You know when you see a mass of people waiting to be seated at a restaurant, long lines at a retail shop or anywhere, you think, whatever they are selling must be good.
This was Drunk Munk. Twice, I had eaten at a restaurant across the street and each time I noticed the loads of people at Drunk Munk, having such a good time. I made a mental note to add Drunk Munk to my must-try list.
My husband and I finally stopped by for happy hour. This is what we had:
Bottle Rockets $12
Pork Pot Stickers $12.50
Spicy Teriyaki Ribs $14.50
Bikini Girl Cocktail $14.50
Flower Goddess Cocktail $12.50
I listed the regular menu pricing. During happy hour there are select menu items half off. Everything we ordered was on the happy hour menu.
Although everything we had was scrumptious, I would not pay full price for anything we had.
The Bottle Rockets were the best! Shrimp, cream cheese, scallion, wrapped in a spring roll wrapper, and fried. The Bottle Rockets were served with sriracha and sweet chili orange sauce. The Bottle Rockets are even worth trying to duplicate at home.
The Pork Pot Stickers were good but nothing special. A bag of Trader Joe’s pot stickers is comparative for much less and a larger quantity. My family hates it when I compare dining out food costs to grocery food costs. haha
Spicy Teriyaki Ribs were tasty, tender and dipped in the standard teriyaki sauce you would find at your local Asian restaurant. While eating the ribs, I said to my husband, it felt like it should have included a side of rice.
The cocktails! The drinks! The libations! Whatever you want to call them, they are why everyone at Drunk Munk always seemed so happy and having a wonderful time. The cocktails were superb.
My husband had the Bikini Girl cocktail, much like a Pina Colada. I had the Flower Goddess Cocktail, mimicking a Sex on the Beach cocktail. There was no skimping on the liquor. I had to ask the bartender to add a little more juice to balance out the drink for me.
So, if you are looking for great drinks, hit up Drunk Munk for cocktails, sit under the cute tiki hut outside, and order a few appetizers.
Total bill without tax and tip: $66 regular menu price $33 happy hour menu price
Location Visted: The Drunk Munk Tiki Bar & Restaurant 7133 E. Stetson Drive, Suite 1 Scottsdale, Arizona 85251
I learned about Cooper’s Hawk Winery & Restaurant from my co-worker. He knows all about the speakeasies, wineries, and bars. He is very thorough in his analysis, so I took him at his word when he said the winery was cool. I do not know if my restaurant experience was in the forefront of my mind, but I vaguely remember him not really raving about the restaurant side of things, but going into detail about the winery. As you read on, you will see why both sentiments may be the case.
I made a reservation through Open Table the same day, and we ventured out. Make a reservation more than a day in advance if you want to be seated indoors, because reservations fill up fast. We were able to snag a table outdoors on the patio. Thank goodness the weather was nice, cool, and misters going made it a bit chilly for me. Good thing, I always have a jacket for backup.
Patrons’ attire ranged from dressed up to casual. We were somewhere in between.
When you first walk-in there is a retail area where you can purchase Cooper’s Hawk branded wine, wine glasses, and other wine accessories. As you walk through the retail shop, the reservation check-in area is situated right outside the restaurant entrance. Off to the left, the wine tasting area spans across the side wall, and it was packed full of wine tasters. The wine tasting does not take reservations and is on a first-come, first-serve basis. The attendants said to allow 45 minutes to one-hour for the tastings, if you plan to participate before a dinner reservation.
With the reservation we waited approximately 15 minutes for our table to be ready. Once we were seated, we were offered two complimentary wine tastings each. I tried two white wines, Gewürztraminer and Blanc de Blanc. I appreciated them both, but I was surprisingly delighted by the Gewürztraminer. I had previously researched this wine, and it was described as the “grown up Moscato.” That description was quite accurate, a white wine, sweet but not too sweet and delicious on its own.
I was feeling adventurous, so I already knew I would order a wine flight as opposed to a single glass of wine. The flight allowed four options. You can choose a pre-selected bubbles, white, red, or lux flight for $18.99-$22.99. You can create your own flight for $21.99. I built my own flight, two white wines, Cooper’s Hawk White and Reisling. I also added two red wines, Cooper’s Hawk Red and Lux Cabernet. The two red wines were not my favorite. One, I am not a fan of wine being served warm, even though this is the red wine etiquette. I wanted to break all the rules and add a few cubes of ice, but I did not. Two, one of the red wines was spicy. I am also not a fan of wines that leave a hotness on your palate. I chose the reds to accompany my main dish, which was beef. Both white wines were shockingly smooth, and delightful. Made me regret choosing reds, at all. I enjoyed both whites overall, but the Riesling most of all.
Moving on to the underwhelming part of the evening, the food, and maybe I should not say it was completely underwhelming. The Brussel Sprouts were amazing. This is what we ordered:
Key Lime Pie – Fresh-Squeezed Citrus, Graham Cracker Crust, Whipped Cream, Lime Dust, $10.99.
The braised short rib was edible, but I had to jazz it up with parmesan cheese, and then I could eat at least half of it with the added cheese flavor. I should have been warned when the people at the table next to us left their Short Rib Risotto unfinished. The turkey burger was nicely seasoned with natural herbs but lacked salt. The Shrimp & Scallop Risotto arrived late, and it is not pictured because it immediately went back. The Shrimp & Scallop Risotto lacked and missed the mark all the way around. Aesthetics, flavor, and timeliness. I was shocked to learn this dish is a chef’s recommendation on the menu. It should be removed immediately from the entire menu.
