Alexi's Grill and Catering

Alexi’s Grill & Catering

3550 N. Central Ave

Phoenix, AZ  85012

As part of Restaurant Week, companion and I dined at Alexi’s. Restaurant Week features prix fixe menu’s with limited selections. Some restaurants use this week as an opportunity to introduce new customers to their food selections, while a few others use it to take advantage of unknowing customers. Fortunately, Alexi’s does not take advantage of their customers and provides a nice meal for your dollars.

Drinks were brought quickly and we were brought a basket of warm bread sticks along with some nice salt butter. Many restaurants serve unsalted butter, which just does not have the taste that many people are looking for.

Companion started off with the Calamari appetizer. Many places destroy a wonderful appetizer by over cooking it. Here there were nice rings and tentacles lightly battered and fried to perfection. For myself, I ordered the Caprese Salad, which was made with some wonderful buffalo mozzarella, ripe tomatoes, and a chiffonade of basil. Some excellent olive oil and a dash of balsamic completed the dish nicely.

Next, cups of bean soup arrived. This was no ordinary bean soup, did not come from a can, and did not come from the freezer. This soup was made from scratch with love and attention to detail. Tiny canelé beans with small diced carrots enhanced with a beautiful broth type soup. No heavy glop here, if they offered this soup canned, I’d be buying it by the case.

For the main course, companion ordered the Lobster Ravioli in a cream sauce. Five nice sized ravioli’s gently swimming in a pool of excellent cream sauce. Very rich and quite satisfying.

I ordered the Pork Chop cooked pink, as the USDA now allows pork to be cooked. A good sized chop on the bone arrived perfectly cooked as ordered. The chop was accompanied by al dente broccoli, roasted baby potatoes, and some outstanding sweet carrots that were stars of the show. Companion kept stealing some from my plate!

Dessert consisted of Cheesecake with macerated strawberries, and Tiramisu.

Service was excellent, and cleanliness even to the outside areas was in evidence. Dings – only one – when any restaurant serves a nice piece of meat, be it steak or chop, it is wrong to serve a serrated knife to the person dining. The serrated knife only serves to tear the meat apart instead of gently slicing it into edible portions. It bothered me to look at my knife after cutting this excellent chop and find pieces of meat stuck to the blade.

4 stars for service, quality of food, and cleanliness