We spent 9 days in San Diego & have missed reviewing our local restaurants. I found myself absolutely craving one of my old weekly stops so I decided to take the family for a fun late lunch. We drove over to The Capital Grille located @ the Biltmore Fashion Park & parked in the front spot right by the valet.
Our lil'gurl had to take a picture with her crackers that was served as soon as we sat down. They also serve piping hot rolls as well in the same basket. These crackers are huge & entertaining for the kids, if in fact you even take kids to The Capital Grille...
As I have done about 25 times I went with my usual Ribeye Steak Sandwich with Caramelized Onions and Havarti w/ cream spinach as my side $18. I absolutely crave this sandwich & find myself often driving over to the "Grille" just to quench the craving! The roll is soft but pointed in taste, the onions are caramelized perfectly, & the steak is easily a $20 steak as a dinner entree later in the evening! The wife has never once tried cream spinach at other venues such as Ruth's Chris or Morton's but did @ the "Grille" & absolutely loved it! My kids loved it also & it was fun to watch a 3yr old & an 8 month old eat it.
The wife went with The Grille’s Signature Cheeseburger with Truffle Fries A Blend of Chopped Sirloin, Smoked Bacon and Sweet Onions $16. Amazing in every way for sure! The burger is one of a kind with all it offers & the fries offer many different type of tastes. The burger was cooked perfectly & the kids loved sharing with mom on this plate as well...
The fries are covered in spices & oils & are so very tasty. They'll also give you any type of "DIP" you desire, we went with a few, fry sauce, honey mustard, & some type of sweet & sour mix they offer. Give this a try sometime, it's wonderful...!
VENUE & LOCATION: 10 out of 10. Venue is a white tablecloth type of spot, very "Frank Sinatra" type of place; It's great! Parking is now paid parking but they'll validate it for you if needed. I choose to park in my "Secret spot" where I don't have to walk far nor pay for parking, we'll keep this my lil'secret for now however...
VALUE & SERVICE: 8 out of 10. If you're looking for the dollar menu this is not the place. However if you're looking for a "Presidential type lunch" this is certainly an option for sure! The service is a 10 out of 10 but the $50 lunch is sometimes too pricey for what you get. I'm not complaining as I love this place but it is sometimes costly & may feel like the value isn't exactly always there...
COMFORT: 10 out of 10. I usually sit at the bar if I'm alone, I can talk w/ other businessmen, watch ESPN, & get refills quickly by the gal who usually is always there bar-tending. If I'm with a party I usually pick table #2 in the bar area but over by the windows. It's very private & gives you great room to spread out. I love either location & would gladly choose these 2 spots over a normal table in the main room. I've never been uncomfortable while dining @ "The Grille"...
OVERALL: A+ Amazing PHilling PHood, tip top service, & amazing location for those who live downtown, in Central/South Scottsdale, or Arcadia. This is one of my favorite places, even though it's not a hole in the wall, in the entire country! ABSOLUTELY LOVE IT & WOULD RECOMMEND IT TO ANYONE & EVERYONE!!!
The old man offered to take us out for some tasty yet affordable PHood the other night so we al decided on TEXAZ GRILL. On the NE corner of 16th St. & Bethany Home is (what looks like) a 100yr old strip mall of shops. TEXAZ is located on the corner of the little mall & famous for it's eclectic wall coverings, quality food, & affordable prices.
With each of our meals we got a salad. They have a house dressing that is mustard vinaigrette & a very good ranch as well. These salads are fresh! They use good lettuce, not wilted "Give Away Lettuce" like other restaurants that offer a complementary salad with your meal.
The wife ordered the chicken kabob Four chicken breast fillets skewered with mushrooms, onion, bell pepper, tomato and a little seasoned salt with mash patatoes w/ gravy $12. The chicken is so PHlavorPHul & juicy, the veggies are crispy & PHresh! If I were going for lunch I'd get this meal almost every time myself, it's a good amount of PHood, fresh, & filling.
I decided to go with the BBQ SPECIAL with 3 BBQ ribs, 3 slices of brisket, & 1 hot link; it also had mashed potatoes w/ gravy $16. I only ate half of this meal but but it was delicious! The BBQ sauce was homemade & incredible. A little watery compared to store bought BBQ sauce but the flavor was on point! The meat on the ribs was soft, fell off the bone, & tasted great, especially dipped in the sauce. The brisket was a bit over cooked & stiff. The hot link was certainly spicy! It was the 2nd best thing on the plate after the ribs. I also love the gravy @ TEXAZ! I usually get an extra side of it $1 to have w/ the potatoes & this time was no different, I did split the side with the old man for his taters also...
