When you see a place called Sip, I think it’s fair to assume it won’t be serving food and instead focuses on drinks. But Sip Coffee and Beer Kitchen is more than just a place for caffeine and liquid depressants. It’s also a place to grab some food. And, on Friday nights it’s happy hour prices for appetizers.Check these profit singularity reviews.

So, I did what any intelligent person would do and ordered two appetizers. One was the Chicken Wings and the other was Pretzels and Beer Cheese. The pretzels not only came with beer cheese, but mustard as well. Which is dumb, of course, but the beer cheese more than made up for it. It was surprisingly spicy, but in all the right ways. The pretzels were long and fluffy, with just right amount of chewiness on the exterior and not too much salt.

As for the wings, they were grilled, which is almost always a pleasant way to eat such things. I had half buffalo and half BBQ. They came with ranch, which is not nearly as good as blue cheese dressing, but it was better than the celery that the wings also often seem to come with for inexplicable reasons. The buffalo was pretty great, being plenty spicy like the cheese sauce although it was a bit light. The BBQ was pretty good as well, although the lightness of sauce was even more noticeable for that flavor.

I liked Sip. I liked the happy hour situation. I kind of liked the concept. But I didn’t feel like it was anything overly impressive. It’s a place you go when you’re near or thinking you can use an easy and reliable meal. It’s not a place you go when you’re looking for something special, which is all just fine depending on what you’re looking for.

Custom burritos are boring right? They’re so 2000-something. Enchiladas, though? Maybe their time is now. After all, they’re basically just glorified mini burritos covered in sauce. Gadzooks in Arcadia is banking on that…and soups because why not? Plus, they’ve fancied the concept up by adding ceramic dishes and premium ingredients.

Thus, I began by ordering my two enchiladas with goat cheese. I wasn’t told that goat cheese would end up costing me more money, so that was annoying, but hey you only live once, right? I opted for the half and half tortillas, which are a combination of both flour and corn, then I had one stuffed with Guajillo Braised Short Ribs and the other with Green Chili Pork Shoulder. Instead of settling for just one salsa, I went Christmas-style (red and green) and then topped it all with asadero and chihuahua cheese, an over easy egg and jalapeno ranch. How’s that for toppings? This is how prodentim works.

The first thing I noticed was that the egg was cooked perfectly, allowing the yolk to spread itself amongst all of the other goods. When I bit in, I discovered two things immediately –  1) Holy cow the tortillas were amazing and 2) The goat cheese was entirely unnecessary. With all of the flavors happening in my little enchilada casserole dish, you may think that the meat would have been overpowered. Fortunately, this was not the case. I like the short ribs better than the pork shoulder, but I’m splitting hairs a bit because they were both fantastic. I’d probably opt to skip the jalapeno ranch in the future because it didn’t add enough to the mix to be worthwhile, but aside from that and the goat cheese I would happily do it all over again.

Kudos to Gadzooks for adding some delicious twists to the custom Mexican food genre of fast casual restaurants. I have no doubt that I will see more Gadzookses popping up in the future and as long as they start telling people that the goat cheese is extra, there is a bright future ahead.

Just when I was tiring of the repetitiveness of Fox restaurants, I happened upon a spot called Blanco Tacos. Sure, Mexican food might be the only restaurant type more prevalent than Fox, but there is still plenty of room for growth. Blanco Tacos takes the mildly upscale and trendy approach to Mexican food and the menu isn’t strictly limited to tacos.

Therefore, I made my way to the enchiladas and found the Braised Short Rib “Machaca.” Enchiladas here consisted more of a layer of tortilla filled with some stuff and topped with another tortilla before being doused in whatever sauce is right for the enchilada and cheese. This was chock-full of the machaca, the sauce was ancho chile and the cheese was blanco (like the name of the place!). It also came with rice and beans.

It was, well, really good. Like a Mexican lasagna, but in all of the best ways. Each bite contained just enough of the good stuff to keep me a happy man. It may not be the most innovative concept and probably would have tasted the same if the ingredients were rolled together like a normal enchilada. But, the added benefit was that the ingredients were really really good.

There’s always room for another delicious take on Mexican food and Blanco Taco made good work of it. Plus, I didn’t have to put up with any repeated menu items for this restaurant.

The space between fast food burgers and gourmet burgers is a crowded one. Over in Portland a spot called Killer Burger did so well in that space that they decided to set up shop in Scottsdale. Scottsdale is oh so different from Portland, but hell, I’ll take any new burger spot outside of a vegetarian patty specialist.

Plus, Killer Burger had a burger that seemed to be created for my kind of people. It was called the Meathead and is composed of two patties, bacon, cheddar, grilled onion and house sauce. The house sauce sounded disgusting (some sort of mix of mustard and mayo) and grilled onions are grilled onions, so I ordered without either. All burgers come with fries and hey, that’s pretty cool. And then there are games like Jenga at each table in case the burgers take more than the five minutes or so that it took for mine.

