Eastwind’s Ribeye & Tempura Special
Japanese food doesn’t exactly conjure images of scotch steak, better known as ribeye, but after partaking in the ribeye and tempura special at Eastwind I don’t really care.
I had eaten asian food at the building where Eastwind presently resides, on the southeast corner of Tatum and Thunderbird in Scottsdale, AZ, back in the mid ’90s. Not sure what the place was called back then, but I remember getting fairly average rice bowls there. Around 2004 I moved back to Scottsdale and walked into what is now Eastwind and, to my surprise, found a much better Japanese eatery.
Although they offer a variety of food from rice bowls to sushi rolls and bento boxes, there are only three things I eat there–they are all so good I can’t bring myself to try anything else! They also serve Asian beer including Asahi and Kirin, which are favorites of mine.
The ribeye and tempura special is a dinner feast, to say the least. It starts off with miso soup and then you get perfectly steamed broccoli, incredible tempura shrimp, an ample portion of white rice and, of course, a nice ribeye. You will notice that there is fried rice in the picture, you pay a couple bucks extra for that and it’s worth every penny. That fried rice is made to order (not scooped out of a steamer tray) and is exactly like what you get from the expensive teppanyaki restaurants, it’s just not cooked right in front of you!
As for the white rice and broccoli, there’s not much to say other than it is done right and tastes great. The tempura shrimp is sweet and succulent with a perfect, light tempura coating–one I much prefer to breading.
As for the ribeye… I’m not gonna tell you this is the best steak you will ever have in your life. I mean, come on, this is an affordable Asian restaurant I’m talkin’ about here. It is a very good steak however. It’s fairly thin and has good flavor, especially with the accompanying ginger/soy sauce. Typically I order my steak rare. The steak in this shot, however, was ordered medium rare. Not bad by any means, but I will stick with rare from now on. By itself, this ribeye might be considered average. But combined with the sauce, and everything else on this plate, you are looking at one of my very favorite meals–period. The chefs at Eastwind have done a great job of combining a few simple things that work incredibly well together and make up a plate choc full ‘o flavor. Oh, and the price? A scant $13.95, plus $2 for the fried rice.
All I can say is, “Try it, you’ll like it!” And if not the ribeye and tempura special, then check out some of Eastwind’s other excellent offerings–I will share my other two favorite items in future posts.
Don’t forget to tell ‘em you saw it on Phone Phood!
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