- [Narrator] And now, an Arizona PBS Original Production.

- I'm Chef Mark Tarbell.

Welcome to ""Check, Please!

Arizona"".

The show where folks like you recommend their favorite restaurants.

Coming up, we have three guests who are passionate about their picks.

They've dined at all three, and they're ready to share the reviews with each other and with you right here on "Check, Please!

Arizona".

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Arizona" is made possible by the Friends of Arizona PBS, members of Arizona PBS who give additional gifts to support Original Programs.

Thank you.

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(smooth jazz music) - This week on "Check, Please!

Arizona", our guests have dined in Phoenix, Tempe, and Goodyear.

And they're here at the table to tell us more.

Insurance Agent Ken Bartley has a perfect recommendation for anyone who has trouble deciding where to go for dinner, whether it's moussaka or marinara.

His choice serves it all.

Corporate Trainer, Mike Sullivan discovered Indian food as a teenager in the Midwest and is eager to share his favorite vegetarian Indian restaurant here in the valley.

And up first, teacher and mom, Courtney Moore loves places that have a little something extra.

She takes us to the heart of the city where food is local, fresh, and the kids can roam.

It's The Farm Kitchen in Phoenix.

(country music) - Back when The Farm Kitchen first started, there was a horse barn and neighbors would ride their horses to The Farm Kitchen, in the neighborhood.

So there is a pasture here that if someone were to ride their horse to the farm, there's still room for somebody to keep their horse while they eat their sandwich.

But that's how the restaurant originally started.

And now people drive with their cars here.

And it's just a joy to see people being able to relax in an open area.

Normally when families bring their kids to a restaurant, they're trying to keep them quiet.

They're trying to keep them contained.

And here at The Farm, there's plenty of room for the kids to run around, play games.

We also have the learning garden in the grove, so it's great for kids to see what other school children have planted.

And it's really just that garden experience.

So you can see right where the food is coming from.

When I eat at The Farm Kitchen, my favorite fresh dish to eat is the herb chicken spinach salad.

So it lays on a bed of fresh spinach greens.

And then on top of that, we roast our own chicken in house.

It has this great herb seasoning on it, local goat cheese, dried cranberries.

And we also spice our own pecans, which relates back to our pecan grove with our over a hundred pecan trees.

Those trees date back Pre-World War II.

And we have been able to save a lot of them.

We've only lost one or two of the original trees.

People love to go walk through the grove.

It's a peaceful feeling, and it's really something that you don't see in Arizona.

So it's something to get from the city and just enjoy nature at its best.

- This is truly a family place, Courtney, tell us a little about it.

- I like that it's situated on a huge acreage of property.

And so there's a farm and a garden and you can kind of take a stroll around the land.

You can say hi to the chickens and then come back and have lunch, almost picnic style outside under the trees.

- It's like the whole experience.

I mean, they have gardens, they're growing things there.

They use what they grow in there.

And there's wonderful mature trees, filtered sunlight as I like to say.

Mike, what did you think?

- Yeah, I totally agree.

The grounds are beautiful.

The amount of space they have is amazing.

The pecan orchards that they have there give a little bit of shade.

So that way the Arizona sun doesn't beat you up too much.

And my wife and I really love that, like you said, a lot of the vegetables are grown right there that they use in their recipes.

- So what did you start with Ken?

- I had the Italian sub half sandwich along with a cup of soup and the sub was really good.

Really light bread, perfect bread with three different kind of meats, pepperoncini's, lettuce, and Italian dressing.

- Ooh.

- To give it that nice little bite.

- How was that bread?

- It was amazing.

I mean, it looked like it was gonna be the hard kind, but it was really soft and you didn't have to tear it off to get a bite.

- Oh, like a real Italian hoagie style.

- Exactly.

And the soup was just a great chicken noodle, vegetable country soup.

And it was like chicken noodle soup on steroids, big old pieces of chicken and noodles and chunks of vegetables, which I'm not usually a big vegetable person, but these vegetables were cooked perfect.

So everything just worked perfect.

- So the farm converted you to vegetables?

