LUNCH: Monday - Saturday 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Royal Palms Resort and Spa
5200 E. Camelback Road, Phoenix
Entrée Price: under $20 lunch special •
Takes reservations • Dress code: Business casual
T. Cook's is an unlikely destination for hungry college students. Located at the lavish and luxurious Royal Palms Resort and Spa in Scottsdale, it's a popular spot for celebrities, but not collegiates. The upscale restaurant produces an array of dinner plates with exotic ingredients and extravagant price tags. While dinner might be out of the question even for some patrons well beyond their collegiate years, anyone with $20 to spare can afford to lunch at T. Cook's.
T. Cook's afternoon menu features the typical lunch fare of sandwiches and salads, but also offers a more unique option: Mediterranean tapas. Diners can choose four different small plates to create a personalized dish. The selection changes regularly, but usually features nine meat and vegetable dishes with varying ethnic influences.
On a recent visit, choices included a juicy, flavorful rosemary chicken kabob and homemade gnocchi shaped in tiny crescents with light, thin dough. Other selections included thick, hearty butternut squash bisque topped with pistachio, and a single but well-sized meatball that secured its spot on the menu with superb flavor and texture. Even the olives and cherry peppers, a seemingly simple garnish, earned its place among the others. Sweet, spicy and zesty, the peppers are stuffed with creamy boursin, a cheese similar to cream cheese, and seemed to host all the most delicious flavors in your mouth at once.
While four tapas might not seem enough to make a meal, it's surprising how filling the dishes can be, especially when following the complimentary bread and pesto spread provided at T. Cook's. Made with the perfect mix of oil and pesto, it's brought out shortly after diners are seated — with their napkins arranged for them on their laps — and their drink orders placed. After that, the service never slows. Attentive and courteous wait staff members bring and take plates, check on customers and refill glasses.
In addition to affordable entrees, T. Cook's lunch menu also showcases six wines, priced at $6 a glass. At that price, it's hard to refuse a glass or two while lounging in T. Cook's swanky dining room or relaxing on the gorgeous patio overlooking the Royal Palms' well-kept gardens. If weather permits, choose an outdoor seat. The view is greener than most of Arizona and the patio's quaintly elegant construction makes for a pleasant place to dine.
If you have a little extra cash to spare, don't hesitate to try desserts, each costing about $8. The sweets at T. Cook's give new meaning to the term "decadence." Each dessert's description is enough to drool over, and the reality is no less mouthwatering. A popular recommendation is the chocolate noisettes, layered with dark chocolate espresso pralines, fluffy milk chocolate mousse and a sheet of dark chocolate. Add a drizzle of caramel and orange sauce, and you're biting into heaven. Who says college students shouldn't be allowed to dine in style?
— jessica.kokal@asu.edu or foodinphoenix.com
