Chada Thai AZ is a Thai Restaurant located in Scottsdale Arizona. They were well known for many years as Cha Da Thai at their original location about ten minutes away in Scottsdale. They advertise that they serve authentic Thai Food. You can find dishes here that aren’t on many menus in Thai restaurants like boat noodle soups and the miang kham (tasty leaf wrap salad bites).
The FANTABULOUS Dish means – top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and DYNAMITE!
The miang kham from Chada Thai AZ is a FANTABULOUS Dish!
one of six miang kham
I read on the menu that the miang kham is the original snack in Thailand. It starts with a leaf that is either a green butter leaf or a wild pepper leaf depending on the time of year. The leaf is stuffed with roasted shredded coconut, peanuts, unpeeled lime cubes, fresh ginger cubes, onions, oranges and a sauce made with tamarind and bird’s eye chilies. It’s a combination of sweet, spicy, savory, tart and tangy. This sets off all kinds of delicious sensations in your mouth. It’s just delicious and is a must get dish.
The Miang Kham from Chada Thai AZ in Scottsdale is a FANTABULOUS Dish!
Ground Control is a casual neighborhood bar, restaurant, coffee bar, and event center located in Litchfield Park Arizona. For breakfast hey offer breakfast burritos and breakfast plates. For lunch and dinner they offer an all day menu with appetizers like Dakota style beef. chislic (marinated fried cube steak), fried cheese curds, and wings. You can find burgers, sandwiches such as a Cubano, a pastrami, a Nashville hot chicken, a few salads and entrees that include three street pork tacos, Nashville chicken tenders, a protein bowl and more. For beverages they offer locally roasted coffee, wines, craft beers, mead and soft beverages.
It’s casual here. On our visit there was a sign that read seat yourself. They have seating indoors and offer patio dining.
I tried the Nashville hot chicken sandwich (xtra hot…it comes in regular hot, extra hot, and cozy hot) with a side salad.
The salad is fresh and adorned with sweet delicious sweet tomatoes.
The chicken and the bun were cooked more than what people like.
The bun was charred to black.
The best part of the chicken was the crunchy breading that stayed on. The chicken wasn’t served hot from the fryer and came out luke warm. It was edible but very dry today. We both thought they forgot the heat element of the sandwich at first bite because all we tasted at first was paprika. Heat did kick in at the second bite but it was mild heat and mostly just a paprika taste. I left most of the bun on my plate and some of the chicken so my server could see…….
My husband tried the Cubano dip sandwich (shredded pork, ham, Swiss cheese, mustard, pickles, pressed hoagie bun)
He said that it would have been good but the meat was very dry.
I thought maybe the house made gelato might be good so we asked for some. (I saw it on their website and also read about it on the black board pictured below.
When we asked about the gelato the server said that they haven’t had any in months….
That was my trip to Ground Control in Litchfield Park AZ.
Slight update****The owner contacted me and was apologetic. He said that he had trouble lately getting help. He also said that he would have refunded me if I brought all this to someone’s attention. Also the gelato machine is fixed now so they are serving gelato again.
Fantabulous means – Top of the line, marvelously good, peachy keen and dynamite.
Daily Donuts & Wings recently opened in a strip mall on Bell Road in North Phoenix Arizona and the donuts on every visit have been FANTABULOUS! I read that they also have other locations in Mesa, Tempe and in Glendale (*****UPDATE haven’t been able to find the other locations…..maybe they plan to expand?). Besides FANTABULOUS Donuts they also offer breakfast, wings, chicken tenders, fries, smoothies and a few snacks.
They have some indoor seating across the front and a table to the side.
OOOOOOOOH! It’s that sweet doughnut aroma………….Doughnuts!
Oh my what will we try?