I like that.

- Yeah.

They did.

I just need to have it fresh and off the farm.

- I stayed a little bit, from my typical, I usually go with an egg salad sandwich and it's delicious, but I decided to go with a roasted carrot and vegetable sandwich and it was so good.

There were a lot of different flavors layered in there and the bread had a lot of kind of meat to it.

Like it had a lot of seeds and a lot of stuff going on in there.

- [Mark] Little chew in it.

- Yeah.

- What other vegetables were in it?

- There were some peppers and arugula, which was really good.

- So a nice thing about arugula, while the peppers have a little sweetness and arugula has that pepper.

- I love that little spiciness.

- That little spicy pepper.

Yeah.

It's nice.

Natural.

- Well, my wife and I really went overboard when we ate here.

We started off.

- I like you, Mike.

- We started off sharing the Italian chicken and vegetable soup, which was amazing, it was really good - [Mark] Really amazing.

It was so good.

- So hearty.

Yes.

Which for a broth soup, hard to make sure that it stays hearty enough that it's filling, but it sure came through.

For our meals, we actually both got a full sandwich and split them.

She got the chicken salad sandwich and I got the chicken BLTDA, both were incredible.

I think we were.

- What is the BLTDA?

- You know, off of memory I probably couldn't even tell you.

I know it's bacon, lettuce, tomato.

it did have apples for a nice crunch to it as well.

The D I believe is a date spread perhaps because there was a date or fig spread in there that was amazing.

- Probably date.

Which is Arizona, by the way, grows great dates.

There's a lot of date farming here.

- Yeah.

And the spread on that was just such a wonderful balance between the meat and the fruit on there.

It was a really, really delicious sandwich.

- What a fun complex sort of a combination of flavors.

- [Mike] There was a lot in there.

- And it's true because we always say bacon goes with everything and apparently everything.

- It absolutely does.

- Dates.

Who would've thought of that?

So your other sandwich was a chicken salad sandwich?

- It was, which they put pecan in.

I'm presuming from the pecan trees they have on-site.

And something that we really liked is that they didn't leave really big chunks of the pecan in the sandwich.

They chopped it up fine enough that it was just a very well put together sandwich.

- Courtney, you had a really good side, the country potato salad.

- It was delicious.

It was just kind of a classic potato salad.

I only got a couple of bites because my daughter pretty much stole it from me and finished the rest of it.

- Wow.

What'd you have for dessert?

- We shared a dried cherry bread pudding, and I wasn't quite sure if I was gonna like it, but it was so good.

It was really moist and soft.

And there was a lot of cherry flavor.

It was good.

- Well, we did the same thing and we thought that we'd just be able to share that and stop there.

Of course, we didn't.

We also.

- Like I said, I like you.

- We also got the chocolate chip macaroon, which was, it was amazing.

It was very soft in the middle.

It was not overdone on the bottom where it was too hard or crunchy, but that bread pudding, that's something to write home about.

- I'm so glad coconuts are now good for you again, 'cause there was a time when they weren't and you know, now I can eat macarons 'cause it's egg whites and coconut, not so bad.

Oh, okay, a little sugar, just a little sugar.

Ken.

- Chocolate cake was to die for.

Big old piece of chocolate cake, two layers.

The homemade you could tell was really fresh, really moist.

And we almost went back and got another one to take home.

And after we got home, we found out we were supposed to from the kids, so.

- Oh.

Did they remind you?

- Yeah.

They reminded me about the chocolate cake.

- "Dad, you forgot something" - Yep.

Chocolate cake - I hate to have remind you, you might have to go back.

- Yep.

It was good.

- So Courtney, what would you say in a few words, if you were to describe The Farm at South Mountain.

- I would say it's fantastic food and also a really lovely atmosphere.

- Very relaxing, very picturesque and delicious.

- Yeah.

Comfortable, outdoorsy and fun.

- Ooh.

I like that.

If you would like to try The Farm Kitchen, you'll find that at 6106 South 32nd Street, just south of East Southern Avenue in Phoenix.

Reservations are not accepted.

