Valley Plaza Tempe Food Truck Festival

Valley Plaza Tempe Food Truck Festival                                                                                2/21/2016

3115 S. McClintock Drive

Tempe, AZ  85282

I arrived at the festival at about 5:30. A large crowd of ASU students had shown up, and were queued at each vendor.

I started with Aioli Burger. On the good side, they cooked my burger (white truffle swiss burger) medium rare as I had asked for. Also on the good side, the burger was of a good size, had good flavor, was juicy and was on a nice bun. However, all is not necessarily good in whoville. The first ding was that there is no price list to be found anywhere – not on their web site nor on the truck nor on any sign near the truck. Patrons have no idea what they are paying for anything, and the vendor is able to change prices at will. The second ding was that when you present a credit card, they present you with a portable screen on which are listed various tip amounts. Only upon reading through the screen did one see the small print that said “No Tip”. Tips are for service rendered, and after 18 years of this type of work, I’ve yet to understand why some people just put their hands out and expect a tip for taking an order and nothing else. There is also a large tip jar on the counter which people were stuffing with bills. Personally, I just don’t understand this.  

Unfortunately, tables were not exactly in excess, and most people either ate in their cars or standing up. The ding for this is upon the organizers, who should have made sure that more than 4 tables were available for a crowd this size.

Next was Cousins Maine Lobster. At $17 for a lobster roll, it was a bit exorbitant and I didn’t have my banker with me to foot a loan. I only saw 3 people in the line for this truck. In speaking to people in the area, it was almost unanimous that they were way overpriced. Currently, fresh lobster is going for $11.95 a pound locally, and I’m quite sure the rolls did not contain a pound of lobster on them. On the plus side, they had their prices posted prominently on a large electronic screen for all to see.

Right next door was Kick’s Frozen Yogurt. It seemed a bit redundant to have their truck there when the actual physical location of Kick’s is in the same shopping center. Unlike most of the other vendors, they only take Visa and Mastercard. Kick’s had a selection of flavors available.

Continuing around, I next came to Modern Tortilla. They had a good sized sign out front with the prices on it, albeit in small, but readable printing. Polling those who were eating there, most of the people were enjoying the food and felt that it was properly priced. In fact, a number of people felt that it was actually a cheap place to eat at. Portion sizes were nice, and while I did not have room to actually taste it, it smelled quite good.

Last but certainly not least was Bang Bang Dumpling, a truck that came in at the last minute when Bites Donuts was not able to attend.

A small menu was posted outside with some of the prices, however, more food was available than was on the menu, causing people to have to ask prices or worse, ordering food without being aware of how much they were spending. While I only was able to speak to 5 people who had the food from this truck, they all liked the flavors, but felt the portion size was a bit on the skimpy side.

The trucks certainly attracted a good crowd from ASU, and I certainly hope they will continue in the future, but please – post your prices as well as what credit cards you accept. The customer behind me in line wanted to pay with cash and was actually worried that they might not accept it!

3 stars for a good effort.

Salt Cellar

Salt Cellar

550 N Hayden Rd.

Scottsdale, AZ 85257

Companion and I arrived for a 5:00 dinner reservation just a bit early. We were asked to wait in the bar, which would not have been a problem except that every seat was already taken with people waiting. After a short wait, we were seated at our table.

The bar waitress arrived quickly and took our drink order – 20 year old port for myself and a pink squirrel for companion. The port was a Graham and was excellent, and companion loved the pink squirrel. It is notable that the bar has a large stock of premium single malts, ports, and other spirits. Best of all, they have a bartender that has knowledge of what is being served and knows what he/she is doing.

We started our dinner with a bowl of chowder – Manhattan for companion and New England for myself. The chowder had lots of chubby clams and potatoes in it, and instead of being thick and goopy (is that even a word?) it had a nicer, thinner texture that was very enjoyable.

Next came an order of Steamed Mussels. They were satisfactory except that many of the shells did not have a mussel in them. Our waitress made things right very quickly by bringing us a steaming hot new order to replace those. The mussels were cooked perfectly and came with a broth and a melted butter cruet to dip them in. Best of all, the mussels were totally clean with not a drop of foreign material in them.

On with the salad, perhaps the only weak point in the meal. Two problems presented themselves – first was that the salad itself was either torn into small pieces that were hard to get on the fork, and other pieces were too big to be put in ones mouth without being cut up. The second problem was that we selected the house vinaigrette, which just really wasn’t to my personal taste. Not wanting to be a complainer, I ate the salad and accepted it as part of the experience.

The main course arrived next – baked stuffed lobster. Each lobster was stuffed with a mixture of crab meat and scallops, then covered in bread crumbs and baked. The lobsters are smaller ones – about 1 ¼ pounds I would guess, but after the appetizers and the salad they were more than adequate. The lobsters come with a candle heater with drawn butter in it. I prefer a good salt butter to eat with my seafood, and somehow, miraculously, a small packet of Maldon Sea Salt appeared from my purse to help with the butter. The lobster was delicious and nicely cooked. Our waitress, when serving it took the hard parts apart for us so the eating it was simple and non-messy.

Our only unfortunate part of the evening was that we were seated next to a buffoon cardiologist that insisted on recounting his latest surgery experiences to his table in loud enough tones that the entire dining room found out about his sutures. I did not allow that to affect my appetite though.

Service and cleanliness were excellent as was the food.

5 Stars