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| - If you've been to (or heard of) Chino Bandido in north Phoenix, you know it's essentially a valley institution. Whether you come to their 19th Ave and Greenway location for lunch or dinner, you can expect a parking lot packed with Chino patrons and a long line of customers in their restaurant to match. And yet literally right next door to Chino is a restaurant that might be even more praiseworthy even though word is only starting to get around about it. As I write this, Good Fellas Grill is currently ranked as the 9th highest rated restaurant in the entire Phoenix metropolitan area. Higher than Chino Bandido, higher than Postino, higher than all but 8 restaurants. 96% of reviewers to this point have given this place 4 star ratings or better (72% of which have given them 5 stars). That's my cue to come here during lunch on a Friday.
As expected, the parking lot was packed when I arrived. I expected at least some of the traffic to be flowing into this place instead of Chino, but nope. Almost completely dead with just four other customers there. It's a pretty simple setup with seating for probably 40-50, some TVs showing sports channels and some Mediterranean artwork on the wall. Here you just walk up to the counter, order, and seat yourself. Always the one to go full throttle at a new restaurant, I ordered their biggest dish: The 3 meat combo. A huge plate of rice with skewers of chicken, ribeye, and rolled ground beef. Comes with tomatoes and onions on the side and you get pita bread and tzatziki sauce to boot. To my pleasant surprise, they offered me a free bowl of chicken potato soup with my order (you can also choose lentil). Total cost for the food and a fountain drink came out to $17. Most of their menu items here are $10 or less and they have lunch specials on sandwiches and salads for about $5.
Food came out to me in less than 10 minutes. First off, the soup. Came out hot, but not spicy. It had some decent chunks of chicken and potato and some various seasonings that I could pick up on. Very refreshing soup. Not a thick soup like chicken and dumplings, but hearty with a tasty broth. Next, the main event. A plate full of meat. Like the soup, the meats weren't really spicy, but had some great seasonings and I'm pretty sure all the meats (as well as the rice) had a nice dousing of olive oil. The pita bread was very fresh and the tzatziki was a cool, clean, refreshing compliment to the meats. I actually wish they had given me more of that sauce. My favorite meat in the bunch was unquestionably the chicken. Nicely cooked with just a light char and great seasonings. The ground beef log was a little odd looking as it wasn't quite a sausage but not quite a burger. Still a very tasty dish and both it and ribeye went great with the tzatziki.
When all was said and done I was in and out in 30 minutes and left stuffed and happy. One tip for Yelpers is that they actually have a pretty expansive vegetarian menu (far moreso than their website advertises). When you walk up to the counter look up and to your right and you'll see the long list of vegetarian menu items they have near the ceiling. The guy who took my order spoke just enough English to take my order, but just bear in mind that there might be a little bit of a language barrier. The staff there was very friendly and professional so it didn't hinder the experience at all. And trust me when I say this place is nothing like Pita Jungle. Some of the same foods are served here, but from my experience the quality (and the price) is even better at Good Fellas.
So bravo Yelpers, you win again. I have yet another lunch spot near work I can call my own. Next time you're there, just be sure and get a double order of that tasty tzatziki.
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