By Chris Schirm, Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

Foodies Like Us is proud to be the official blogger for Arizona Restaurant Week, taking place Saturday, September 18 through Sunday, September 26, 2010. This is the first in our series of reviews highlighting the participating restaurants. Stay tuned for more to come!

Fogo de Chao Restaurant Week Special: $10 off dinner and includes a choice from the dessert menu.  

Highlights of meal:
The whole experience of dining at Fogo de Chao can probably be best be described by the story of the 2009 Boise State Football team. The entire team came for the pre-game meal the night before the Fiesta Bowl. All told there were over 100 people and ended up putting down over 450lbs of meat in 90 minutes. However, unlike a Golden Corral or Old Country Buffet, Fogo de Chao gives its guests fine ambiance, fine dining cuts of meat, a phenomenal cold salad bar, and service that is exemplary.  The Scottsdale location seats up to 340 guests at spacious white linen table clothed tables, including two banquet rooms and a completely private wine table that has hosted celebrities the like of Charles Barkely and Rihanna.   

The salad bar is unlike any that I have seen or tasted. Its selection of beautiful cold dishes is a wonderful start to a great meal. If you do bring a date to Fogo de Chao, (rather than your best guy friend to have a man-date of epic gluttonous proportions that belongs in the sequel of “I Love You Man”), the salad bar is probably where she will spend most of her time.  If you want to make her happy, I would highly recommend tasting the hearts of palm, sun dried tomatoes, three-year aged parmesan reggiano, and the peppadews from South Africa. Word to the wise, I would limit the amount of salad bar that you actual try to eat, because the meat is definitely worth the wait.  

Salad bar samples

When you are ready for the meat to begin, you turn the circle on your table from red to green.  Here comes the meat!  The chefs or churrascos bring all of the 15 cuts of meat tableside and ask what temperature you would like to have and cut it directly on your plate.  One word of caution, I would think about what specific types of meat that you would really like to try before just saying yes to every meat that comes by the table.  Here are my top five cuts (cooked at medium rare): 1) Cordeiro (leg of lamb and lamb chops) — make sure to add the mint jelly; 2) Picanha (prime cut of top sirloin); 3) Filet mignon; 4) Ancho Beef (Prime Rib); and 5) Fraldinha (bottom cut Sirloin).

A vegetarian's worst nightmare

For all those that have actually dared to be able to limit themselves to just enough meat, the dessert menu in and of itself is enough to make anyone drool. I would highly recommend the Papaya Crème. Its creamy texture is just enough to take your swollen belly and transport you into a happy food coma.   

Save room for the Papaya Crème!

Any disappointments:
There were only three out of the 15 cuts of meat that I would pass on.  The lombo (a parmesan crusted pork loin), the Frango (bacon wrapped chicken breasts), and the linguica (cured pork sausage) are all pieces that I would give a pass.  The Lombo and Frango ended up really dry, while the Linguica is decent, but lacks a certain burst of flavor.  Although, to be fair when little ole Linguica is going up against the likes of lamb chops, filet mignon, prime rib and the house specialty picanha (a salt rubbed prime cut of top sirloin) it would need a miracle. The only other caution I would raise to Foodies Like Us followers is to watch out for the saltiness of the garlic roasted picanha and the Costela (beef ribs).  Finally, I would give everyone a heads-up that there is no such thing as a doggie bag at Fogo De Chao, so come starving and leave the skinny jeans at home.     

Being served some sausage and chicken

Best part of the value?
$39 for all you can eat salad bar, as much meat as you can possibly eat (or will eat until Thanksgiving) AND you get a desert afterwards. The value speaks for itself.  

As Homer Simpson put it, Ahhhwwwwwwh...Drool

Additional thoughts on service and ambiance:
What Fogo De Chao has done with their service is even more remarkable than the meal itself.  Everyone on the service staff (servers, bussers, and chefs) shares in the tips from the patrons.  So instead of having one waiter you have an entire staff responsible for your table.  Thus you have seamless teamwork that results in fantastic service throughout the entire meal.  No more, “Excuse me’s” or “Have you seen our server.” It works more like this: you think of what you want and then a server appears at your side asking, “What can we get for you?”. It’s as simple as that.

By Chris Schirm, Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

Amarone Ristorante Italiano‎, located at 91st St and Via Linda, has been open for about a year and is named after Amarone della Valpolicella. According to owner Henry Benjamin, Amarone is one the most expensive and full bodied Italian wines on the market. The rich blend of full-bodied Italian flavors was something that I hoped would soon grace my palate, not just from the wine but the food as well.

