Great Expectations.....

     On at least four or five occasions we’ve tried to go to The Parlor, a former beauty salon turned upscale pizza restaurant, but there has always been a long wait to get seated. Given that, and it’s consistently good reviews, we made a plan to eat a late breakfast so we could hold off having lunch until 3PM, figuring this was way past lunchtime but too early for happy hour. We were right, there were only a few cars in the lot - we were really excited and had high expectations of a delicious meal. Whoever was responsible for the renovation did a fabulous job. There’s lots of exposed brick, wood, glass bricks, and a cute little patio. At the bar there are some salon-type chairs: I don’t know how comfortable they’d be for cocktail sipping, but they’re a witty touch. My favorite part of the decor is the planters lined up along the path to the door. They’re filled with fresh herbs and tomato plants. We were even more convinced that we’d have a great meal. And our server didn’t let us down either (service has been the major negative in most of the reviews). He was pleasant and helpful.

     We started off with a roasted beet and avocado salad ($9.75). The colors of the golden beets and mellow green of the avocados made for a beautiful plate, and the walnut crusted goat cheese was the perfect foil. While a little on the expensive side, we felt it was worth it. We couldn’t wait to dig into the pizza!!

     According to the menu, the Smokey pizza ($14 for a 12”) is topped with speck (smoked prosciutto), olive tapenade, ricotta, and fresh arugula. Sounds good, doesn’t it? It arrived at the table heaped with arugula, with a few pieces of speck on top. I think they put so much arugula on the pie so you couldn’t see the paucity of the other ingredients. The only taste that stood out, overpowering even the arugula, was the tomato sauce. OMG, it transported me instantly to my high school cafeteria - and that’s not a good place for me to be !!!  Do you remember those thick slices of bready dough topped with a thin, tinny tasting sauce? Aaggh, get me out of there !!! At least at The Parlor the crust was thin, but it was limp as a noodle, and tasteless. I actually, for the first time in living memory, didn’t take home the leftovers. That’s how bad it was.

     I wouldn’t tell you not to go here. The Parlor is a pretty place, and the salad was outstanding, but I wish you good luck with the pizza.

The Parlor

1916 E. Camelback Rd.   Phoenix

602-248-2480

theparlor.us

Monday - Thursday  11 - 10,  Friday and Saturday  11 - midnight

Cheap Lunch

     As we drove by the QT and it’s grubby little strip mall on Cactus near Cave Creek Road, I noticed a sign for a new restaurant, Noodle & Rice. For the next few days many coupons for it turned up on various sites including Restaurant.com.  Given such an aggressive marketing campaign, we had to give it a try. Armed with our coupons, we arrived at lunch time. It’s a small place with a total of about twelve tables and booths. Make sure you get a booth, because the chairs are deadly uncomfortable. The plastic faux brick black wall and institutional gray paint give the place a kind of depressing air, lightened only by the turquoise banquettes and some leftover prints of Italian food on one wall. However, our server had a pleasant smile, and the menu showed promise.

     Noodle & Rice is an Asian restaurant, serving Thai, Japanese, and Chinese food. The prices at lunch are so reasonable we didn’t even need to use our coupons. There are 22 entrees that can be had for $3.95, but for another $2 you can add an egg roll, soup, and a drink. I suggest you do this, because the hot and sour soup is one of the best I’ve had, and the egg roll is delicious too. China Mist iced tea is served here, and if you opt for hot tea you have your choice of several different kinds, served in a cute little teapot and matching cup. I opted to get chow mein noodles instead of white rice for an extra fifty cents, and I’m glad I did, because they were right up there with the hot and sour soup. Actually they outshone my entree of pad prik with beef and vegetables in a spicy brown sauce, because the beef was a little on the tough side, although still quite flavorful. Ken had shrimp in lobster sauce. The shrimp were properly cooked and the sauce was good, but, not being a green pepper lover, he thought there were too many on the plate. Oddly, at the end of our meal, we were not given fortune cookies.

