Foo(d) Bar Blog - Breakfast

The Arizona Republic's 2008 Readers Choice Awards for Food and Dining

Sat, 17 May 2008 09:59:00 -0400

Back in 2006, I wrote a post criticizing the Ahwatukee Foothills News for their Best of Ahwatukee list. The winners in almost all categories were well known chain restaurants, leading me to wonder whether it was the paper pandering to their advertisers, or the case that people in Ahwatukee just had no taste. You'll understand then why I became completely infuriated when I came across the Arizona Republic's 2008 Reader's and Critic's Choice Awards for Best Dining & Food. While I can say that the critic's awards were all within the realm of possibility (although I find some of the categories odd), the Reader's Choice awards were completely appalling. By an amazing happenstance, Oreganos's Pizza Bistro (no link, their site requires an annoying ActiveX control, which is a possible security hazard) won 11 out of 31 categories. That's right. Not only did they win best pizza, but also best Italian, best sandwich, best dessert, best family owned, best for a first-date, best local treasure, best takeout, best patio dining, best worth the wait and best quick (non-fast) food. How the heck do you win both best quick and best worth the wait? I don't even know where to start with this. If Oregano's had simply won best pizza, I could have lived with that, although I would have personally disagreed. However, winning 11 out of 31 categories, some of them totally ridiculous completely smacks of ballot-stuffing. Come on AZ Republic, wake up! Learn how to run a poll. I've never lived in or visited another major city with such a crappy (and consistently crappy) reader's choice awards. Just so you can see the full list for yourself, here it is, along with some snarky commentary from me:

Best Dessert: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - I know people like the pizza cookie, but come on. There are some seriously talented pastry chefs in the valley, and this is the best that people could come up with?
Best Breakfast: Crackers & Co. - never been there, so I can't argue with this one.
Best Indian Restaurant: Indian Maharaja Palace - Indian food in the valley is mediocre at best.
Best Pizza: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - If this is the will of the people, fine. However, there is much better to be found as you can see from the runner-up list.
Best Neighborhood Mexican: Carolina's Mexican Food - This makes sense.
Best Bakery: Wicked Witch Bakery - Works for me, although I find the bakery selection in the valley to be seriously lacking.
Best Family-owned Restaurant: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - it is a family owned restaurant.
Best Late-Night Eats: Fez - Couldn't agree more. Excellent food all the way through closing.
Best Place for a First Date: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - if someone took me here for a first date, it would also be the last date.
Best Salsa: Macayo's - WTF?!!?
Best Sushi: Ra See best salsa!
Best Restaurant 'Worth the Wait': Oregano's Pizza Bistro - with long waits both at lunch and on weekends, Oregano's is definitely popular. However, I can't say it's really worth the wait.
Best Wine Selection: D'Vine Bistro & Wine Bar - Been there and wasn't that impressed. If wine selection is really the criteria, then how could a place like Cowboy Ciao (even though I hate how their wine list is organized), or Kazimierz not win?
Best Barbecue: Famous Dave's Legendary Pit Bar-B-Que - very hot topic. My pick would be Joe's Real BBQ, but that's just me.
Best Local Treasure: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - Seriously now. Local treasure? Can you say huh?
Best Chinese: P. F. Chang's China Bistro - Good Chinese isn't great in the valley, but we do have better than P. F. Chang's, and I don't mean Pei Wei.
Best Place for Takeout: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - NO!
Best Non-Chain Hamburger: Zipps Sports Grill - Oh boy. It's a typical bar burger. It isn't bad, but it's by far not the best. Both Delux and Chuckbox should easily have been at the top of the list.
Best Ice Cream/Frozen Novelty: Maui Wowi - Wowi Maui. Good job.
Best Middle Eastern Restaurant: Haji-Baba - Very popular and supplies most of the rest of the middle eastern/Mediterranean restaurants in the area.
Best Italian Restaurant: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - It's a pizza place with a handful of other Italian dishes! There are many, many more Italian restaurants in the valley that are far superior.
Best Sandwich: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - This is such a broad category. In many other cities they would break this one out. Mention this wind to a dozen of your friends and see how many of them react with "are you kidding me?"
Best Restaurant to Splurge: Fleming's Prime Steakhouse & Wine Bar - it's definitely $$$, but for the money, I'd rather go to Kai.
Best Quick (Non-Fast) Food: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - This one defies logic. Considering the long waits that are a staple of Oregano's, I don't see how you can read this one with a straight face. Even when you do finally get a table, it's often a long wait for the food!
Best Steakhouse: Donovan's Steak & Chop House - I think you'll find a lot of people divided on this one.
Best Romantic Restaurant: The Melting Pot - Fondue can definitely be romantic, however, for overall atmosphere, there are better choices.
Best Pub with Grub: Zipps Sports Grill - For the love of all things! Four Peaks, Sonoran, and about ten other places come to mind before I would have ever thought to myself "hey Zipp's!"
Best Patio Dining: Oregano's Pizza Bistro - The AZ republic actually got this right in their commentary on the win when they wrote "Located all over the Valley, with patios overlooking parking lots, streets and walls, it's hard to say what, exactly, it was about the outdoor dining spaces at the various Oregano's that azcentral.com voters found so alluring."
Best Health Food Store: Trader Joe's - I love Trader Joe's, and so does everyone else.
Best Sunday Brunch: T. Cook's - There is talent there, although the execution can be spotty.
Best Thai Restaurant: Pink Pepper Thai Cuisine - NO WAY IN HELL. Swaddee, Maylee's, Yuppha, and many more should be at the top of this list.

