Bantu Bistro

4447 N 7th Ave. (at Campbell), Phoenix

West African. Chef/owner is from Cameroon. We had a party of about 15 in a restaurant that recently opened and only seats 30 or so inside. Fortunately we had called ahead and they brought in an extra server just for us. None of us knew what to expect. Different forms of vegetable stews with meat added. I had curry goat with fufu and rice. We were served fried plantains with a mild chili sauce for an appetizer. Being such a large group the dishes were only lukewarm except for the multi bean soup which he brought out for use to try during the meal. With the exception of a couple of Okra dishes everybody was happy and went away full for less than $15 for food (my tab was $20 including tax, tip and a beer).

edited (1/31) to add: The owner and staff went out of their way to make us feel like family. He is open to feedback and if he keeps making edible food and treating his guests properly he should do quite well.

Food , music and a drive around town

I took another Sunday off. Did the sleep in big breakfast thing. Then went and joined a couple of Yelpers at Desert Botanical garden for a concert under the trees. The weather was just lovely and we sat drinking beer and eating crepes listening to the music of Try me Bicycle. Then we wandered through the gardens and took pictures of the blown glass exhibits placed throughout the park by Chihuly. I'll get the pictures up later.

Then I took off by myself to East Scottsdale to Sweet Republic. An ice cream store that is winning accolades in the press and on Yelp. Plus I had met the owners at Dim Sum. Really good ice cream, not as rich as McConnell's but still really good.

Next stop, on the way home, was Sur La Table. I have been staying away from this store because it is too easy to buy more cooking toys. I have been twice to the one in Vegas but this was my first trip to this one. I was tired of having slotted serving spoons bought at the big boxes for $3-5 rusting out in six months. The one I bought yesterday for $10 is stamped made in China so I will see how it holds up.

To finish off the day I watched the Suns break their losing streak.:-)

Cheese pleese

I buy shredded cheddar/jack in 5lb bags from Costco. Even with the chemicals added to make it not clump so easy I cannot quite use it all before it goes bad. So I divide it and freeze half. Last week I used the last of the first half of the current batch. This morning I was making a ham and cheese omelet and put the eggs and ham in the pan and reached for the cheese. It seems somebody forgot to take the bag out of the freezer. And cheese is one of the few foods that just doesn't thaw well in the microwave. So I had a ham omelet with toast.

Pholicious

7582 W. Cactus, Peoria

This review may not even be fair to the restaurant. This being my first Vietnamese food all I can comment on is what I liked without being able to compare it to other Vietnamese restaurants. Until Yelp I was under the false impression that Vietnamese food was too hot and spicy for my tastes so I never even tried it, it certainly wasn't the way it was served to me.

I ordered the vegetarian spring rolls ($3.00) and Pho with beef brisket and meatballs ($7.25). The wrapping on the spring rolls was labeled as rice paper. It was similar to the wrapping I didn't care for on some of the dumplings at Dim Sum so I guess I either need to develop a taste for it or find something else on the menu. I think part of the filling was rice noodles and I didn't care for them cold either. The sauce was, I think, Hoisin based with some chopped peanuts. It was pretty good as is and I left it alone because I wanted to sample the entire meal the way it comes. I think I would add a light splash of fish sauce and another of red pepper sauce, both of which were at the table. I normally do not order appetizers because the entree is more than enough to fill me up but this time I am thinking I am just getting a bowl of soup. This is probably no surprise to most of you, I have bowls this size in my kitchen, I use them as serving bowls when feeding multiple people family style. At this point I wish I was with somebody who knew the ropes better than I. I wasn't sure whether the bean sprouts and stuff that came on a separate plate were supposed to be tossed in the soup or eaten off the plate they came on, I tossed them in the soup. I am no stranger to chop sticks but rice noodles have got to be the hardest thing I have ever eaten with them. I am sure there is a better way than I was handling it and I must have been the source of some humor for the staff as about halfway through one of them quietly laid a fork on the table. Other than spooning the broth out towards the end I finished the meal with chop sticks. I did not care for the meat balls but I tend to not like pork in any meat ball.

