cucumbers, crispy onion strings with honey dijon dressing in a spinach tortilla. You order while walking threw the line, pay and seat yourself indoors or outdoors.
corned beef and pastrami
Here are the sides that you can pick for your sandwich. There’s fresh fruit, apple sauce, carrot and raisin salad, Cole slaw, macaroni salad, potato salad, Not sure but I think the one on the end looks like pasta salad.
They also offer desserts. The bread pudding is made in house.
main dining areaWhat would Bernie get here?
We shared a pastrami sandwich and a corned beef sandwich on marble rye bread.
pastrami sandwichcorned beef sandwich
The sandwiches come with very good pickles.
They both are Arizona style sandwiches. Well we are in Arizona so that is what I should expect……….The bread and taste of the meats does differ from East Coast Style. (east coast bread is crusty and usually thin and toasted while AZ rye bread is soft, thick and cold) (east coast pastrami taste smoked and has a peppery rub…we don’t taste much of that here) (east coast corned beef is seasoned more than AZ corned beef) Everything was fresh tasting and the restaurant seemed clean. Plates were cleared quickly.
Parking is easy because they have their own parking lot. Service is speedy because you go threw the line quickly, you pay and seat yourself.
That was a Little Taste of The Miracle Mile Delicatessen in Phoenix AZ.
Campo Italian Bistro is located in Scottsdale Arizona. This restaurant is by Genuine Concepts Group that also has at least five other restaurants or bars in metro Phoenix. This is a casual restaurant that does differ from other Italian restaurants in atmosphere and on the menu.
They offer patio dining.
They also offer a variety of indoor dining.
There is seating at the bar and several high top tables.
There are two mini living room type areas.
Here is the main dining area.
The menu has lots of small plates and many of the small plates feature amazing cheeses. They also offer salads, pasta, pizza, panini, and a few entrees. It’s hard to pass on stracchino cheese when you see it on a menu so we started with that.
Ohhhh it’s so good! It’s finished with olive oil, peppercorns and fresh herbs. It goes amazingly well with the delicious lavosh crackers. It was bigger than I expected it to be since it was only $6 (subject to change…and it might!)
There were many other small plates that we wanted to try but found it impossible to turn down the artisan cheese plate.
This was also bigger than I expected it to be and we had to take a bunch of it home. BUT HOLY CHEEZUS….WOW was this FORKING Great! Some of the cheeses were robiola, taleggio, and pecorino. One cheese had truffles in it….The taleggio with the honey comb was BOMB! This also came with grilled Noble Bread.
I couldn’t try all the cheese that Campo Italian Bistro offers but they also offer a handmade mozzarella.
The special tonight was also cheesy and I might have ordered it if I wasn’t trying so many cheeses already. The special was wild mushroom mascarpone pasta…(wow that sounds good!) and the pizza of the day was zucchini, pancetta, pesto, pistachio, and caciccavalo cheese.
My husband went with the creste pasta.
They use pasta that is locally made. This dish came with locally made Schriener’s sausage, broccolini, roasted peppers and feta cheese. This came out a little too dry for our taste…but the crispy salmon was outstanding.
The salmon is crispy on both sides and stayed crispy. The flesh was moist, succulent and medium cooked. It rested over creamy beans with kale and tomato butter and was topped with herby greens. WOW! It was a really great salmon dish.. If you don’t think you like salmon then maybe it might be because you never had really good salmon…THIS was REALLY GREAT Salmon.
We enjoyed the cheeses and I enjoyed the salmon.
That was a little taste if Campo Italian Bistro in Scottsdale.
www.CampoItalian.com
Everything is subject to change and it usually eventually does change.
Yutaka Japanese Restaurant is located on Bell Road in North Phoenix Arizona. This restaurant offers a variety of appetizers and or small plates, sushi, teriyaki, ramen and noodle bowls. Get here early because the tables fill up fast.
My favorite plate that I tried so far might be the spicy tuna crackers.
The tuna is fresh, flavorful and spicy. It’s a tasty appetizer that you don’t find everywhere.
