Food Cart Mania Finally Comes to the StrEATS of Phoenix

I never seem to have the time to make it to the Phoenix food carts, so Bostworld kindly offered to write a guest post for me on his recent experience:

Last week, I found myself in north Scottsdale, looking for quick lunchtime options off the 101 freeway at the Raintree exit. As I neared my default destination for that area (good old reliable Kokopelli) I noticed a commotion in the parking lot of the nearby Whole Foods Market. Upon closer inspection, I discovered a half dozen or more food carts cordoned off behind yellow tape.

I’ve enjoyed the food cart experience in other cities such as Portland and Austin, but I was surprised to find this kind of activity in my own backyard — especially in July. I learned that the Raintree Whole Foods has been hosting regular events by the Phoenix Street Food Coalition for some time.

There among the hot dogs, ice cream, pastries and chicken burritos, I discovered the beet strEAT truck and their lentil tacos. The beat strEAT menu was full of vegan enticements — hummus, veggie burgers, raw salads, etc. — but there’s nothing we at “Four Legs Good” like better than lentils and tacos. This was a match made in heaven. I had to ask them to leave off a couple non-vegan toppings, but after that it was off the races.

Since I was in somewhat of a rush, I made short work of the meal. I had little time to savor the generous twin delicacies I received, but they were both excellent. My only regret was the absence of your regular reporter. She would have loved these tacos.

We are not the first blog to take notice of beet strEAT. The Phoenix New Times recently interviewed owner Clea Senneville for “Chow Bella.” But we are happy to join the clamor for more food carting in the valley. We look forward to more beet strEAT events in the future.

Pomegranate Café Keeps Getting More Special(s)

This is just a reminder that if you haven’t been to the Pomegranate Café in Ahwatukee, Ariz. (south of central Phoenix) yet, you are seriously missing out. They keep their daily specials current on their Facebook page, which is great motivation to get us to go there despite living 30+ minutes away.

Today I was drawn to the restaurant for their blueberry and lemon flapjacks special and out of curiosity to see if their frittata special was vegan (it wasn’t), but we ended up ordering two different specials. It’s the only place in town where it actually pains me to have to decide what to get each visit because I want to try everything. When they keep featuring such creative and tasty specials, it makes it even harder for a Libra like me to make a decision!

After ruling out the frittata, I went with the summer vegetable quesadilla special.

It was a lot better than the last quesadilla I had at Pomegranate, because it was full of sweet potatoes, zucchini, green chili peppers and oodles of my favorite vegan food item – Daiya cheese. It was served with a side of baba ganoush, which I didn’t think was necessary. I’d rather have chips or a green salad instead.

My husband settled on the scramble special.

This consisted of vegan chorizo; tofu; sautéed peppers, onions and zucchini; avocado; pinto beans and Daiya vegan cheese, plus a spinach tortilla. The chorizo was full of flavor and spiced up the dish.

We also got a slice of strawberry cake to-go.

That’s going to be dessert later tonight, but I took a nibble and it was outstandingly yummy.

Pomegranate was absolutely packed today, which leads me to believe they need to expand soon! Here’s hoping they open a  restaurant in central Phoenix someday!

Pita Jungle: Always a Safe Bet for Vegans

One of the rules of dining out for vegan and vegetarians in Phoenix is “when in doubt, go to Pita Jungle ” Pita Jungle is what I would call a home-grown chain in Phoenix. It started as a small restaurant in a strip mall in Tempe, and has blossomed into a multi-city, multi-state dining enterprise which, lucky for us, has a healthy helping of vegetarian and vegan options on the menu. They even have a “vegan chart” on the website! If you’re vegan, you can order anything with a “yes” next to it, or make small alterations to many dishes to make them vegan.

Our all-time favorite is the Cilantro Jalapeno Hummus.

Get an extra pita because you’re going to want to scrape the dish.

The Hummus & Taboule is also great, if you’re okay with mixing textures.

We also recently enjoyed a side of Lentils & Rice.

It’s enough for a whole meal actually, and next time I may ask for double the amount of caramelized onions. Yum.

While there are plenty of other vegan salad and main meal options to pick from, such as the falafels, pita burrito, or veggie garden wrap, I always default to the Macro Platter.

It’s a lightly seasoned combination of brown rice, fresh steamed veggies, grilled tofu and Pita Jungle’s delicious variety of beans. It’s fairly basic, but enough for two (with a side of hummus, of course) and very satisfying!