It's hard to get people to take Arizona seriously as a foodie destination when this is the best we can come up with.

Hangar Cafe - Chandler, AZ

Fri, 29 Sep 2006 18:38:00 -0400

Every Friday, I meet up with a couple of work friends for breakfast before heading into the office. We try to keep our breakfast meetings central to where we live and also close to our Chandler office, which doesn't leave a whole lot of places to choose from. While I was surfing the web a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon a restaurant I had never heard of before - the Hangar Cafe. Even more interesting than the fact that it was previously unknown to me was its location, the Chandler Municipal Airport. This Friday, we finally got a chance to pay the Hangar Cafe a visit. Turns out that the cafe is actually located right out near the flight line, with a great view of the planes and helicopters both on the tarmac and in flight. When we arrived, the place was almost packed inside. There were a few people out on the patio, and with the temperature still fairly cool, we decided to sit outside so we could better take in the view. I had just seen the movie Flyboys the previous night, so I was pretty excited when a replica French Nieuport rolled out of the hangar next to us with two parachute clad pilots ready to take it for a spin. The menu at the Hangar consisted of typical American breakfast items including bacon, eggs, sausage, pancakes, several omelets, a breakfast burrito, corned beef hash, and chicken fried steak, among others. I opted for the chicken fried steak with eggs over medium, hash browns, rye toast, and coffee. The wait staff at the Hangar Cafe was super friendly and the service was prompt and competent. I never had to ask for a refill on my coffee. When my food arrived, it was cooked as ordered. Breakfast at the Hangar Cafe is nothing fancy, but the food I had tasted great. The chicken fried steak was one of the best I can remember having. The gravy was a standout. The hash browns were good, but I would have preferred them a bit crispier - something I realize very few breakfast places can pull off successfully. I really enjoyed our outing to the Hangar Cafe and plan to keep it in my regular rotation of breakfast spots. It's also open for lunch, which presents another opportunity for a repeat visit. In addition to the good food, friendly service, and relatively cheap prices, the fact that you can relax and watch the planes take-off and land is n added bonus.

Mini Cereal, A Birthday Tradition

Thu, 18 May 2006 23:52:00 -0400

Growing up, the one thing I could count on for my birthday every year was a multi-pack of mini cereals from my mom. After I moved out (just a few miles down the road), she would still give them to me as a present. When I moved to Arizona three years ago, come my birthday, there it was, shipped via UPS. Last year was the first year I didn't get the cereal for my birthday. To my surprise, when I celebrated my birthday a few months ago, Pere surprised me with an 8-pack of sugary goodness. I don't normally eat sugary cereals as I'm more of a Kashi fan these days, but once a year, I make an exception. Tasting Fruit Loops and Pops really brings back memories...

