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| - Food like this exists?! In Scottsdale?! I think Scottsdale has better tasting food than San Diego! I saw Citizen on yelp and had my eye on it but was a bit tainted because my friend and I have bad experiences with "gastropubs" or at least the ones in Cali. It always turned out to be horrible tasting food that tries tooooo cool and overpriced... we took the leap of faith and said fck it lets do it, maybe Scottsdale gastropubs will be different, and indeed it was!
We couldn't get reservations (place is packed for a good reason) but the hostess said there were bar seats available, and we were cool with that. We just wanted food in and out. Also it was fight night, all the other bars were charging $20 each, why not spend that money on good food instead?
I couldn't believe how good the food tasted here. I was in shocked because... well it's Scottsdale, wasn't sure if this was a foodie mecca. Citizen (and amongst other places) proved me wrong. We decided not to stuff our faces and instead get 2 apps and 1 entrees.
-Chia Seared Tuna: the best seared tuna and most creative seared tuna I've tried thus far...and I eat out a lot (1130+ reviews). The chia seeds were unique and gave it an amazing crunch! Put that with the asparagus puree, black-like rice and a spicy puree...it was a burst of flavors in your mouth. We licked the plate clean.
-Crabcakes: For a landlock town, they sure weren't stingy on the crab meat! Every bit had crab and the breading was at a minimal so you actually tasted the crab!The aioli was also good on it but it was flavorful itself you probably didn't need it!
-Pork Osso Buco: We usually have lamb, but pork is also a good alternative. The pork by itself is dry, but if you actually mix all the flavors it was not at all dry and had sooo many flavors. The polenta that tasted like butter and cheese with the roasted tomatoes and kale... it literally made my mouth melt and fall in love with this dish. The kale was cooked perfect! I can eat this everyday.
Everything we had that night was excellent. This place sure was not the hype. Service was great, good was great, company was great... I think this is as good as it gets in Scottsdale for dinner... put this in SD and it'll be the new "it" restaurant. *Hint Hint* Come on over
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