Because the menu is so vegan-friendly compared to most, it’s easy to make assumptions on things that are usually vegan. Thanks to the vegan chart, I know to avoid the Greek pitas, veggie & black bean patties and buns.

A Pita Jungle can be found just about anywhere you go in the greater Phoenix metro – even in the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall! The only downside to the restaurant chain is no matter which one you go to, it’s always loud. I used to bring family and clients to Pita Jungles because of the “something for everyone” quality of the menu, but it’s just too hard to have a conversation. If the weather is bearable and there is a patio spot available, I usually default to that option. To-go is always a nice alternative too – especially for the hummus.

Chakra 4: Let Food Be Your Medicine

Several years ago, I eagerly anticipated the opening of the vegetarian café inside Chakra 4 – an herb shop two blocks from my office. My excitement was dampened after I tried it a couple of times and experienced extremely slow service, high prices ($15 for a wrap?), and average-quality food. In short: I wrote it off.

However, during the past few months I’ve been struggling to find places to dine at in Phoenix that aren’t “cheats” on my new “nutrient-focused, food-as-cure” vegan diet (i.e. tons of greens, less wheat and salt, no processed food). Let’s face it, I grew up in the high-salt, everything fried, processed food generation. I love Green the most in town and can’t live without Daiya now that I’ve found it. But given my new commitment to “eating for health,” I took another look at Chakra 4’s menu online and thought it might be worth revisiting. I’ve been there four times since. They clearly made improvements to the food since my previous experiences, and the slow service issues have been fixed too.

On my first re-visit, I tried the Black Bean Sunflower wrap (made vegan). Sorry – I didn’t take pictures as I wasn’t expecting much. The veggies were all incredibly fresh, the black bean hummus was entirely unique and flavorful, and I loved the chipotle salsa. I immediately called my husband and told him we’d be going there together soon.

During the next visit, husband in tow, I tried a seasonal special — the “Hercules” burrito.

It was at its essence a bean burrito, but it was full of fresh veggies and excellent salsa. It’s been hard for me to not order it on every following trip, but I had to try more items!

My husband ordered the Basil Pesto Foccacia (made vegan with raw nut cheese).

It was loaded with great veggies, and the pesto was some of the best I’ve ever tried. The bread (while not gluten-free) was also incredibly tempting. I had to try several bites (just to make sure it was as good as the first bite, of course).

Within a week or two, we were back again. This trip, I tried the Veggie-Dilla with a side of soup.

It was similar to the Hercules, but less dense, more crispy, and I really enjoyed the soup – which I think was a red bean soup but can’t remember for sure. I had yet another favorite.

My husband got the Mediterranean Wrapsody (again made vegan with no feta).

This was a lighter choice – full of fresh, crisp vegetables that are perfect for the summer heat. The kale wasn’t too tough (they got rid of the stems), the wrap was flavorful, and the cashew cheese added taste and texture but wasn’t overwhelming. He ordered it with the quinoa pilaf, which was a nice side but nothing out of this world.

I took a business colleague with me for trip number four, and unfortunately forgot my camera for this visit. It was a hard decision for me to not order something I’d already tried, but this time I selected the Green Lentil Curry. Sadly, this menu item reminded me of why I didn’t like Chakra 4 when I first visited years ago. Instead of being a saucy rich curry over rice, it was a tiny dish of lightly flavored and fairly dry lentils, a separate small dish of rice, another one of bland steamed veggies, a side of darn good chutney and for some odd reason, a few big pieces of collard greens. I didn’t know what to do with it all so I made little collard wraps out of the items. The lentils were “okay” but it certainly wasn’t what I’d consider to be a curry. It left me feeling pretty disappointed, in that “I should have ordered the foccacia or veggie-dilla” way.

My colleague ordered the half Nutty Rawvocado wrap and miso mushroom soup. He seemed particularly pleased with the soup, but fully enjoyed the wrap too! I’m not a fan of avocados or mushrooms, so I didn’t sample either.

In summary, some things I like about Chakra 4 are:

• They understand how to make healthy vegan food taste good and have a very creative menu. The restaurant’s motto is “Organic Vegetarian Food to Nourish the Body and Soul” and they aren’t fibbing.
• They serve fresh, organic food and have tons of gluten-free and vegan options.
• All the wraps can be made with a spinach tortilla, sun-dried tomato tortilla, whole grain bread, or kale leaf.
• It’s in a great location – tucked behind the Trader Joe’s at the Town and Country shopping center on 20^th St. and Camelback Rd.
• They have a tremendous variety of hot teas (but need to offer more iced versions during the summer!).
• They’re open on Sundays! Seven days a week actually!

