Thai House

http://www.thaihouse-az.com

6949 E. Shea Blvd. #130, Scottsdale, AZ 85254

480-991-5504

Hours: Monday—Friday 11:00am—3:00pm (lunch) 4:30pm—9:00pm (dinner), Saturday 11:30am—9:00pm Closed Sunday

Food:

With my husband being from Southern California, we are spoiled with a wealth of Asian restaurants there to choose from. Slowly but surely we have been finding gems here in the valley that can compete, and at times outshine our SoCal haunts.

One such example is Thai House. We feel that the food is on par with what we have had in California. Thai House has a wide selection of traditional Thai dishes, they also have a few Chinese and Japanese dishes on the menu. We usually stick to a few dishes, favorites that we crave on a weekly basis! We always start with a very traditional Thai appetizer, Satay ($6.95) which is marinated chicken grilled on skewers and served with peanut dipping sauce. Their Satay is always moist and juicy with just the right amount of spice.

My favorite dish there is the Beef Panang ($9.95, $2.00 extra for beef), which is a traditional curry with coconut milk, red bell peppers and Thai basil. I am not a fan of super spicy food so we request the spice level at a 1 (out of 5). The Panang comes with a side of Jasmine rice which is perfect to soak up all the delicious curry goodness!

My husband’s favorite dish is the Pad Kee Mao ($8.95). Also known as “Spicy Noodle”, this dish is pan fried flat noodles with egg, onions, and scallions. This, like all their dishes, comes with your choice of meat; chicken, pork, beef, tofu, or shrimp for $2.00 extra. It definitely lives up to its name of “spicy noodle”, as even ordering it at a low spice level packs a punch! We are curious how spicy it would be if we ordered it higher on the spice scale, but not curious enough to stray from our typical order!

We have tried a few other dishes there also. They have wonderful Pad Thai, Spicy Fried Rice, and Pineapple Fried Rice. Really, we have never had a bad dish there! Even though we always request our spice level a 1 out of 5, sometimes dishes end up being a little spicier than other times, but it’s never intolerable. We chalk it up to a chef’s interpretation of what a 1 means! The food is fantastic the first night, and reheats for leftovers the next day wonderfully. The portions are large for two people, so we always get to have it twice – a bonus since it is so yummy!

Service:

This is a small establishment with usually just one or two wait staff manning the entire dining room, which means if it is busy, service can be a little slow. With that said, the service is always super friendly, even when they must be incredibly stressed out from the number of tables they are covering.

They know us now, and even have our order memorized. Guess that shows how often we go! They greet us like family and make us feel very welcomed and appreciated. The staff here really goes the extra mile!

Accessibility:

Like I mentioned above, this is a relatively small restaurant with quite a few tables. That means it can get a bit cramped when the restaurant is full. I’ve had to ask people to scoot their chairs in or stand up so I can get by. All their seating is tables or half table/half booth, so if you are a wheelchair user, you will have your pick of seats. Thai House is in a strip mall so there is a good amount of handicap parking.

Overall:

The admission that we tend to frequent Thai House on a weekly basis must give you a clue that I would rate this restaurant very high overall! If you are a fan of Thai food, then I would recommend this place in a heartbeat! You will not be disappointed in the food or the friendly staff! I know they have a few locations, but we have only been to the one on Shea. If anyone has been to their other spots, I’d love to hear your feedback!

The Parlor

1916 E. Camelback Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85016
602-248-2480
http://www.theparlor.us/

Hours: Monday—Thursday 11:00am—10:00pm, Friday—Saturday 11:00am—12:00am Closed Sunday

Food:

I can say without any hesitation that The Parlor is my absolute favorite place to have lunch in the city of Phoenix! It probably would be my favorite place for dinner too, but we never seem to go for dinner. It is very close to my husband’s office, so it is perfect for a lunch date with my honey!