     There are lots of things I want to try when we return. Appetizers include pot stickers 

($3.95), and chicken satay ($5.95). Tom Yum and Tom Kar soup (which has coconut milk in it) are both $3.50/$4.95. I love Tonkatsu sauce, so I may go for the chicken ($5.95). Panang Noodles ($6.95) are crispy wide rice noodles served with chicken or beef in a curry and coconut milk sauce. The most expensive thing on the menu is soft shell crab with either black pepper or curry powder at $10.95  A little less are two fried talapia (sic) dishes, one with Thai herbs, peppers, eggplant and basil, the other with a curry sauce sprinkled with minced kaffir lime leaves and fresh chili (both $8.95. Happily there’s Thai iced coffee and tea, and for dessert green tea or coconut pineapple ice cream.

    Give it a try, with prices like these you don’t have much to lose.

Noodle & Rice

2017 E. Cactus Rd.    Phoenix

602-368-8889

noodleandriceaz.com

Monday - Saturday  11 - 9      Sunday  12 - 8

Tremendous Tiny's

          Tremendously good, that is. And a tremendous deal. Located near the corner of Greenway and 19th Ave., a bad luck spot formerly housing Lenny’s Burgers and several other restaurants, Tiny’s Country Cafe should turn that bad luck around. This is a family business, run by mom “Tiny” and her daughters. They have a long history in the Phoenix restaurant business starting with The Famous Restaurant on Dunlap, back in the 60’s.

     Decorated in country style, with red check plastic tablecloths, lots of down home pictures and hand-lettered signs, a menagerie greets you as you enter. The day’s specials are posted on the walls, but there’s a menu too. We were there for lunch, so we ordered “Family Favorites” fried chicken ($8.99 for a half), and meatloaf ($7.49). These came with soup or salad, real mashed potatoes or fries, vegetables, and a roll or homemade corn bread. Ken enjoyed a cup of three bean soup, loaded with beans and very flavorful. My salad was nice and fresh, topped with green peppers, tomatoes, and, a nice touch, scallions. The cornbread was delicious. Somehow it managed to be both moist and crumbly. Too bad it was served with Country Crock margarine. Both the fried chicken and the french fries were greaseless and perfectly cooked - and there was a light hand on the salt shaker. Ken would have preferred bigger pieces of chicken, but I like the small ones because of the ratio of skin to meat (more crunchy skin), and because often the bigger pieces are bloody near the bone. I found the meatloaf somewhat strange: it had a texture that reminded me of corned beef hash. Not necessarily a bad thing, but the bottom of the slices had been burned on the griddle.

     Other offerings on the lunch menu include pork chops ($8.99), chicken fried steak ($7.75), sloppy joe ($5.99) and a variety of sandwiches and burgers and salads. But the real treat here is dessert. I’ve never been able to figure out why people like strawberry pie - now I know! The flavor of the berries shone through the not too sweet glaze, and the crust was delicious. But we were told that the coconut custard and peanut butter pies are even better. Oddly, rice pudding, at around $3.75 was more expensive than the pie. 

     We’re planning to try breakfast sometime soon. The biscuits and gravy are prize winners. Egg dishes are served with either hash browns or grits. There’s a dish called “hog wild” which is two pork chops, two eggs, and two biscuits covered with country gravy ($8.25). I’ve heard of milk toast, but have never seen it on a menu until now. It’s three slices of buttered, sugared toast with hot milk poured over it ($2.50). Odd. You can get a plate of hash browns topped with fried onions, cheese and sour cream. I can relate to that.

     So come to the country for breakfast or lunch, seven days a week, from 6 AM - 2 PM. Right now you can find a coupon at couponclipper.com.

Tiny's Country Cafe

15414 N. 19th Ave.  Phoenix

602-942-4009

3 Restaurants and a Coupon

     Totally out of character for us, we ate three times in the last two weeks in hotel dining rooms. This would never have happened were it not for our Restaurant.com coupons.