Things that could still use help:

• The two-top seats are very small and they don’t let you move to a four-seater unless they’re completely dead.
• The prices are still pretty darn high.
• I haven’t found a vegan dessert worth writing about yet… but I’m still trying.

No doubt I’ll be back again soon to keep working my way through the menu. Next on my “to try” list is the Apollo Pomodoro wrap, or maybe the Golden Hummus wrap. I can’t believe I could have been eating here for years, so I’m going to make up for lost time!

Tsom: Tempe’s New Vegetarian Treasure

Sorry once again for the massive delay in posting! I’m attempting to adhere to a new diet due to my ongoing gut issues (Dr. Fuhrman’s “Eat for Life” diet). This means I’m eating a lot less processed foods and fake meat, and am now consuming a large amount of nutrient-rich foods like kale and beets. That seriously changed (and limited) what I’m eating when I dine out in the Phoenix metro area. Lucky for me, a new vegetarian restaurant opened in Tempe recently that has a wide variety of nutrient-rich foods (and of course a few indulgences)!

Tsom is located in what I call the “awesome ethnic food corner” of Tempe – the southeast corner of Rural and University. It’s in the same strip mall as the Blue Nile Café, Delhi Palace, Oliveo Grill) and Pho Nhat, with Thai Rama across the parking lot.

Tsom is a very casual (as in, paper plates) counter-serve vegan and vegetarian restaurant that focuses on healthy food and quality ingredients. The menu offers a variety of Middle Eastern, Mexican and other regional  foods, pastas and wraps. They clearly mark what is vegan vs. vegetarian, and several of their menu items are gluten-free as well. You have the option of selecting from their pay-by-weight salad bar, ordering from the menu, or both. They also offer daily specials and have a falafel toppings bar — which is a cool idea!

The first time I visited, I tried a bit of the kale salad, hummus and beets from the salad bar, and couldn’t resist trying a spicy falafel (no, not on my diet…). Everything was vibrant and delicious. The kale and beets made me feel like I wasn’t cheating; while the falafel was clearly fresh-made, and had hot peppers blended into it. I liked adding toppings from the falafel bar such as veggies and sauces to taste as well. It was also all very reasonably priced! I think the total bill was a little over $7.

On my second trip, I brought reinforcements so I could try more items (and a camera because I knew I had to write a post about this place). My husband selected items from the salad bar.

He liked the kale and beet salads the best too, but overall enjoyed how wholesome everything tasted.

I went for the daily special, which was an irresistible “tofu tomatillo stew.”

The stew was loaded with beans, tofu, tomatillos, corn, tomatoes and other veggies combined with brown rice. It was perfectly spiced – causing just a slight nose run. I’ve never had anything like it before – which indicates to me that the chef knows what he’s doing in terms of creating unique flavor combinations.

And to top it off – Tsom features desserts from our favorite local vegan baker – Treehouse Bakery! Even though we’re trying to avoid over-indulgent sweets, we had to split a chocolate peanut-butter cupcake.

It wasn’t quite as fresh as when we had a batch of cupcakes special-made for us, but it was still delicious!

I’ve barely scraped the surface of the menu options and can’t wait to go back – frequently! The two times I visited Tsom, it wasn’t very busy (only one or two other customers there). I hope they start packing them in soon. It’s the kind of place we need to keep in town!

The Parlor Pizzeria: The Crust Is So Good You Won’t Miss the Cheese

When I first moved to Phoenix 14 years ago, I thought it would be a good idea to have my hair professionally styled before an important job interview. I didn’t have a relationship with a salon yet, so I picked Salon de Venus on Camelback Rd. and 20^th St. mainly because I liked the  60s “modern” look of the building. Well, I got the job, but around the same time a friend graduated from cosmetology school so I didn’t continue to frequent the salon. It eventually went out of business, and I worried about what would happen to that cool building.

Much to my delight, we started seeing renovation activity at the location about two years ago. Mysterious signs went up, and eventually we discovered that a pizza parlor was opening up.

What thrilled us even more was to discover that it wasn’t just any pizza place – The Parlor Pizzeria is a high-quality but moderately priced restaurant with fresh ingredients and delicious wood-fired pizza. The first time we went there it was because we couldn’t handle the three-hour wait at Pizzeria Bianco (which also makes an awesome cheese-less pizza). They kept the beauty parlor theme of the location too – including reusing the salon chairs!

