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| - This is another hidden gem in the Southwest. Like another of my local favorites, Carlos' Kitchen, Paparazzi Grill is located inside a bar (O'Aces), and unless you happened to stumble in you probably wouldn't even know it was there, since there doesn't seem to be any signage on the outside.
Originally I stopped in to get something from O'Aces with my girlfriend, saw the specials on the board and decided to eat at Paparazzi Grill. The space has clean, modern decor, nothing too fancy, with a few TVs on the walls tuned to sports. The restaurant is separated from bar, so I didn't detect any smoke in the air, which non-smokers should appreciate.
We needed a few minutes to look over the menu, which for lunch/dinner seems about evenly divided between appetizers, sandwiches, burgers, pizza, and entrees/small plates. I'm a fairly picky eater, but just about every menu item looked to be something I wouldn't mind trying. While we were deciding, the chef (chef-owner?) came over and said hello to us and asked us if was our first time. That sort of personal attention to customers is something I really like.
On to the food. I ordered the special that had drawn my attention to the restaurant in the first place - Chicken Pot Pie, which is something I order just about any time I see it on a menu. It's something you can find on the menu a lot of places, but is rarely done very well. It came in a small cast iron skillet, which I had never seen done before, and was very tasty - tasty enough that I ate the carrots which I normally intensely dislike. Probably one of the best chicken pot pies I've every had, and light years beyond what you'll get at a chain restaurant like Marie Callenders (blech.) My only criticism of the dish is that the dough/crust was sort of in the middle of the skillet (I'm assuming it had been filled prior to cooking) surrounded by the filling, which made it a little hard to eat the crust, since there was nothing it was holding on to other than itself. I'm used to having the crust stretched over the bowl/platter where I can just stick my fork in and get pieces of it with the filling.
My girlfriend was interested in the Braised Short Ribs, but it comes with wild mushroom risotto and she doesn't like mushrooms at all, so she asked our server if she could get it without the mushrooms. He said absolutely, and offered her the option of having couscous as well if she preferred. She stuck with the plain risotto, and a few minutes later the chef came out and asked her if she would like to have some roasted tomato in her risotto, to which she happily agreed - another personal touch that makes this place stand out. She loved the dish, and I tried the risotto which was very good.
I went back for dinner a few nights later and had the Roasted Chicken and Mushroom Pasta, which if anything, was even better than the dishes we had before. All the dishes are plated beautifully, but unfortunately my food looked so good on both occasions that I immediately started eating and didn't think about taking a picture until I was almost finished. Darn, I guess I'll have to go back so I can get some more pictures.
This is a really great restaurant, and I hope more people will learn about it and give it a try.
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