Dara Thai Flagstaff, Arizona (includes menu)

Dara Thai
14 South San Francisco Street
(928) 774-0047
check out the lunch menu (as of February 5, 2010) at the bottom of this story

Dara Thai is a popular Flagstaff Asian eatery. It has a pleasant atmosphere with colorfully painted walls, some adorned with murals and old photos.
On street parking can be difficult to find in front of the building on busy San Francisco but you can park around the corner. Though walking on the snow and ice covered sidewalks on the side streets can be a challenge.
While many people have recommended trying Dara I only recently went their for lunch, where you seat yourself and wait for service. We waited at least five minutes for our waitress to come bring us menus and it wasn't busy at all.
Their lunch specials are fairly priced and in line with other Thai food in town and come with soup or salad.
The cucumber chicken soup is quite different. It's chicken broth infused with cucumber plus big chunks of chicken and cucumbers. It's a little salty but pretty good tasting. I'd opt for it over the salad, which is a nice size but the dressing is really peanuty.
I came to Dara with a Thai food virgin. He's been hesitant to try Thai food as he only recently began to enjoy Chinese food. (What can I say he's from the Midwest.) He went with simple on this visit - sweet and sour pork. He compared his experience with the Chinese food cousin of sweet and sour - they practically tasted the same he said only this was a touch more rich in flavor and the breading was light and crispy. I found the sauce very sweet with an exotic touch compared to Chinese sweet and sour pork. Though I am not a big fan of sweet and sour, Chinese or Thai. There's many other better things to be found in both food varieties.
I ordered my standard for trying a new Thai restaurant: Chicken Pad Thai. It was full of rich flavors. The chicken moist, tender and was imbued with the spices not just tossed in with the noodles. I got the medium spiciness and my lips felt warm for quite a bit afterward. But there wasn't any burn while eating it. Just a nice amount of flavor. It was quite tasty and I was full and satisfied until dinner time.
All in all, I found Dara Thai much better than Pato Thai, which is just down the street. But I still think Swaddee Thai is the best Thai in town.

Poll: What is the best Asian restaurant in Flagstaff, AZ?

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Pato Thai in Flagstaff (includes menu)

Pato Thai
104 North San Francisco Street
Flagstaff, AZ
menu at: patothai.com

Located adjacent to Hotel Monte Vista, Pato Thai is a simple restaurant with a pleasant enough atmosphere in a good location for downtown wandering. I stopped in with my children while enjoying a walk around downtown this week.
The menu is pretty traditional with specials at lunch starting at $6.95. The lunch specials include an appetizer (2 fried wontons) and very small not too exciting salad. You can check out the full menu for lunch and dinner HERE.
I ordered the Pad Thai with chicken - a classic by which I like to compare all Thai food. The chicken was dry and bland but the flavor of noodles and sauce was sweet and quite good. There was lots of chicken in the dish which was nice to see. The dish was plentiful overall, enough to take home for a snack later.
The service was alright, like the food, but nothing to write home about.
Parents and folks who use a wheelchair (or have trouble with stairs) take note - there are no bathrooms in the restaurant. You must go through a door into the hotel, up stairs into a very narrow women's restrooms. Where, by the way, there's no baby changer. Pato is not too kid friendly overall but they do have high chairs.
All in all, Pato is a decent place but you'll be much happier walking literally around the corner to Swaddee Thai instead.
Here's a look at their menu as of July 2010:

Monsoon on the Rim

By Angele Sionna

6 East Aspen Ave, Flagstaff, AZ (downtown)
(no menu online)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Monsoon's Mandarin Orange Chicken"][/caption]

The Food (taste/flavor/quality of food & drinks)
>>= mixed bag, can be good but can be bad, can’t count on it

The Atmosphere (environment, wait staff, comfortableness)
xxxx= comfortable

Price (what to generally expect to pay per person per entree)
$$ = $10

Value (what you get for your money)
** = okay - overpriced for quality/taste

Asian fusion is how Monsoon on the Rim downtown Flagstaff describes itself. Japanese, Thai, and Chinese are all represented on the menu. It had been a while since I’d been to Monsoon, but I decided to go there earlier this week because I got a great coupon in the mail for a free dinner with purchase of another dinner and two beverages. That’s like a personal invitation to me. Plus, the coupon stated across the top: “Under new ownership! Completely Redecorated!” So we went. I couldn’t really remember why we stopped going there. We used to go weekly when we first moved to town.

When we walked in the door, I didn’t notice any of the “completely redecorated” portions of the restaurant. It looked pretty much the same, minus a new paint job and some light fixtures. Monsoon always had a nice feel to it with large windows around two sides of the restaurant looking out onto one of downtown’s busiest streets.

