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| - The first thing I noticed when walking into Mike's was an easle with two documents posted to a bulletin board. The first says in big bold letters, that the AZ Republic mistakenly wrote that they had 5 critical health code violations, but if you look at the report you will see that there are none. The other document is the actual health board report. My wife and I arrived before the rest of our party and we're seated promptly. The decor is kind of mixed, some tuscan style murals on the wall, with a fake rooftop/awning that surrounds the restaurant I suppose to create the feeling of being in some kind of tuscan courtyard, lots of track lighting dimmed to create an ambience to mask the fact that the building was designed to be a warehouse. Overall they actually do a pretty good job of creating an atmosphere. The service was a bit slow, but my beverage service never seemed to suffer, which makes me suspect the issues were more in the kitchen than the wait staff. I ordered a double-thick stuffed pork loin chop from their specials menu which was described as a thick tender pork loin stuff with fontina cheese served with a mushroom, proscuttio and sausage demi-glace. It seemed like we waited a long time for our order however it included soup which was nice, I had a cup of clam chowder, nothing special but not bad. They also kept bring us more bread which I find a lot of restaurants are almost hesitant to give more than 1 or 2 bread services, the bread was served with a cup of hummus which wasn't terrible, but kind of watery and at this point sorry but FEZ has ruined me for all other hummus's. The food finally came and this is where they made up their fourth star, the pork loin was very good and perfectly cooked I really enjoyed the demi-glace and it was served with I believe a squash and some kind of potato side which was very good. for dessert I ended up ordering a slice of cheesecake hopefully to share, none of the adults at the table wanted to share with me and I was feeling very full, luckily my year and a half old niece was with us and although her vocal skills are limited she displayed her approval by thrusting the spoon in my general direction each time I gave her a bite.
Overall a good dining experience, Did I mention that Mike greeted us and checked on our table twice through our meal. I always like restaurants where ownerscirculate to make themselves known but don't lurk. The food was a bit slow coming, however I failed to mention my Father-in-Law ordered a braised osso bucco lamb shank which may have increased preperation time. I would definitely go back to Mike's but would like my meal to take less than 2 hours.
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