The sushi menu menu is limited but what they serve you is fresh and clean tasting……..
yellowtail, salmon, tuna
and unusually LARGE. I don’t know how to eat this sushi. It’s about THREE times the size of normal sushi. If I had a knife I’d cut them in thirds. It’s good because it does taste very fresh and the right temperature that it should be but is very hard for me to eat because of the large size. Most sushi here is priced at around $5.00 for two pieces (today subject to change) so that is a great value because they give you more fish than most places……But for some people the over sized sushi can be hard to eat.
The collar is the best part of the fish so we shared a salmon collar (they also offer yellowtail collar)
It is seasoned just so and taste delicious but is slightly over cooked today.
We also shared a sizzling chicken teriyaki.
It came with miso soup that was a little richer than most miso soups that I’ve tasted. It also had seaweed in it.
I thought that the teriyaki was a large portion. The onions with it were very tasty. For us this teriyaki was sweet forward and very slightly overdone.
That was a little taste of Yutaka Japanese Restaurant in Phoenix AZ – Big Portion Fresh Sushi – Good Value and you won’t leave hungry from here.
www.YutakaJapanese.Business.Site
Everything is subject to change and usually does change.
PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (downtown there is another more casual PA’LA in Phoenix) is a wood fired, ever changing, fine dining sort of Mediterranean-ish, sort of Italian, laced with Japanese sort of restaurant. Somehow the flavors can be magical together. At this restaurant you will find small plates, a few sandwiches, a couple salads, two pizzas, fresh made pasta, fresh amazing wood fired seafood and a few specials. At the moment this restaurant serves lunch (Tue.-Sat.11-3) but dinner is only on Fridays and Saturdays (5-10) (subject to change).
They have an indoor-outdoor bar.
It looks like this when you walk in.
From my seat I can see the open kitchen and the wood fired oven.
Here’s the view from the other side.
There are a variety of traditional tables and partial booths. You can’t see the large mirrors behind me that make the room look enormous. Bright light comes in from the windows out front and upstairs. They only use the upstairs when needed. The decor sure doesn’t look like Phoenix to me……Look at the chandelier..
There are lots of details and big cherubs on it. It reminds me of Vegas….maybe Chicago….Maybe certain parts of Philly?…… When I see it and the big curved booth I see this in my head.
Robert De Niro with Joe Pesci. I can visualize them dining here.
Or maybe it looks more like this?
Anyways….
We start out with the pickled white anchovies with fennel crackers.
The anchovies are sprinkled with some fruity mildly spicy pepper and have a splash of a quality olive oil. The fennel crackers might be Taralli (Italian fennel crackers)
I went for the fish of the day plate. It was sea bass. It was described coming with Fresno chili and fregola (Italian cous cous shaped toasted pasta).
The fish is tender, moist, and flaky. It has a nice tasty sear. There are all kinds of flavors and surprises in the fregola. I taste bitter greens, pickled fennel, stringy things that I thought were sprouts but taste like spicy ginger…I taste an Asian sauce…. and there is a special red pepper flake. It really just dances together…It’s fiendishly great!
My husband went with the pasta of the day dish that came with shrimp.
The sauce was made with Bianco tomatoes. It’s a very good some sort of wheat or grain rigatoncini pasta and a very well made sauce. I heard that the shrimp were delicious.
We saved room for a little dessert.
We shared a little dish of smooth rich chocolate called pot de creme topped with pistachios and a little pistachio and fruit biscotti that was a great sweet ending to a FANTABULOUS meal out.
I have to say PA’LA Wood Fired Cooking (Downtown Phoenix AZ) is…
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.PalaKitchen.com
We returned.
The menu and special board differed.
Service differed too and we had the same server.
She brought out our appetizer and main meals together.
Our appetizer was the Niman Ranch Prime Beef Skewer.
The beef had mushrooms between each piece. The beef was as tender as butter and did taste very good. The polenta was very plain but creamy.
For my main I had the albacore brown rice bowl.
The fish was lightly seared and seemed very fresh. It had a little Asian rice seasoning and sauce on it. The brown rice was chewy and was adorned with pickled onion, some extra thin shreds that tasted like ginger, cucumbers, tomato, and avocado.