The old man is famous for ordering things while he's out that he wouldn't normally make or eat @ home. He did the FRIED catfish $12 & loved it! It's been coined the BEST CATFISH IN THE VALLEY up til now from the old man. It was light & flaky in all the right ways. The amount was enough to eat 1/2 there & take 1/2 home. Make sure if you order this you use the lemon squeeze they give you, it's not the same without it! What a great plate here, ESPECIALLY FOR THE PRICE!
VENUE & LOCATION: 9 out of 10. A 1 of a kind type of hole in the wall. The location is very easy to access from all areas, the venue has stuff on the walls that has been there for over 20yrs, the venue is old but fun to look at! Parking isn't exactly a strong suit nor is the waiting area if you've got a long wait. If it's not packed it's not a big deal, if it's packed you'll know before you park. There is only 15-20 parking spots in the entire strip mall.
VALUE & SERVICE: 10 out of 10!!!! The PHood is worthy of double the costs, it's fresh, hot when served, marinaded wonderfully, filling, & just flat out good! The service is friendly & good! I don't normally give a 10 out of 10 but this was deserving of a 10!
COMFORT: 9 out of 10. If being surounded by cluttered walls & good PHood isn't your thing than TEXAZ isn't your place. If you like PHood that would be cooked @ some type of ranch cookout in TEXAS or ARIZONA than this is the 1st place you need to go to in PHOENIX! The seats & booths are older than the word "TEXAZ" & are nothing special, the small dining room is really tight but you'll get over it & understand the PHood is worth the lack of true comfort here!
OVER ALL: "A" Gotta go to TEXAZ if you want a good fresh dinner for a good price!
GIVE IT A SHOT BUT PLEASE DON'T TELL EVERYONE, WE DON'T WANT TOO MANY PEOPLE EATING THERE & MAKING OUR WAIT TOO LONG!
http://texazgrill.com/
We picked up the old man @ the 51 & Camelback to go to dinner. We went to a local hole in the wall (not yet reviewed on here) & it had a 30-45 minute wait for our party. We were not in the mood to wait so we drove 10 feet north on 16th st & pulled into "THE VIG UPTOWN" & handed off the car to their free valet. The Vig is a very interesting, dental office building look alike, on the NE corner of Beth.Home & 16th st. It was packed because the Sun's game & had about a 15 minute wait. Rather than wait we went in the back, played some botche ball, & ordered some PHood @ their "Hang Out Area".
We decided to get the guacamole appetizer w/ the roasted tomato salsa $8.00. The chips are fresh, thin, & salty; all a good thing! The salsa is thin, spicy, dense in flavor, & lite. The guac had tomato's, onions, & some other spices that made it very delicious; it was also very refreshing on a 90 degree day & hit the spot as an appetizer. 
The old man went with the Love Me Tenderloin. It's a bistro tenderloin, grilled to your order, sliced and served with red onion marmalade, cheesy dauphinoise potatoes, asparagus and wild mushroom sauce $16.00. The potatoes were heaven! The meat was cooked medium rare & delicious with the mushroom sauce soaked into it. Very nice plate here!
The wife went with the Good Korma cauli ower, carrots, green beans, peas, potatoes, red peppers, onions, paneer cheese and cashews in a creamy coconut-curry sauce with basmati rice and grilled naan bread $12.00. I was put off by this myself but it just wasn't for me. The wife loved it, ate 1/2 of it because of the amount of PHood, & said it was fantastic! PHor the price it was top grade she says. I did have a taste of the curry sauce to see how it tasted, it had a very deep curry taste, many layers of curry & well done.
I went with the Carne Asada on a Potato Pancake sliced carne asada on a potato pancake with guacamole, pico de gallo, sour cream, cotija cheese and roasted tomato-garlic sauce $15.00. I was very intrigued by this on the menu but once it was served I was a bit perplexed. The sauce is overwhelming & having just eaten a guacamole appetizer I was "GUAC'D OUT". The potato pancake was different, somewhat cool when served, & had interesting texture and taste. The carne asada was tasty but served somewhat cool. I wouldn't get this plate again personally but apparently it's a popular re-order by people who frequent The Vig.
