schussat "Can't talk. Eating."

I have raved in the past about Hiro’s, another very good sushi restaurant in Flagstaff, but Fuji, after a somewhat rough opening few months, has become my sushi standby. The only reason I haven’t given them five stars is that their cooked food — reasonably tasty lunchtime bento boxes and noodle dishes — just isn’t as flavorful or as varied as Hiro’s.

But on the sushi front? Mmmmm, it’s every bit as good! Well-crafted, fresh, and with some nice inventive specials. Fuji is my impulse lunch out, and one of the spots that I really look forward to going for a dinner.

Dara is my favorite of the several Thai joints in town. There’s great variety on the menu and everything is tasty.

Victor’s has all the right atmosphere for a coffee shop: Lots of wood and light make it comfortable, if you can get a seat; it was crowded when I got there at 10-ish on a Saturday. The place also has a nice patio, which looks like it would be a great place to sit in better weather.

There’s a huge bread/pastry case, filled with bagels, cookies, and cakes, and the baristas behind the counter seem take their coffee very seriously. (And Victor’s has a pretty good-looking menu of fancy coffee drinks, too, if you’re into that sort of thing.) Victor’s also makes sandwiches (you can’t throw an Illy cup in a coffee shop without hitting a panini press anymore, apparently), and I think I saw a couple of plates of waffles piled high with whipped cream and fruit.

Victor’s seems like it’s definitely the place to be for good coffee and atmosphere in this part of town.

I wandered in here on a busy Friday night, but received a friendly welcome when I said I needed a menu to make a take-out order. After I ordered, the hostess offered me tea while I waited — nice.

It’s cozy inside, if a bit too snug-feeling. (It feels just a bit dim, which may contribute; I suppose if I were there on a date it would feel romantic instead of close.)

I didn’t dislike either of the sushi rolls I had here. Perhaps they’re simply prepared in a different style than I’m used to?

Ooba’s is tucked into a pretty nice location at the corner of a block of condos. It’s nice and colorful inside, if perhaps a bit spare. The menu is pretty diverse (I’ll try the fish tacos next time) and everything seems nice and fresh. The salsa bar is stocked with good stuff like jicama relish. There’s a fairly good selection of beers. The guy behind the counter was friendly, and they got our orders out surprisingly quickly. I’ll go back.

My follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here

I really enjoyed my first visit here. It was friendly, and the bagel and coffee were good (though the latter came in a rather silly glass). My second visit was too brief: They were still closed, half an hour after the posted opening time on the door. A pile of bagged bread and a a newspaper were on the porch. I went to Tully’s.

On the third visit, well, they were open, and the cappuccino was good (in a nice mug this time). But they forgot to make my coffee the first time I ordered it. So I had to ask again. I admit that I felt sort of bad interrupting the conversation behind the bar; I fear that I now know far, far too much about the personal lives of the staff.

The chatty baristas have a habit of shouting that your order is ready, even when there’s nobody else here. It rather startled the guy who came in for a latte.

This isn’t exactly an indie town, but the Redmond/Bellevue area has a few options for non-corporate coffee. I came in the morning of my first Saturday in town, and was happy to be greeted by a chipper barista and cheery surroundings.

Yoshimatsu is without a doubt one of the most interesting places to eat in Tucson, and one of my favorites. The interior of the restaurant is positively covered in manga: Action figures in lucite boxes adorn each table, giant toys hang from the walls, and TVs play anime on a loop (fortunately, with the volume down).

And the food: Yoshimatsu has a huge menu, ranging from sushi (primarily available in the adjoining and more fancy/formal "bistro") to bento boxes to (intriguing and flavorful) Japanese-style pizzas. And more: rich dark curries, smokey noodle dishes, rice, piles of vegetables. Most dishes are also available as vegan or vegetarian varieties. They also have a selection of sakes, wines, and beers.

I haven’t had a bad meal here, though I do have my favorites. Try everything.

My follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here

Okay, Biff’s, we had a good run. Subsequent to my last review, I had quite a few good weekends with you: Good bagels, as always, well-cooked cinnamon rolls, and some really pleasant encounters at the register.

But I’m going to back off for a while after today. Sorry. When I informed you of the inch-long exposed nail carelessly pounded into a tabletop to hold a piece of peeling laminate and which had torn a long ragged hold in my favorite pair of shorts, I was, actually, hoping you might offer me something in compensation. Now, I know that those Patagonia pants are kind of pricey, and maybe it would be unrealistic to hope for someone to take my name, contact the manager, and offer to buy me another pair. But, really, I might have been pretty happy with a couple more bagels. It was nice that the person behind the register really did seem awfully sorry about what happened, and I suppose taping a piece of notebook paper over the match might deter further damages, but …

Who am I kidding? I have a gaping hole in my shorts, there is an exposed nail in the side of a tabletop that could have ripped my leg open, and you say you’re sorry and go back to work? You make the best bagels in town, but this is a hurtful relationship. Bye, Biffs.

Oh, Biff’s you torment me. First, there are your bagels: Delicious, varied, and consistently well-crafted. (I’m especially fond of the asiago breakfast bagel). Second, there are the dozens and dozens of photos of departed dog-friends on the wall — how can anyone not be touched by that? (Honor your own absent dog by bringing in a framed photo; they’ll put it on the wall and give you a free bagel.)

But, third, you have some surly people working behind the counter. Most of the time, the folks who actually take the orders are cheerful enough, even when the place is busy, as happens on those crazy weekend mornings. But there’s some kind of cosmic magic that keeps the hospitality scales balanced, because no matter how much I smile, tip, and say ‘thank you’, the person running the register treats me like I’ve run over his/her grandma with a golf cart. When I remind you politely that you forgot to give me a coffee cup, you don’t need to throw the thing at me. And when I ask for a bag of day-old bagels to go with my order, there’s no need to sigh long-sufferingly. And when the cinnamon roll was raw in the middle, you did promptly refund my money, but turning and walking away immediately after, without uttering a word, was, frankly, bizarre. I had to get back in the long line, order something else (I wanted breakfast, you see, not my two dollars) and conduct another needlessly gruff transaction with you. “You’re back?” you snapped at me. Well, yeah, that’s how it worked out.

You’re making food that people love. Can’t you enjoy selling it to them a little bit more?

Macy’s specializes in coffee roasting and vegetarian/vegan food. Their coffee is good, but not as good as other places in town. However, if you’re looking for a faux-meat BLT, give Macy’s a try; they make lots of good, earthy-feeling vegan sandwiches and other dishes, and they usually have a pretty good selection of bagels and pastries. I’d give them another star on food, because they do the vegan lunch thing very well.

Like La Bellavia next door, Macy’s gets crowded, but they also have good patio seating both right outside and across the street. Free wifi is another big plus.

Hiro’s is the best sushi and Japanese in town, affirmed by numerous local reader polls over the years. Service is good (they tend to get slightly alt-rock-looking guys in black t-shirts), and both the sushi and cooked food are great. The sushi is consistently fresh, generous, and varied, and their curry and noodle dishes have a ton of flavor (and are also very large).

Hiro’s recently completed a renovation that included adding on the neighboring space — they now have an even bigger dining room to pack in for the busy weekend nights, which means less waiting on those spontaneous sushi runs.