My husband had the roasted mushroom pizza with mozzarella and salametto picante.
Namaste is an Indian Restaurant located in a shopping center in North Scottsdale Arizona. This is a small family ran business. The owners are the cooks and their son serves tables. During the day (10:30-3 ) they offer their menu and a lunch buffet with a little over a dozen items that change every day. They offer some dishes that you don’t find at other Indian Restaurants like BEEF vindaloo.
Across the buffet is a series of paintings telling the story of the Taj Mahal.
There are other paintings around the restaurant.
It’s small but cozy. They offer both booths and traditional tables.
Bright light comes in threw the glass front windows.
We decided to try the buffet today.
With the buffet they made us fresh naan. We started with hot steamy garlic naan and they later brought us plain naan.
All the dishes that we tried were all very flavorful but nothing was spicy. We were told that they don’t put out the spicy dishes on the buffet so it can appeal to everyone. A few of the dishes that they offered today were – tandoori chicken, curry chicken, butter chicken, a ground lamb dish, dal, salad, chutneys, sweets.
The buffet was good so we decided to take out a few spicy dishes to see how they really are. We tried chili chicken chef hot.The chicken is tender…It’s flavorful and MIGHTY HOT! The rice was cumin scented.
and BEEF vindaloo chef hot. Also scotching molten HOT! The stewed beef cubes were very tender. The chunks of sweet potato gave some relief.
OMG! They are scorching molten hot! I’m so glad that they don’t dull the food.
Then we went back and tried some other things.
onion bhaji
Onion Bhaji – garbanzo bean flour coated spiced onion fritters with tamarind sauce…tasty and delicious!
aloo tikki choley
aloo tikki choley – potato patties with hot North Indian chick pea curry, mint chutney & tamarind date chutney.
onion chili naanonion chili naan have lots of flavor insideachari fish masala & kadai chicken
Achari fish masala ( achari spice blend, yogurt, onion and ginger) & kadai chicken (spicy chicken with onions, tomato, ginger, bell pepper, and kadai masala spice)
That was a Little Taste of Namaste Indian Restaurant in Scottsdale AZ.
The SWB Bistro (A southwest bistro) is located in Hyatt Regency in Scottsdale Arizona. It’s kind of a blend of fine dining in a casual resort atmosphere. It looks like this when you enter.
It’s just a few steps down or you can use an elevator.
Here is the other end of the restaurant.
Tonight it was around 100 degrees F but the outside was nice cool and refreshing with the misters so we sat outside tonight and saw a friendly duck or two splashing around in a water feature.
It was restaurant week so not all but most of the goodies aren’t normally on the menu like the nicely detailed Dungeness crab and octopus with piquillo cream, red onion, huitlacoche and preserved lemon.
Everything was tender moist and delicious.
We both thought the cream of corn and poblano soup was amazing. My husband gave me the most wonderful compliment and said, This taste like something you would make.”
The flavors were amazing…..You do taste the poblano and it finishes with sweet creamy corn. The soup is rich and has delicious accents of queso fresco…pops of medium spicy chile de arbol and cilantro…Just amazing! This soup is on the lunch and dinner menu so you can enjoy it just as we did.
It was hard to decide on what dinner to pick but I went with the free range stuffed chicken.
It was the moistest, most tender, most flavorful, chicken that you can ever hope for. It seemed like it was in a marinade that broke it down and then was sous vide and finished somehow to crisp the skin up….The chicken was truly astounding and was placed in this marvelously great green mole sauce sauce accented with crispy cancha corn. On top of that a mound of ricotta, a crisp squash blossom and some micro greens adorned the plate.
The sous vide venison was just as incredible.
This came with yuca, English peas, pistachio and chimichurri rojo.
TWO desserts (and two glasses of wine) were included with restaurant week. Both of the desserts were WORTH EVERY CALORIE!
Cherry cheesecake empanadas with the most delicious chocolate sauce ever.
Tres leches cake with caramel croquant, strawberry and Chantilly cream.
It was a FANTABULOUS dinner!