We typically stick to just a few things there, not because their menu is lacking delicious choices, but because we love the things we get so much we can’t bear to think about not having it! I usually get the prosciutto and bucherolle cheese from the appetizer meat & cheese selections. These come on a board with grilled rosemary flat bread, basil pesto, and pepperonata. DELICIOUS! I make little pizzas with the ingredients. With each selection only costing $3.00, it is a wonderful and economical lunch choice if you have a smaller appetite like me. My husband usually gets one of two sandwiches, either the duck club or the Italian deli grinder. Both sandwiches are wonderful, but I prefer the duck club because of the hint of sweetness that comes from a red wine tomato jam they use. Both of the sandwiches are also an amazing deal at $10.00!

On our latest lunch outing we both ventured out and ordered new things. I ordered their new risotto dish, which had fresh house-made mozzarella, heirloom tomatoes, pine nuts, basil, and a drizzle of basil oil. This was a refreshing yet savory risotto, extremely tasty at $12.00! Risotto is always one of my favorite dishes, and this version did not disappoint!

My husband got the special of the day, which was a sandwich of crispy pork belly with arugula, tomatoes, and plum aioli on rosemary focaccia bread. One word…WOWZERS! I have had pork belly at other establishments and I always found it to be far too fatty and downright gelatinous for my taste. This pork belly was a perfect balance of lean and fat. Our waitress said it would be the best bacon sandwich you’ll ever have, and oh yes…she was very correct! My husband just could not stop raving about it, I was lucky enough to get a few bites of it before it vanished!

The food at The Parlor is consistently fresh and well prepared. We remarked today about the chef’s amazing talent for balancing flavors while letting individual ingredients shine. It seems like some of the recipes have a lot going on, but the flavors always work together and enhance the overall taste. They actually have a small garden out front that they source for some of their fresh herbs and veggies. The quality of ingredients is unmistakable. Another nod to their overall food quality is that all of their pastas are made fresh, in house! My usual lunch of prosciutto and bucherolle is always top notch. I have never had better prosciutto, even at very expensive Italian restaurants. Stellar food across the board here!

Service:

The staff at The Parlor is super friendly! They always remember us and greet us like old friends. They are quick to the table for drink orders and to fill us in on the daily specials. There is good attention to detail in their service team, making sure our drinks are filled and our table is free of clutter. The staff always has a good handle on the menu, and describes the food with a passion that shows they truly enjoy and respect the product that is coming out of the kitchen.

Accessibility:

The Parlor is very wheelchair-friendly! There are two handicap spots in the parking lot. It is a relatively small lot, but we usually have good luck with the handicap spots being open. Once inside the restaurant, accessibility has never been a problem for me. The ratio of tables to booths is probably about 3 to 1. The other great thing is there is plenty of room between tables, so maneuvering around is easy, even when the restaurant is full. I have never had to ask someone to move so I could get by. They have a lovely outside patio area, which is also very spacious and easy to access. The only accessibility issue I could find would be there are no low tables in the bar area. So if you prefer to sit in the bar, that would be a problem if you are a wheelchair user.

Overall:

I can’t help myself; I have to give The Parlor 5 stars! The food is always first-class and well priced, the service has never let us down, and the accessibility is all I could ask for (I can overlook not being able to sit in the bar)! We usually go there once a week to get our fix and I love introducing or recommending it to friends.

La Grande Orange Pizzeria

4410 N. 40^th St., Phoenix, AZ 85018
602-840-7777
http://www.lagrandeorangepizzeria.com/

Pizza hours: Monday—Thursday 4:00pm—10:00pm, Friday—Sunday 11:00am—10:00pm

Food:

La Grande Orange Pizzeria has by far my favorite pizza in Phoenix. The style of pizza is what I’d call gourmet. This isn’t arcade, creepy stuffed mouse, screaming kids’ pizza… I think you get my drift! This is quality toppings, sourdough crispy crust pizza! Much more my speed! That doesn’t mean it isn’t kid-friendly. At our most recent visit, a young girl sitting at a table next to us seemed to be enjoying her cheese pizza just fine! I will be honest and say that we tend to not be overly adventurous when we go here; we’ve stuck to the same order for the last two years. Hey, sometimes you just get comfortable!

