I recently went to Tempe, Arizona for two weeks on business, and let me tell you, I feel like I made it my personal duty to eat at every restaurant in the Tempe/Chandler area.
Let me start with the pic above from my favorite restaurant, Smokin Fins. It’s bourbon bread pudding with vanilla bean ice cream. I died. I truly died.
Smokin Fins is a seafood place, which seems odd in the AZ, but it was amazing; partly due to the service and part to the food.
My friend and I went there twice. The Ahi tuna was bomb.
And so was the shrimp mac n cheese. (Bad lighting, sorry).
And this big bowl of ramen.
Across from our hotel was a little place called Cafe Boa; it was one of my top places to go. For a little place connected to a strip mall, the food was too notch.
The fried calamari? Mama mia! We had that our second go around. Ugh. I can’t even!
We also found a place called Ghost Ranch that served Tex-Mex. Pretty good, though I still prefer Cali-Mex (I’m biased). I had braised pork enchiladas.
I will say, they won for best playing overall.
A fun place to visit was this rolling sushi bar. I want one of these in Duncan, Oklahoma pronto.
At one point we went boat peddling out by Tempe Town. It made for a fun day, and there are a lot of funky little shops near ASU. Like this Gem:
Paddling is fun! (translation: I’d rather have been kayaking). But the views were pretty!
On Mothers Day we waited in line for crepes at The Crepe Cafe. It was good, but the table situation makes no sense and felt a little desperate. I went with the sweet crepes while my friend went for nacho crepes (Not sure how I feel about nacho crepes).
Best ambiance and most fun place goes to the Angry Crab. Our first time going was on accident, but so worth it. They serve the seafood in bags and just plop it on your table. SO Good! It’s worth the mess.
Over one of the weekends we went to Scottsdale and perused the museum and art stores. Scottsdale is very chi-chi. If Beverly Hills was in the desert, it would be Scottsdale.
A few days before that we were treated to a Thai dinner in Scottsdale by the owner of the company I was working with for the stay. Man alive it was delicious.
Scottsdale at night reminds me a little of Santa Barbara.
We went to Cafe Boa a few times. Get their sangria, it’s worth it.
By far, I think my favorite place to eat was a little hole in the wall place called Mike’s Cafe. Best eggs Benedict I’ve ever had. The waitresses were super friendly and very attentive. We went there twice and did not regret either visit.
This artichoke dip was all that from Oreganos.
The Greek food was good too.
And the New York bagels from The Bagel Man (oh my).
All in all, I ate a lot. Like, a lot a lot. It was a nice trip, though, and everyone was super friendly. We lucked out and were there while the temps were fairly low for the season.
I’ll close with a few other sites to see from the area. Go to Arizona! There’s a lot more to it than just the Grand Canyon.
Rainy Morning Crafting 