The restaurant was not very busy. The Asians occupying a few tables on one side and me, seated in the far corner (the host's choice). The basketball game was on the tv and all of the staff were following it. Even though not a sports venue I was fine with this as that is about all I think a tv is good for. Definitely a family run affair, one corner of the dining room had been set up with a laptop and I could see what looked like homework type stuff near the computer. I was greeted and seated immediately upon entering. and as I got up to leave my server came over and thanked me for coming in.

I wouldn't mind coming here again and I will add Vietnamese to my list of acceptable cuisines.

Dim Sum and Cardinals

I took the entire day off Sunday and met a group for Dim Sum about 10:30 at the Great Wall (35th and Camelback). I had never done this before and was glad several in the group had. All I had to do was say "what next?" and something appeared on my plate with a explanation of what it was. It was interesting using chopsticks on things that were large and had to be taken apart with the them. Many folks gravitated to forks pretty quickly (not me). It was a lot of fun and I ended up eating several things I would never have tried on my own. Some of it was good and some just OK but that is influenced by my Western taste buds. Nothing tasted bad to me. Because I still have no clue what to get from the roaming carts I will stick to going in groups.

Then part of that group met up with some other folks at Gallagher's (16th St, between Glendale and Northern) to watch the NFC championship game. The Cardinals won so it was a rowdy happy bunch. Every sports bar in town, including this one, was packed. I had two Fat Tires and an order of skins. Most of the the younger folks were out eating and drinking me but I was driving and I didn't need all the extra carbs that comes with most bar food. Except for one persons salad the food was ok. The service was a bit slow because they had a full house.

All in all it was a great relaxing day.

Trash

So I was under the weather for a couple of weeks. I managed to empty the under sink can once but house cleaning was not at the top of the list during that time. I was amazed at how many trips (3, fully laden) it took to rid my apartment from trash that had accumulated in just 2 weeks. Tomorrow I will tackle the bathroom. :-(

Vegas, day 4

Got up and hit McDonalds by 6 for a chicken biscuit, hash browns and coffee. I was even ordering before the Starbucks was open in the food court. I think McDonalds and Krispy Kreme in that food court are both 24hr operations. Went back up and finished my coffee and got packed for the trip back. It was about a 2 hour drive to Kingman and I had to cover the time zone change. Just before 8 I headed down to check out and I was ahead of the automated checkout sytem so I had to go to Registration which wasn't too bad except the only coffee from that point between me and my truck was Starbucks so I got a Venti Latte which still sort of sucks but at least it doesn't taste burnt. If I had been thinking I would have waited and grabbed a cup of coffee at the gas station where I filled up instead.

The congestion light was off so I went back over the dam and got clear down to where you see the cars in this picture before I had to stop. Much better than the 8 mile backup going that way on my way over.



Had lunch at Mr Dz diner in Kingman and came home. The last 30 miles in mid afternoon traffic took well over an hour to finish my trip.

There is always some new stuff to see in Vegas. I can spend hours just walking through casinos and shopping centers. Companies spend millions to make you want to come to their place of business to spend whatever your budget is with them. As you wander among some of the newer properties be sure to keep filled with fluid so you have a reason to visit the restrooms, some of them are almost to nice to use for their intended purpose. I shot pictures until the battery died which I tend to do every where I go. Because I like food one of the things I do is peruse the menus outside of almost all of the restaurants. I have decided if anybody has ever heard of the chef I cannot afford to eat there. An example would be Delmonico's (Emeril) in the Venetian. 9oz Filet Mignon - $68, and it comes with nothing. And at that price you would think they would have a dress code? I saw a family of 4 come out of there looking like they were at the pool side. I guess the only thing that counts in Vegas is whether you can cover the bill. All in all it was a nice relaxing trip.

Vegas, day 3

Started off with breakfast at Krispy Kreme. Pumpkin spice and a custard filled chocolate covered with a large "rich" coffee. Whatever happened to just ordering a cup of coffee? I ordered my donuts and a large coffee and the lady just sort of looked at me. Turns out they have 4 blends and the one I chose was actually the best coffee I had all trip.

The forecast had called for steadily warming the whole time I was there and the day before the lined coat had gotten a bit warm by midday so my plan was to head North on the sunny side of the street for just over 2 miles and arrive at Fashion Show mall about the time it opened at 10. And so I left my coat in the room. Well there are so many 30 story buildings now on the strip that it really only gets sun for about 3 hours a day at ground level but I managed to survive. It got up over 50° at midday and was over 40° the entire time I was out.

