Bombay Spice - Phoenix

We were in the mood for something new tonight, and found ourselves at Bombay Spice in Phoenix. We were looking for light, fresh, reasonably healthy food. We started with the Sauce Sampler, which is pretty much what it sounds like, all their different sauces with a couple pieces of the chapatti (when a whole wheat tortilla and a pita fall in love and have a baby) The mint sauce wasn't too spectacular, but the curry sauce was nice. The hot sauce was pretty spicy and the others weren't very notable. Kid ordered a mango yogurt smoothie, a bribe for open-mindedness for rest of the meal, and it was delicious but heavy. He also ordered the chicken lentil soup, which was very thick and not super appealing. Husband had the chickpea ceviche, which was cool, light and tasty. I had a wrap, which chicken curry in half and chicken tikka masala in the other. Both were a bit dry, and not heavily flavored, but good overall,and would have been even better if I had chosen a better sauce to accompany the dish. All of the entrees are 500 calories or fewer, but the wrap was so much more food than I could ever consume at one sitting. One big surprise- a fantastic margarita. Who would have guessed? So I get that it's not the most authentic of Indian food, but I grow weary of hearing "authentic" take a higher priority than "good" or "healthful." We'll be back, but maybe with different entree selections.

Sweet Republic - Scottsdale

What's Father's Day weekend without a nod to Husband's sweet tooth? We capped off the night with a quick trip to Sweet Republic, a ridiculously delicious ice cream shop. We've been a few times, but I always get the same thing- no need to mess with perfection. I get the Salted Butter Caramel ice cream with extra caramel sauce on top. Husband likes their more exotic flavors, like Lime Basil, Honey Bleu Cheese and Pear Ginger (tastes like you're eating cold Chinese food for dessert) The kids like th watermelon ice cream and the rocky road. All of the ice cream is fresh, made with real ingredients (no HFCS here). The service is friendly and quick, and they're not stingy with the samples. They even indulged my request for a plastic spoon instead of a wooden one- I always think I'm going to get splinters in my mouth.

Humble Pie - Scottsdale

Husband and I had lunch today at Humble Pie in Scottsdale. We split a large caesar salad, with very nice sourdough croutons that were crisp, but not too hard that they exploded into crouton shrapnel when stabbed with a fork. The dressing was light but tangy, and a little bit of celery kept it from getting too heavy. We split the margherita pizza, which was quite good. The crust was thin but chewy, the basil very fresh, the sauce slightly sweet and the mozzarella just cheesy enough. A sea salt grinder on the table let us add just a little bit of salt, which brought everything together. I had the Humble Punch to drink, which was a very light, mild drink, like an agua fresca, almost. We'd go back again as long as it was just us - there was a party with some young kids, and it wasn't a great place for kids.