Being in Disney for 4 days sometimes leaves you in awe with how well the parks are run. In the next couple of days I plan to highlight a couple of the things they are doing very well, and how we can learn from that, but today, I wanted to talk about one thing they do pretty poorly, and the one thing I was desperate to get back home for: Good Food.
I’ve found resort food in general to be below average. You travel to a big, huge resort, where a couple of thousand people need to be fed, and you can tell how the kitchen cuts corners by the quality of what you eat. That’s a generalization of course, that gets proven time and again, and to an extent I understand it. But the folks at Disney aren’t feeding a couple of thousand, they are feeding tens of thousands. As a result, most of the food is darned near dreadful. High sugar, high fat, high calerie crud. Oh, and just to make up for the poor quality, they’ve set the prices really high.
At any rate, almost immediately I began day dreaming about my favorite restaraunt in Scottsdale. Even my kids had the same response on Wednesday, when I asked them what they wanted for dinner tonight: Flo’s. That’s right, Flo’s.
There are 4 Flo’s restaraunts in the Valley, but 3 of them are in North Scottsdale. My favorite is Flo’s Chinese Kitchen in the McDowell Mountain Village at Frank Lloyd Wright and Thompson Peak Parkway near AJ’s and Walgreens. Flo herself can often be found there, particularly during the week. Her husband manages the store at DC Ranch. And then there’s the 3rd North Scottsdale store at Scottsdale Road and Frank Lloyd Wright. And finally, Flo has her newest location in terminal 4 of Sky Harber airport. This location is more of a Pei Wei style, with a bit of a quick serve format. Each varies from the other, offering their own menu, or a different twist on the same items.
Flo herself is from Hong Kong. She’s a hands-on business owner that is very attentive to detail, and it shows in the consistency in what is served. I’ve tried nearly every single item on her menu and most can be counted among my favorites. For a lighter lunch however, nothing beats the lemon pepper chicken & shrimp. Add to that the included asian style salad, and perhaps an iced tea, and it makes a great lunch that won’t weigh you down. Old favorites like sweet & sour chicken, mongolian beef, and mandarin (aka kung poa) chicken are also well represented.
For dinner, we like to start with the hot & sour soup, which is the best I’ve ever had. Lettuce wraps, often hit the table as well. And most nights we order the Pad Tai. It’s a noodle dish that’s sort of an asian spaghetti. Yum!
And finally, for desert, or just to treat the folks back in the office, it’s tough to beat the chocolate won tons.
The pricing at lunch is very good, which is perhaps best represented by how many REALTORs frequent Flo’s for lunch. I’ve always known that Flo’s was popular among agents, but one day I took a marketing rep from a title partner to Flo’s for lunch. She hadn’t been before, but noted that nearly every table had an agent (or 2 or 3). Given how cheap REALTORs are as a general rule, you know the combination of quality and affordability has to be there.
I can’t recommend Flo’s enough.
PS- you know where dinner is going to be tonight, now that we’re back in town.
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