Thought everyone might enjoy reading the menu from our 10 course tasting menu from New Year's Eve at Binkleys. We're usually stuffed after their five course tasting menu, so we weren't sure how we would fare with 10 courses (and wine pairings), but as usual they paced it extremely well and kept portion-sizes moderated so that 10 courses was filling but not ridiculously so. We were seated at 9 pm and our final course was served precisely at midnight. Last time we had the five course menu they served us no fewer than 7 amuse bouches, but last night they only did the duck and sherrry consomme to start, an amuse bouche of five different items second, a fruit cocktail and an extra dessert with the check. The menu is as follows; it was a spectactular meal and I do not think that anything compares to Binkley's. This meal was a bargain at $200 per person plus $75 for the wine pairing. New Year's Eve is usually a rip-off but this meal was worth every penny and the service was nothing short of spectactular yet unpretentious. The food was free of molecular gastronomy gimickry and instead focused on great ingredients creatively prepared.

Citrus Cured Salmon Roulade w/ osetra caviar, shaved baby fennel, toast point, sauce vert

Mache & Black Truffle Salad w/ heirloom potatoes, proscuitto, shaved red onion, baby artichokes (note: they were VERY generous with the truffles)

Crispy Seared Foie Gras w/ red wine poached pear, cashews, baby arugula and port glaze

Lobster Ragout w/ gnocchi, pearl onions, fava beans and lobster bisque

Olive Oil Poached Swordfish w/ white bean puree, pattypan squash, oven dried tomatoes, balsamic, and olive oil (note: neither my wife or I particularly care for swordfish and were looking forward to this course the least, but this was unlike anything we have had before. It was slightly pink in color and had the softest texture we've ever seen...almost like sashimi)

White Truffle & Porcini Agnolotti w/ hedgehog & clamshell mushrooms, purple scallions (note: Chef Binkley bought one pound of white truffles for last night's meal at a cost of $5,400 per pound; they were half the cost last year!)

Duck Squared - seared breast, rillette, huckleberry crepe, sugar snap peas

Japanese Wagyu New York Strip w/ mustard Brussels sprout leaves, creamy cauliflower (note: this was the REAL Wagyu beef from Japan and so soft that it literally melted in your mouth like seared foie gras)

Freezing Pineapple Water w/ pineapple, blackberries, blueberries, pomegranite, braised pistachios. (note: served in a bowl in which they poured liquid nitrogen to flash-freeze the fruit)

Chocolate Bread Pudding w/ rasberries, cocoa nib flortentine, candied mint, chocolate sauce

Then I went to bed very very very full and sleepy! Happy New Year!

A friend of mine and I tried South Beach Restaurant and Lounge last night. It's a new place on Shea, just east of 92nd Street in a new strip mall. I had not heard much about it, except for a short review of their lunch here on Chowhound and I wasn't sure what to make of the somewhat "shotgun" approach menu...sushi, steaks, "florida" cuisine with some Cuban mixed-in.

We arrived at about 8 pm and is was hopping, although there were probably about 10 open tables. It's a big, open space with a hip vibe - reminiscent of a club in South Beach in Miami. The hostess told us it would be about 30 minutes - despite the numerous open tables - and she said she would get us at the bar when our table was ready. So we headed over to the large bar, ordered a couple of beers, and checked out the typical Scottsdale scene of blonde hair, high fashion, and aftermarket augmentation. At least the scene had entertainment value!

After waiting for about 30 minutes, I checked with the hostess to see why it was taking so long depsite all the empty tables. She said the kichen was very backed up so they weren't seating people (not a good sign!) but that she would "check with her boss." She came back moments later and motioned for us to follow her. We were seated where we then continued to wait, and wait, and wait even longer for someone to acknowledge us. The restaurant is owned by two husband/wife couples, and we noticed that one of the owners (female) was sitting with another couple directly next to us and her husband (the other owner) was standing directly next to our table. Despite the fact that we waited about 15 minutes for our server to arrive, the owners never seemed to notice the fact that we were just sitting there with no attention whatsoever.

FINALLY our server arrived...a somewhat clueless fellow with spikey hair who looked like the lead singer of the band Green Day. He seemed very frazzled, didn't greet us at all, and just said "Are you ready to order?" We told him that we'd like to order drinks first and peruse the huge menu. He came back about 10 minutes later with our drinks and we figured that we should at least get our appetizer order in in case he never came back.

We order two appetizers - a Sushi Sampler (priced at $29 so we expected it to be huge) and the Gator Croquettes....who can resist a little alligator every now and then, right? In the meantime no one ever brought us water or bread (which seemed to be at every other tables but ours) and the owners continued to entertain their friends with complete disregard for the downward death-spiral of service that was occuring less than 4 feet from them. I've had better service at Chili's!

Our gator arrived about 20 minutes later and was pretty good. Four large egg-roll shaped items filled with tasty meat and cheese. Not bad. About another 30 minutes passed and we still didn't have our sushi and I was afraid that we'd either 1.) never get it or 2.) get it after our entrees (which we still hadn't ordered because our server was missing-in-action or 3.) get it while we ate our entrees. My friend got up to use the restroom and I said "If our sushi isn't here by the time you get back I'm out of here...." Fortunately, it did arrive and, although the sushi was fresh, the portion size was hardly worthy of $29 and it wasn't anything to rave about. Much better sushi available within a 1 mile radius at Sushi Ko or Hiro.

Moments after our sushi arrived I flagged down our waiter who hadn't been seen in about 45 minutes. He started to take our menus away when I said "Can we order our entrees?" He seemed to have forgotten that he never took our order and my friend and I both ordered the same thing - Arroz con Pollo, priced at $15. As he hurried away I said "Can we get some bread and water" and he acknowledged me with a groan and walked away. The owner then arrived and said "I heard there was a request for bread and water." Umm, yeah dude, you might have noticed that if you were actually running the restaurant instead of gabbing with your friends!

Entrees arrived and were quite good, although the rice was dry. Tasty herb-steamed chicken leg and thigh served in a garlic sauce over rice. At this point, we had been there for nearly two hours and had lost interest. We also ordered another round of drinks which never arrived until we reminded our waiter and, even then, they took 10 minues to get there.

One other item to mention: there was a live band in the bar that was doing their sound check for nearly 90 minutes. We didn't actually hear them play a song until we were walking out the door. Did they really need that much of a sound check? The sound of them saying " check one check two check three" got pretty old. My friend, who works in the entertainment industry and books entertainment for most of the resorts in town, said "don't they realize that they are basically "wallpaper" and people don't really care if they have concert quality sound?" Enough said. When they started sound checking the restaurant was pretty full; by the time they started playing it was mostly empty.

All in all, I'd categorize this as a dining disaster. The restaurant has great design, atmosphere and a huge menu with something to make everyone happy and maybe they are just getting the kinks worked out. But the service was so embarrassingly bad that I can't imagine taking the chance to ever go back. The most frustrating part of all was that the owners - who obviously have a lot of money tied-up in this place - seemed to be far more interested in keeping their friends happy than making sure that the operation was running smoothly.

If things continue as they did last night, I'd give this place 6 months before it's so empty at night that you'll be able to hear the crickets chirping. The Phoenix metro - and Scottsdale, especially - has enough "scene" restaurants that someplace as woefully mediocre as South Beach which has style but not substance is destined to fail.

Maybe the owners just opened it so they would have a place to hang out with their friends, because they sure didn't seem like they cared about anything else.