FnB Restaurant — Restaurant in Scottsdale

In a tiny spot that has housed previous excellence, the owners have managed to create a radically new atmosphere in Old Town Scottsdale. The decor, revolving around the gorgeous tiled floor, is highlighted by homey and personal touches. The room itself seems to generate warmth which is perpetuated by the owners and staff. The open kitchen spotlights the care and attentiveness that is given to every dish that's prepared, andif you take a seat at the bar set around the kitchen you can watch and interact with Chef Charleen.

I'm impressed with the Arizona centered wine list. It is fantastic to see local industries support one another. Callaghan's Buena Suerte cuvee is always one of my super favorites.

My guests and I shared the Benton Farms Country ham and goat cheddar with house pickled local veggies, fried green tomatoes with green goddess dressing and feta (that kept their firmness and acidity), the crispy rock shrimp with jalapeno tartar and my favorite, the shaved fennel with local citrus salad. The bgreading on the rock shrimp was light and not ovedone at all, you could really get the texture of the shrimp, and the tartar had just the right amount of heat.

With patient and attentive guidance from our server, I ordered the flat iron steak with a golden raisin salsa verde and cauliflower for my entree. Rather than something to take up space on the plate, the cauliflower was tasty and a star in and of itself. The steak was perfectly prepared and matched up well with the raisin salsa verde.

Another standout at the table was boneless trout with sunchokes, caramelized onions and dill. It was so delicate that the fish fell right off the skin. Chef Charleen Badman manages to couple and tangible flavors.

To finish we shared the butterscotch pudding. There was fighting over the last bite. Delish.

Our check was presented with a bite-size peanut brittle for each guest, a yummy way to...

Ok, I’m a carnivore. So on my birthday I kinda expected to be showered in fine cuts of beef and a salad comprising of bacon garnished with chicken thighs. Surprised is a word I’d use when we rolled up on FnB and glanced at the menu. Don’t take this as negative but an enlightenment of sorts. I eat green food, kale, asparagus and the sort. Vegis always seem blasé. Limp/lifeless hunks of something or a mashed/buttered and garliced to death root vegetable thing. Change my mind. Ok fine. FnB killed it… well not all of it but the flavors were right on point. Vegetable forward is how our helper said it and, he wasn’t wrong. We started with the asparagus which is transcendent. Garlic, lime capers, flat leaf parsley that was crazy fresh and then some of the most flavorful asparagus I’ve ever had and Ive had allot despite my carnivorous desires. Sweet potatoes with garbanzos, and an Guajillo chili mayo to die for. In a word… Fabulous. I can’t for the life of me remember the name of our main course but it too was freakin awesome. It was chicken done in a lovely braise with peppers, onions and of course the special guest, chicken thighs all set atop Spoetzl and finished with some sour cream. It was my birthday so for desert we had was the strawberry Ice cream. It had a lovely almost perfuming of elder flower that added so much that it’s hard to explain but one to enjoy. The two cookies that accompanied it were nothing short of beautiful. Crisp, buttery and wrought with flavor. I was so happy (and fat) after dinner I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. So I took a picture. It almost has the same feeling as I had while eating at this fantastic James Beard award winning restaurant, FnB. I dare you to go. Oh ya… the price. Everything is like a share so my wife and I had a FULL dinner w/ a very nice gratuity for $100 on the button including drinks. Go get you...

Let me preface by saying I was expecting to give FnB 5/5 stars. Chef winning the James Beard award definitely led to that expectation. We ordered the radishes with date compound butter and grilled noble bread, the collard greens and the blue nose bass with sunchokes. There was some lag between the cold dish (radishes) and the two hot dishes. Enough lag that we kept nibbling on bread while waiting. Now the bread is great, but I don't want to fill up on bread at a restaurant of this caliber. The radishes were our fave dish by a large margin. The dishes were all good. They were solid. Executed well (I thought the fish a tad overcooked but not enough to ruin it). The collard greens were fine. They were collard greens that you'd get at any southern restaurant. There was some pickled veg on them that I enjoyed and my girlfriend did not, but that was subjective. Objectively I thought the acid from veg did its job of cutting through the rich ham broth and brightening up the dish. But again, they were greens Ive had before at any southern joint. The fish was blackened and brought me back to blackened grouper sandwiches on Florida's Atlantic coast. If you've had one of those, well you know it's good. The char in the fish was the best part about it. The sunchokes were nice too. All in all everything was good. Problem is...I was expecting to be blown away instead I left knowing full well that in a year or two the only thing that will be memorable about the meal was 1) hard to find the place and 2) it was my girlfriend and I's anniversary.

In summation, the food was good. The space is warm and inviting inside and also very loud. Didn't eat anything that pushed food in any direction but safe. High quality ingredient cooked well are gonna taste good. Making it great is pushing it ever so slightly in an...