And the average tab for lunch is $12 without drinks.

(upbeat music) Up next, Mike's pick.

It's Udupi, Indian, vegetarian and vegan cuisine in Tempe.

- It is a hundred percent vegetarian restaurant and most of our dishes could be converted into vegan.

So I mean, we are vegetarians by, what do you call practice.

So that's why we wanted to make sure that we want to promote vegetarianism.

Udupi's signature dish is gobi manchurian, it is cauliflower florets sautéed in spiced tomato-based sauce and it is served with a side of basmati rice and yogurt sauce.

It is very different people.

Young people, old people, everybody loved that dish.

The reason being it's crispy, it's soft, it is tangy.

It gives you wide variety of flavors.

- Masala dough is made from rice crisp and some lentils flour.

It's really good, give you all the flavors, has mixed potatoes with the onion and lentils in there.

It's really good flavor.

- Udupi's, the strength, has been the loyalty.

I mean, the customers who have been coming here have been coming here for more than 10 years and they continue to, what do you call enjoy the food, and we try to meet the expectations as much as possible.

- Wow.

Vegan, vegetarian, Indian cuisine.

Perfect.

How did you find this place and tell me about it?

- So, actually my wife and I used to be vegetarians.

And when we were, we wanted to find places that had a wide variety of food options, not just the one or two vegetarian options on the menu.

So when we found this Indian restaurant, this was something that I got excited about because greedily enough, it's within walking distance of where I worked.

So.

- I have to ask, 'cause everyone's gonna ask this question.

Everyone wants to know, what was the thing?

What the ingredient, what was the dish or sandwich that caused you and your wife to not be vegetarian anymore?

- Well, honestly my wife was pregnant with our second.

- [Mark] Okay.

- And I would say, roughly about halfway through the pregnancy, we were at a grocery store and she saw fresh-made carnitas there in the window.

And she looked at that and she said, I know I haven't had meat in like 10 years, but I'm eating that today.

And ever since then, we've added meat back onto our menu at home.

- But of course, you're a very wise man, apparently, because your wife said, "I'm eating that."

And you're like, "Of course you are."

- Of course.

- Especially when she's pregnant.

- I wasn't gonna fight her on that.

- No.

- So carnitas did it.

You heard it here.

- Yeah.

- Grocery store carnitas.

- Grocery store carnitas.

Okay.

Back to this great restaurant.

So tell me about the dish you started with and a little bit about the food.

- So my favorite thing to start with at a lot of Indian restaurants and kind of how I judge them, my litmus test, is the rasam soup that they make.

For me, it's almost like a comfort soup.

It's very spicy and I like to go to find an Indian restaurant where they make the rasam that's spicy enough.

They're not trying to tone it back for, you know, maybe more American pallets that are scared of that spiciness.

- What's in a rasam soup?

Tell me a little more about that.

- I, you know what, I couldn't even tell you.

- If it is true Indian food, there's probably 30 things in it.

- Absolutely.

And I think that's what makes it tough to identify there's such a deep flavor to it with all these ingredients that they have in there.

- Courtney, what did you have to start?

- We started with the samosa, and I love samosa.

You know, it's like a pastry filled with potatoes and peas and of course spices and it's fried, comes with chutney and you can dip it and it's really good.

And I thought that these were pretty good samosas too.

- Very good.

Ken.

- It was the Italy, almost looked like hash Browns coming out, which made me happy.

Deep-fried and came with a little side of dipping sauce.

- And Mike, what did you have?

I think you had the masala dosa, right?

- We did also have those.

Yeah.

They have a pretty wide variety of the dosa, They're like almost Indian crepes to an extent, they're pancakes and they roll 'em up and they can fill 'em with anything.

The ones that we had had curried or spiced potato in the middle.

And we love those, they're delicious.

- It's really, it's not just a crepe, We have to explain, it is large.

- [Ken] Yeah, is that that huge thing that they bring out?

- Yes.

It's like a supersized hot dog at a Diamondbacks game it's this long.

- We had one of those too.

- Did you?

- And it, as it was explained to me, it's made with rice flour.