Today I tried a blueberry filled donut and my husband tried a chocolate iced. I was so excited that I forgot to photo them. But WOW!!!! were they FANTABULOUS! The blueberry filled donut was one of the best donuts that I have ever had in my life. The donut really just melted in my mouth. It had the perfect sweetness and was so tender and seemed light as air. I didn’t get to try any of the chocolate iced doughnut but my husband said that it was better than other chocolate doughnuts that he has tried.
Then we went back the next week and tried two more donuts.
Today I got a lemon filled doughnut. (the blueberry looked identical) It’s this just right lightly iced doughnut that seems light are air and it just melts in my mouth. I don’t get lemon in the first few bites because the filling is squeezed into the center. BUT WOW! It’s the best lemon filling that I ever had in a doughnut. It’s very lemony and tart but not too tart….It’s just right.
My husband picked one of the cinnamon doughnuts (they make a few different kinds).
Went back the following week and tried a Boston Cream.
I think this is the best Boston Cream doughnut that I ever had. The cream is so smooth and delicious. The doughnut is so fresh and so light as air. The chocolate icing is has the right amount of chocolate and sweetness. (my husband had the same cinnamon doughnut again)
On my most recent trip back I got a doughnut with sprinkles and my husband got the cinnamon doughnut again.
This is the FORKING BEST doughnut with sprinkles that I have ever had. Even the frosting is better than from other places. It’s not too sweet and actually taste good. The doughnut is so light and so fresh….It’s FANTABULOUS!
FANTABULOUS Doughnuts from Daily Donuts and Wings. So light and so fresh….these doughnuts are easy to inhale.
Worth a Fork!
Worth A Fork!
You can find Daily Donuts & Wings on Facebook and the North Phoenix location has a website and lists the other locations.
Shaanxi Garden is a Chinese Restaurant located in Mesa Arizona. They specialize in serving Chinese Dishes from the desert Shaanxi region of China. Most dishes are large and are meant to be shared. Some of the dishes do run spicy and some dishes might contain mouth numbing Sichuan peppercorns but the dishes are not fiery hot like Szechuan dishes. They serve hand made noodles here so you might want to give them a try.
It’s casual.
The word biang is the sound of making noodles……(hint hint…get the handmade noodles)
During the day they tell us to seat ourselves.
There is a small bar in the restaurant indicating that some alcohol is available.
The current menu is broken down into cold dishes like coming called mixing cucumber, spicy beef tripe, and pork in garlic sauce. You can find appetizers such as egg rolls, potstickers, and dumplings. Soups like seaweed and egg, congee with pork and century eggs. They offer various chicken, beef, pork, lamb, seafood, and vegetable dishes. Some of the dishes offer are American Chinese style like orange chicken and beef and broccoli. However you can also find the seldom found at other restaurants like toothpick lamb, twice cooked pork with Shaanxi buns, and Talchi squirrel shaped fish.
We always order way more food than we need and always bring home the leftovers.
Our last food critic raved about the crispy chicken Shaanxi Style so we tried it.
It’s fried chicken breast with a crispy coating with the seasoning on the side. The seasoning has all kinds of flavors and sesame seeds and heat in it. It is tasty. Most people would like the taste of it. Today this dish ran a bit dry.
I’m not entirely sure what they served us as our main this time. I asked for the water boiled fish filet because I’ve had this dish at several other places and knew what to expect. I think the waiter repeated back water boiled fish with pickled cabbage and chili? On my receipt it reads, pickled fish. Whatever it was……. it was REALLY GREAT!
It doesn’t look like water boiled fish because it doesn’t have all the oil, chilies, and mouth numbing peppercorns on the top. This is actually better than water boiled fish. It has more flavors and more textures than other water boiled fish dishes that I have tried.
This dish also has rice noodles in it.
It has heat in it but not a crazy amount of heat. The fish is mild and melt in your mouth soft. The broth is well made. The pickled peppers in this dish make it interesting. There is a lot of fish in this dish. I think that this dish can feed 3-4 people.
Last time we had a plate called the house special braised chicken with noodle.