There are plenty of reviews online about how great the place is, so I’ll just focus on what I’ve found on the menu that’s vegan.

To start, order the Parlor Insalata but without the salami and feta.

It’s a pretty straight-forward salad but the dressing is light and flavorful, and the crispy chickpeas are a unique touch.

I also love their French fries – they are some of the best in the valley – but they come by default with a parmesan cheese coating. You can order them with “no cheese” without a problem though.

There are a handful of other appetizers that are possibly vegan without the cheese – but these are my standards.

One of the best features of The Parlor is the “build your own” pizza option. For vegans, the process is to cross through the protein and cheese options and write “no cheese” instead. And then, critically, ask for the marinara sauce instead of the pizza sauce, because the pizza sauce has cheese in it. From there you can select all sorts of fresh veggies and herbs. We normally have it with onions and bell peppers, and sometimes vine-ripe tomatoes.

The pizza dough is soft and thin, with just the right amount of slightly burnt crust bubbles. It’s perfect. The sauce is clearly fresh-made and delicious. They grow some of their own herbs and veggies out front, but I believe most everything is local and/or organic.

The whole meal usually costs us under $25 for two people, and although it isn’t Pizzeria Bianco, it’s darn close.

For more information on how The Parlor recycled the building, these two articles are great:

Phoenix New Times: The Parlor Pizzeria: Behind the Design with Aric Mei

Modern Phoenix: One Final Makeover For The Salon de Venus

Vegan with a View: Elements at the Sanctuary

To celebrate the holidays, my co-workers and I decided to go to Elements at The Sanctuary resort on Camelback Mountain in Paradise Valley for a change of pace from our usual quick take-out run to Baja Fresh. It’s definitely a “special occasions” or “date night” kind of place, especially if you’re dining with omnivores and want a good vegan meal for yourself as well.

Because it’s a health-focused resort, I can actually order vegan food from the menu at Elements rather than having to ask the chef to make something for me like I do at most high-end restaurants that I’ve frequented for work events. Nine out of teb times that “something” ends up being a plate of roasted or steamed vegetables for the price of a steak.

To start with, the view at Elements is just gorgeous.

If you go for dinner, try to be there for sunset and get a table by a window. I’ve never stayed at the resort but apparently it’s one of the finest in Phoenix. The grounds are gorgeous, with buildings tucked into the landscape. It makes you forget you’re in the middle of one of the largest cities in the U.S.

Since I was with my team, we were able to share a couple of appetizers that I believe were vegan. They have a daily chef’s hummus, and for our visit it was garlic hummus.

I’ll admit I was a touch nervous because I don’t like my hummus to be overwhelmed with garlic, but this was scrap-the plate-clean perfect. We liked it so much that we used the amazing bread they served to scoop it up when we ran out of pita.

We also ordered the tempura vegetables.

Two of the dipping sauces were not vegan, but the soy ginger sauce in the middle was, and it was great. The breading on the veggies was fairly thick – a bit more than I’m used to – but not overly greasy. I did not ask specifically if it was vegan though.

For my entrée, I ordered a barbeque tofu bento box, which included miso soup as well. Of course by this point in time I was already stuffed, so I appreciated that it was fairly light.

The soup was basic, but rich in flavor, without being too mushroomy.

I did confirm that the soup was vegan — no random fish stock or shrimp flakes in it.

The bento box came with a big chuck of grilled tofu with a light barbeque sauce, plus brown rice, steamed vegetables & a pickled cucumber salad.

I understand the aesthetic value of serving a big block of tofu, but I’d prefer smaller pieces that are cooked through a bit more, and covered in more sauce to give the dish greater flavor. The veggies and rice were fine, but they really needed to be dipped in the sauce served with the box to bring them to life.

Despite feeling like an over-stuffed Christmas stocking, I ordered a “light” desert of one scoop of sorbet. But, the waiter decided I should have a chance to try all three of their flavors. I could only handle a bite or two of each.

They were lemon, raspberry and mango. The mango sorbet got most votes from around the table. It was heavenly.

While we really enjoyed the location, plus the quality and presentation of the food, the service was a bit lacking given the foo-foo-ness (and expense) of the restaurant. It wasn’t very crowded, but the service was pretty slow, and just not quite “on it” with requests. Overall, if you’re looking for a high-end place to go to in Phoenix that speaks “vegan,” Elements is a good choice, but it’s not a place I’ll put in my regular eating-out rotation. It’s also worth going to just to enjoy the scenery from the bar if you’re not up for a full meal.