     Our first lunch was at Lafitte’s Real New Orleans Food in the Embassy Suites Phoenix North on Greenway at Route 17. On entering the cavernous, frigid, white lobby (which reminds me of a huge igloo) you bear left toward what looks like food court kiosks and you’ll find some tablecloth covered tables. The only New Orleans touch is a photograph of mask-wearing, presumably Mardi Gras partying, people. The place generally is deserted (at least on our previous visits) but a server will eventually find you. The menu is pretty large and has some interesting items on it, having been developed by John Folse, current President of the American Culinary Institute, and a “renowned” Louisiana chef. By the way, there are 8 Lafitte’s scattered around the country, all in hotels, so expect some corporate compromises in seasoning levels.

     Ken started with a cup of gumbo ($3.95) made with a dark roux. It was quite tasty, and loaded with chicken and sausage, but it wasn’t lip-tingling hot. His entree was crawfish etouffee ($11.95) for a huge bowl with a mound of white rice, topped with a crawfish, in the middle. I was wondering if the crawfish was made of plastic and reused for each bowl of etouffee, but Ken cracked it open, and there was meat inside. There was lots of seafood (shrimp or crawfish?) in the cream sauce and it was nicely seasoned. One of the best things on the menu is sweet potato souffle ($3.95) which is listed as a side, but is sweet enough for dessert. There’s jambalaya, and red beans and rice. You can get a steak, or ribs (which are quite good), or burgers and sandwiches. I guess if you’re a hotel restaurant you have to try to please everybody. To sum up - if you want a nice, quiet place for lunch, with unchallenging New Orleans food, which is reasonably priced even if you don’t have a coupon, this is the place for you. Ladies, don’t forget to bring a sweater.

     Lunch #2 was at Fire and Spice Grill in The Sheraton Phoenix Airport Hotel in Tempe. The ambience in this lobby restaurant is a lot a more pleasant than Lafitte’s. It’s done up in Southwest colors, with better quality, more attractive furniture, Unfortunately there is a Starbucks kiosk attached, like a sore thumb, to the bar - more about this later. Again, we were the only people in the place for much of our meal. We were joined by foodie friends Leon and Sena. The reason I chose Fire and Spice is because Sena is a carb-watcher, and the menu had plenty of options for her. Ken and I started with The Inferno Queso, a table side presentation of flaming cheese with guacamole, Pico, and black corn tortilla chips.($9). The woman who came to light our fire didn’t have too much experience with this dish - we gathered this because she came to the table with a cigarette lighter. She poured some tequila into the skillet, and also onto the wooden tray in which it rested. This gave me pause. When it failed to ignite, she poured on a lot more. I expected her Bic to explode, but again nothing happened. More tequila, and success, but not much flame considering the amount of tequila she had used. I wonder if cheap tequila has less alcohol content than the good stuff. At any rate, our petite Inferno was delicious, Ken and Sena ordered grilled N.Y. steak, a Black Angus Strip with ancho rub and chipotle compound butter. It was served with roasted asparagus and an “Arizona croquette”, which turned out to be nicely prepared mashed potatoes which had been formed into a patty, coated with bread crumbs and sauteed in butter. Yummy. I got the same sides with my half rack of ribs ($14), nicely cooked and coated, a little too heavily, with a hickory BBQ sauce. Leon was not so happy with his steak salad, which rated just an “OK”. Sena abstained from dessert. I don’t know how she resisted because the Chocolate Toffee Kahlua Mousse Cake  the three of us shared was outstanding. Ken ordered an espresso, and it was served to him in a tiny paper Starbucks cup that reminded me of the cup into which dentists put mouthwash. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry! With our Restaurant.com coupon which took $25 off our bill, the total including tax and tip was $80 (including a glass of wine). I thought this was reasonable, but I would have been unhappy paying the full amount.

     Lunch #3 was the winner, but not because of the food. The Millennium Resort’s Pinon Grill has one of the nicest patios we’ve dined at. It overlooks a man-made pond which has it’s own little sand beach and peddle boats. The golf course stretches beyond that. The patio is covered, so there’s shade for all, and a cool breeze blows through. Heavenly!! Again, we had the restaurant to ourselves. We were served crackers with a deliciously spicy cheese spread as we perused the menu which turned out to be uninspiring. I ordered an ahi tuna burger ($13), and Ken had fajitas ($15). Both were merely adequate - although the tuna burger was much better cold the next day. The dessert menu was not very interesting either, but the piece of banana cream pie we shared was nicely prepared. Really, the food was irrelevant. We sat for a long time after our meal just looking out over the water and talking to the ducks who would occasionally visit our table. The resort itself has seen better days, and the indoor dining room is depressing, so my advice is to only come here for the patio.

