Eating Out in Phoenix

Gary and I ate out quite a few times while we were in Phoenix but there are two different places I feel are really worth mentioning here. The first one is a place called Switch Restaurant & Wine Bar   The food is unique and a mixture of southern, western and Cajun cooking.  Our server was Dan and he was amazing!  He made sure we received the attention we needed, knew what we needed before we knew we needed it and was amusing with his sharp wit and great disposition.  He really made our visit there amazing.  He managed his tables well, always managed to keep up conversations without making you feel rushed and yet he kept the flow between the tables going well.  He was wonderful at his job and seemed to really enjoy it.  The food was fabulous.  For our appetizer I ordered the Fried Green Tomatoes with the Argula, shrimp-sweet corn pico and lemon aioli. To be honest I wasn't as impressed with the fried green tomatoes as I expected to be and that's one of my favorite dishes but the pico was very flavorful.  It made up for the overcooking of the green tomatoes, the green tomatoes really didn't have any taste to them at all.  They were just sort of bland and being from the south we just don't handle bland food well.  For my entree I ordered The fried Catfish which I could have cornmeal dusted or blackened and I chose cornmeal dusted.  It was to be served with a summer squash casserole.  I love squash so that sounded great to me.  The catfish was suppose to have a charred tomato bacon vinaigrette. In my mind I'm picturing pieces of fish on a plate drizzled with this vinaigrette, squash casserole on the side.  Gary orders this Smoked Adobe Meatloaf  that's made with both pork and beef and topped with Smoked Adobe Ketchup.  I believe the meatloaf is grilled after it's baked in the oven but I wouldn't swear by it and then sweet corn on the side and sweet potato puree.  When our entrees came out I wasn't sure what to expect so my plate is put in front of me and it's sort of a low edged large bowl with everything stacked on top of each other and I'm like ... Oh Lord.  I'm one of those crazy people that really doesn't like my food to touch.  I look over at Gary and his dinner is stacked like mine is ... his sweet corn ... corn on the cob that has been soaked in this sauce ... so it's like creamy sweet corn on the cob.  I know my eyes were huge, I was wondered what kind of mess I had gotten us into.  Well, we may have to ask for more napkins before the meal was over but it was time to brave the meal!  I took my first bite ... it was the squash casserole and it was like my mouth was having an awakening.  It was delicious. I make a great squash casserole but this was magnificent.  As I'm eating, Gary is eating his, cutting the corn off his the two cobs it was beyond him to eat that with his fingers LOL but we discussed the meal and shared bites back and forth.  My fish was delicious, and I'm usually not a fish eater but it was cooked perfectly.  I ate almost every bite on my plate.  I was beyond full but the food was so good I hated to leave even a bite of it behind and even now my mouth waters over that squash casserole.  Someday I will figure out that recipe!!! It was a wonderful meal, we laughed and joked and ate and enjoyed the two hours we were there.  This is definitely a place I would eat again and again!

My Catfish dinner up front and Gary's meatloaf dinner further back

Fried Green Tomatoes Appetizers

The second place I want to mention is Alexi's Grill.  Where Switch was more a casual setting, Alexi's Grill was more fine dining.    We wanted to sit outside and enjoy the night and the clear sky, the stars, the evening was beautiful.  We found out that most restaurants in Phoenix don't open their outside dining until late September due to the heat so we were seated inside near a window so could still see the evening.  The manager was a woman and very sweet and made our evening special.  She wanted to give us dessert on the house since she couldn't allow us to sit outside but we declined the offer as there was no reason to do so.  We weren't offended and meal was exceptional.  The only thing I didn't like was their salad dressings, they had a choice of two ... both were creamy ... balsamic vinegar or mustard (that's yellow mustard folks and yup it tastes like yellow mustard!)  I wasn't impressed with either one.  I hate balsamic vinegar and the mustard dressing was really too strong and overwhelmed the salad completely.  So I only took a few bites of that and I was done.  Again, I was looking to be disappointed.  Gary had ordered steak and as neither of us really like potatoes we asked for vegetables to be substituted in place of the potatoes.  I ordered pork loin topped with sauteed mushrooms in a garlic Marsala wine sauce. I ordered Pinot Grigio to drink with my meal and I don't remember what wine Gary ordered.   They brought out our food and it was perfect!  They replaced the potatoes with candied carrots and oh my goodness they were delightful! I haven't had candied carrots in I don't know how many years ... and the broccoli was cooked to perfection.  There were three pork medallions were as large as a small steak.  There was no way I could eat three of them and the sauce was brilliant!  The Marsala wine didn't overpower the mushrooms ... the mushrooms were tender and fresh.  It was a most satisfying meal.  I actually ended up taking 2 of the medallions and the broccoli back to our hotel with us and then we took it to the condo so Gary had it for lunch the next day.  I didn't leave him any of the carrots LOL.

Doesn't that look delicious?  I didn't even take a picture of Gary's meal.  It was a steak and vegetables.

So if you find yourself in Phoenix and you need a place to eat, either one of these are great places.  One is more casual and one is more fine dining but both I would rate 4 star to 4.5 star.  Both had excellent service and food.