So it's kind of get a little bit of stretch to it.

It was quite, quite lovely.

What did you have for an entree?

- For an entree I had, we actually shared at the table.

So part of the entree that I had was potato poriyal and some dal curry as well.

So some curried lentils, I mean, that was on top of saffron rice and it was delicious.

The potatoes were not overdone, they weren't overly mushy.

They weren't underdone, where it still kind of has that earthy taste and they were perfectly spiced.

- We had a bhatura that came to the table and it looked like a big kind of puff pastry, like the size of a plate.

And it came with a side of chickpeas and it was really visually stunning.

It was pretty impressive when it came out.

So we had the huge dosi and then the big balloon.

- The big balloon with chickpeas, yummy.

I love that.

- I had the malai kofta, and it was really tasty, and it came out, it looked like the meatballs and sauce without the spaghetti.

So, deep-fried with cheese.

Then over the rice, the rice came on the side and you could pour the sauce over it.

- [Mark] It sounds amazing.

- [Ken] Yeah.

- Courtney, what'd you have?

- I had the palak paneer and like your soup, That's what I usually get at an Indian restaurant to kind of determine if I'm gonna like it or how I think they're doing, and I thought the palak paneer was pretty good.

It's a seasoned spinach with paneer cheese.

My husband also ordered the same dal curry that you had.

And we weren't as thrilled with that.

We thought that it was really overly salty.

- Ah, interesting.

Do you often use salt in your cooking or, I mean, or is it something you're sensitive to, or you just?

- I don't think that I'm sensitive to it.

I just think that this particular dish was maybe overly salty.

- And I'm surprised no one had papadum, come on.

- We did have some on our table.

- You must go back.

Oh, you did.

- We did.

We did sneak a few on there.

- So tell me what that was like.

Because it's something I'm passionate about and something that of course is very typical in Indian cuisine.

- [Mike] Yeah.

They were very good.

They were light.

You could tell that they were fresh.

- We should have went with you.

We would've been having, we needed a driver.

- I think we're all gonna do that.

- We needed a drive, we needed a driver.

- I think we need a driver, we needed a little guide.

Didn't we?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, 'cause it's like a cow staring at a new gate when I look at that menu.

- [Ken] Yep.

- Wow.

I don't even know what it is.

All right, I'm kidding.

- But along those lines, our server was really great at telling us what the different things were on the menu.

This is my first experience with South Indian cuisine and she was really great about telling us kind of what the difference was.

If you were expecting one thing that maybe you would typically see on a Northern Indian restaurant menu.

- [Mark] Yes.

- She was really great at telling us, "Well, this is how we do it in this restaurant, and this is how it's prepared in Southern Indian cuisine."

And I thought that was super helpful.

- So desserts, Ken?

- I had the kulfi, which was a mango frozen dish, some mango sauce on it.

It was really thick.

So it was like eating a Popsicle.

- [Mark] So it was like a mango, icy?

- [Ken] Yeah.

Exactly.

- Very good.

Mike, what did you have?

- I actually tried something a little different this time.

I went with the sooji halwa, which I think from the menu, it said that it was a semolina based dessert, but it was kind of a dense cake almost that had been sitting in honey, soaking all that delicious flavor up.

So it was really sweet.

Really, really good.

- So this is your place.

How would you describe it in a couple of words?

- I would say it's very quiet, comfortable, very cozy.

- I kinda wanna say skip it.

Can I say skip it?

- [Mark] You can.

- Okay.

- [Mark] That's two words though.

- Okay.

- And Ken?

- Someplace I wouldn't have went without a recommendation, but I'm very glad I tried it.

- If you would like to try Udupi, it's easy to find at 1636 North Scottsdale Road, just south of East Makalep Road in Tempe, reservations are accepted and the average tab for dinner is $15 without drinks.

(upbeat music) Up next.

Ken's favorite, it's Dino's Greek and Italian grill in Goodyear.

(Italian music) - For one thing, we make everything from the scratch.

We don't buy anything pre-made.

I cut my own meat, we make our own dressings sauces.

