Restaurant Review: Mary Eliane's

We spent the evening out with Tami/Windsor and dined at Mary Elaine's, the restaurant that sits on the top floor of The Phoenician resort in Scottsdale. The restaurant is marvelously decorated and has a wide view looking south across the valley of the sun. The service was impeccable. Aside from observing that there must have been at least 2 staff members on the dining floor for every guest in the restaurant, I immediately noticed the generous spacing between the tables. Very refreshing.

When we were seated we were given black or white napkins depending on the darkness or lightness of our apparel. Lady's handbags were not to be set on the floor, but instead were given footstools on which to rest... the footstools sat immediately adjacent to the dining chair of the purse owner. This had the benefit of allowing the purse owner to easily access the purse contents without so much as a small bend in the back. Very thoughtful.

Thoughout the night the service was omnipresent. If someone made so much as small movement to arise, a member of the staff was there to pull the chair back, take the patron's napkin, and dust the chair of any crumbs. Before the patron returned a new napkin was placed on the vacant chair. Very attentive.

The food was also quite good. I had the Seared Foie Gras which was quite wonderfully prepared and served with caramelized figs and a blood orange marmalade. The rest of the party ordered salads. The salad must have been pretty good, because Kristy even ate the artichokes served with the salad (not her favorite thing). Both appetizers cost as much as a main entrée at most other restaurants ($28 and $21 respectively). $21 for a small salad?! Please.

For our entrées, Tami and both ordered the "prime beef" (at $50 per plate) and Kristy and Windsor ordered the lamb (at $49/plate). My beef was not anything unusual... a good solid presentation (served with some delightful mushrooms) and a good solid taste. I sampled Kristy's lamb, which was served with some couscous, hummus, and green curry. Very tasty.

For dessert, both Tami and Windsor played it safe with some classic crème brûlée. I had the sorbet (which I order when nothing else strikes my fancy). Kristy went out on a limb and ordered the "Yuzu Mousse and Jivara". From the wiki:

The yuzu's flavor is tart, closely resembling that of the grapefruit, with overtones of Mandarin orange. It is rarely eaten as a fruit, though in the Japanese cuisine its aromatic zest (outer rind) is used to garnish some dishes, and its juice is commonly used as a seasoning, somewhat like the way the lemon is used in other cuisine.

Kristy let me have a bite of the mousse - it was quite good. The mousse was accompanied with a Valrhona "Jivara" chocolate cream that was served side by side on the same plate. Two very unique and different tastes - we were both very impressed.

Summary: $30/plate food at $50/plate prices.

Mid-Winter Break in Arizona: Enchanted Island
Berkeley, Eliana, and I traveled down from Scottsdale to Phoenix today to try out Enchanted Island Amusement Park. It is a small theme park set on a man-made island in a rural park somewhere in Phoenix. The rides would bore any kid over 8, but were perfect for Berkeley and Eliana. Since school is still in session around here, there were no crowds to speak of and there were no lines longer the capacity of the ride themselves (no waiting). After lunch it started to drizzle and the park emptied. What little rain fell didn't faze my kids one bit! Aside from the staff, the three of us were literally the only persons in the park for the last hour of operation. I think that if we would have decided to leave before closing time, they would have shut down the place for the day. But we stayed until closing time and rode the very last ride.

The pictures are shown below. One note... Berkeley said he wanted to ride the train four times while we there. The train runs every half hour. He was pretty excited about the first ride (pictured), but by the end of the day and on his 4th ride Berkeley was pretty run down.

While at the park, Berkeley and Eliana tried out a photograph booth. Here are the results:

Cute!