When my Meathead arrived, it looked just as it did in the menu picture. The cheddar was basically oozing out from between the meat and bun, and the bacon on top was heftier than one might expect. The fries were somewhere between fast food and steak fries, and seasoned to perfection. Upon biting in, the burger had a sense of familiarity and newness at the same time. It was as though Killer Burger had upgraded In-N-Out Burger in every way imaginable. The patties had mild caramelization to go with a perfect texture within. The cheddar was flavorful and a much-preferred cheese over American, while bacon simply makes everything better. Plus, don’t even get me started on the fries, which had been both fried and seasoned perfectly with a similar balance of texture to the burger; being crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

I hope with all sincerity that Killer Burger does well in Scottsdale. It provides a perfect middle ground that is often missing in the burger scene. It won’t be easy to compete with Shake Shack, but is a very worthy choice.

Scottsdale is pretty sterile city. This is not inherently a bad thing, but it is a thing that seems to preclude the concept of hidden gems. And, yet, I heard word of not just a hidden gem, but one right around the corner from me. Plus, it could only have had a more apt name if it was right next door. It’s called Convenient Corner Market and it dishes out sandwiches with bread baked in-house every day.

While most of the sandwiches had veggies included, I eyed one that I expected would satisfy me. It was called the Beefstrami Sandwich, with roast beef and pastrami as its meaty base. I ordered it without the pickles, onions, mayo and mustard, but kept the cheddar cheese it came with. I also asked for some thousand island in there to keep it all moist.

I wanted to love this sandwich. I wanted to so badly. In each bite I took there was an innate desire to fall in love, get married, have children and settle down in some suburbia with this sandwich. But wanting to love and loving are two different things. It packed the flavor one should expect from a hot roast beef and pastrami sandwich, yet the texture was oddly rubbery and gave off the impression of boiled meat.

I am, however, undaunted. This deli is truly convenient and I do not take such convenience lightly. I also owe a place like this a second chance, and you might be wondering why. The reason is none other than the fact that it is run by Wolverines and I do not take a variable such as that lightly.

The Sicilian Butcher is hardly the first restaurant to make a variety of meatballs its centerpiece. Yet, it most likely is the best-decorated of any such restaurants. It treats meatballs much as a build your own burger treats…well…burgers. You pick a meat, you pick a sauce and you pick what the Sicilian Butcher calls a bottom. You can order the meatballs bottomless, but this is highly misleading as they come without a base as opposed to being unlimited. After much consideration, I opted for a bottom.

And I also opted for Tony’s “Dry Aged” Steak Balls, which consist of aged ribeye, roasted garlic, pecorino and parmigiano cheese, onions and herb crumbs. I was told that these meatballs were truly dry and would be best suited for a creamy sauce. So, I went with a pamigiano cream sauce assuming it would complement that same parmigiano in the balls. Then, I got even creamier with creamy polenta as my bottom.

In case you’re wondering, it wasn’t too creamy. In fact, the sauce and the bottom were easily the best parts of this creamy spectacle of Italian cooking. The meatballs themselves, however, fell flat. And it wasn’t just the dry-ness. After eating just one, I had enough of the flavor and after eating all three I was left craving one of the meatballs that one of my companions was eating instead.

I did crush some delicious blueberry cheesecake to wash it all down (you know, because I needed more creaminess) and must say that it was mighty delicious.

Sauce, polenta and cheesecake are wonderful things, but when your thing is meatballs you gotta knock them out of the park. The Sicilian Butcher delivered a ground rule double at best and hoped the rest of the dish would make up for it.

Ramen is fantastic, right? I mean, we can all agree on that. But we can also agree that summer in Phoenix is not the time for ramen. So, although I knew Obon in Scottsdale had great ramen from carrying out a couple times, I made a different choice when I decided to stick around long enough to eat in the restaurant.

I began with something not Japanese at all. It was called Fuku Wings, which were coated in a spicy gochujang sauce. Gochujang, for those who may not know, is actually a Korean sauce and I have yet to eat a take on it that I haven’t liked. These were no different and they were nothing short of fantastic. It was a little sweeter than a typical gochujang sauce, but packed a spicy punch. There was a little crispiness to the outside and plenty of juiciness on the inside. With such a strong connection between Japan and Korea (albeit an often contentious one), I let the gochujang wings slide on account of being so delicious.

For my main dish I went with Street Noodles, which are spicy yakisoba noodles with peanuts, minced chicken and bean sprouts. I am an unabashed lover of yakisoba and calling them street noodles is pretty accurate because they are generally cheap comfort food. Obon dressed theirs up and I must say I had no complaints. They were mighty spicy and flavorful, with plenty of chicken mixed in there to keep a healthy balance with the noodles. They’re not your everyday yakisoba, but unless you’re living in Japan no yakisoba is and these certainly got the job done.

Between the noodles and the wings, Obon handed me some upscale Asian food in just the right way. Perhaps more important than anything else, Obon is ready and willing to show the people of Scottsdale that Japanese food is much more than sushi and teriyaki chicken. And when the weather drops to whatever passes for a low temperature a few months from now I know the ramen will be a welcome warmer in my belly.

