Monthly dining reviews from all over the Valley.
Phoenix
Sushi Friend
Opened: January 2022
Sushi, like colicky 2-year-olds and wide-mouth coffee mugs, doesn’t travel well. It’s an axiom I never thought to question until taking home a platter of yellowtail nigiri ($6), blue fin toro ($12) and various righteously executed maki rolls ($12-$13) from this one-man operation near Sunnyslope. All of it succulent, none of it dry or over-refrigerated. The owner and resident sushi-slinger is Kevin Min, a former chef at Stingray and Roka Akor who had a sweet corporate catering gig in the works until the pandemic rendered “sushi day at the office” a quaint but unworkable concept. Scrambling to make ends meet, he kept the online fulfillment service he was using and renovated this kitchen-warehouse space next to a tattoo parlor on Central Avenue, where he’s been delighting neighborhood raw fish aficionados since the New Year. The Fire Dragon roll ($12) – crab and cucumber, topped with spicy tuna and drizzled with unagi syrup – is a star on the limited but plucky menu, while the Hawaiian poke ($15) presents a tight symphony of sweetness, salt and texture, with toasty furikake seeds on top. Note: You don’t have to take Min’s sushi home. He makes six seats available for dine-in guests, and he’s such friendly company, you might want to use them.
Wild Card: Take home some of that wickedly tempting toro by the half pound ($30).
8727 N. Central Ave., 480-577-7344, facebook.com/kevinyoursushifriend
– Craig Outhier
Scottsdale
Santé
Opened: December 2021
“Santé” means “to your health” in French, an appropriate toast for this high-end North Scottsdale restaurant aimed at vegetarians, vegans and people on paleo, keto, gluten-free or low-FODMAP diets. Friends and partners Nico Doniele (health coach) and Nick Neuman (owner of EVO restaurant in Scottsdale) strive to prove that healthy dining – which includes mocktails, biodiverse wines and food grown on regenerative farms (better than merely organic, apparently) – shouldn’t mean sitting in a hole-in-the-wall furnished with artifacts from the ’70s. Virtuous vegetables, amped up with global ingredients, are given vampy looks here – a root mash of various veggies, plated with green veggie “dust” and burnt scallion butter, comes poked with a crisp-fried chard leaf ($14), while charred rainbow carrots, nested in earthy lentil hummus, are drizzled with orange-chive yogurt and given a sprinkle of pistachio dukkah ($16). More memorable, however, are fatty, silken strips of Kvarøy salmon belly crudo with sharp ponzu-dressed slaw ($21) and cast-iron skillet shishito cornbread seeped in melting maple butter ($18). Animal proteins are just as carefully sourced, so splurge on Joyce Farms New York steak, smoothed in a red wine reduction perfumed with figs ($58) and remind yourself that your body is a temple.
Wild Card: Dreamy avocado chocolate mousse ($8) that tastes worlds better than it sounds.
15507 N. Scottsdale Rd., 480-687-3189, lovesante.com
– Nikki Buchanan
West Valley
La Bamba Mexican Grill
Opened: 2018
Blink and you’ll whiz right by this winsome taco shop, which bears only a hand-scrawled banner in the window announcing “tacos.” Tiny and cluttered with tchotchkes, it’s the realm of chef-owner Edson Garcia, self-proclaimed Taco King of El Mirage, who’s received enough acclaim to deserve the title. There’s no single menu, but rather a series of places (a chalkboard in the corner, the door of a refrigerator) to gather information. Ask questions, but if Garcia isn’t there, you may remain unaware of delicious possibilities such as huaraches, sopaipillas and churros. It happened to me. His legendary tacos, cradled in perfect corn tortillas (pliant but faintly crisped), are menu staples, so look for al pastor, sweetened with fermented pineapple, smoky carne asada ($4.50, La Bamba-style, with cheese) and earthy, achiote-tinged cochinita ($3.85). Ask for jalapeño and yellow habanero salsas (one lush, the other fiery) if they’re not on your tacos already. A massive carnitas torta, loaded with goodies, is dandy, too ($12.99), but the standout may be mayo-smeared elote ($3.85) dusted with chile powder and cotija, squirted with hot sauce and served with limes – a flavor bomb of salt, heat and tang and a can’t-miss when you’re in El Mirage.
Wild Card: Swoon-inducing horchata ($4.50) – sweet but not too sweet.
12102 W. Thunderbird Rd., El Mirage, 623-213-7860,
facebook.com/labambamexicangrill1
– Nikki Buchanan
East Valley
Mae-Khong Thai Tapas & Bar
Opened: December 2021
Ever since Cat Bunnag opened Glai Baan in Midtown Phoenix four years ago, awakening the Valley’s collective appetite for regional, street-inspired Thai cooking, the question has been out there: Who will do it next, or nearly as well? Turns out to be a talented guy named Thomas Samuel. At this unassuming strip-mall restaurant in Mesa, the chef-owner serves versions of family recipes originating in the northeastern region of Isan – captivating small-plate oddities like goong (breaded shrimp doughnuts, $13) and sai krok san (morcilla-like sausage with pickled ginger, $11) that you rarely, if ever, find on typical Thai-American menus. Even the dishes that are familiar – for instance, massaman curry ($14), simmered with on-the-bone chicken thighs and topped with toasted shallots, lending the coconut-milk-enriched brown gravy an extra dimension or two of flavor and texture – are slightly unorthodox here and, well, just more delicious and hardcore. Drizzled nefariously with condensed coconut milk, moo ping kra (pork skewers, $12) is a succulent upgrade over a typical chicken satay, with the addictively funky, fiery-sweet condiment ngiao standing in for the peanut sauce; while khao pad puu ($14), fried rice served with a jaunty fistful of fresh crab you mix in yourself, may yet challenge Bunnag’s legendary mackerel fried rice as the Valley’s best starch. Mae-Khong’s only sub-par dish: a somewhat lackluster pad Thai ($14), which is an easy fix, actually: Just dump some of that ngiao over the dang thing. And now it’s great.
Wild Card: Samuel makes a mean cocktail, too, including the mule-like Yord Muay Thai ($12) served icy in a copper mug.
1649 S. Stapley Dr., Mesa, 480-702-0367
– Craig Outhier