We always start with an order of their baked chicken wings (6 wings for $7 or 12 wings for $13). These wings are my favorite in town. Are you sensing a theme here? A lot of favorites! The wings are not fried like a typical buffalo wing. I believe they are first baked and then grilled. They have a delicious barbeque sauce that has just enough spice to make the Point Reyes blue cheese useful! These are messy, not-first-date kind of wings! Once we dig into them we find that we have nothing further to conversate about… more important tasks are at hand.

The pizza is up next, and it does not disappoint. We order the classic Margherita, but we add prosciutto to that (pizza is $13; prosciutto is an extra $3). The pizzas are meant to serve two people and are plenty big to share when we get the wings. The crust is sourdough, nice and charred. It has a good crunch but not so much that it is like a cracker. The pizza is topped with roasted tomatoes, house-made mozzarella, and fresh basil. Their mozzarella is awesome, and if I can be sly I usually steal a tomato or two off my husband’s side! The prosciutto unfortunately can be hit or miss. Sometimes it is nice and soft, but on our last trip it was pretty thick and dried out. It didn’t keep us from cleaning our plates, but it was a little bit of a let down on an otherwise awesome pizza.

Their pizza sauce is a wonderful addition to this pizza, as the Margherita traditionally comes only with olive oil brushed on the crust. When you request a side of pizza sauce it comes to the table hot, which is a great touch. The sauce is rich and has chunks of tomatoes and onions. I slather the top of my piece with the sauce and then dab on Sriracha.

Service:

Service here is always friendly. I feel like the wait staff has a good handle on balancing checking in while not hovering. Drinks are refilled quickly, and our waitress even offered one for the road. The entire wait staff seemed to help out each other, which I feel made for smoother service. They pay attention to little details, like picking up straw wrappers or empty sugar packets on the way by the table.

It should be noted that before 4:00PM, you have to place your order at the counter next door at La Grande Orange Grocery and then seat yourself in the restaurant area. When your pizza is done they call your name and you go up and grab it yourself. After 4:00 the restaurant is full service; you are seated and a waiter or waitress comes to you.

Accessibility:

The worst part of accessibility here is parking. The parking lot is horribly small for such a busy restaurant. There are two handicap spots, but you have to be awfully lucky to be able to use one. La Grande Orange does offer free valet, which may be a good option for most people. Unfortunately, due to my hand controls, valet doesn’t work for me. We actually used to only get their pizza to go because parking is such a hassle.

Once you are in the restaurant, accessibility is hit or miss. If you go during lunch hours, when it is counter service, you might struggle with accessibility. The counter where you order is in the adjoining grocery store, which is very tightly packed with goods (yummy specialty foods and wines), so it is very hard to maneuver. I prefer to go during the full service hours to avoid the hassle of the grocery side. There are a lot of tables packed into the restaurant, so if it is full and the only table available is in the back, I usually have to ask people to stand up or scoot their chairs up so I can squeeze by.

The good thing is most of the seating is table or half booth/half table. There are only a few full booths. That means I can sit at almost any of the tables. Booths are just too difficult with my wheelchair. I have to sit at the end which doesn’t always work if the benches are too close to one another. Plus it means I stick out into the walkway, and I have had many visions of a server tripping over my chair while carrying a huge tray of food. That would be ugly! There is a bar area that isn’t accessible due to its height, but the ratio of accessible tables to not accessible tables is definitely in my favor!

Overall:

La Grande Orange Pizzeria is always delicious and rarely lets us down. The food is fresh and made from quality ingredients for a reasonable price. The service is friendly and consistent. The accessibility, while not perfect, is definitely good and workable. In the end, I always take two things into consideration; would I return for another meal and would I recommend this establishment to a friend. I answer an enthusiastic “yep” to both of those questions!