Bobby's, A Mancuso Nightmare

Bobby's, A Mancuso Restaurant
7122 E. Greenway Parkway, Kierland Commons
Scottsdale, Arizona
http://www.mancusosrestaurant.com/bobbys/bobbyscontact.htm

First things first, I'm tough but I'm fair. Why debate varying degrees of mediocrity? Why give any restaurant a second chance once they've already shown something less than exquisite is acceptable. Something decent here and there is just not good enough. My goal is to find the ultimate dining EXPERIENCE. A true dining experience not only takes into account all the basic principles creating flavor profiles and texture combinations to create a good meal, but also the subtle caveats that can transform just a good plate of food into a thought provoking and cultural experience. This does not require summer truffle shavings over the perfectly cooked foie gras ravioli.......or gently sauteed morels decorating a course of finely sliced japanese...but that is a damn good start. Your EXPERIENCE starts with the restaurant location, then the ambience once you enter the front door, the hopefully well executed front room host, then finally the meal. Let's just say Bobby and I didn't get past first base.

Ok..ok,..the Kierland Commons area is a young, vibrant sector of town that is very inviting for the food seekers like myself. There seems to be a 'so fresh, so clean' aura to the area and I dig it. But what top flight restaurant can you walk into, slowly wander through the front entrance walkway, past three waiters and hostess, climb the stairs to the upstairs dining area and bar, then wait another five minutes without getting so much as a 'welcome'. I honestly didn't know if this place was open to patrons or not. It turns out this was happy hour! Sure, it was sunday at 5pm, but at least fake it a bit. The bartender who looked like a fresh graduate from ASU finally arrived and I knew it was going to be a financial loss. I just had that dreaded feeling of know I was about to make a bad financial decision and buy something to eat there. Before I could wrap my mind around the menu which was entirely too long (always a bad sign!), the waitress spilled a bucket of bleach in the bar and it quickly became an official chemical spill site that should have resulted in my following the evacuation orders my conscience was screaming in my head. But no...I forged ahead with reckless abandon.

In my opinion, a tasting menu is always the choice if offered. The alternative is to order as many starters as possible and several entrees for the table if you can. No such tasting menu in this place, just several lists of your typical italian fare without any twists at all. The greatest of italian food relies on very few ingredients and perfect execution to harmonize the flavors. I figured a simple butternut squash ravioli and homemade lasagna would be a safe option considering what I've already been through. WRONG!

No need to pull punches here. Probably the most disgusting, dried up, salt ridden, flavorless lasagna I've ever eaten. This made Stouffer's lasagna seem like something straight out of Mario Batali's kitchen oven itself. Calling the poison hotline for further guidance would not have been unreasonable. Even the edges of the lasagna was burnt, and not in a way that made the overheated cheese taste good cut from the edge. It just tasted burnt and salty. The butternut squash was hardly a step up. How many times can you order ravioli in a restaurant and you are always left wondering why is there never more filling in the ravioli? It should be much easier than it seems to stuff ravioli full of great ingredients and let them explode in your mouth. Instead, you might as well just brushed a little flavorless squash over some pasta and thrown it in a bowl.

This place clearly does not deserve my business ever again. Could I potentially go there for drinks, on a night where more than myself and two others are projected to be in the building....ok, I will give it that. But don't drink too much, you may get the munchies and make the same financial mistake I did and order their salt packets they call lasagna and butternut squash.

I am hot on the trail for a truly great meal, a true dining EXPERIENCE. Stay posted!