In my “Achievements in 2019” post, I mentioned that I wanted to visit at least 15 new restaurants during the year.
Dining at the Persian Room in Scottsdale with friends.
Well, here are the new restaurants and other eating venues we’ve tried year-to-date…
- Saigon Nites, 15111 North Hayden Road #110, Scottsdale, AZ. A straightforward restaurant focusing on Vietnamese noodle soups & other traditional dishes. Perfect place to grab a bowl of pho after going to Costco.
- George and Sons, 11291 E Vía Linda, Scottsdale, AZ 85259. Chinese & Southeast Asian cuisine provided in a cheerful yellow dining room with many booth seats. BEST Chinese food we’ve had in a very long time. Went with a group of 8 and ordered family style. Wonderful opportunity to try a bunch of new dishes.
- Stone and Vine, Scottsdale, Arizona. Classic Italian cuisine & individual wood-fired pizzas delivered in a kid-friendly setting. Good food, but noisy atmosphere.
- Mascardores Taco Shop, 16754 E Glenbrook Blvd, Fountain Hills, AZ. OMG, SO yummy!!! Super nice owners.
- La Botana, 13014 N. Saguaro Blvd. Suite #101, Fountain Hills, AZ. Cozy, friendly Mexican restaurant with street tacos and HUGE Margaritas.
- Rancheros Mercado, 16142 N Oracle Rd, Tucson. This new mercado is up in Catalina and is SO SO good! The meat market is amazing and their ready-made offerings are top-notch.
- Arizona Renaissance Festival, Apache Junction, AZ. Decent basic food served in large quantities.
- egee’s, Tucson, AZ. Homegrown Tucson restaurant with excellent staff and good basic food, better than most ‘fast-food’ restaurants.
- Bone Haus Brewing, 4825 E Shea Blvd #101, Fountain Hills, AZ. Delightful find with a lovely western view of the mountains of Scottsdale during happy hour. They don’t do food as such, but each evening a food truck parks beside the brewery. We were lucky that the pizza truck was there on the night we went. Absolutely delicious. Bone Hause does NOT do a lager, so I recommend their Chocolate Porter as a good substitute.
- Persian Room, 17040 N Scottsdale Rd, Scottsdale, AZ. 5 stars all over this place. Beautiful venue and service like you’ve never experienced. The food was awesome!!
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The Bear, The Fish, The Root & The Berry – Enjoyed this restaurant at Spirit Ridge Resort in Osoyoos, B.C. with good friends on Canada Day evening. Serves modern vineyard cuisine inspired by our Indigenous roots. Amid incredible vineyard, lake, or mountain views. Start your meal with the bannock & spreads, then order the Sumac Bouillabaisse or the Bison, which arrives with foraged spruce roast, nettles, hasselback sweet potato, swiss chard, onion petals, mushroom and spruce jus.
- Kimju – Korean restaurant at Asiatique in Bangkok, Thailand
- Lugang Cafe Thailand – GREAT Taiwanese food and service. Felt ‘special’ being the only Caucasian in the restaurant. Granted, the Caucasians walking past didn’t know what they were missing! 🙂
- Rogue Kitchen and Wetbar – While we were in Vancouver in November for my PETscan and later in December for my cancer surgery, we ate at Rogue 3 times. OMG, the food is SO good and the staff there are SO nice. I guess they are used to having sick people come in there for their last ‘happy’ meals and they respond marvelously well to the challenge.
- Banana Leaf – Excellent food. Service was a more than slow, particularly at our table, but not at the table next to ours. We were finally asked how we ‘were doing’ when our plates and glasses were clean and dry.
OK, we enjoyed many MORE than 15 great restaurants in 2019. I’ll chat about the other great ones at another time.
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