We opted to sit out on the patio because it was a nice night. The patio is very casual. People seem to linger here longer than inside the restaurant, busy people watching as they eat their meals.

When the waitress brought the menu, it looked pretty much as I remembered it, except for one little detail I’m sure the owners were hoping customers would forget – the prices. There are two menus now with different prices. The dinner menu tacks an extra $2 to each entrée. But you don’t get any extra food or better service or even different plates. It’s all the same, it just costs more – maybe to pay for the new paint job inside? I would have preferred the old look with the cheaper prices.

When I took the first bite into my dinner, I remembered why we used to come here. The Mandarin Chicken ($9.99) is great. It’s breaded and fried into crispy strips and coated with a sweet orange sauce with water chestnuts, carrots and celery mixed in and is served with white rice.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="Monsoon's Chow Mein"][/caption]

A few minutes later when it was all gone, I remembered why we stopped going to Monsoon: the portions are small (though cleverly and deceptively spread out thinly across oval plates) and the prices are high for what you’re getting. (That, and our favorite waitress Marla stopped working here and relocated over to Beaver Street Brewery, where we see her often.)
They even cut back on the amount of white rice that is served with the meal. You used to get a big bowl of white rice for the table to share, but this time we got a tiny bowl. Not really enough to compliment the dish, even though it is on the skimpy serving side as well.
We also ordered the Chicken Chow Mein ($9.99). It has a gingery kick, but is short on vegetables. I’m not sure why it’s called chow mein when it is served with lo mein noodles, but they taste good. (Read the difference between lo mein & chow mein HERE) Though again, a small portion is served and no rice comes with it.
If you want friend rice, that’ll be an extra $9.99, as it is served as an entrée. The old menu, which I happen to have a copy of and am looking at as I type this, had fried rice for just $5. You can order any entrée for the price listed on the menu with beef, chicken or tofu. If you want to upgrade that to shrimp, calamari, or scallops, Monsoon adds on an extra $3.
The food tasted exactly as I remembered it, which is a good thing, as flavor is not something lacking at Monsoon. Other items we’ve ordered and enjoyed in the past include the Spicy Calamari ($9.99) (which used to be on the appetizer menu for $6), Mongolian Beef ($9.99), and the Szechuan Broccoli Beef ($9.99). There are also vegetarian options, which I’ve tried in the past, including Steamed Broccoli ($7.99) which is stir-fried with water chestnuts and carrots and Szechuan Green Beans ($7.99), stir fried with onions and peppers for a little spiciness.

The appetizer menu includes: Edamame ($4), Spring Rolls (2/$4), Chicken Lettuce Wraps ($8) (again, these used to be much cheaper at $4.50), and more. Deserts look interesting, though I’ve never tried them, with such choices as Chocolate Seduction with raspberry sauce ($4), Banana Spring Rolls ($7) and Plum Ice Cream ($4).

Despite good tasting food, when you consider the jacked up prices for food, sodas that cost $2 (and we had to ask every time for a refill), and service that was lacking (our waitress did not seem like she wanted to be there), Monsoon isn’t the kind of spot I’m going to be heading back to any time soon. If I’m going to over pay for food, I at least expect good service. *TIP: If you go, look for the “Money in the Mail” coupons beforehand. You can save quite a bit. I wouldn’t recommend going for dinner with out one.

For more photos of Monsoon on the Rim, click HERE.

Sakura

By Angele Sionna

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="250" caption="Sakura's known for their fire-side atmosphere"][/caption]

1175 West Route 66, Flagstaff, AZ
Inside the Radisson Woodlands Hotel
Menu at: sakuraflagstaffsushi.com

The Food (taste/flavor/quality of food & drinks)
>>>>= a favorite, can count on it being good every time

The Atmosphere (environment, wait staff, comfortableness)
xxxxx= you’ll love it

Price (what to generally expect to pay per person per entree)
lunch: $$$ = $15
dinner: $$$$=$20

Value (what you get for your money)
lunch: ***** = superb -lots of quality/taste for what you pay
dinner: ** = okay - overpriced (compared to lunch)

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Plates are set on fire as part of the "Ring of Fire""][/caption]

Pyro-chefs that set the tables on fire daily. These “rings of fire,” as Sakura calls them, are the first thing you’ll notice that sets this Japanese restaurant apart from any other restaurant in Flagstaff, or anyone I’ve ever eaten at, actually, anywhere in the world. Once you get over the serious heat in your face (that my oldest daughter loves to watch, by the way), and the food is served up, you’ll know why Sakura has been recognized by Food & Wine magazine as one of the “Best Restaurants of the Southwest” and has been voted Best Japanese restaurant for ten years by readers of the Arizona Daily Sun. There have been weeks that I’ve eaten at Sakura twice because I just couldn’t help myself. I love their Ginger sauce, and at lunch you just can’t beat their prices for what you get. It could be the best overall value for lunch in town. Dinner is a different story, though. You basically get the same size meal but with a salad for about $6 to $10 more. Not a bargain.

