It may be obvious from my enthusiasm for Restaurant.com that I can be pretty tight-fisted when it comes to spending a lot of money for a meal at a restaurant. That explains why, despite my curiosity, I hadn’t gone to Eddie’s House, chef Eddie Matney’s latest venture (now about a year and a half old). That particular gift certificate is always out of stock when Restaurant.com is having a sale, but last week Ken scored a coup and managed to snag one at $4. In order to realize the $25 savings we had to run up a bill of $50, but I didn’t expect we’d have any trouble doing that.
Eddie’s House is in Old Town Scottsdale, on Indian School - a high rent district. It’s a fairly large place (a storefront, not a house), with a bar on one side, separated from the dining area which is somewhat old fashioned, formal and clubby. Hanging on the wall were family photos and sketches which would have been more at home in a diner. The chairs are big yet strangely uncomfortable. This was to be the theme of our meal - things that ought to be good were not.
According to the website, Eddie’s House “boasts a menu that expands your boundaries”. It struck me more as glorified home cooking, which can be a wonderful thing. We skipped the appetizers which ranged in price from $8 for edamame (outrageous!!) to $14 for baby lamb chops or beef tenderloin kebabs. The entrees come in full or half portions. The most expensive dishes were a roasted Chilean sea bass and “the Famous One-And-Only, What’s-In-This Steak” (we never did find out). These were $29 for a full portion and $15 for half. I ordered the “East-Meets-West Sesame Tuna and Parmesan Encrusted Halibut with bok choy and asparagus risotto”, $25/13. Ken had the “Braised Pork Pot Roast, sweet potato gnocchi, chorizo bolognese” $19/10. Each entree listed its accompanying sides, and many of them sounded quite interesting. For
instance there was an apricot and goat cheese risotto baklava and a pear chili tapenade with parsnip puree. There was an additional list of sides, each $7, from which we ordered Brussels sprouts with bacon. We did this in order to reach our $50 quota.
Our server, who was very pleasant, brought us a basket of regular and flat bread and a dish with a scoop of cheese spread covered in pesto. The cheese spread tasted strongly of mustard, but surprisingly it went well with the pesto. We were later told that it was a combination of butter and blue cheese. Could have fooled me.
While waiting for our entrees, Ken watched the chef performing in the open kitchen. He looked quite competent, and Eddie was there to supervise, so what could go wrong? Plenty.
My Parmesan Encrusted Halibut was cooked beyond recognition. The halibut’s texture had changed so completely I wouldn’t have know it was fish if I hadn’t ordered it myself.
It was more like a cheese wafer. The risotto, which should have been nice and creamy, was a solid lump. To be fair, I will say that the flavors of both these dishes was good. There’s lots of seasoning in Eddie’s food. The tuna with bok choy was more properly cooked, but the tuna flavor was pretty much drowned out by its coating of sesame seeds and spices. Ken’s Braised Pork Pot Roast was slightly dry, but that’s hard to avoid when cooking relatively lean pork. The chorizo sauce was good - nice and spicy, not too hot. But the gnocchi was the real bomb of the night, and I do mean bomb! Talk about high specific gravity, these were the heaviest gnocchi ever. Once again, the flavors were good, but the technique was awful. As for the brussels sprouts, although they had been quartered, it couldn’t hide the fact that they were almost big enough to be called cabbage. Slightly undercooked, hard to cut through and hard to chew. Still, they were tasty.
But at these prices, tasty just doesn’t cut it. There’s no excuse for the lack of competence in the kitchen, especially when the chef/owner is in the house.
Because the full entree servings were quite large, and the fact that our bill was already over fifty dollars we decided to just read the dessert list. Also, I was pretty leery of trying anything else. There was a strange over-use of cookies, they appeared in almost every dessert including a chocolate cake with oreo cookie ganache. Each dessert was $10. I’m still trying to get used to paying $8.
Now that my curiosity has been satisfied (I guess satisfied isn’t the correct word), Ken won’t have to try snaring any more Eddie’s House gift certificates.
Eddie’s House
7042 E. Indian School Rd. Scottsdale
480-946-1622
eddiematneys.com
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