I have a hard time driving by burger places regularly without paying a visit. And yet, Lush Burger in Scottsdale evaded my belly for too long. This would have to be remedied and so I made my way there. I was amused by the naming of the burgers on the menu, ranging from Jay Does ‘Shrooms to Hello….?!?! Can Anyone Get Me A Bacon Cheeseburger Around Here?!? with amazingly lengthy descriptions.

I ordered The Yippee-I-Ayyy!, which is essentially Lush Burger’s take on the western-style burger with onion rings, cheddar, BBQ sauce and bacon. I opted for fries on the side and ordered medium-rare. Of course, I was disappointed to find that the burger also came with ingredients that were not listed on the menu. You know, like lettuce, tomato and a devastating pickle spear right next to the burger. I had to remove all of these immediately before getting my mouth around the burger. And when I did, I found the burger to be, well, pretty good.

I wish I could say it was more than pretty good, but frankly it was a burger that lived up to its expectations and didn’t really go anywhere beyond that. The fries were freaking delicious though, clearly making use of the chip on the shoulder that results in being second fiddle to a pretty good burger.

And, of course, it is difficult to get over the pickle, lettuce and tomato. So, you can go to Lush Burger and you probably won’t be disappointed, but you also shouldn’t expect to be overly impressed either. Unless you’re talking about the names and the descriptions.

When I left LA to move to Phoenix I had one major concern. No, it wasn’t the heat in the summer, it was the lack of ramen. You see, LA spoils you with a lot of Asian food, but ramen is easily one of the best of them. People go through life only knowing ramen from a dry cup and I feel terrible for those people, but is it better to have ramen and lost it than to never have had ramen at all? Lost or not, ramen has returned to my life in the form of Ramen Hood in Scottsdale. I headed out for the grand opening to see if it would fulfill my needs.

Ramen Hood offers customized ramen – like a custom burger spot but with ramen instead. You can choose your noodles and broth type, then pick from a bunch of other ingredients.

I opted for regular ramen noodles (as in not gluten free) and tonkotsu (rich pork) as my broth. Other broth options were shoyu (soy), spicy miso, tomato and vegetarian. I’ve always leaned towards tonkotsu and wasn’t disappointed in that decision.

It’s hard to have a bowl of ramen without a soft boiled egg, so I made sure to snag one of those. I also chose naruto (slices of a fish roll, named that because naruto means whirlpool and there are swirls in the roll), pickled ginger, seasoned bamboo, spicy miso paste and black garlic oil. The latter two enriched the broth, while the former three were there to enhance the dish. Oh and let’s not forget the cha siu pork, which was more thinly sliced and less melt-in-your-mouth than I’m used to.

I loved that Ramen Hood has Ramune (pronounced rah-moo-nuh), which is a crazy Japanese drink that is opened by popping a marble through the top. Melon is the best flavor; tell your friends.

Tempura bacon! Never seen this before and holy cow it’s amazing. I mean, nobody likes tempura vegetables anyway.

It’s really hard to beat having a new ramen place open right down the street from you. Especially when you are in somewhat of an authentic Asian food desert like Scottsdale. It was definitely a mistake to open a hot soup restaurant in the middle of the Phoenix summer, but  the ramen is good enough to keep Ramen Hood going strong until the colder months bring in the big crowds.

I’m going to say something unpopular. Bloody Marys are the worst. Tomatoes suck, celery sucks and there’s just something weird about spicy drinks. But I must say that I am glad that Hash Kitchen has made the big bucks off of having an incredible Bloody Mary bar. Why? Because it has enabled them to expand out to Chandler for their latest Grand Opening. And because I got to snag a bunch of the meats and cheeses from the Bloody Mary bar to decorate my beer. It may be frowned upon normally, but at the Grand Opening anything goes. As expected, the bacon was the best.

Having eaten at the Scottsdale Hash Kitchen locations a couple of times, I thought I knew what to expect from the Grand Opening. Regardless, here were some of the samplings.

Herb Fried Chicken and Waffle

With thick cut bacon, fried leeks and a warm maple reduction.

Avocado Toast

Using the split-top biscuit from the benedict, this is topped with avocado, carnitas, an over easy egg, green chili salsa and more of those fried leeks.

Carnitas Hash

Read more on this beautiful stuff here.

Cannoli Donuts

The biggest surprise of the night was how incredible the darker of these donuts were. Aside from the custardy filling, these donuts tasted as close as I’ve ever had to Cider Mill donuts this side of the Mississippi and that’s basically the best compliment a donut can get.

Fruity Pebbles Cereal Shooter

Fruity Pebbles dust, loopy vodka, rumchata and milk. A sweet and creamy way to get morning booze.

In all, I didn’t need convincing that Hash Kitchen is delicious, but it was definitely great to try some new things from the menu. Chandler is a lucky place to now have its own rendition of Hash Kitchen.