Now before I go any further, I should say that I am only talking about Sakura’s teppanyaki food cooked and served at the big tables in this review. I’ve never eaten at the sushi bar, so I can’t speak to it. I brought a friend to eat here from out of town and she ordered sushi and gave it two thumbs up, but that’s the extent of my sushi knowledge at Sakura.

Sakura is a place where I tend to bring guests (along with Beaver Street for another meal on their visit). My mom, who used to live in Japan, always asks to go here when she comes to town. Sakura is basically like the famous chain restaurant Benihana (which you can find in Phoenix, Salt Lake City, Denver and other cities across the U.S.). A trained chef cooks everything in front of you. My favorite day to go to Sakura is when the head chef is on duty (generally, I can find him there on Wednesdays). He has extra special skills and my husband and I always give each other “the nod of inner excitement” when we see him pushing the food cart over to our table. It shows in the delicious way he seasons the food that he is in charge here for a reason. (Plus, he's really nice.)

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Food is served hot & fresh, grilled right in front of you"][/caption]

When you get to Sakura, you’re seated around a long rectangular table with everyone facing the grill. After the waiter takes your order, you wait for soup that comes with every entree (and other appetizers) to be brought out. Then your chef arrives at your table pushing the food cart with all of the ingredients that will become your lunch or dinner. Depending on the chef, the show changes. Some go all out with theatrics, some really get into making the “ring of fire,” others are serious business about making the food. But that’s one of the things I like about Sakura. No matter which chef you get, you’re going to have a unique experience and you’re going to have a good meal.

There is one downside to the Sakura experience, it can take forever from the time you arrive to the time you leave. We've spent three hours here at lunch before when we sat at a crowded table where everyone ordered appetizers. Normally, it takes closer to one hour and some change. Faster, if there's more than two chefs on duty, but that seems rare at lunchtime.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="200" caption="Chicken & Shrimp entree with double ginger sauce"][/caption]

As far as the food goes, your best bet is to go hungry... then order the Sakura Grill ($13.95, lunch; $23.95, dinner), which is kind of a big sampler plate with grilled shrimp, chicken and steak. All the teppanyaki meals come with steamed rice and hibachi vegetables. A lot of food, but oh so good. It is all cooked to your specifications, seasoned with soy sauce, butter, salt, wine, vodka, and/or teriyaki sauce (depending on what you order, of course) and flamed grilled to release all of the scrumptious flavors waiting inside. I’ve never had anything here that was too dry. It’s always juicy. My personal favorite is the “Chicken & Shrimp” ($11.95, lunch; $20.95, dinner). Other entrees include: Salmon ($11.95, lunch; $18.95, dinner), Mahi Mahi ($11.95, lunch; $23.95, dinner), Calamari ($10.95, lunch; $17.95, dinner), Hibachi Chicken ($9.95, $16.95), Spicy Steak ($10.95, lunch), Vegetable Yakisoba ($8.95, lunch; $14.95, dinner), and more.
I have to recommend skipping the teriyaki sauce, something folks new to Japanese tend to order. I make this suggestion only so you can enjoy and savor the flavors of the food. It is so good you don’t need a heavy sauce like that. Though if you do opt for it, Sakura does have a good teriyaki sauce.

The side of ginger sauce that the chef serves up when he finishes cooking your meal is my favorite. It adds just the right zing to your meats. It is a touch sweet, a little zesty, and a whole lotta tangy. I like it so much I order two ginger sauces instead of the spicy mustard sauce. I use it on everything. If it’s your first visit, try both to see what you like.

[caption id="" align="alignright" width="200" caption="The head chef cooking up fried rice"][/caption]

I like to order a side of fried rice ($2.50) as the main course for my two year old, then “help” her eat it and share some of my plate with her. It is cooked with eggs, green onions and spices. Sakura does have kids versions of the meals for $7.95-$9.95 for older kids. The portions are always generous, so no one goes home hungry after eating here, even if you share with your tots. We’re usually so full from eating lunch at Sakura that we skip dinner or just have a small salad.
If you can make it to a desert without exploding, the green tea ice cream is yummy. It has a weird texture for ice cream. It’s not creamy, so much as it is chalky. But I like it and so does my daughter. If it’s your birthday, they serve some to you with a candle and a song.