Both desserts were complimentary, due to the late food and the lack of quality of the Shrimp & Scallop Risotto. I did not try the Reese’s Ice Cream Cookie, but can you go wrong with Reese’s and Ice Cream? I hope not. The Key Lime Pie was very good. I am a Key Lime Pie connoisseur, so take my word.
Despite the not-so-great experience with the main courses, overall, I would return to Cooper’s Hawk Winery, and indulge in their extensive wine list. As my co-worker described it, it is certainly a great place. The winery is impeccable. We decided as a group that if we must eat when visiting Cooper’s Hawk Winery, the appetizers are the way to go, because have you ever had a terrible appetizer, anywhere?
There are several locations across the United States. In Arizona, there are four locations, Chandler, Gilbert, Scottsdale and Surprise.
The blog world says that a good blog post should be at least 500 words, and that is even short if you want true engagement.
I am willing to risk it for this blog post, because Crust Brothers Pizza does not need 500 words to get the point across that their pizza is piping hot, crispy pepperoni, thin crust goodness!
Ya’ll, Crust Brothers Pizza is 30-miles from our home, and we have been to Crust Brothers quite a few times. We drove to their Scottsdale location not knowing we would be overjoyed with the oohhh… ohhh… ahhh… ahhh… juggling and burning in our mouths from their simple pepperoni pizza. Let us be clear, my use of the word simple is by no means to say that their pizza is boring. It is so simply good that it is superior to many of the over-complicated pizzerias around the valley.
Crust Brothers Pizza has 4.7 stars out of 5 on Google, that is what drew me to Crust Brothers in my search for the best pizza around. I can confirm that the reviews are real. Well, I cannot confirm that they are real, but from our experience they are very real. Even if they are not, my review is certainly real and worth a drive.
Crust Brothers Pizza has a full menu of pizza, salads, baked subs, and so on but I am a pepperoni pizza girl.
I would ask that you to let the folks over at Crust Brothers know that I sent you, but they do not know me. Laughs Out Loud!
We ordered a 16” pizza for $20 with pepperoni for an additional $2.50. We shared it amongst 2-3 people each visit, with leftovers each time.
You can visit their Scottsdale, Arizona location and my fellow pizza connoisseur sister informed me that they have a new location in Tempe, Arizona.
Let me know your favorite pizza spot in the comments, so I can add them to my list to try!
Location visited: 7342 E. Shea Blvd., #11 Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
New Location: 5100 S. McClintock Dr., Units 101 Tempe, Arizona 85282
If you’ve ever lived in a community where there use to not be much around, but is growing rapidly, you know it can be hard pressed to find good dine-in food. Drive-thru restaurants seem to pop up with no problem so when you see a sign go up in your neighborhood, Charlie Mae’s Soul Food, Now Open the radar immediately goes up. Being in a thriving community with houses going up everywhere, businesses are doing their best to keep up with the demand of the people simply wanting good food. We went to Charlie Mae’s to see if it was going to survive in the area, by our standards.
When we arrived, we waited about 5 minutes to be
seated. The restaurant is small, seating
about 25-30 people. We were surprised to
find they had a full menu, that can be found here https://charliemaesoulfood.com/.
Edward and I share most of our meals,
at new places especially, because you never know if it’s going to be worth it
or not. Better to sacrifice one plate
than two. We ordered the 3 pc. fried chicken
meal, that came with two sides and corn bread.
For all my sweet corn bread loving folks out there, the corn bread is
sweet ya’ll. We chose macaroni &
cheese and collard greens as sides. We
waited about 20 minutes for our food, and that could have been slightly
shorter, if they didn’t pack our meal to go because they thought our order was a
pick-up order. However, they quickly
corrected the problem and brought our meal to the table.
The chicken was fried nice and
crispy and seasoned well. The macaroni
and cheese were good but could have been cheesier because I like cheese. I don’t eat greens, but Edward said they were
flavorful. I did taste them, because Edward
makes them look so good with hot sauce and corn bread. I could eat them, but I prefer not to. We attempted to get peach cobbler, but they
were sold out.
We always live by this when reading reviews about any place, take the review as a starting point and go from there. Yes, Charlie Mae’s Soul Food is worth a visit! You will not be disappointed if you get the fried chicken. Let me know if you visit, what you ordered and what you thought.
Location visited:
6115 S. 51st Avenue, #204 Laveen, AZ 85339 Call for hours: 602-675-0865
I saw “the cheese shell” around and thought I should try that, so before heading out one day, I prepared the cheese shell taco quickly. I already had ground turkey cooked, so I took it out the fridge and threw it in the microwave.
Get a 13×9 baking sheet or whatever size you have, place parchment paper down, and sprinkle cheese in a circle about 5″ in diameter and about 3″ apart from the next cheese circle. Use whatever cheese you like (I used mild cheddar). Bake on 350 degrees for 7-10 minutes. Let cool slightly, stuff with what you like. In my case, it was the ground turkey, lettuce, sour cream and sugar-free ketchup. Voilà! So GOOD.
Sharonda Shariee 