Terry "Tad" D.'s Profile

This is NOT a Japanese restaurant.  I wouldn't eat the sushi here - not saying that it isn't safe, but the tuna rolls I had (just about the simplest thing to make) weren't tasty at all.

I would best describe this place as "Asian Inspired."  It's a real hodge-podge of food styles and you KNOW you're in trouble when your "Asian" restaurant has a section in the menu for "Sandwiches."  Ugh.

I guess I'm being kind of snobbish, but if I'm going to pay $8 for sub-standard tuna rolls then I think I have a right to be.  Our total for 2 adults and one kids meal was $60 including drinks.  I would have been perfectly satisfied with the visit if the check had been half as much.

As is usual for North Phoenix/Scottsdale/Cave Creek restaurants they way overspent on decor and ambiance and totally scrimped on food quality.  

This is a very bland place full of uninteresting food.

This is one of my favorite lunch places, and they've recently improved!  

The wife and I stopped by here today for lunch and I was impressed with a new menu.  They're offering pizza now and for the first time I noticed that you can get an Italian Sausage Parm Hero.  

That's what I got and it was SO good!  

The same guys run the place, but they've ramped up their friendly service to an even higher plateau.  One of the owners was greeting every group of customers as they came in and the staff was doing a great job finding tables, etc for the huge lunch crowd that was coming in.

This is bare bones, fantastic Italian lunch food.  Not a place to go on a date, but a place to get an extremely satisfying lunch during your busy day.

I highly recommend stopping by, eating lunch and saying hello to the boys!

If I could I'd give Blowfish 2.5 stars.  

We ate here on Thursday, June 19th 2008.  We sat at a teppan table.  Amongst my wife and kid we had shrimp, chicken, NY Steak, and calamari.  We paid a total of around $95 before tips for dinner plus 2 soft drinks a bottle of warm sake and a beer.

First the nice stuff.  Blowfish is brand new and the owners went all out with the decoration.  It's a nice looking place with 5 or 6 teppan tables, a long sushi bar and a good number of dining tables.  There's also a very nice looking patio in the back.  It looks like Blowfish was designed to appeal to and cater to the wealthy in the far north valley.

My wife's sake was very good for warm sake - definitely not the cheapest stuff.  My Sapporo came out super cold, severed in a chilled glass.  The wait staff was very friendly, attractive and professional.

The teppan chefs all seemed very professional and very skilled, but that's about where the good stuff ends.  The rest wasn't bad - just not at all impressive.

We ordered 2 orders of tuna rolls.  They were just a bit below average.  The tuna wasn't particularly fresh.  If Yasu's tuna rolls are a 10, these were a 4, maybe.

Like I said, the teppan chef was great.  I'm just afraid he was given mediocre ingredients.  The shrimp was just ok.  I expected calamari steak when I ordered, but instead he cooked the suckers, etc that you get when you order a calamari appetizer at an Italian restaurant.  It wasn't bad, it just wasn't awesome like a good calamari steak.

The NY steak was ok.  Not great and not bad.  The chicken breast looked pretty pathetic.  It was probably the saddest looking chicken I've ever seen on a teppan grill.  It wasn't gross or rotten or bad - it was just cheap.  I paid $17 for my kid's chicken plate and they cooked him a $2 chicken breast.

In summary, Blowfish looks like a Japanese restaurant that someone threw a LOT of money at.  They have Japanese teppan chefs and the sushi bar was at least staffed with a bunch of Japanese looking chefs (I didn't get to listen to them talk).  

The problem is they've scrimped horribly on the quality of their food.  If places like Yasu, and even Sakana can procure and prepare decent quality food, then Blowfish should be able to as well.  Other than its location way far in the north valley there is nothing else to distinguish Blowfish as a good or interesting Japanese restaurant.

My friend Joy Li has her store here at The Mix.  My wife and I built her website for her.

http://www.joyli.net

This may be VERY Scottsdale, but all of the store owners and employees are really nice people.  We came at the big opening event and had a really nice evening.  

My wife has some of Joy's clothing and she looks stunning in them.  Check out her shop and tell her Terry and Lindsay sent yoU!

I would give Flo's 3.5 stars if I could.

Best brown rice I've had from a restaurant.  Consistently the hottest hostesses from lunch to dinner too.  Sometimes she has a really hot bartender girl too.  

One of my favorite places for lunch - super fast service, and a lot of food for the money.  Also one of my regular places to bring home take-out from.  It's super-duper awesome Chinese take-out food.  That's not really saying a lot though.