My philosophy is if I don't eat it, I will not serve it to you.

We serve a platter for two, which has moussaka, It has a lamb shank, It has spanakopita, which is spinach pie, it has dolmathes, has pitas, tzatziki, humus and that's very popular also.

(Italian music) Well, here at Dino's, you know, like 80% of our customers, they're regulars and we know most of them by name and they know me by name also.

People, they like to have the feeling that they're part of a family, of the restaurant.

And they like that.

Well, you know, when the children, you know, I have a little chocolate, you know, which I go to tables and I tell them, "If they finish their dinner, then I'll give you a little chocolate.

Otherwise, I'll make them wash their dishes inside the kitchen."

And the kids they like that and when mothers, parents, they ask, "Where do you wanna go for dinner for lunch?"

They say, "Dino's."

So, you know, we get new customers.

(Italian music continues) - So you often bring your, you've brought your kids here for years.

Tell us about Dino's.

- Oh, it's a great family restaurant that just serves the best Greek and Italian food around.

Once you start going there for a while, everybody knows you and you start knowing the other customers and everybody knows Dino's so they have to try it out there.

- So it's sort of like that place on TV, where everyone knows your name.

I'm not gonna mention it.

- Yeah, no.

- It's on another channel.

- Yeah.

But I'm just saying.

You know what I'm talking about, right?

- [Ken] Oh yeah.

- [Mike] Oh yes.

- Now you're also cheery today.

I dunno what's going on.

- I can tell you that I loved, from the second that I walked in, that they have a sign that says, "Just be aware that you could hear yelling."

- [Ken] "Yelling."

- [Mike] "And cursing and biting or something from the chefs."

And I was like, "Oh, this is my kind of place."

- [Ken] Yeah.

- [Mike] So.

- I love the honesty.

- Yeah.

I do too.

- They're not glossing it over.

Courtney, how'd you feel when you first walked in?

- Well, I felt good to be getting out of the car 'cause it was a really long drive to get out there.

- That's true.

- But it definitely seemed very welcoming when we got there and I noticed they had a nice bar with lots of different selections of liquor and it was, we didn't have to wait for a table.

So that was nice too.

- Yeah.

And so books on tape is what I'm gonna say, Courtney.

That's what helps in those long drives.

- Yeah.

Exactly.

- So Ken, what'd you start with?

- We started with the shrimp, prawns baked, they're really good.

They slice 'em shell on, lay 'em flat, bake 'em, put the garlic butter and seasonings on 'em and bring 'em to you.

And my son actually had one, I've never seen him eat a shrimp like that.

And he was tryna, it was funny watching him tryna peel it out.

It took him a little while, but he got the hang of it.

So, now he is a shrimp eater.

- Now you've been there before and they have this really fun saying with the flaming cheese.

It's something that means cheese and opa.

- [Ken] Opa.

- [Mark] which I really loved.

Have you had that?

- I've never had it, but my wife's had it.

- We had it.

I love saganaki.

So when I saw it on the menu I was really excited and our server was so funny because it was her and another woman who came out and they kind of hesitated a little like, "Okay, we're gonna set this on fire."

And you know, they were kind of going like this with the lighter.

Like they were maybe a little afraid and it was adorable and it tasted good too.

- [Ken] Yeah.

- It's a really nice kind of cheesy blend with citrus and that makes for really delicious flavor.

- Yeah.

We love that it was done table-side, we've been to a few Greek restaurants before where they do that back in the kitchen, they just bring out warm cheese.

But I love that they bring out the liquor to use to light it.

- [Ken] With some lemon.

Puts it out, yeah.

- [Mike] Yeah.

Put it out with lemon.

And it was delicious.

It did not disappoint.

- What were your other two appetizers?

- Well, the other two things that were kind of starters with the meals, she had a side salad that came before the meal and then I also had, I'm not gonna even try and pronounce it 'cause I know I'm gonna get it wrong.

But the chicken and rice soup that they serve.

- That's the best.

- Oh.

Ken, you had that too?

- [Ken] That's to die for.