I suggest skipping the soda and ordering hot green tea. It takes fantastic and it’s free. Nice bonus, though it doesn’t say so on the menu. Sakura also serves a selection of Japanese beer and sake, if you’re so inclined. I like the Kirin Lager ($4).

**TIP: Sakura offers a great discount for NAU employees – 20% off! It just makes the Sakura experience even better. But be sure to ask for the discount and present your card. The waiter won’t offer it. We found out about this about a year into eating there when another group asked for their NAU discount. My husband immediately got out his NAU ID card and asked for the discount too. And we’ve been reaping the benefits ever since!

For more photos of Sakura, click HERE.

Hot Wok Express

By Angele Sionna

1000 N. Humphreys St. #243
Fort Valley Shopping Center, Flagstaff
(no menu online)

The Food (taste/flavor/quality of food & drinks)
>> = mixed bag, can be good but can be bad, can’t count on it

The Atmosphere (environment, wait staff, comfortableness)
x= if the food's good enough, still worth going, otherwise forget it

Price (what to generally expect to pay per person per entree)
$= under $10

Value (what you get for your money)
Lunch *** = fair -you get what you pay for, not in a bad way
Dinner ** = okay - overpriced for quality/taste

Flagstaff is known for its beautiful mountains, gorgeous hikes, and wonderful weather; not it’s Chinese food. There’s a reason for that. Ask any local and they’ll tell you, Flag is not the place to find great, or even consistently good, Chinese. If you surveyed ten Flag residents about where they go for Chinese, their answers would most likely differ. In fact, I’ve had long discussions at dinner parties on this very topic. The one thing we all agreed on, Flagstaff could use a standout Chinese restaurant.

But as things go, sometimes you just want Chinese food. Kung Fu Panda put my family in the mood for it this weekend. Those noodle bowls Poe the panda makes were calling our name. So we headed to Hot Wok Express. This little restaurant is tucked away in the far left corner of the Fort Valley Shopping Center. It’s kind of hard to find if you aren’t looking carefully. Hot Wok is popular with people who work at or visit the hospital, which is right around the corner.

There’s nothing fancy about Hot Wok Express. The tables, chairs, and booths are all made of plastic. The interior looks a lot like most fast food spots, except for the oversized Chinese fans scattered around the walls. The fluorescent lighting doesn’t help the atmosphere either. It feels sterile and generic. This isn’t the type of place you’d go for a romantic or nice dinner. In fact, I would skip the sit down meal here all together. Instead use the drive-thru window. It’s particularly a good idea if you want to grab food on the go with the kids in the car without the hassle of unloading them. Another good option, Hot Wok delivers in a limited area for an extra charge.

We arrived hungry and craving Chinese food at 2:30pm. At most restaurants that would mean we would’ve been out of luck for getting in on lunch specials, but not at Hot Wok. They have lunch specials seven days a week from 11am to 4pm. For about five bucks, the specials are a bargain. In addition to a wide array of entrees, you also get an egg roll, crab puff, cup of soup, and steamed or fried rice. You can sub lo mein for the rice for an extra $1.50. Hot Wok is essentially a fast food joint; except here food is made when you order it and you get more variety.

On this visit we got Chicken Lo Mein with steamed rice, Kung Pao Beef with fried rice, and Orange Chicken with fried rice to split between three adults and one child. Plenty of food to go around. None of us got the soup because we don’t like hot and sour soup or egg drop soup, which were the choices today.

The Chicken Lo Mein has a distinct soy sauce and garlic flavor but is not spicy. The noodles aren’t as plump as I’ve had at other Chinese restaurants. Veggies aren’t plentiful in this dish, neither is the chicken. The Kung Pao Beef has water chestnuts, peanuts, and a sweet and spicy brown sauce. This dish has a ginger bite with lots of beef and water chestnuts. The Orange Chicken is fried with a crispy outside and chewy inside. It is surprisingly spicy. You take a bite and first notice the sweet and by the time you’re done chewing –bam- you’re hit with the spice.

As for the sides, the white rice isn’t moist and sticky like I’ve come to expect at a Chinese restaurant, which is a shame. I really enjoy sticky rice, as does my daughter. The fried rice was also dry and didn’t have much flavor. In fact, it hardly resembles fried rice at all except for the egg bits. But on the upside, their egg rolls are yummy, not too greasy, and filled with cabbage and carrots, no pork.

All in all, the three dishes and sides we had were average. On other visits to Hot Wok I’ve had better. I recommend ordering Moo Goo Gai Pan, Broccoli Chicken, or Cashew Chicken, all I have enjoyed more than today’s choices. While Hot Wok is nowhere near the best Chinese I’ve had, compared to other Chinese in town, Hot Wok gets my vote because it is quick and cheap.