Restaurants

If it looks inviting, tastes good, feels brittle, and sounds crunchy you’ll experience the salt with four of your five senses.

Last week the R& D department at Taco Bell grew tired of spinning the wheel-o-ingredients for zany breakfast products (French toast sandwiches? Denver stuffed hashbrowns?), and rolled out their new “First Meal” concept across 10 lucky states. “First Meal” is what we can only assume is the hangover-killing meal you…

In the Valley Dongbei cai, or the food of the Northeastern China, is a rare find indeed. In fact, at Chou’s Kitchen in Chandler, owners Tong Rizzo and Ping Chou may be the only ones serving up this region’s comforting and sometimes unfamiliar cuisine of distinctive flavors, colorful presentations, soft…

Chou’s Kitchen isn’t just the kind of restaurant that’s used to being excluded. It’s the kind of restaurant that’s used to being excluded twice. In the Valley, this restaurant’s menu of mostly unfamiliar northeastern Chinese cuisine (devoid of Americanized General Tso’s chicken, crab wontons, and fortune cookies) might turn less-adventurous…

Today, the Phoenix location of Morton’s The Steakhouse, located at 2501 East Camelback Road (in The Shops at the Esplanade), has been shuttered. The Denver Post reports the closing of the Phoenix Morton’s and eight other locations across the country, each employing around 40-60 people, coincides with Landry’s Inc. boss…

​If you’re planning a party for the big game this Sunday, we figure you’ve already got the basic four food groups — chicken wings, chips, dip, and beer — covered. But what about the sweets? It’s not a party unless there’s cake, right? And if you’re not throwing the party…

Did somebody say bacon? The Oink Cafe, a new breakfast and lunch spot in Paradise Valley, is slated to open at 6 a.m. Monday, February 13, at 4326 East Cactus Road (across from Paradise Valley Mall). Along with breakfast and lunch fare, The Oink Cafe will offer five kinds of…

A drink called the New York style “egg cream” is thought to have been created sometime after the popularization of soda drinks and the birth of the soda fountain in the late 19th century, but fizzled sometime before the modern-day milkshake and 2-scoop waffle cones. What is an egg cream?…

For North Scottsdale folks in search of Italian cuisine, Bella Notte Ristorante, a new upscale Italian eatery located at 10989 East Dynamite Boulevard (in the former location of the Painted Horse Cafe at East Dynamite Boulevard and Alma School Road) may be worth taking note of. From chef and owner…

Phew! January was crazy busy but metro Phoenix is now the proud home of 14 new restaurants and we have a whole bunch coming in the near future. Unfortunately, we lost a couple friends including a New Times favorite, Bonfire in Scottsdale. C’est la vie…

This week in Chef Chat we’ve been at Green talking to owner and chef, Damon Brasch. Over the last two days he talked about the process of renovating the two century-year-old buildings in downtown Phoenix, which now house the second Green location and his coffee/snack shop, Nami. Today he comments…

Lately, in this In Season series, we’re taking a look at what I take home from Crooked Sky Farms each week and see what I’ve done with my CSA share, or part share. This week I’m using cabbage, carrots and i’itoi onions…

The Spot, a new, family-owned neighborhood hangout of fresh, fast, and affordable fare, opens today at 1493 South Higley Road in Gilbert (Higley Road and Ray Road.) The eatery occupies a tall and narrow space with an an interior mezzanine where diners can munch on salads, sandwiches, flatbreads, and home…

Yesterday we shared the first part of our talk with vegan chef and owner of Green, Damon Brasch who shared the story behind the century-year-old buildings that now house his most recent culinary endeavors in the middle of downtown Phoenix. Today Brasch, known also for his mad music skills (he’s…

It’s no secret that Camelback Esplanade, the mixed-use development on the southeast corner of Camelback Road and 24th Street, hasn’t exactly been the most successful place to put a restaurant. Tough to see from Camelback Road, parking hassles (you’re either walking from across the street or have to remember to…

Caneles were one of our picks as a food trends in 2012. Naturally, we’ve been wanting to try one. Taking one for the team (ha ha), we followed Tracy Dempsey on Monday afternoon into the commissary kitchen of Arcadia Farms in Old Town Scottsdale, where she makes her many Tracy…

Chef Matt Carvalho used to use Queen Creek Olive Oil in his kitchen at RnR Restaurant and Bar in Scottsdale. Now, del Piero, the in-house cafe of Tuscan-inspired cuisine at Queen Creek Olive Mill, is using Carvalho in theirs. Carvalho, who started with RnR as executive sous chef when it…

After over forty years in the restaurant business, Frances Lee Hamby (a.k.a. Tiny) and her family are calling it quits. For many, Hambry’s last venture, Tiny’s Country Cafe, the small, cash-only, home-style breakfast and lunch spot near the corner of Greenway and 19th Avenue, has been a go-to spot for…

The name of Chakra 4 Herb & Tea House is somewhat misleading in that it offers so much more than dried leaves. While you’re there, stay and have a healthy, flavor-packed lunch or dinner.

And the new restaurant openings this month just keep on comin,’ folks. Zen’s Cafe, the locally owned, small casual eatery chain from owners Adrian Yap and son Steven, opened its newest location last week at 19 East Broadway Road (Broadway and Mill Avenue) in Tempe. In the former spot of…

At the second location of the vegan bistro, Green, we met up with owner and chef Damon Brasch for this week’s Chef Chat. Next door at the also new-to-town snack shop, Nami, we chatted over a cup of coffee (with soy milk, of course) about the history behind the recently…

Susie Timm of Girl Meets Fork and Kirti Dwivedi from Diya Marketing have been busy ladies!  Earlier this month, they brought us the Pancake Quest and next month it’s the Grilled Cheese Throwndown.  Join Timm, Dwiveti, and the American Cheese Society February 26 from 4 to 7 p.m. at the Scottsdale…