That's the only thing my son orders, every time.

- I had the lasagna and I thought that it was really cool that they prepare lasagna to order.

So instead of having, you know, a tray that's sitting in the back that maybe they cut off a slice off and heat.

- Cut off a slice, yeah.

- They actually layer the noodles and the cheese and whatever sauce you want.

- [Mark] Wow.

- So as a vegetarian, I don't get a chance to eat lasagna in a restaurant all that often, 'cause typically it's made with meat.

So I was able to order a lasagna marinara and it was really good.

It came in a little kind of metal dish that was hot and piping hot and it was good.

- Oh wow.

Cool.

- [Courtney] Yeah.

And you both had the Italian, you an Italian pasta.

You both had the Tuscany pasta, right?

- Yeah.

That was just, I mean, it's so good with all that chicken and shrimp and bacon, I mean, and it's so much of it.

You get so much.

I always get it 'cause knowing I'm going to eat half and take the rest for lunch the next day.

- [Mark] Oh very good.

- Oh, we definitely had leftovers too.

And it was, my favorite part was the bacon on the top.

I don't know if it was traditional bacon, prosciutto, I don't know what it was.

I didn't even have time to ask 'cause I was too busy eating it.

But it was incredible.

It was really, really good.

And I also liked that a lot of Italian restaurants, they're hesitant to use a lot of sauce when it comes to their cream-based sauce, like alfredo.

But they had ample sauce on this, which I really loved.

- Oh, love the sugar buttercream.

- [Mike] Oh yes.

- [Ken] It's the best.

- Very good.

Speaking of sugar, butter, did you have a dessert?

- We did.

We had tiramisu.

And tiramisu is always pretty good.

This one was a little bit on the dry side.

- Okay.

Ken?

- Yeah.

The chocolate mousse, it's really good.

I mean it's just so fluffy and light and anything chocolate.

- [Mark] Yeah.

It sounds like you.

- I had my kids with me this time so they ate that up, no problem.

- So, you say it's fluffy 'cause mousse can be pudding-like and this was more on the airy side.

- [Ken] It was definitely on the airy side.

- Well, after having a whole lot of the Tuscany pasta and even sneaking a few bites from my wife's dish, she got the spaghetti and got feta on top, which I'm so happy that we were able to cross that and get that group together.

'Cause it's so good together.

We finally decided to pump the breaks and take baklava to go as opposed to eating it there.

- [Ken] The best baklava.

- But their baklava was incredible.

- You can tell, they do make it there.

It wasn't too soggy on the bottom or on the top.

It was still light and crisp on the top.

It was delicious.

- [Mark] Excellent.

- They make a lot of desserts in-house.

- [Ken] Yes.

- The husband and wife team that owned the place came over and kind of visited with us for a little bit.

And they were telling us that she still makes tiramisu.

Like I don't know if they said every day, but she still makes it by hand in the restaurant.

- Oh that's great.

And what a nice touch for the owners to come over.

They came over for me and it was great too.

Peter came over.

- Peter's awesome.

- Real nice man.

So in a few words, how would you describe your restaurant?

- A very fun atmosphere with filling portions that you get to take some home.

- I thought it was a great family-run and family-friendly restaurant for locals.

- It was nice and laid back and had a good variety of both Italian and Greek.

- If you would like to try Dino's Greek and Italian grill, it's located at 1550 North Dysart Road, just south of West McDowell Road in Goodyear.

Reservations are accepted and the average tab for dinner is $22 without drinks.

(jazz music) Thanks to Courtney, Mike, and Ken for sharing their picks.

And don't forget, you can share yours too.

Go to www.azpbs.org/checkplease and nominate your favorite spot.

Be a part of the foodie conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, #checkpleaseaz.

Join us next time when three new guests bring us three new restaurants right here on ""Check, Please!

Arizona."

I'm chef Mark Tarbell, eat well and often.

- [Narrator] "Check, Please!

Arizona" is made possible by the Friends of Arizona PBS, members of Arizona PBS, who give additional gifts to support Original Programs.

Thank you.

(upbeat music)