    And be sure to bring your Restaurant.com coupons with you!!!

You Can't Eat a Concept

   I know a lot of you will disagree with me, but I have to be honest with you, I’ve never been a fan of Sam Fox Concept restaurants, mostly because the emphasis is on the concept, not the food. And they tend to be outrageously expensive. The exceptions are Sauce, which in my opinion serves insipid food, the Counter (it’s 25 cent coffee was the deal of the decade) and the new Zinburger. 

    Of course, Zinburger is easy on the eyes, with it’s huge mural of happy cows, and it’s lighthearted use of chartreuse accents. Given that it’s in the the Biltmore Fashion Park, 

$8-14 for various types of burgers isn’t bad - and they’re big enough to share. Sides of french fries, fried zucchini, etc. are $3-5, and salads range from $9-14. There are lots of milkshakes and floats at around $6. The trouble, as I see it, is that you can get better for  less bucks at Indulge or BluBurger (particularly if you use a coupon). DeLux is a little less expensive, with a lot more food options, although the ambience isn’t as pleasant. I won’t bore you with what we ate, suffice to say it was merely okay. 

    My favorite thing is the irony. Zinburger, with it’s emphasis on meat, sits a few doors down from Sam Fox’s Tru, which specializes in being vegetarian and vegan friendly.

Zinburger

2502 E. Camelback in the Biltmore Fashion Park    Phoenix

602-424-9500

www.foxrc.com/zinburger.html

open 7 days   11 AM - 10:30 PM

Pizza Rules

     How fortunate we are that  Stefano Fabbri, owner of the new Pomo Pizzeria in the Borgata, is a pizza fanatic. He is obsessed with the authenticity of his Napoletana style pizza - so much so that  his restaurant will be vetted by the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana at the end of the month. There’s a lengthy set of rules to be followed: specific imported tomatoes and cheeses, the proper kind of flour, the dough must be shaped to a certain size (12 -14 inches) and thickness after a particular rising time. You get the idea. Fabbri has an imported wood burning brick pizza oven that heats to a blistering 950 degrees and cooks the pizza in 90 seconds. It’s smoking hot coming out of the oven, which gives the toppings time to meld to perfection. 

     There’s something you have to understand and be open to experiencing in this crust. It’s thin and light as a feather, but what most of us are not used to is that it’s slightly moist in the center, not crispy. That’s because one of the above rules says that the crust must be foldable. Stefano says that after you’ve tried it two or three times, even die-hard crispers will be converted I say that it’s possible to enjoy both crusts. The one concession made to American tastes is in the variety of toppings. Traditionally the pie is made only with tomato, oregano or basil, mozzarella di bufala, garlic and oil, but 17 varieties of pie are offered here - though for sure you won’t find pineapple and Canadian bacon. Also available are some appetizers and salads. We had an antipasti platter with meats and cheeses, sliced on an imported hand-cranked slicer. I learned that if an electric slicer is used the blade becomes hot enough to start to cook the prosciutto. There’s a soup and pasta of the day, five paninis, and some amazing desserts made in-house daily by a well-known local pastry chef.

     Pomo occupies the space formerly used by Thai Thai. It’s done up simply in dark browns and white, with a floor to ceiling mural of Naples on the back wall. The bar, with a selection of Italian wines, and the open kitchen takes up about a third of the space, while banquettes, tables and chairs (somewhat crowded together in European fashion) uses the rest. Patio dining is available. Our server was delightful and efficient although I have read some complaints about the service at peak hours. This is not a restaurant for the faint-of-wallet. Our antipasto, pizza, and molten lava cake came to about $40 without tax or tip. But believe me, it was worth every penny. YOU’VE GOT TO TRY THIS PLACE. Like I said, pizza rules!!