VENUE & LOCATION: 10 out of 10. The building is awesome! The boche ball was a fun babysitter for our 3yr old while we waited for our PHood & design is better than most any place in PHOENIX! Location is tough to beat being just 1/2 mile off the 51 & just north of Bethany Home.
VALUE & SERVICE: 7 out of 10. The service wasn't bad but wasn't exactly superb. 3 adults ate w/ 2 drinks & 1 appetizer for $70. It's better than some regarding the price but for what we received & the quality of PHood I'd give it a C-.
COMFORT: 8 out of 10. For being a busy night it was fine. We had to settle with a couch & coffee table in their lounge area. It was fairly relaxing since we didn't need a formal table & chairs. The rest of the venue looked very comfortable & I'd look to get a booth if you're trying to watch a game in the main dining room.
OVER ALL: B+ The Vig has good PHood, medium prices, cool feel to the venue & a relaxed wait staff that makes you feel unrushed & comfortable. I'll go back again but would order what the old man got, stick with a burger, or one of their interesting sandwiches. Give it a try, go on a date there sometime, or catch a game @ their bar.
Been sick for a few days & decided to go out & enjoy some quality pizza @ the 20th st & Highland NYPD (New York Pizza Dept.) We pulled into the parking lot which is overwhelmingly busy due to FRY's grocery store & dropped the wife off to get a table. She walked in & was placed into a corner booth right away. We placed our order & got our drinks all within five minutes of walking in.
We ordered their honey BBQ wings, all wings. This sauce they use here is the best honey BBQ around, it's sweet, spicy, & tart all at the same time. It's a very dense sauce & is wonderful on these wings. The wings have a crispy skin that is crunchy in all the right areas & with ranch mixed in these wings will take you for a very enjoyable ride!
The pizza here is the BEST PIZZA IN ALL OF PHOENIX! We ordered a Pepperoni & cheese pizza. It was served extremely hot, the cheese was gooey in all the right ways, & the dough is different than any type of pizza dough in the valley.
We just did pizza & wings, & it was wonderful, filling, & priced well.
After tax & tip we got out of there for around $24.00 & had 1/2 of the pizza to take home w/ us.
VENUE & LOCATION: 9 out of 10. Right by FRY's makes the parking sometimes pretty hectic & the bathrooms are a little "Gas Station Like" with the age & lack of cleanliness. I'd still give it a 9 due to how easy it was to get in & out, being 1 minute off the AZ51, & the NYC decor inside the dining room.
VALUE & SERVICE: 10 out of 10. Our waitress was wonderful, she was always on top of our drinks, asking about the quality of our PHood, & making sure we were good the entire time. The value is A+ with regards to getting what you pay for here. The pizza is 100 times better than any mainstream big name pizza spot & if you're only ordering pepperoni like us also offers better taste that the small swanky pizza spots. They do offer a bunch of different flavors of pizza but I've found the pepperoni to be my absolute favorite pizza of all time!
COMFORT: 8 out of 10. It's a bit tight in there, they probably have 1-2 too many tables in the main room. The tables are a bit small for all the PHood but it's not really that big of a deal.
Over all: A+ if PHood is all you care about A- if you need a tip top restaurant experience.
I'D GO ON THE RECORD FOR SAYING IT'S THE BEST PIZZA IN ALL OF PHOENIX; GIVE IT A TRY WHEN YOU WANT SOME PIZZA & WINGS!
The old man & I were on baby duty the other night & decided to go to a "Chain" burger joint that feels & certainly tastes like a hole in the wall type place we all love. On the SW corner of Camelback & 20th st sits SMASHBURGER!
The lil'gurl got a kids meal $3.99 which comes w/ regular fries, good size cheeseburger w/ no produce, & a small drink. More than enough food for our 3yr old princess!
The old man got the 1/3 pound SMASHBURGER w/ no cheese $4.99. He thoroughly enjoyed it & said it was one of the better burgers he had tasted in a while.
I decided to stuff myself (regretted this decision later) & ordered the 1/2 pound Classic Smashburger $5.99 w/ cheese & the Smashfries w/ olive oil, garlic, rosemary, & other herbs as they say. The fries are fantastic & the burger is very good as well. Smashburger is a fast PHood type of place, walk in, order, pick a table & sit down. Once your order is done it's coming to your table by one of their runners. I know this is gross but some type of sewer is leaking out front or perhaps a trashcan is spilling over because it's terribly smelly outside. Besides that major issue the experience was very enjoyable. Fast service, good PHood, decent prices for what you get, & a good location in central PHoenix.
