Hello Everyone: This review is for the PIEbar in Strawberry, Arizona.
This is our first time visiting. We ordered one each of the following to try several:
Philly Steak
Chicken Pot Pie
Beef Picadillo
Sweet: Strawberry/Rhubarb
Dipping Sauce: Chimichurri
Here are my thoughts on each:
The Philly Steak empanada fell short on flavor and ingredients. When we cut the empanada in half, very little of the empanada had filling. Therefore, a bite tasted more like the empanada crust than a Philly Steak sandwich. When you think of a Philly Steak you think of: steak sliced thin, onion, green pepper and cheese and we did not see this array of ingredients in the empanada. We expected more spices and flavor and also more filling for the price.
The Chicken Pot Pie was nice. The gravy was not too thick and I was concerned the dough would absorb most of it, but there was still enough to enjoy. The filling would benefit from salt or garlic salt and pepper, but at least this empanada had more filling than the Philly Steak.
The Beef Picadillo is advertised as having: shaved beef, diced potato, green chilies, onion, cilantro, tomato and garlic. In the one we were served, there was a very small amount of beef, the diced potato (three pieces), we did not detect any chilies, onion, cilantro, tomato or garlic. One should be able to see cilantro and tomato and even the chilies, but they were not there. We cut it open and looked. Also, we expected i to be a little spicy considering the ingredients. But, again, the overall flavor fell flat.
The strawberry/rhubarb was recommended by PIEbar staff because it was seasonal, so we purchased one of these for our sweet empanada. This empanada shell was full of filling (as we would have expected the others to be), but considering the fruits involved there was little flavor. I saw another reviewer mention the lack of flavor, but I did not want to believe sweet strawberries with tart rhubarb could be "flavorless", but I have to agree, this filling would benefit from a little sugar and/or cinnamon inside the filling.
The chimichurri sauce is spicy as advertised. This item hit the mark.
We could distinguish all the ingredients in the sauce and it is 'spicy', so for those of you who don't care for heat with your food, we recommend you try a different sauce to dip your savory empanadas into.
We brought the order to our cabin (three minutes away) to reheat them in the oven because the moisture from the empanadas was coming through the deli bag quickly, leading me to believe they may have been slightly undercooked and we did not want to take a chance on our vacation of getting sick.
NOTE: Other reviewers who posed recently commented on "less filling" than normal which is what we experienced this week. I don't know what they are doing differently, but obviously the regulars feel something has changed.
The size of the empanadas would be for a "lite" breakfast or lunch (they are not large). Each one serves one person comfortably (not large enough to share).
There is seating outside. This is a little boutique stand of food and when they sell out, they sell out. I think if you adjust your expectations accordingly, you won't be disappointed.
The concept is unique and something different than your typical sandwich for lunch. read more