These really are 250cc dirt bikes the city officers use. And I have seen a bunch of them in the larger mall exteriors too. They actually do run these things up and down stairs and across street dividers and all sorts of places a large road bike would not work well on.



I was just sort of strolling and sipping on my coffee. I bypassed most of the casinos on the way up as I had been in them in the last couple of years. I still ended up at Fashion Show mall before 10 so I went over to the Wynn, which I had not yet been in, and the Encore, which just opened. They are connected at ground level so I did the full tour of both in one sweep.



This is entering the gaming room after walking through the store filled entrance hall to the Wynn. The gaming area is very muffled and, like many of the upscale properties, has a whole different atmosphere than the clanging noisy gaming rooms that used to be the norm.



This is a hallway in the meeting room area of the Encore. Being the holidays there were no meetings happening



So by now it is about 10:30 and I head back over the bridge to Fashion Show mall. The bill board you see is 4 giant tv screens that can actually be moved on a track separately. Sometimes they have 4 times the same image and others it is one big wide image. It's mostly advertising for the mall and the stores in it. Inside the mall are 250 stores so even without going in any of them it takes a while to walk the mall.



It's now almost noon so I start scouting places in the mall to eat. Within my budget it came down to an Italian place, a hamburger place or the Food court. Up on the third floor, OMG this has to be the biggest food court I have ever seen. 15 different food choices. They probably had cafeteria style seating for 400+ people. I chose a bourbon chicken plate from a Greek place. For less than $9 including a soda it was pretty good. There were 2 or 3 Asian food places and I was surprised to note a higher percentage of people of all races were using chopsticks for Asian dishes than those at Mizuno's.

Next stop was Palazzo. It is recently opened and connected to the Venetian. I had been in the Venetian before but it is always a nice stroll upstairs along the waterfront so I did both of them. While in Palazzo I came across a performance by a couple of dancers from Cirque du Soleil made up as trees upstairs in the Hall of Mirrors. Judging by the crowd it must have been a planned performance and I just sort of came in near the end on the back side and they passed by my position. All the tree movements were slow and deliberate. It was much prettier in person than on film.




After I left the Venetian I headed back for a nap. By the time I got back I had walked at least 6 miles total in about 6 hours but I had only sat down the one time to eat. One thing I noticed was the Excalibur was the only casino I was cold in. Must be how they keep the rates low.

About 5 I headed off to dinner at the Bayside Buffet. To give an idea to those of you that are not familiar with it, the walk from my room through the Excalibur, through the Luxor and to the far side of the casino in Mandalay bay which is where the buffet is is over 1/2 mile without ever going outside. Some of the trip is on moving walkways. After dinner I stopped at the sports book in Mandalay Bay and watched the second half of the Suns game. On the way back I finally did stop at a slot machine in Luxor and deposited $20 as fast as I could push the buttons. So in the Excalibur I decided to try my luck again and dropped another quick $20, walked across the room and tried another machine, hit a $70 payout pretty quick and played on their money until I was down to $.25 ahead for the trip and cashed it in. Total gaming time on 3 machines was about 30 minutes.

The flu sucks

Today is day 10. I am still stopped up, but not bad. I have a deep chesty cough that makes folks back well away from me. It is a good thing I have homemade turkey soup around, I wanted to try some Pho but was not ready to go sit down in a restaurant and several folks have hinted it does not do as well for take out as other Asian dishes. My energy level is starting to go back up. Over the weekend I slept 10+ hours each of the three nights and took naps. And all of the body aches are gone. Of course that means I am way behind at work. I'll try and get the rest of the Vegas trip up this week.

Vegas, day 2

I sleep in until just before sunup (about 7) do my morning stuff and head down to breakfast. That morning I chose the Sherwood Forest cafe. Bad move. The prices went up, they took corned beef hash off the menu, the chicken fried steak wasn't very tasty and at 8:30 on a Sunday morning they were out of orange juice. I might as well have gone to the buffet and saved a couple of bucks.

First issue of the day was to get some pics of how City Center was coming along.


I then headed out to the East on Harmon. I had never been out that way on foot and I ended up walking all the way to the Hard Rock at Paradise. Went south on Paradise then back West on Tropicana Blvd.. As you can see I was a ways away from the strip and passed right under the flight path at McCarran.






