We first tried Flancers  about three months ago, but stopped in again as a polite, slightly upscale celebration of a birthday today.  Did it score any better with time to fix their initial problems?

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First Impressions

Red, White & Brew is located in the lowest-rent corner of the intersection of Power and McDowell Roads, next to a Subway and a Basha’s market.  The inside is generally clean, and dominated by a back-wall of kitchen counter and serving station.  One side of the room has a bar with the obligatory large flat television.

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Given that it’s been the better part of a year since I last reviewed Bellagio, despite it being a block from our offices, has anything much changed?

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Without a doubt in my mind Native New Yorker has the best wings in Arizona. I was once a fan of the wings served at Buffalo Wild Wings, but those feelings sailed away when I entered Native New Yorker. There are a number of different TVs set up in the room that allows everyone to watch the nights games without having to change positions. They let us change the channel to watch the Olympic tryouts. Overall, I would say that our server was good. She kept our drinks filled, and she was ready to do what it took to help us enjoy our meal.

Recommendation

Native New Yorker would be a great place to take you family, friends, or girlfriend to have a good meal in a relaxed environmnet. It is nice enough to take your girlfriend on a date, but it also allows you to relax, sit back, and watch a little ESPN.

I have been going to Native New Yorker for years now. I have been attending two locations. One on gilbert and the 60 in mesa and the other on mesa drive and brown in mesa. I definitely prefer the location on gilbert and the 60. Better service, better quality of food, and better atmosphere.
Everytime I go we order their famous wings. I usually go with a dozen. They have many flavors to choose from. My favorites are hot and honey hot. The hot is just enough kick. The honey hot has a small kick with a sweet flavor.

Natve New Yorker is a great place to go with the guys to watch a game or just hang out and get some wings. They have some of the best wings in all of arizona. If you havn’t been there you gotta give it a try.

I have been going to Native New Yorker for a long time, but have never ordered wings. In the past I have usually ordered the Philly Cheesesteak which is always good. I would definitely go back for the wings. There is not a lot to wings but these wings had the right amount of sauce and were a little crunchy, which made them really good. Native is not a place I would take my wife for our weekly date night but a great place to take the whole family or a night out with my sons. The menu provides a selection for all appetites. We had a large party and our waitress seemed to stay on top of what we needed. My glass was always and full and half way through our first order of wings we asked for another and they hit our table surprisingly fast. There are several TV’s located throughout the dining with different sporting events being shown. The atmosphere is similar to that of most any sports bar. When you go to a place like Native you need two ingredients. One being good food and the other being good company. We had both on our last visit.

Its surprising that for the past year we have been writing food reviews and not once have we went out for wings. Well this all changed last week as we headed down to Native New Yorker. Now being from Ohio I am a little partial to Buffalo Wild Wings, as the company was started in Kent, Ohio - not too far from where I grew up. For quite some time while living in Ohio it was a regular activity to head down to BW3 on Tuesdays for all of special deals. It was a place where you knew everyone there, had good food and an even better time. To say the least BW3 will forever be my favorite place for chicken wings. However Native New Yorker might not be too far off.. (more…)

Coming from an Italian family, I am always on the look out for new places to eat that offer a good home cooked Italian meal. I have lived in Arizona for about 25 years now and there have been very few Italian places that I would consider being authentic except for the restaurant my wife and I tried tonight.

Giovanni’s Little Italy located in Gilbert, on Gilbert Road just north of Guadalupe, was a delightful surprise. From the outside it looked like a busy take out place, but there is a cosey little dining room just inside that gives you a great view of the kitchen. There are only a couple of tables in the cafe style room so it is a great place to bring the family or that special someone for a nice time to dine and talk.  The atmosphere is casual with the setting of a New York style Italian cafe (did I mention the owners are from up state New York) that is warm and friendly.

Service

As soon as my wife and I walked in the door we were greeted with smiles by the counter staff and seated our selves. Our waitress quickly took our drink orders and progressed to the salad and fresh bread quickly. Mimi (part owner) and all of her staff (family) stopped by the table to bring refills and just to see if we needed anything, it made us feel really welcomed.

Menu and The Meal

The menu offers a variety of pastas, hot or cold subs, hot or cold paninis, pizzas, calzones, salads, appetizers, and different choices of wings. Oh, and don’t forget cannoli for desert. Every item on the menu was at a good price, another plus for families. I had the baked ziti which is a fairly simple dish but can be poorly made with too much sauce or over doing it on the cheese. In this case, I enjoyed every bite. The sauce was had just the right amount of spices and did not drowned the pasta. The ziti it self was cooked well and not over baked. To top it off, the layer of mozzarella cheese was great! However, the topper to my meal was the meatball. I do not say this about too many people’s cooking, but I have never had a meatball that tasted like my mom’s homemade meatballs. Excellent!

My Recommendation  

I would have to say that my family and I will be back! The service was great, the food came quickly and was good Italian comfort food, and the atmosphere was enjoyable. Most of all, were can you get a good Italian home cooked meal for two people under thirty dollars? I did notice that Giovanni’s has good lunch specials, their full menu is offered as take out, and they catering too. The owners Giovanni and Mimi Baglio would love to have you there. Click here to check out their website. I know we will be back.

Atmosphere 4 Starts

Service 5 Stars

Food 4 Stars

Total of 13 out of 15 Stars!

First Impressions

This particular franchise is located that strip of Mesa which seems to be barely holding its head above water– not as prosperous and modern as Gilbert just across the 60, but not as run-down as West Mesa.

The restaurant itself is placed in a remarkably sterile strip mall, filled with service businesses, which abnormally surrounds a Hampton Inn.  It seems like the restaurant was installed as the typical “restaurant next to the hotel”, although those typically specialize in breakfast, not even offered here.

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I recently had dinner with my girlfriend at Cantina Laredo in San Tan Village in Gilbert Arizona and we were both thoroughly impressed.  The atmosphere was subdued and the lighting was perfect.  One of my pet peeves with restaurants here in the valley is how bright they typically keep their lighting.  I go to restaurants to eat, not to tan.  We arrived around 8pm and there wasn’t any wait.  The hostess took us to a booth in the center which was well designed for privacy.  Our server (forgot his name) was very helpful yet managed to stay out of our way.  On his advice we ordered the fresh guacamole which he prepared immediately table side.

The guacamole was excellent and paired perfectly with their house salsa.  If you go there I would highly recommend the guacamole.  We munched on chips, guacamole and salsa and Abbe ordered a Casa Rita, their house margarita.

I don’t really drink so I didn’t taste it, but Abbe thought it was very good. We proceeded to order our entrees.  I had the Camaron Poblano Asado, a poblano pepper stuffed with shrimp, mushrooms, onions and monterrey jack cheese, wrapped in carne asada.  Abbe had Chilean sea bass.  Our entrees arrived in a very timely fashion, and mine was good.  The steak was a little bit tough, but the flavor overall was very good.  We were both very happy with our orders.  So far I think this is the best upscale Mexican restaurant we have been to in the valley.