This plate is very special. It is more well known in Shaanxi Cuisine as Big Plate Chicken.
It’s like Chinese Thanksgiving in a bowl. It’s full of chunks of marinated chicken, peppers, onions, potatoes, garlic, chestnuts, chili peppers, and maybe cumin, star anise, soy sauce, and chewy long noodles. Actually I thought this dish was even better the next day when I had it again.
We also tried a few vegetable dishes that were very good!
Below is a- choy in garlic sauce. (I don’t recall seeing it on the current menu?)
Outta Bronx in Peoria Arizona is a small casual sandwich shop with limited seating. The original location is in Phoenix. On the Peoria menu you won’t find some New York classics like a spiedie or beef on weck, club sandwiches, or New York Bagels and lox. However you will find are a variety of hot sandwiches. Many of the sandwiches are some sort of beef like a New York inspired chopped cheese (with beef), there’s also pastrami, hot dogs, corned beef, beef brisket, and beef meatballs. Besides beef sandwiches they also offer a fish sandwich, a bacon, egg, cheese and hash brown baguette sandwich, a shrimp sandwich, a gyro, a grilled cheese, a veggie sandwich and two chicken sandwiches. Outta Bronx also serves burgers a few salads, wings, fish & chips, a shrimp basket, lots of sides, and a children’s menu.
The Peoria location is located in an outdoor shopping center between a vape shop and a UPS store and anchored by a Fry’s Supermarket.
It’s only postage sized inside.
You order, pay, and pick up at the counter.
In the next picture you are looking at all of the indoor seating and the bottle of hand sanitizer is the only place to clean you hands (no public restroom available).
A few patio tables are outside.
I tried a sandwich called the East Coast (thick cut pastrami, pickles, mustard, on a baguette)
It taste good but…..my thick pastrami is sliced very thin.
They might have sliced it thin because the pastrami is under done. (the fat is still hard and if it was thick you wouldn’t be able to eat it). It taste good but it is a bit chewy.
My husband tried the chopped cheese. (grilled Angus beef, American & provolone cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, pickles on a baguette)
Mayonnaise wasn’t in the description…..and. mayonnaise is maybe the one thing that my husband hates. the most. The sandwich is slathered with mayonnaise. (I worried about him becoming unhinged over mayonnaise but he remained cool…)
My husband goes inside to ask why mayonnaise is on his chopped cheese sandwich. The girl at the counter insist that the white spread on the sandwich isn’t mayonnaise and is the melted cheese. (it truly was mayonnaise…I should have taken another photo)
Anyways…..
The cheese is slightly over cooked and hard. My husband wouldn’t eat the bread because it was polluted with mayonnaise so he ate around the mayonnaise and all the beef and cheese was like a solid block all glued together because the cheese was hard and chewy.
We also shared what they called a 50/50 (fries and onion rings.
The 50/50 isn’t actually 50% fries and 50% onion rings I guess it’s more like 80% skinny thin fries and 20% onion rings. The fries and onion rings remind me of a certain fast food restaurant.
That was my trip to Outta Bronx in Peoria AZ – Newly Opened
Aftermath is a small swanky restaurant located in Phoenix Arizona. They offer elevated modern detailed cuisine. Some of the plates are globally inspired. They also offer craft cocktails and more. You need to know that you park and enter behind the restaurant. At the time of my visit the door was unmarked.
Most of the seating is indoors at a booth or a traditional table.
They also have a few bar seats and a very small patio of only four tables.
We started out with the grilled broccolini.
grilled broccolini
It was adorned with mushrooms, cashew cream, fish sauce caramel, and smoked parmesan.
We also shared a grilled hamachi collar.
grilled hamachi collar
It was a very detailed plate of two very small collars, kelap mann (Indonesian sweet soy sauce), miso pickled vegetables, shiitake mushrooms, and peanuts.