Parking does cost here. Tonight it ran $8. an hour for self park and the valet cost $10. plus tip.
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.Scottsdale.Hyatt.com
Everything is subject to change and often does change.
Renata’s Hearth is an upscale modern Latin laced with the South West style restaurant located in the Arizona Biltmore Resort in Phoenix Arizona. The Biltmore recently re-opened with a 70 million dollar renovation and this brand new restaurant. You can be seated indoors or out doors.
the patio
Renata’s Hearth and part of the patio
Cushy masculine furniture. Parts of the dining area have a view of the patio.
one dining area
inside
inside
Some of the magic happens here……Cocktails are made here and I see lots of high end tequilas.
Some cocktails are smoked.
They offer Jamon Iberico. (****Update the Jamon Iberico plate is not on current menu)
It’s the highest end ham that you can eat. It’s made from special black footed pigs that only eat acorns to produce a ham like no other that dissolves in the mouth. Jamon Iberico is something special we usually find in Las Vegas or mail away for.
We also shared a Spanish watermelon salad.
It’s made with grilled sweet watermelon, queso fresco, baby arugula, and sherry vinaigrette. It’s light, refreshing and delicious.
There were many choices on the menu tonight. They offered around 5 entrees and around 6 different family plates. All but the luxury 44oz Oaxaca spiced wagyu tomahawk steak you can order as a single dinner. It was hard to decide so we shared two single orders of family plates.
The grilled branzino.
and the mole negro – rubbed smoked wagyu brisket.
These dinners came with delicious Peruvian style rice & black beans (that are refillable), hand made in house flour and corn tortillas, and three salsas (verde, roja & mango pineapple)
Our branzino was cooked perfect and was very moist inside. The sweet peppers and sauces are so delicious on the fish.
But that mole negro – rubbed smoked wagyu brisket knocked it out of the park. It was juicy, fatty (but not too fatty), smoky, crunchy and oh so FANTABULOUS! In case you don’t get what I’m saying……The mole negro – rubbed smoked wagyu brisket was FORKING GREAT!
I thought both portions of the family plates (half sized or single were very generous to me….)
I was full and didn’t need dessert but they all sounded delicious. I was talked into just a single scoop of cantaloupe sorbet (instead of the three scoop normal portion listed on the menu. ( the cantaloupe sorbet is made local by Novel Ice Cream)
Gosh it’s delicious. It taste better than the cantaloupes I just bought from Safeway. Even the Mexican Wedding cookie is delicious.
That was my first taste of Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix AZ at the Biltmore.
We went back for a 2nd visit.
They started us off with complimentary wagyu New York steak tacos.
Gosh the steak in them is buttery soft.
We also had the radish salad.
and the Basque Sandwich bites (Jamon Iberico, manchego, truffle oil, polenta fries, and romesco sauce.
I didn’t eat the sandwiches but my husband said that they are like really tasty grilled cheese.
Tonight we shared a single order of the mesquite smoked jidori chicken.
The chicken is really perfect and juicy….even the breast….On ours the leg is a stronger with smoke taste so here I prefer the breast because I like less smoke taste on chicken but my husband likes the smokier leg better so this worked out perfect for us. This plate also came with Peruvian rice, black beans, grilled baby bells, grilled scallions, house made tortillas and three salsas that were all delicious.
We also shared the roasted Chilean Sea Bass.
This was truly amazing…It might be the best Chilean Sea Bass that I have ever had….So delicious with that mole verde……..Really REALLY Forking delicious. I ate well so I was too full for dessert.
3rd visut we started out by sharing the sardine escabeche.
The can is for display. The sardines are obviously fresh and good. In the middle of board isa light refreshing apple fennel slaw and on the end is high quality sour dough bread.
We also shared the Chile relleno.
It’s all vegetarian and tasty. It’s poblano peppers with faro, cauliflower, Mahon cheese, mole negro and cashew cream.
The smoked wagyu brisket and sauces differed this time.