Original Burrito & Co. - Phoenix (Ahwatukee), Arizona

Sun, 09 Apr 2006 20:43:00 -0400

One of my groups at work had to go in over the weekend to deploy a new web based system. Although I didn't really need to be there, I wanted to lend some moral support. Truth be told, I miss the hands on work that I really don't get to do anymore on the management side of things. Since we were set to start the roll-out around 9 am, I decided to stop and grab breakfast for everyone. I chose to stop at the Original Burrito & Co. (no, the "&" is not a typo) in Ahwatukee. I love their breakfast burritos, and have made it a bit of a tradition to bring them in for the team whenever we have to do one of these weekend deployments. I've never had anything but the breakfast burritos at the Original Burrito & Co., but that's ok as I'm perfectly happy to have them as an occasional breakfast spot. If you've never been there before, the place can get busy, and it often takes the staff there a good 20-30 minutes to fill a to-go order. I recommend calling ahead if you can. I didn't give it enough thought before I stopped in, so I showed up without already having placed an order. There are about 8 or so different burritos on the menu made from various combinations of eggs, chorizo, potatoes, tomatoes, onions, green chilies, ham, sausage, bacon, and cheese. If you don't see a burrito you like, they are generally pretty good about putting one together for you that suits your fancy. On this particular day, I went with two Huevos a la Mexicana (eggs, cheese, tomatoes, onions & green chilies), two Huevos Papas (eggs, chorizo & potatoes), and two Bacon & Egg (no fancy names here). There were only going to be three of us, so I figured that two burritos each would be plenty. After a good 25 minutes or so, the burritos were finally ready. When I saw the size of the bag, I realized that two burritos each was overkill. They were huge! The bag must have weighed a good six or seven pounds. Twenty minutes later, I was at the office and unloading the food. In addition to the burrito, each order also comes with a small bag of home made tortilla chips and fresh salsa. We devoured the chips and salsa right away. The chips were nice and crisp, although a tad greasy. The salsa was indeed fresh and bursting with tomato and cilantro. I went with the Huevos a la Mexicana burrito. The tortilla was still very warm and pliable, with the first bite releasing a good bit of steam. The eggs were nice and light and the entire burrito had quite a bit of flavor from the combination of onions and green chili. Adam and Ray each managed to polish off two burritos over the course of the morning and seemed to enjoy them as well. I only manage to get food from the Original Burrito & Co. about two to three times a year, but man do I love those breakfast burritos.

Wonderful Wanda's Breakfast & Lunch - Chandler, Arizona

Fri, 17 Mar 2006 16:51:00 -0400

Every Friday morning, I meet up with friends for breakfast before heading into work. The breakfast scene in the East Valley is woefully lacking. We usually end up at chains like Waffle House and Village Inn, which I don't mind, but I don't consider them particularly great. This morning, however, we met at Wonderful Wanda's Breakfast & Lunch. Wanda's is in a small stand alone building off of Chandler Blvd, just East of I-10. Stand alone non-corporate restaurants are rare in Phoenix as most tend to be located in strip malls. The place itself is fairly small with only about 12 tables. The place was packed when we arrived, but luckily there was still one table open which we promptly grabbed. I don't know if Friday mornings are usually this busy at Wanda's, but they weren't prepared for the volume. There was only a single waitress on duty. She was running around like mad, but there was just too much going on for a single person to handle. As a result, it was a good 10 minutes before she finally got to our table to take our order. Fearing we might never see her again, we ordered our drinks and food at the same time. Wanda's menu is fairly small. There's a selection of omelets, breakfast burritos, breakfast sandwiches, and assorted items such as biscuits & gravy, pancakes, and French toast. During a previous visit, I had tried one of the breakfast burritos, and it was pretty good. This time around, though, I was interested in an omelet. It just so happened that there was a special. $4.95 for a bacon and Swiss cheese omelet with onions and tomatoes, served with hash browns and a side of toast. Sounded good to me. My friend Moody ordered a breakfast burrito while Adam went with the biscuits & gravy. Surprisingly, the food came up pretty fast considering how busy the place was. My omelet looked to be a three egg version and was nice and light. The first bite was a little disappointing, though. Both the egg and the filling were in desperate need of seasoning. I added some salt and pepper from the shakers, which helped a good bit, but it's never the same as when it's incorporated into the cooking process. My hash browns came out a little undercooked. They were about two inches thick, which meant that even though the outside was browned, the center was still a little raw. All in all, my breakfast at Wanda's was ok, but it didn't rise to the level I had hoped. Moody really liked his breakfast burrito, and it seems like that might be what they do best. I'm sure I'll be back again, hopefully when things are a little less hectic and they have a little more help.