For our main we shared the picanha steak a la plancha.
picanha steak a la plancha
The came with long beans, pee wee potatoes, smoked onion jam, and gorgonzola butter. The flavors were amazing on this one but the beef was a little chewy.
A perfect sweet ending was the key lime bar of praline graham crust, crystallized ginger Chantilly and topped with a candied lime.
Dining out with dogs. is just a “Fluff” story about taking my dogs out to eat. It all sort of started with my dog Louie….he was elderly and was diagnosed with aggressive cancer. He couldn’t do a lot but he always enjoyed eating so I took him out to eat as often as I could. Instead of the 3-6 month diagnosis Louie made it another 17 months. Today I take my current dogs out to eat.
There is a lot to know about dining out with dogs. First of all not all restaurant patios are dog friendly. Even if a patio is dog friendly it is always best to call because you never know if the patio is. reserved for a party. It’s also always better to dine at off times. It’s always best to avoid as many people and other dogs as possible. Some people don’t share your love for dogs and other people are allergic. It’s best to avoid other dogs because dogs like to bark at each other and that can be a disturbance and you might be asked to leave. Dine at off times to avoid potential trouble.
Here in Phoenix it is often to hot to dine out with dogs. Your dog is not as heat tolerant as you. Dogs wear fur coats, they can’t sweat, and they absorb heat up their paws. Just like people all dogs have individual heat tolerances. Hopefully you know your dog well enough to determine if you should dine out together. In general 90 degrees and higher is too hot for dogs to dine out. But maybe up to 90 degrees for younger healthier dogs in shade. Shade makes a difference here. When there is any doubt be smart and leave your furry friend at home.
Most food and drink that you consume can be harmful or toxic to your dog. It’s best to get the facts from your veterinarian on what is safe and what to avoid. Usually a small lean un-sauced piece of meat is a best bet.You should bring a water dish so your dog can lap up some water.
When you dine out with your dog(s) you should keep them close to you. You should never let them sit on restaurant furniture. You should also never let them eat off of restaurant plates.
We went out to Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix. They are a Vietnamese restaurant that offers around a dozen different Banh Mi Baguette sandwiches and most of your Vietnamese favorites except for pho.
Today I had a chicken cabbage salad and chicken pot stickers. (this big and delicious salad with fresh herbs is only $7. and the tasty hand made potstickers are only $5.)
Someone is eyeing up the food.
My husband had a shaken beef Banh Mi today.
Someone is hoping extra beef shakes out.
We all enjoyed our meals at Banh Mi Bistro Vietnamese Eatery in North Phoenix.
www.BanhMiBistroAZ.com
Next we went to Cucina Tagliani in the Arrowhead part of Glendale. Cucina Tagliani is a neighborhood type restaurant that offers American Italian style favorites, build your own pastas, soups, sandwiches, salads, a few entrees and more!
Cucina Tagliani happens to also have a nice large officially licensed dog friendly patio and it’s usually very quiet on Sundays so we like to take advantage of that and we get treated like kings and queens.
My dogs were served their own water pans right away.
We ordered and my husband started with some minestrone soup.
Each dog got a piece of bacon from the soup.
Soon the meals came out.
I had the strawberry chicken salad and dogs got lots of the chicken.
My husband had the chicken parmesan.
All the chicken was moist today so we did ok at Cucina Tagliani.
www.CucinaTagliani.com
This next trip out with the dogs went into plan “B.”
Our destination was Phila-Deli in Glendale. When we got there we saw a note they posted on the door and it read that they are temporarily closing on Sundays. Plan “B” was to go down the street to Skewers Mediterranean Grill ( fast/casual fresh Mediterranean foods). The …Skewers doesn’t have a patio but just across the street is a small park with tables for us to dine at.
I got a chicken kabob salad with turnips and chick peas.
It’s a pretty nice and tasty salad with lots of tasty moist delicious chicken to share with the dogs.
The dogs are waiting for their chicken.