That got my walk (3.8 miles) out of the way for the morning. Before I left I had bet $10 on the Rams so I got rid of my coat in the room and went down to the sports lounge to watch the second half of the game and the afternoon games. The Rams lost but they covered the point spread and I got back $19.50, not bad for my first sports bet. So I spent the bulk of the day drinking beer and talking football with folks and all of a sudden it hit me I had had a lot of beer and no food. NAP TIME! BTW - it has gotten expensive to drink in Vegas. Where I was in the Excalibur a MGD is now $6 bottle. And to get free drinks you have to be gambling some serious money.

After my nap it was time to head over to Mizuno's for dinner. To walk off that I went to find where the next nights dinner was to be. On the way back I went upstairs to the food court in Luxor for Swensen's. I haven't had any of their ice cream in years and almost didn't then. At $3.75 for one scoop or $5.50 for 2 it was more expensive than Cold Stone. A couple of folks in the group in front of me were talking about "Swiss orange chip" as a flavor nobody else came close to. I had chocolate on my mind and I saw theirs looked like chocolate so I asked them about it and they said it indeed was based on chocolate. So I tried one scoop, I wish I had ordered 2 as I wasn't done doing ice cream when the small scoop ran out. It was delicious, chocolate ice cream with shaved dark chocolate chips and a flavor like orange marmalade or orange extract added to it. By then this old man was ready for bed.

Vegas, day 1

OK, so I am caught up on food writing for the moment. Now to bore you with 4 days of my trip. :-)

Right off the bat I had a delay. As I got in my truck I noticed the windshield was dirty and hit the washer, instant ice. Even though it was 8:15 and sunny it was only 37 outside and it is quite common to ice over a windshield at that temperature. So I had to wait for the defroster to work. Uneventful drive to Wickenburg where I stopped at Vulture Mine Rd. and picked up a breakfast sandwich from Jack in the Box. I had my own thermos of coffee to drink for the trip. This gas station, minimart, fast food place opened up just a couple of years ago and is easy to get to. Also much friendlier to travelers than the Chevron that used to be the last place North in Wickenburg. Made a pit/smoke stop in Wikeup. I finally got to see some snow after getting on I40 for the short run in to Kingman.




In Kingman I stopped and grabbed a cheeseburger and fries at In and Out. They do a pretty good job of using fresh stuff and making the food the same way every time and every location. Going in to Kingman the congestion light was off so I took the shorter route over Hoover dam. The bridge is coming along but it seems to be taking forever. Currently they hope to have it usable by the end of 2010.





Traffic may have been easy going Westbound but going the other way it was backed up the full 8 miles from the dam to the light in Boulder City. I got to my hotel, had a beer and took a nap before heading out on the strip in the late afternoon. I never did see a temperature all day over 41 so I was bundled up pretty well. Ended up having dinner at Margaritaville in the Flamingo.




On the way back I stopped and got a souvenir glass full of Piña Colada at Paris. The drink wasn't that great but I spent a bit of time at the outdoor bar chatting with the bartender and some locals getting off work and waiting on the bus. About that time I called it a night.

Bayside Buffet

Las Vegas, Nevada, inside Mandalay Bay

Went there for dinner on Monday night. Not real impressed. The place is not much larger than a Golden Corral. Being sort of cheap I usually stay at Excalibur and at least once each stay go to the buffet. Last Christmas I decided to spend an extra $5 and try the buffet at the Luxor and was well rewarded. So this year I opted to spend yet another $5 ($26.99 +tax) to see what it got me. Last year at the Luxor was much better. Very small salad bar. Limited cooked vegetables. Several meat and starch dishes, almost all were cold or lukewarm. Several of the seafood items (hot and cold) were soggy. I did leave room for dessert and it was very good. This place has all the pieces in place to be good and they just are not pulling it off well. They have several seafood offerings, they use smaller warming trays so they get changed out more often which should keep food warm and not dried out. I ate between the opening rush and the 7PM dinner rush so the place was only about 80% full and the lines were reasonable. My server kept my plates cleared and my Iced tea full. I did notice this trip the entire MGM family seems to be cutting back on quality and value compared to when I was there in July.