None of the food here, besides the rice, is really all that great.  The only thing I've ever had from Flo's that was gross, though, was the Teriyaki Chicken.  It smelled totally disgusting.  Everything else though - pretty good but not great.

This particular Flo's is extremely ear-shatteringly loud when full.  Don't expect to carry on any sort of conversation in here at lunch.

OMG OMG OMG Korean BBQ!

This is the first place I ever tried any sort of Korean BBQ and it's by far my favorite.  I think based on the fact that everyone else in the restaurant except for my wife and son were speaking Korean that this is a pretty authentic place.

Oh, and the menu is mostly in Korean too, and even the parts that are English don't really make much sense and some of the descriptions are horrifying to my uneducated ignorant eyes (you'll know when you see them).  Fortunately there's lots of pictures and I picked the simple Chicken BBQ plate and whooo boy it's super awesome fantastic.

The serving staff all speak English and are really helpful in telling you what is what, but all you need to know is to order BBQ Chicken, Pork or Beef and you'll be happy.  

After ordering the server will bring over 8 or 9 little dishes each filled with some sort of Korean appetizer.  There's lots of Kim Chi which I'm told is excellent, but I'm a coward.  The potatoes, though were excellent as were several other things that I tried.  If you finish any of the little bowls you can ask for more at no charge.  

When the meal comes out you're in a for a great treat!  Each plate comes out sizzling like when you get fajitas.  They're piled high (really high) with your choice of seasoned meat and onions.  And they also give you a big bowl of rice.  

Each bite is heaven.  Oh man, just thinking about it right now just before lunch is driving me insane.  I think I'm going to have to drag Lindsay down there tomorrow night.

We love bringing our friends here.

Hodori is tucked away in a strip mall full of other Asian stores and restaurants.  Its decor is blah, but the staff is nice.  If you're not Korean, don't be surprised if you're the only non-Korean there.

I can't wait to go back.  I must go back.

Four stars for the lunch-time buffet.  My team at lunch likes to eat here for lunch sometimes and I have to say it's pretty great for lunch.  The buffet is much smaller than your typical Chinese buffet place, but everything in it is much higher quality.  The dish with the fried fish is super-duper great.

G&S has better-than-average atmosphere for a Chinese restaurant and their wait staff is attentive and fun.  George himself is often there as well.

My family has eaten here a few times for dinner as well.  I can't give G&S 4 stars for dinner, but I'd definetly give it 3.5 if I could.  The portions are pretty big, the food is tasty, and the menu has a lot of stuff in it.

I'm not sure how authentic G&S is, but I think it's one of the best places for Chinese lunch buffet in this part of Scottsdale.

Four Peaks is one of our old stand-bys for lunch or dinner whenever we can't think of someplace else to go.  It's not super great, but it's a long, long way from being dull.  

Being a brewery, the beer is really good.  I always have the Kilt-Lifter which is excellent.  Lindsay always has the Peach beer and is always really happy.

Foodwise, I usually get the fish and chips or the French Dip.  Both are good - not great, but not bad.  I've also had their pizza which is also pretty good.

Just about every time we visit it's extremely crowded and super loud.  If you're out drinking and looking for fun, this is great, but if you just want a bite to eat and spend some time with the family it's not so wonderful.

Despite it being a hangout for the 20's crowd, this isn't a bad place to bring your kids.  I rarely see tons of kids, but there's always a few and we've always found plenty for our kid to eat.

My favorite North Scottsdale drinkin' place.  You can't beat $3 Harps.

I'm a huge fan of the food too!  I love the standard stuff like the Fish and chips and the Beef Stew, but the Salmon Entree is fantastic!  

Make sure that if it's an option on any meal that you order that you get the Scalloped Potatoes.  They're extra yummy.

Very nice, relaxed casual atmosphere.  Lots of seating space.  Huge projected screen for watching sports.  A few cute waitresses.  Yummy beer.

Overall a great place to hang out and have a few drinks or dinner.  And like other people have mentioned it's an older crowd (meaning generally over 30) which is perfect for me.  :D

Best damned Lasagna in Scottsdale, and probably in Phoenix-Metro.

I think the secret is the sauce - same sauce that goes onto their awesome spaghetti.  Really, really good.

This is by far the best little pizza joint I've visited.  

The pizza's pretty good too, but for goodness sake, eat the lasagna!!