My husband got a gyro salad.
The dogs are enjoying the food from Skewers.
Nice tasty large salads from Skewers Mediterranean Grill in North Glendale that don’t cost much more than fast food and is much better.
www.SkewersAZ.com
Since we couldn’t do Phila-Deli last week we thought we’d try again this week. We tried to call in our order 6 times and nobody answered the phone. We were afraid that they went out of business. When we got there we were relieved that they were open. We found out that they no longer make salads….(my first choice)…..Then I found out that they discontinued wraps too…..(my second choice). I like the people there and my husband likes the sandwiches but I am pickier…..and only liked the wraps and salads here…………We decided that we’d go down the street to Oscar’s Pier 83. Unfortunately the patio was already packed with lots of babies and other dogs. So we did take out and the dogs had to eat on our patio.
I got a salmon salad. It’s nothing fancy but the fish is fresh here.
My husband got a three piece fried fish (cod) dinner.
www.OP83.com
Well that was dining out with dogs in metro Phoenix for November 2021. We hope that you’ve enjoyed and we hope to see you next month.
“YUM!” “We LOVE eating!”The Forking TruthIn Memory of Louie 5-5-2001 – 3-3-2017
Mac Shack is a casual fresh pasta restaurant recently opened in north Glendale Arizona. The pasta is fresh made daily. They offer a variety of pastas with meat, vegetarian, vegan, and also offer build your own pasta pans. Other offerings are a few salads, bread, kid’s meals, marshmallow cereal bars, and soft beverages.
It’s small and casual inside.
There’s an artwork of Anthony Bourdain on the wall.
You order and pay at the counter. There is only a few tables and a couple seats at the counter.
the pasta machine is on the counter. There is a fresh tray of pasta that was just made.
Your order is fresh made for you and takes around twenty five minutes to prepare.
They bring our salad and pastas at the same time.
Cesar salad
The Caesar salad isn’t fancy but it is very large and is fresh and crisp.
I tried the pasta pan called Happy Valley (orecchiette, roasted garlic oil, olives, sun dried tomatoes, parmesan, capers, fresh basil, artichokes, and spinach)
My husband suggested getting the large size…..Nobody can eat a large…..I was able to do like almost a third of this pan. It’s good but they were overly generous with the olives….and too light with the basil. Mine stayed piping hot the whole time we were here.
This one was gooey and cheesy. It’s not as piping hot as mine.. He likes it. My husband is a big eater…..and loves to eat pasta. Even he could only eat half.
Went back to just to try the plain mac-n- cheese called the Mac Shack and took out the small size.
It’s cheesy with melted cheddar and crumbs on the top. Could use a little seasoning for adults but it just right for kids.
Doesn’t cost much to dine here and it’s better than fast food. (most large pans are around $15. and they can certainly feed at least two people)
Mac Shack – Newly Opened in north Glendale AZ #UpperWestSide
Here is the SKINNY on the thinnest dough pizzas and such in Metro Phoenix Arizona. If you are a fan of the extra thin doughs and are around Phoenix this might be of interest to you.
Bottega Pizzeria Ristorante in north Glendale offers all of their pizzas (around 16 varieties Milano Style……….. that means EXTRA thin…much thinner than their normal thin Neapolitan pizzas. Thin pizzas never weigh you down. You can enjoy more pizza when you go for the extra thin. Up above is the vegetariana pizza made of D.O.P. tomato sauce, flor di latte, red bell pepper, zucchini, eggplant, basil, and extra virgin olive oil.
Next is a spinach calzone from Pane Bianco in Phoenix.
It looks like a normal doughy calzone.
But look!
This dough is paper thin…This is super thin calzone dough….gives you more belly room for that rich creamy cheesus filling. BTW- The cheeses are incredible here. For my taste it is a little light on the spinach but it does taste great.
Pomo Pizzeria offers quite a few extra thins. One is the Pizza Rimini in 4 varieties.
