Pappadeaux - Phoenix, AZ

Being on the road from San Diego to Phoenix was like nothing I've ever seen before. California is big a state and as you drive through it you see all of the different scenery. That's one of the best things about living in California, the beach, mountains, snow, forests, and deserts are within hours of each other. The one thing I had never seen before, though, was the desert. I'm talking cactus, sand, and HEAT!! Mike and I planned our trip in late spring so, luckily for us, the desert was a warm 80 degrees.

We passed right by the Mexican border, through El Centro and then Yuma. We arrived at our hotel a little ahead of schedule and saw that it was in HORRIBLE condition (I swear I'm not exaggerating). We went to a nearby Starbucks to use the WiFi and look for another hotel. THANK GOODNESS WE DID!! Not only because we had a place to stay, but because we found the BEST restaurant close by. It was dinner time at this point and we were really glad we had found somewhere safe to sleep (thank you Days Inn) and were ready to eat anything. On the way to the first hotel I saw a big restaurant called Pappadeaux and took notice but our hotel wasn't in the same neighborhood so I didn't bring it up. But since now we were just around the corner I told him I had seen this place that looked like it could be good, we looked it up on Yelp and saw the good reviews - done!

I'm always down for a place with "Seafood" in the title and it helped we were both starving and in a celebratory mood. We saw that alligator and frog legs were on the appetizers list, and since we were on vacation, we decided to give the alligator a shot.

We're really lucky it was so good because I've tried alligator since then and it doesn't always have to be so "crunchy" - but more on that food experience later. The appetizer came with delicious shoestring fries and a Creole dipping sauce.

I also ordered the fried shrimp with mashed potatoes because they didn't have any more baked potatoes ready at the time (they ended up giving me a complimentary baked potato later). Everything was perfectly seasoned the potatoes were creamy. Mike got a 16 oz. beef rib-eye, served with broccoli and mashed potatoes.

 

 We left so full we could barely move. We'll definitely be going back there the next time we're in Phoenix!