Hai Noon

[Wilbur]

Friday night my wife, daughter and I tried Hai Noon, located inside the Papago Motor Lodge at 7017 McDowell Road. I think that is the name of the hotel - it was very dark, and it took us a little bit of to-ing and fro-ing to get inside the restaurant due to being unfamiliar with it.

The restaurant is inside the motel, facing the courtyard, full of mid-century modern and 1970s Tiki style decor, divided into a bar and a dining area featuring both tables and banquettes and a lot of large houseplants, with a Turntable style musical selection. I liked it, and it reminded me of the Valley Ho back in the 90s, prior to the remodels. The service was very attentive, and the menu was interesting.

https://hainoonaz.com/home

The plates we ordered came sequentially, so we had time to sample and savor each one to the tune of the bass bongos and gentle electric guitars. The first was a sort of salmon sashimi with a delicate chip of cheese and some kind of crisp, warm nut drizzled in a zesty sauce. As far as this sort of dish goes, this was well above average.

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Next was a selection of tofu and green papaya. The tofu was cooked to perfection with a very light coating of panko-style crumbles, while the papaya and green herbs were fresh and piquant. I was only allotted a single piece, as the girls Bogarted the rest, but my bite was excellent.

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The following dish was a soft-shelled crab in a sweet fish sauce over noodles. The crab was prepared with a tasty coating somewhat different from what I expected, but also delicious. I didn't get any of the noodles, but rumor has it that the flavor was a sweet fish sauce.

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Finally, a lamb dish in curry sauce. The lamb was a good, high-quality cut, although my own preference is for it to be cooked at a higher heat for a shorter period of time. Not a complaint about this one, though, just a different way of preparing it. The mango salad and curry flavoring was tremendously successful among us.

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So for a first visit, everything we ordered was a big hit between the three of us. My wife reports that her cocktails were also nice, and so we will visit again in the not-too-distant future. Especially now that we know where it is!

[Wilbur]

I don't know why all the photos are sideways - sorry!

[exit2lef]

Sounds promising. You mentioned that the dishes came sequentially. Do you recall being pressured to order everything up front? That was a minor annoyance for me at the chef's previous place, Nobuo at Teeter House. It's also the one thing I don't like about Lom Wong. Sometimes, it's hard to know how much to order until I see and taste the first course.

[Wilbur]

I didn't recognize the waiter suggesting that we needed to order everything all in one go, although a subtle hint may have gone over my head. However, he left us with the menus, and he inquired if we wanted to order more at some point. So I think the answer is no.

And I can certainly see your point. If it wasn't already late and after a long flight, I would have wanted to sample a few more dishes once we realized how good everything was.

[exit2lef]

I didn't recognize the waiter suggesting that we needed to order everything all in one go, although a subtle hint may have gone over my head. However, he left us with the menus, and he inquired if we wanted to order more at some point. So I think the answer is no.

And I can certainly see your point. If it wasn't already late and after a long flight, I would have wanted to sample a few more dishes once we realized how good everything was.

Thanks and glad to hear it. I found Nobuo at Teeter House could be a little too strict about that, although it may have been a dictate that came from the front of the house rather than the chef himself.

[Wilbur]

Hai Noon has a regular menu and a small, half-a-postcard-sized "Special menu" as well. The regular menu seems to change a little bit, and the special menu also changes with a little greater frequency. Nevertheless, the food at Hai Noon is consistently in my top three here in the Valley for the amazing tastes and textures that activate the pleasure sensors in my mouth.

One of the items currently occupying the special menu is Carpaccio made of white fish, with Yuzu Kosho, garlic, ginger, and hot sesame oil. The dish comes out to the table on the plate, and the hot sesame oil is drizzled over the top, releasing a rich, sensual aroma. The thinly sliced strips of ginger are an exquisite counterpoint to the savory delight of the fish. Once we had greedily guzzled up the carpaccio, the waiter brought out fingers of white toast, and we delighted in sopping up the garlicky sesame oil. This dish is incredibly good, and you will struggle to find a noticeably superior offering anywhere else we have eaten in the past two or three years.

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Another dish that has appeared more recently on the regular menu is the Ceviche, made with kampachi or hamachi served, one bite each, on two spoons, with shiso, myoga, and taro. When I put this in my mouth, I suddenly realized what all the Poke places that have sprouted up in the last decade hereabouts have imagined that they are serving their customers. This is sort of the Platonic ideal of high-fashion sashimi or poke, and I noticed two other customers order and put this dish away, then look around with a wild look in their eyes upon realizing it was only two bites while we were there.

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Finally, they currently serve two desserts that are not on the menu. One of them is this Pandan ice cream and Tofu Mole Chocolate mousse. Now as a kid I ate my fair share of pandan leaves and tofu growing up in Asia, and when I moved to Arizona, I sampled mole as well. None of that was anything that I would choose to eat on a regular basis in the forms served up to me, but this dessert, which combines all three, was again an exquisite delight to the tongue and palate. The pandan is clear and present in the dense ice cream, but also delicious, which is not a word I would have previously used for pandan leaves. The mousse is thick and features an afterbite that hits as spicy a second or two after you press it to the roof of your mouth with your tongue. My wife and I recreated The Dance of the Fates with our spoons as we dueled for position to scoop out tiny morsels of ultra-rich dessert. So good.

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The other stuff on the menu continues to be excellent, but these are some of the new things we had this week.