It gets baked for a very short time at around 900 degrees in a certified Italian wood oven.
Pomo also offers the Focaccia di Recco in three varieties. (below is the formaggio)
This focaccia gets rolled even thinner than the Rimini pizza because it gets stuffed with stracchino cheese and you can add on local honey to enjoy it even more.
Focaccia di Recco from Pomo Pizzeria
Here is the focaccia di recco in the pesto variety from Pomo.
focaccia di recco pesto
LOOK how paper thin it really is.
I loved the Focaccia di Recco so much from Pomo Pizzeria that I had to try it when I saw it on the menu at Mora Italian in Phoenix.
The Mora Italian Focaccia di Recco was very different from the Pomo Pizzeria. Mora’s wasn’t as crisp and the cheese didn’t come out all melty.
I was told by the manager that Mora Italian uses a different oven so the results do differ.
The thinnest non-extra thin pizza that we have received was the mushroom with mozzarella and salamette picante from PA’LA Downtown.
It was a very chewy very thin pizza.
This was the SKINNY on the thinnest dough pizzas and such in Metro Phoenix AZ.
I recently went to one restaurant in Phoenix Arizona and had a most unpleasant experience. I doubt whoever just opened this restaurant knows anything about the hospitality business. My gut told me that I should leave as soon as I got here….It was my bad for staying…….Note to self listen to your gut. This is the only restaurant (so far) that I am not mentioning by name. This restaurant has so many problems I doubt they will be around for long anyway unless they bring someone in to help. The only reason I wanted to eat here is because I was BAMBOOZLED on Yelp. I read mostly all 5 star reviews and looked at mouth watering photos of food……I can only figure that the reviews must have been done by friends and family…..I have no idea where they got the photos from……….I sure didn’t get anything that resembled the food I looked at…….This is the only way that I can write about this restaurant.
We walked in early just twenty minutes after they opened. Every table in the restaurant was left dirty from the night before with crumbs and smudges.
crumbs and smudges on every table “actual table”
I thought our waitress was dressed like a slut.
not actual waitress but similar
Since every table was filthy I thought our server would wipe the table off that she sat us at…. but she didn’t…. so we wiped off the table ourselves………………….. They obviously don’t even concern themselves about sanitation.
Then she introduces another slut…I mean waitress that she is training who is even sluttier.
Not actual waitress …ours had even more cut outs
We order and soon complimentary chips and salsa come out.
actual complimentary chips and salsa
Oh my they don’t know how to make chips and salsa. These chips taste like the ones that Costco sells (that aren’t good). They tried to heat the chips up but didn’t do that right because they taste burnt….. The sauce taste just like crushed canned tomatoes with too much added dry oregano and doctored up slightly with a little hot sauce. Wow it’s like a child made the salsa.
We needed silverware for our meals that arrived. We were the only table on the restaurant and our server was unaware that we needed silverware…….So we asked for silverware……Then we got some and I unrolled my silverware and they were covered in soap residue. I used my glass of water to soak off the soap from the silverware.
All the food that we received was mediocre….meats were like dry stringy pot roast. Flavors weren’t so good. I ordered a grilled fish taco and the cook made me a breaded fish taco that seemed like it was already reheated a few times. It was similar to bad buffet food.
Finally we asked for the bill. They have some sort of new electronic paying system where you don’t see the bill until you see it in your email on the computer.
They added on without telling us an extra 3% called processing tech charge.
Dirty Tables, Bad Chips and Bad Salsa, Soupy Silverware, Dry stingy meats, Undisclosed 3% processing tech fees, and some peoples daughters dressed like sluts from some restaurant in Metro Phoenix Arizona.
Everything is subject to change….This restaurant will probably close and re-open soon as another restaurant.
I only went here because of the glowing reviews and amazing looking pictures of food from a certain review site. It turns out that I was bamboozled by a review site.