I was joined by two of my favorite people in all of Arizona, Kelle and Aunt Louanne. As we walked into Amarone, the first thing we saw was a beautiful 360 degree bar made of white onyx, carefully backlit with a shining subtle white light. The dining room is completely open save the wine library, (used for parties of 10 or more) and the cabanas that decorate a complete side of the restaurant.

A beautiful and inviting bar!

We were greeted by one of the owners Henry Benjamin, who showed us to one of the cabana tables and brought us a plate of fresh bread and butter with mint. The bread was incredibly fresh and flaky and the freshness of the mint was a unique and delicious start to the meal. Coupled with a splendid 2002m Brunello Di Montelcino Col D’orica wine that had the entire flavor I was hoping when I walked in the door.

The first dish was an antipasti medley presented on a white dish. Our antipasti dish included a salt grilled bruschetta with roma tomatoes, garlic, and fresh mozzarella cheese; a mozzarella caprese salad with basil; fresh honeydew melon wrapped in perfectly sliced prosciutto, and pickled escabeche and mushrooms. The Caprese salad had sand dollar sized slices of mozzarella with fresh Roma tomatoes and delightful basil pesto. The prosciutto was the freshest that I have seen in any Italian restaurant in Scottsdale, no fat and thinly sliced to perfection. If Henry hasn’t hugged his butcher recently, he certainly should now. The mushrooms, olives and brushcetta were fresh but nothing to write home to mom about.

Prized Prosciutto!

For entrees we were presented with a Shrimp Pasta, Pork Chop Millanese with Roasted tomatoes, tomato sauce, mozzarella, and dusted with basil, and a Halibut Amarone which is a fresh fillet of halibut, sautéed with bell peppers, sliced potatoes, onion in a garlic white wine lemon butter sauce topped with caramelized onions.

The shrimp pasta with a light tomato sauce reminded me of that one beautiful dinner by Lake Yerevan in Armenia four years ago. There was the delicate touch of the waves, a cloudy sunset and two great traveling partners. We had just finished 14 days straight of almost straight travel through busses, rusted out ferries, rickshaws, and hell bent taxis. The dust, exhaustion and perils of our journey seemed to melt away into that beautifully simple tomato sauce and shrimp just grabbed from the Mediterranean the day before. There were no premonitions, no lagging doubts or worries, just simple culinary enjoyment. Amarone Shrimp Pasta brought back that same feeling of nirvana.

Shrimp pasta take me away!

On the other hand, the Pork Chop Millanese did little more than satiate my hunger. The pork chop was a tad overcooked and tried to compensate by more sauce and fresh mozzarella with roasted rosemary potatoes. The halibut, which a recent press release calls their staple of the new lunch menu, was perfectly cooked, but I think had a bit of an identity crisis. The caramelized onions slathered on top had no flavor and the thinly sliced potatoes and peppers seemed to take away flavor rather than add it to the fish. While many may appreciate the creativity of this new lunch item, I was far from blown away.

A creative take on halibut

For dessert, we were presented with chocolate filled cannelloni, a chocolate fudge cake, and tiramisu coupled with espresso. The cannelloni had a good balance of a crunch and chocolate, the tiramisu was fresh and a good balance of flavors, but the chocolate cake was definitely a favorite around our table.

Delizioso chocolate cake!

As we sipped on our espressos we had a chance to sit down and talk more to Benjamin. “Throughout my childhood, growing up in West London, I always was told follow your heart,” said Benjamin. “This is where all of my success has come from….following my heart.” Hearing of his success, even in this economy, is definitely refreshing to hear. So perhaps when we begin to choose our destinations for lunch, dinner, or even dessert we look for those places with heart, not just our hunger…I certainly hope that many find their hearts at Amarone.

Amarone is now open for lunch with a menu. Their happy hour includes a multitude of wines by the glass and food offered for $5 each, plus 50 percent off bottles over $150. Their new location in Gilbert, located just off Main St. is scheduled to open the first half of June.

By Chris Schirm, Guest Blogger, Foodies Like Us

When you think of a steakhouse generally three things come to mind: white linens, glistening beautiful cuts of meat that melt on your tongue and a great wine list to match.  Fleming’s — located just off the I-10 and Ray Rd on 56^th St.–  meets all of these requirements. Their adherence to these principles has resulted in their skyrocket success of over 60 restaurants throughout the country in the past 12 years.  Their new spring menu, developed by Executive Head Chef Russell Skall, has taken the new menu through a six week trial in restaurants throughout Scottsdale and plans to release the new items to the nation on May 1^st.  I got a chance to preview their new menu items with a friend last week. 

