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| - If you judge T. Cook's against restaurants in general, it probably deserves 5 stars, but if you judge it against what it purports to be, 4 is more accurate.
T. Cook's is a resort-style fine dining establishment. The attentive valet parking, impressive entranceway, decor, and certainly the prices prove that. It falls into the class of gourmet fine dining in most respects, but I have long had a problem with the food being unimaginative and the flavor profiles being too simple -- take the arugula salad, for example, which had a strong dried cranberry flavor but nothing else.
That said, T. Cooks has improved over the past few years and certainly has many good points. The food is very well prepared (the John Dory was excellent), the wait staff is certainly knowledgeable, and the restaurant is attractive and not too noisy. You won't have a bad experience here until the check arrives. Of course, you expected the check because you saw their menu (maybe even online before you arrived). But after finishing the meal, the net effect is "this could have been really great if only ..."
Tip: before you go here, you might consider buying the Preferred Restaurants of Phoenix card. Sunday through Thursday (or early on weekends), this gives you two entrees for the price of one, saving you $30-$40, and the card costs less than twice that. Then you have a year to try about 30 other places.
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