The brisket no-longer comes with the bottomless rice and beans. If you want the rice and beans it’s $18.00. The sauces all taste different too. The red sauce is mild now, The green sauce is milder too. Instead of the mango habanero salsa there is a creamy sauce that taste like it has chipotle in it. This batch of brisket is good but isn’t crazy amazing like the first one I enjoyed. It’s much less succulent with less flavors and is barely warmed up.
We ordered a street corn to go with dinner.
It’s fresh corn with lime, cilantro, pimento, smoked goat cheese and some cotija cheese. It’s tasty anyone would like it.
The entrance now is accented with candles and musicians.
I have to say that Renata’s Hearth is Worth a Fork!
The FANTABULOUS Dish means…..top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and Dynamite.
The Mole Negro – Rubbed Smoked Wagyu Brisket from Renata’s Hearth in Phoenix Arizona (at the Biltmore) Is CRAZY FORKING astonishingly delectable. It’s juicy, fatty (but not too fatty), smoky, crunchy and OOOOohhhhhhhhhhh sooooooooo FANTABULOUS! It just might be the best tasting brisket that I have ever tried……
It also comes with hand made in house flour and corn tortillas, three salsas (verde, roja and mango pineapple) Peruvian rice and black beans.
Just drop what you are doing and try it now because it is FANTABULOUS!
Twist Bistro and Gallery is a restaurant and art gallery located in north Scottsdale Arizona. They opened during the pandemic around May of 2020. Twist Bistro and Gallery offers a seasonal menu of modern detailed foods that swing towards Mediterranean cuisine. This restaurant is a husband and wife team. The husband is the chef and the wife runs the front of the house and did all the beautiful artwork on the walls that are also offered for sale.
To the left is a long bar with bar stools
Today we sat on the patio and they started us off with a generous serving of these delicious fresh warm complimentary feta and dill studded muffins with scallion honey butter. (YUM! these are really great!)
My husband tried one of the special crostini.
It was made with that special luxury Iberico ham from special black footed pigs that eat mostly acorns from either Spain or Portugal. This kind of pork is more marbled and red than regular pork. There was also melty brie cheese and blackberry mostarda on the toast.
Then we shared the farm to table salad that they were offering today.
This salad had all kinds of things in it tied together with some sort of lavender vinaigrette. There was grilled squash, arugula, radicchio, almonds, cheese, cranberries, and apples. It sure was unique and different!
I tried the chef’s fish special.
It was broiled wild caught mild fresh tasting lemon sole in a basil white wine broth with house made pasta and topped with fennel salad.
My husband tried the Sonoran Paella Verde.
It was a very detailed dish that was packed with grilled Main scallops, gulf shrimp, chicken, chorizo, crusty – green chili tomatillo rice, pumpkin seeds, hominy and tortilla hay. My husband kept saying that this was really REALLY good!
Since I wasn’t doing take out I didn’t have to worry about my dessert melting. We tried the light refreshing lemon sorbet.
I was surprised that it was topped with mixed berry jam. I am surprised again…This lemon sorbet taste just like Rosati Italian water ice to me. I haven’t had this since I left Pennsylvania. That water ice is everywhere there. Haven’t tasted water ice like this in a long time.
Here are some of the other foods we tried from Twist Bistro and Gallery.
shrimp and sausage diablo – vegetables, cheesy polenta
beignets
everything flatbread with house made lox, wild boar meatballs with gnocchi, chicken and dumplings with goat cheese and blackberry mostarda, strawberry rhubarb cobbler and muffins
falafels, steak sandwich pallard, a very detailed Mediterranean salad with added salmon and mascarpone cheese cake
southern breaded shawarma kabobs with minted cucumbers, olives, jalapeños and preserved lemon basil syrup, loch duart salmon, shrimp and sausage diablo, muffins mascarpone cheese cake
Moroccan festival soup, grilled Hawaiian opah special, steak sandwich.
Everything from every visit was delicious! *****TWIST BISTRO IS NO MORE******SAME OWNERS TURNED THIS INTO GINNY”S WITH A NEW MENU
Twist Bistro and Gallery in North Scottsdale is Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
www.Twist-Bistro.com
Every THING is subject to change and your experience can possibly differ.