The Gift of the Magi: Vegan Urban Cookies

This year I decided to “go local” for client gifts. I ordered 11 dozen cookies from Phoenix-based Urban Cookies because I heard they were good, and kept my fingers crossed that they would be well-received by my clients.

While I was on the phone ordering from co-owner Shaun, I said something about having not tried them since I was vegan. She told me they actually do make vegan cookies, but you have to order them in advance.

I have a few family events coming up and debated ordering some to bring to them, but Shaun said you had to order them in batches of two dozen, which is more than I’d need. And, since I didn’t know if they knew how to “do” a vegan cookie (or if they were an after-thought, since they aren’t on the online menu) I decided to not take the risk.

I picked up the dozens of non-vegan cookies on Thursday and handed them out to my clients, who seemed very happy with the choice after they tried them. I even commented to one of my clients that, “They make vegan ones, but I don’t really need two dozen cookies.”

Low and behold, today I received a box of two dozen vegan Urban Cookies from the same client I talked to about them on Thursday! Apparently she had already ordered them before I gave them to her (but to be fair, she’s the one who told me they were good initially). I sent a note to Shaun at Urban Cookies about the coincidence and she responded, “Funny thing – we were actually afraid you were going to ask for the vegans when you picked up your gifts – we were trying to come up with a creative way to politely tell you ‘no.’”

And now I can confirm – they are AWESOME! Even the omnivores in my office are oohing and ahhing over them. They are perfectly soft, chewy and delicious. Not very many made it home!

Here are the ingredients (click to enlarge):

And: note to Urban Cookies – please put “vegan options available” on your website!

To top it off, another client sent a box of vegan Sun Flour Baking cookies that were fabulous, my father-in-law made us vegan brownies for a family gathering last Saturday, and we made our own batch of vegan press cookies on Sunday.  I think I’m going to explode!

Normally I’m not given many holiday treats that are vegan, but this year is over the top with sweetness! I hope you have as equally wonderful of a holiday season, full of vegan goodness!

You can find Urban Cookies on 7th St just north of Highland/South of Camelback Rd., on Twitter and on Facebook.

Where Can Vegans Eat in Downtown Mesa?

There’s one area of greater Phoenix that I still haven’t cracked in terms of finding a decent vegan meal: downtown Mesa. We visit the Mesa Arts Center frequently, in particular for the National Geographic Live! series. The Nat Geo events are on Wednesdays, so we’re always rushing from work to Mesa through traffic, and want to eat close to the venue. But there just aren’t that many places to eat at, especially for vegans!

We’ve tried George’s Gyros (generic falafels and hummus, but not horrible), Inside The Bungalow (has some vegan food, but when we’ve tried going there for dinner they haven’t been serving food – that may have changed though?), Mangos Mexican Café (okay in a pinch, but kind of iffy), and El Charro (classic Mexican food and such a cute place, but no doubt full of lard). There’s also a Subway and a Taco Bell, but that doesn’t count as vegan dining – that’s just emergency food.

During our last trip, we finally made it to a Thai restaurant we’ve had our eye on that looked promising – Nunthaporn’s Thai Cuisine. We arrived about an hour before our event, and every table was full. That was both a good and bad sign – good because a lot of people liked the restaurant. Bad because it seemed like a lot of people were waiting on service. The menu offered tofu as an option for almost every dish, so that also gave us hope.

We started with an order of Crispy Spring Rolls.

We would normally get the Fresh Rolls, but they had shrimp in them. That should have been a warning to us. The crispy rolls were fine and perfectly vegan, and ultimately the highlight of the meal.

Our next dish was a Papaya salad (Som Tom).

The menu described it as “Shredded green papaya and carrots, tomatoes, string beans and roasted peanuts tossed in spicy lime juice with chopped garlic and chili.” What the menu neglected to mention was that the dish also included fish sauce. I took one bite and wanted to wretch. I’ve never had a papaya salad with fish sauce in it before, so it was a total shock.

For our main entree, we ordered the Evil Jungle Princess (Pad Ka) with tofu.