Mizuno's

Las Vegas, Nevada, inside the Tropicana

This was my 3rd time eating there and the food and service have always been excellent. They only do one thing, teppanyaki grills, and they do it well. They don't try to cover everybody by having a sushi bar in the other part of the restaurant. Although there is some sushi, if I recall, on the menu. This is the second time I have had the filet mignon ($29.95) and it was cooked a perfect medium. The show at the grill is always good and for teppanyaki on the strip the menu is priced very reasonable.

It has been there for over 30 years and possibly by the same family as the person who seated me has been working there for 30 years. I first went there in 97 with my ex and it was packed and good. When I started going to Vegas by myself a few years ago I thought it had gone away as I didn't know how to find it. Last summer I had the time and searched a little harder. Business is not as great for them as it once was. Partly because of the economy and partly because the Tropicana is no longer the hottest place on the strip. The last two times I was there half the customers were local and sounded like frequent customers.

Now all you have to do is find it. It is in leased space upstairs inside the Tropicana. Because I believe it is the only one of 6 restaurants inside not owned by the casino it does not have a sign outside. You have to follow the directions to the buffet and at the top of the curved escalator there is a sign on the wall directing you up a ramp to your right.

The day the Earth Stood Still

1951, Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal, Sam Jaffe, Francis Bavier.

With the new version available soon I decided to watch the original one first. I may have actually seen it many years ago but do not remember. I don't normally get into old movies but this one was pretty cool. While I enjoy what can be accomplished with CG this movie kept me interested the entire time just with it's acting and the minimal sets available.

Hair

Last evening I had the pleasure of attending the 40th anniversary production of Hair the musical as a guest of Yelp and the ATC. I was in High School when the play first opened in 1968. Thus the sounds and dress were very familiar to me. And to this day I still think the production is an accurate reflection of the times and some of the things that went on. Having spent 4 years in stage crew in school I still watch the mechanics of the people behind the scenes as they are just as much responsible for the show. I saw only one slip and they caught it so quick most folks would not have noticed, very good for opening night on a different stage! The show itself was awesome. One of many things I gauge the quality of a show is whether I check the time or how far along it is in the program. I never once did that.



Last night marked a couple of firsts for me. This is my first visit to the Herberger and I think it is a first class facility in all respects other than the number of folks that can be accommodated at one time in the restrooms. Not that this facility is distinct in that category. The other first was it was my first Yelp event and I got to meet 5 new friends. Wait until they find out I almost always have my camera. :-)

Yelpers:


The Herberger

Mr D'z Diner

105 E Andy Devine Blvd, Kingman, AZ

It's really more of a 3 but I'll get to that. I stopped by on my way back from Vegas based on the recommendations of friends who had eaten there. It is easy to get to going either direction through town, going towards Phoenix continue past I40 on Beale and follow the signs to route 66. Heading towards Vegas get off at Andy Devine (Rte 66) and head West.

I ordered a cheeseburger, salad and a glass of root beer. The salad came and I was about 1/3 of the way through it when I saw my cheeseburger come out. One of the other waitresses picking up a breakfast order mentioned the cheeseburger came up and my waitress just kept on refilling jelly baskets and stuff and she happened to glance up and see the cheeseburger still sitting under the lamp and got it for me. It was still on my part of the counter before I was done with my salad and ready for it so no harm was done. When I mentioned to my friend who my waitress was the first thing he asked was how long my food had sat under the heat lamps. Other than that one item the service was good, I was greeted upon entering, my root beer mug was kept filled and I was asked what condiments I wanted on my burger when it was served as it comes dry. The food was fine, not great. The root beer was great. Where I sat at the counter I could see all the food coming out and even though it was close to 11 most folks were still getting breakfast. I didn't see anything that did not look good. If I lived in the area I might stop on occasion, I bet the tables get scarce for weekend breakfasts.

The building is old but brightly painted and clean. It looks like the second dining room used to be part of the outside dining area. I have yet to be in Kingman when the wind wasn't blowing or it was cold or both so am not sure why they even have outside dining. The whole package is what you would expect from an old diner.

If I were reviewing this place in town I would give it a 3 as a place with average food, reasonable pricing and mostly good service. I gave it a 4 because it is nice to have a place not far off the highway that is not corporate chain food. And I am not the only one that drives from the Phoenix area to Vegas or Laughlin.