The Main Ingredient Ale House & Cafe — Restaurant in Phoenix

In a city where almost ALL of the better dining options are dark by 9pm, The Main Ingredient was open until 11pm(!) on this Monday night. PERFECT, as we were looking for a nice, relaxing, later evening dining experience. YAY! On this night, unfortunately, we didn't get an impression of the interior. We entered their café garden where we were offered the choice of table under the delicate canopy of multiple mature olive trees - glittering with just the right amount of tiny string lights. As the café was pleasantly not crowded, we selected a generously sized granite table and settled into the modern wood and iron chairs. The misters were perfectly misting - cooling - not drenching. The ambiance here was exactly what we needed, and I enjoyed a sigh of relaxation as I sat back and accepted the menu from our friendly server and began my final strategic plan of this long, tiring day and perused the generous and varied choices of both food and libations. They offer a wide range of beer - including local and craft - both bottles and draught. In addition, there was a satisfying selection of wines and mocktails, from which I selected the Negroni Gutierrez from the Chef's specialty cocktail options. My husband chose a tall glass of local ale. Both were delicious. It was late for me - so I settled on some lighter choices after finding the menu full of Chef's take on appetizers, soups with real sourdough bread, many delightful salads, sandwiches and wraps, entrées and desserts. I wanted to try one of everything - but opted to start with their hand crafted hummus. It was the perfect choice to share with my guy, and we really enjoyed the delicate olives atop an amazing hummus pared with tortilla chips and beautifully sliced fresh carrot, red pepper, and cucumber. I followed the hummus with the Chef's beet salad. I was delighted by the creative and delicious addition of marinated red grapefruit sections and pistachio to the unblemished fresh greens, the unusual number of perfectly prepared cubes of sweet red beets, large swipes of creamy goat cheese....all of which were served dressed in Chef's custom citrus. The salad was as generous as it was delicious - and the perfect accompaniment to my crisp savignon blanc. All of our service was timely, attentive, friendly, and genuinely helped one feel quite at ease. This visit to The Main Ingredient will not stand alone - we will return and next time I plan to close out my future experiences with Chef's Left Hand Milk Stout ice cream float! Since relocating to Phoenix, I've had difficulty finding that comfortable place with interesting and creative dishes, where I can go for a truly enjoyable dining experience. The Main Ingredient Ale House in the centrally located Coronado District - a truly wonderful café experience- with her easy and ample parking and NO valet in sight (bonus!).....well, I have to conclude ...

I wasn't sure about giving TMI a 3-star rating. For me, a lot of thought goes into each star. The food is good and they will always change whatever you don't like. For example, my photo is of the RB&C, but it doesn't look like that if you just go in and order it. I get it on sourdough to cut down on the sheer volume of bread that ordinarily holds this sandwich, and I always ask for a side of mayo because the scorcher horseradish they put on the sandwich is way too hot. My sandwich also looks like it comes with greens, but that's because I order mine with salad so I can put it on the sandwich. I love their balsamic vinaigrette and it adds a scrumptious flavor to the sandwich as well. So that sounds good...if you don't mind having to rebuild the food you order.

The truth is, when I come here, it's always on someone else's dime--not because I'm too cheap, LoL, but because it's my payment for helping out after an afternoon of hard work done for free. But honestly, if I had to pay for it myself, I probably wouldn't come here at all. The music is WAY too loud. It's cramped inside. The parking faces the western sun and there's no shade. The patio is wonderful, though. It's dog friendly and the relaxed atmosphere outside is completely different from what you get trying to talk to your tablemates over the headache noise inside.

The problem with the patio, though, is that you get kind of forgotten. If you need anything, you have to get up and go inside to find a worker to help you. You can take your glass with you if you need a refill. It might be faster.

I don't know. The good stuff is really good and the not-so-good stuff is really not worth coming back to. We always come back, though. When you're hungry for the certain thing at TMI, that's what's you want and...

If I could give 1/2 stars they'd get 3 1/2 stars because a few things kept it under a four.

Great patio although it might have been nice to have a heater outside. For this local it was kind of chilly sitting outside 😊. Definitely dog friendly though. If they were busy the parking might be a problem but on Tuesday night it was fine.

Even being off 7th Street the noise wasn't too bad. Maybe during busy times it would be worse.

McKenzie, our waitress, was friendly and waited for us to chat a bit before ordering.

We ordered the artichoke dip which came out hot. It had a good taste but a few stringy parts however the chips are made locally and delicious.

They might want the person who refills the water to take off his bracelet because when he filled a glass the ends of the bracelet grazed our soup bowl, not appetizing to me.

The enchilada soup was too spicy for me so they gladly took it off the bill. However hubby loved the spice!

The baby blue salad had large chunks of blue cheese and was a large portion. The dressing was tangy, just right for this salad.

Hubby ordered the sandwich with turkey and salami (can't remember the name) but the bread was really crust, a little too crusty for me. But the taste was good.

Unfortunately they don't have decaf coffee and that's all hubby can drink so no coffee with dessert. But I had regular and it's pretty strong. The cheesecake was delicious and creamy and plenty to share.

Not sure if I'd return but I would like to...