The dish was tofu sautéed in coconut milk with galangal root, lemon grass, lime leaves, mushrooms (which we had them leave out), onions and spicy lime sauce. Despite being named “evil” it was actually quite bland. I had specifically ordered it with no fish sauce, knowing that most Thai restaurants use it by default in entrees (but not salads!). However, it still tasted slightly fishy to me. It could have been the lingering effects of the salad though. The tofu was either too soft or under-cooked, and there were hardly any veggies at all. I ate enough to quell the hunger, but was really bummed as I said “never again” to my husband.

So, scratch that one from the list of options in downtown Mesa as well. Please, someone, tell me where we can eat down there! We still have two National Geographic shows to go to in the next few months! The other place I’ve had my eye on is the Blue Adobe Grille, but the menu online doesn’t give me much hope for vegan options. Has anyone tried it?

Sens: Sensational Spice in Downtown Phoenix

Update: Unfortunately Sens is now closed, but you can get many of the same menu items just a few miles away at SoChu House!

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Sens Asian Tapas and Sake Bar is one of our favorite vegan-friendly restaurants in downtown Phoenix. It’s also one of the hardest to describe. When I say “Asian tapas,” most people think “dim sum” – which it definitely isn’t.

Sens is the culinary masterpiece of Chef Johnny Chu, and is essentially the 2.0 version of one of our other past favorites, Fate. Chu is a master at spicy Asian sauces. At Sens, the small portion sizes allow you to try a wider variety of flavors and sauces in one meal than you could at Fate. My husband and I usually get three or four items for the two of us, which leaves us so full we can barely roll out the door. They bring the dishes out essentially one at a time, so it’s a slow-moving meal where you get to savor each item and share with your table-mates.

The menu at Sens offers a good variety of vegetarian entrees, which are also vegan, but we’ve heard they may fry the tofu in the same oil as meats. However, the fried tofu items with dipping sauces really can’t be skipped. Two of our favorites are the Wasabi Tofu and the Sesame Tofu.

The Wasabi Tofu sauce is exactly what you’d expect – if you put too much of it on your tofu it’s a direct and painful hit to the nose. But it’s the kind of pleasure and pain combo that makes you keep going back for more. The Sesame Tofu is a little less intense, with more of a soy and chili flavor to it.

Sens often offers a vegetarian special – usually some kind of spring roll or sometimes an entrée. On our last trip we had a spring roll special that was better than their usual spring rolls.

I think the wraps were wheat instead of rice, and crisped up better. They were also served with an outstanding soy and peanut dipping sauce and a small papaya mango salad, which was excellent.

One of the newer items on the Sens menu, but a throw-back to the days of Fate, is the Spicy Saigon.

Spicy Saigon was one of my favorites at Fate so I was thrilled to see it come back in a slightly different version at Sens (but hope they someday bring back the Spicy Sesame too). Spicy Saigon is a stir-fry of veggies and fried tofu in a sweet yet flavorful basil sauce.

The other item that’s a must-have for me is the Red Curry Tofu, which is served simmering in a clay pot.

It’s extremely rich and can sometimes be very spicy, but I end up licking the bowl every time. It’s served with the same fried tofu as the other dishes, plus veggies like okra, baby corn, carrots and snow peas. The best part is the hunks of pineapple. I usually leave them til the end when they’ve absorbed tons of the curry.

We usually get two bowls of rice and a plate of udon noodles to use as the base for the curry and Spicy Saigon, plus it comes in handy if you have any extra dipping sauces to sop up at the end. Woe to the waiter that tries to take the sauces away before we’re done!

Over the past two years since Sens has been open, we’ve tried pretty much every vegetarian item on the menu. Other highlights include the Papaya Mango Salad with Tofu, which is quite good and very spicy, and the Pineapple Ginger Tofu, which is tasty, but just not as great as the other two tofu dipping sauce items. We weren’t overwhelmed with the Hong Kong Flat Rice – the noodles were just too thick and flavorless, and the standard Papaya Mango Spring Rolls don’t do too much for me.

One warning: as much as we love Sens, 8 out of 10 times that we eat dinner there one or both of us ends up in fairly extreme digestive pain throughout the night. It’s just that spicy. I’ve tried to determine if it’s one particular dish, but I think it’s just spice overload in general. If you’re sensitive to spicy food, I’d recommend taking an antacid before eating there!

Sens is located south of Roosevelt in downtown Phoenix at 705 N. 1st Street #120. It’s open for lunch Monday – Friday, and dinner 7 days a week. It’s also open late (til 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday) and I think it turns into a hip bar based on the DJ that usually shows up around 6 p.m., but I don’t think I’d want to eat their spicy food at midnight!