The first thing out of the kitchen was a cheese plate that presented me with two of my favorite tastes in the world into one bite.  The Guinness infused Porter cheddar was a delicious accompaniment to the Simonet-Febvre sparkling white.  You could taste the rich coffee and chocolate inherit that comes with Guinness with a bit of a bite from the cheddar.  Sadly, they did not let me take a block of it home.

Exquisite additions to the menu

Our first course was a Roasted Mushroom Ravioli with a Porcini butter sauce and a Lump Crab Louis Wrap served on a two leaves of butter lettuce with avocado, bacon, egg, tomato, chives and a light 1,000 island dressing.  

One of the things that I always look for in ravioli is the filling to pasta ratio (FPR).  Far too many times do restaurants forego the filling, by trying to wow you with the presentation of the pasta, however much to my palate’s favor Fleming’s ravioli was stuffed full of Portobello and shiitake mushrooms that you actually needed multiple bites to finish.  Doing my best Dick Vitale impersonation I would say, “Oh, Fleming’s ravioli has it, BABY!  That perfect FPR.  They’re incredible, baby!” The porcini butter sauce added a thick creaminess to the dish without distracting from the perfectly cooked mushrooms.   

The Lump Crab Louis Wraps despite the misnomer was not finger food… at least not at this tasting.  Served on two leaves of butter lettuce, the generous helping of fresh crab meat was balanced nicely by the touch of tomato, bacon and eggs.  This salad let the meat and freshness speak for itself without drowning it in dressing.  It was a nice light warm-up to the main entrees to come, yet nothing to write home to mom about. 

When I was first asked to do the review of Fleming’s I was excited at the chance of devouring cuts of meat and humbly waddle my way out of the restaurant with a tryptophan-induced grin on my face.  Thankfully, I didn’t have to wait long for the food coma journey to begin. The first new entree on their menu is a Tillamook Bay Petrale Sole with a lemon butter sauce, joined with crab beignets and a Sanford Chardonnay.  They have also added a Peppercorn New York Strip, crusted with black and white peppercorns, coupled with the Fleming’s original F-17 steak sauce, and paired with a Frog’s Leap Merlot Rutherford.

Let’s start with the reason that we are in a steakhouse…the Peppercorn New York Strip.  The steak was served a pleasurable pink medium.  It delivered that balanced juicy taste that has made the New York Strip the most popular steak in America.  The crusting of the peppercorns gave it just enough of a bite to make you reach for the Frog’s Leap to wash it down with the glorious gluttony of eating a great steak.  Served on the side of the steak in a double shot glass was the sauce called the F-17.  The sauce gets its name from the 17 different ingredients included. The taste of this sauce reminded me more of the afternoons of backyard barbeques filled with plenty of salt and “secret” sauces that did a great cover-up job for overcooked ribs rather than serving as a tasty sidekick to a great piece of meat.  Pass on the sauce and take another carnivorous bite of the steak by itself.

This steak stands alone!

Admittedly, I do have a bias when it comes to fish — the more spice and blend of tastes the better.   However, the only thing that popped into my mind upon the first taste of the Tillamook Bay Petrale Sole was that it needed to do a séance for James Brown to come back.  The sole in other words was soulless.  Invoking the spirit of the Grandfather of Soul is perhaps just what this dish needs.  Apart from the texture of the fish being well cooked and the slightest hint of lemon butter from the sauce there was very little taste. Thankfully for the sole, the crab beignets pulled a Culinary Superhero act and saved the dish. Served on the side of the fish in a group of three the crab beignets are crusted with the popular Japanese Panko bread crumbs and stuffed full of crab meat, red peppers, and corn.  On the first bite, I was amazed that the contents of the beignets were not overpowered by the bread crumbs and delivered a balanced and delicious combination of flavors with just a slight hint of spice on the end.  If it is possible, order the beignets and leave the sole at the kitchen door.

Sole and Super Crab Beignets!

For our final course we were presented with a Crème brûlée, made in-house, topped with fresh blueberries and raspberries and a lava cake with a sprig of fresh mint.  The Crème brûlée was delicious but somewhat predictable.  The Chocolate Lava Cake was just that, a staple of food coma sugar inducing bliss that is repeated on multiple valley menus.

Worth every bite!

The new menu will give Fleming’s customers another couple of delicious choices to match with their excellent and ever changing wine menu, in an atmosphere that will have people forgetting about the heat outside and indulging in the heat coming from the kitchen.  

www.flemingssteakhouse.com