Pomo Pizzeria

6166 N. Scottsdale Rd., in the Borgata

480-235-5822

pomopizzeria.com

Take-In

     Try as I might, there are still times when we have to do the unthinkable - eat at home. So I endeavor to have interesting things to munch on, or (GASP) to cook, on hand. With that in mind, I wanted to tell you about some of our favorite places to get the goodies.

     I can happily make a meal of bread and butter. The Balkan Bakery makes that meal an adventure. Made fresh daily, they carry both spinach and cheese pitas, burek (which are meat stuffed pitas) and a variety of breads. Sometimes you can catch the pretzels as they come hot from the oven. I have to say the desserts are downright weird. The ones we’ve tried weren’t to our taste, but we’ll have to sample a few more.

     When Ken is craving cold cuts and cheese, we head to Yasha From Russia. Not your usual Boar’s Head selection, many have names I can’t begin to pronounce, and all are delicious. Smoked fish or blinis? Here they are. Along with homemade salads and spreads. The garlicky eggplant spread is to-die-for. But we use bread from the Balkan Bakery for our sandwiches because the bread here tends to be dense and on the dry side. Some of the desserts in the bakery section are pretty good. Reach into the freezer and grab a few packs of homemade blintzes - they put Golden’s brand to shame. There’s lots of dried and canned imported things. This is where I come when I want to buy brined cabbage leaves with which to make stuffed cabbage, it saves several hours of work. 

     We go to Chocolate Star Bakery when we’re craving cookies. That’s all this storefront bakery turns out, so they’d better be good. And they are. Rich and dense, they’re not cookies for the faint-of-heart. The Chocolate Java Splendor is more like a brownie, but in a smaller package - dark and chocolaty with a healthy dose of coffee flavor. Other favorites are Chocolate Star Paradise (chocolate chips, oatmeal, coconut, cinnamon and pecans) and probably the best coconut macaroons ever. I think there are twelve varieties in all. They do a huge mail order business because the cookies keep so well. I seldom drink milk, but these cookies are made to go with it, so we try to make it home to pour a glass before finishing off our stash.

     If you need some authentic Italian pasta and you’re in the vicinity of Thomas and 40th Street, stop by Pasta and Sugo. Ravioli, gnocchi, tagliatelle, and several other pasta shapes are made daily and are either fresh frozen or dried. Doria, the charming co-owner and chef, also makes her own sauce. It’s light and sweet, but she uses no sugar, instead pureeing carrots into the mix. Take a few minutes to chat with her - she’s also a painter (her studio is next door) and a writer. While there are several tables in the store, and lunch is served, there are no side dishes to go with the pasta, so it’s a rather one-dimensional meal.

     But my favorite place of all is Lee Lee Oriental Supermart. There’s one in Peoria and another in Chandler. Both are huge, carrying products from China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Holland, Brazil, Argentina and Africa, all organized into their own aisles. The fresh produce section is full of everyday things you’ll recognize, but also items like durian and jackfruit. Over in the fish section, you can choose one that’s still swimming, and it will be cleaned and even fried for you, if you desire. If you’re squeamish the refrigerator case is loaded with already cleaned, ready to cook fish and seafood, and there’s an extensive frozen fish collection. The same holds true of the meat department. One of my favorite things to buy are boned chicken leg quarters, great for stuffing. There are many exotic things here, but some of the more expected items are missing, such as chicken thighs and various cuts of steak. What is totally unbelievable are the prices - I don’t know how they do it. We usually come away with around six different packages of various proteins, at least that many kinds of produce, and another load of sauces and frozen items. All for about $65!!!

Make sure to pick up a discount card at the service desk, or just ask the checkout girl, and you’ll get 10% off your purchase each time you shop. Amazing.

Balkan Bakery

1618 E. Bell Rd.  Phoenix   602-996-4598

Yasha From Russia

10240 N. 32nd St.  Phoenix   602-347-6055

Pasta and Sugo

2916 N. 40th St.  Phoenix   602-977-2782

Lee Lee Oriental Supermart

7575 W. Cactus  Peoria

2025 N. Dobson Rd.  Chandler