VALUE & SERVICE: 9 out of 10.
The service was fantastic & exactly what you'd expect from a place like this. 10 times better than any other fast PHood type place but value maybe is a few bucks from being a 10 out of 10. The fries were $1.79 w/ a purchase of a sandwich & $2.79 without a sandwich purchase. Both are overly fair amounts but I found a chicken option to the sandwiches @ $7.00 a bit steep, $4.00 milkshakes, $7.00 jack in the box type salads.
Still 9 out of 10 is good for them!
COMFORT: 7 out of 10.
The smell outside alone should take this down to a 3 out of 10 but I'm going to be fair to these guys. The inside is exactly what you'd expect. Normal tables & chairs along w/ a few padded benches through out & a soda fountain for free self served refills.
VENUE & LOCATION: 9 out of 10.
Camelback & 20th st. Brand new restaurant. Nothing amazing with design or incredible construction w/ regards to the building, but then again, it's SMASHBURGER, what did you expect?
RECOMMENDATION: If you've played out your "IN & OUT" card Smashburger is a solid burger alternitive. I wouldn't go here if I was craving a salad or 5 star service but I would recommend giving it a try the next time you're over by LAST CHANCE or the BILTMORE AREA!
B+
On the SE corner of Camelback & 22nd st is our favorite steak house around. Even though Ruth's Chris isn't exactly a hole in the wall we reviewed it last night & enjoyed every minute of it.
We called about 20 mins prior to our arrival & asked for a table that would accommodate our 2 kids & 2 adults. They were very accommodating & had a table ready for us when we arrived. We usually request a table in their side room so the kids don't disturb the other guests, they did this for us again no issues & we basically had our own wait staff taking care of us. They took our drink orders & had HOT bread on our table within 10 minutes from arriving & handing off the car to the $3.00 valet.
Unfortunately we didn't get the pictures of our salads but we sure did enjoy them. The wife got the steakhouse salad w/ ranch & I went w/ the Caesar. The wife got the petite fillet w/ extra butter $39.95 & garlic mash-potatoes as her side. She likes her steak cooked medium well & it was fantastic as always! If your steak is ever undercooked you can always count on the plate being 100+ degrees which allows you to cook the steak on your plate after cutting it.
I went with the large fillet & had them throw some shrimp on top of it $49.95 with extra butter. The pictures show the sides differently but my side was the cream spinach. Both of our dinners are part of Ruth's Chris special summer menu. If we had ordered all this ala cart it would have been over 20% more in price. We also love the BBQ butter which you can get as an extra for bread dipping & also to eat with the shrimp & steak. My fillet was larger than I've had lately & was wonderful. I love getting a coke w/ grenadine @ Ruth's, they have some brand of grenadine that tastes like no other I've had. It's a great mix to our meal for someone who doesn't drink alcohol.
With the summer menu you also get a nice dessert @ the end. This summer they're serving the berries & cream w/ a side of chocolate cake. The cake has a fantastic taste of chocolate but is too dry to enjoy much more than a bite or two. The berries & cream is a one of a kind delicateness of fruit & custard tasting cream.
SERVICE & VALUE: 10 out of 10. You get the best steak you'll find anywhere. The sides are incredible & the free bread is good enough to be charged for it. They will not nickle & dime you for sides of sauce, extra bread, refills, etc. Truly a place you can go & enjoy a night out, even with the kids. Service is always tip top, regardless of location. Other than the steak quality, I'd be willing to bet the service is their largest item of pride.
COMFORT: 10 out of 10. Never a long wait. You can always count on things being the way they're suppose to be @ Ruth's Chris.
VENUE & LOCATION: 9 out of 10. The location is as good as it gets for people of Phoenix. Looks north onto Camelback road & is only a mile east of the AZ-51 & Highland exit. It takes us less than 10 minutes to get there from downtown PHX. This particular location could use some updating with it's chairs, carpet, decorations, but we didn't go here to interior design; will not affect your meal whatsoever.
OVER ALL: A+ & we'll return monthly as we have for the past 5+yrs!
WONDERFUL EXPERIENCE WONDERFUL PHood @ Ruth's Chris Phoenix!
