First & Last — Restaurant in Phoenix

We first saw First and Last on Marc Tarbell’s PBS program, Check Please. If you’re not familiar with the Roosevelt Row area, it may be difficult to find. There is overflow parking in the parking garage. We decided to go on Friday when they open at 5:00 pm.. From the outside, it’s appears small and deceiving, but once inside, the open space has ample seating, there is also an upstairs, the Nest, and seating in the lower level, Little Debbie’s.

The hostess was friendly and walked us to the large U-shaped bar with comfortable barstools with high backs. They were well spaced apart with ample leg and elbow room, and a hook underneath for your bag. They have a few craft cocktails, wine, and beer, on the HH menu. There was plenty of bar-servers and we didn’t have to wait but a minute or two. One of the bartenders, Ray, was especially helpful in listening and understanding what I wanted. He made it perfectly!! The servers were attentive and friendly, filled our water glasses in a very timely fashion, and Ray explained the food options. We asked which he preferred between the two that we narrowed it down, and once again, he nailed the suggestion for us. The burrata was explained perfectly, as it doesn’t sound like the flavors would marry very well, be he assured us that indeed they would and we would not be disappointed. We would not have ordered it if it weren’t for his descriptive explanation. After the burrata, we had the calamari which was presented with a nontraditional dipping sauce. It was very rich and flavorful, and not too salty. To finish off our happy hour we shared the tiramisu with was soft and fluffy, with just the right flavors of chocolate, coffee, and cream. It was not soggy but fresh, and felt as if it was made just for us. Kudos to the chef!

The restroom was clean and easy to find and the communal hand washing station was good and well stocked with enough soap and paper towels. On our way out I witnessed a server hand shaking a drink from the bar. It appears everyone chips in as needed, there is definitely no one just standing around. That is good training for staff. We recognized the husband owner from the PBS program, and witnessed him mingling with the customers and also helping the staff as needed. The wife owner was also visible and we exchanged a nice conversation with her about how they got started. By the time we left, the entire restaurant was full with people waiting. A reservation is definitely a must.

Our next trip will be with a reservation for dinner. One suggestion, if you’re with a date, ask a staff why the name of the restaurant is...

I might not perfect to explain about this restaurant, but I tried it.

Service is okay, atmosphere is good, but we seat at close to backdoor/Restroom, it wasn’t very good.

I want to remained the review about cost/food.

Fortunately we took Restaurant week course two $55, and ordered 1 more pesto pasta (around $25) and steak frites($75)

Food was actually great idea in novel ways. But TOO SALTY, over cooked and not fresh taste some point.

Salad was good, it had some ham and fine chopped veggie, but vinegar was too strong and sauce is too salty. Even I like to taste sour/citrus.

Burrata is… okay, but over price it actual cost $22 without Restaurant week, but they gave focaccia and burrata with strawberries wth mint sauce(?). I know it already passed strawberry season, so this strawberry was too sour. And I couldn’t find a point of this food. What’s your target for tasting, sour? sweet? Or savory of burrata? I was confused.

Pastas are only not super salty food in here. Bolognese pasta is good as a basic, but Pesto pasta was disappointed. First, not fresh pine nuts or cooked wrong. Due to I tasted rancidity oil from Nuts. And crispy kale idea is good, but tastes burnt.

Pork chop is really delicious, I recommended this food from this restaurant. Just salty sauce. Also spicy sauce was kick about this menu.

One of my disappointed things is Steak Frites. I ordered medium cooked, okay inside is medium, But outside is burnt/overcooked, so we left two each edge sides. Also the sauce in the middle with veggies… I don’t know what is it, but tasty weird. We remained it all. Potato fries are good, we’re all agree, but not steak and sauce.

It wasn’t worth it to have this steak in this restaurant for $75.

Desserts are super good, I can come back due to these desserts. Great idea, and have their own taste and kick point. We really enjoyed about this desserts.

What I want to say is that the new attempt as a New American is good, but the food is overall salty and overpriced. It’s understandable to some extent because of its downtown location, but restaurants have to work harder to make it worth it.

I still have a positive intention to visit here again, but I think I‘ll only order dessert, cocktails, Pork chop, and...

The buildout on the dinning space is very clean and comfortable... the staff are very personable and service was spot on. The food.. all new restaurants have their share of growing pains so please take this for the better as the culinary team needs to get their mojo going.. We ordered the Crab Churros and Onion Soup to start... the Crab Churros as they sounded very interesting on the menu were not executed well.. when you advertise a dish as having crab in it, there should be some type of identifiable "Crab" in the dish... We could not taste nor find crab in the dish. The Onion Soup was the Best I have had in a very long time even surpassing my own recipe.. Lots of caramelized onions, a flavorful broth and the croutons were the correct style.. hard bread and the cheese sent it over the top! On to Entree's... We ordered the Trout and the Duck...  Neither were bad but neither were good enough to bring us back... Starting with the Trout, the Culinary team spent to much time on the presentation and not enough time building a "flavorful" dish..  the En papillote presentation should be skipped, the trout had no real flavor and the vegetables in the bottom had no seasoning and tasted like nothing more than steamed Vegetables...  The Duck was a bit better.. the culinary team needs to work on temperatures.. I asked for Medium and it came out rare... rare to the point it was not cold but no real heat to it either... when duck is served this rare its "Chewy" and does not have a good mouth feel... the skin was also not crispy, it had no real color to it which makes me think it was not seared first.  The Chutney was good and the Farro was bland and could have used some fine herbs to give it depth.  It was disappointing that  they only had one dessert option for the night and it was a "Cheesecake"  When the highlight of your meal is the Onion Soup it leads you to believe they still have some work to do. But the Onion Soup alone is enough to get me back for a second try in a month or so!...