It’s Friday and that means time to see where the boys have been eating and drinking. This week they rolled over to North, the new concept (of an old concept) by Fox Restaurant Concepts.   DLT would have to agree with their take and in particular we like the way they chose to right it up.   Well done.   Highlights as follows:

Grilled Calamari – large, easily chewable pieces in a white bean ragu punched up with lemon zest. It’s refreshing and a perfect way to begin your meal.

Crispy Pork Belly – one huge piece that wasn’t all that crispy as the name implied but pulled apart perfectly and had a great ratio of fat to meat. What we really dug was that amidst the strongly flavored lentils, the pork stood on its own, retaining a gentle flavor rarely found in a chunk of pork that large.

The Burger – Served with grilled onions, roasted tomato, arugula, and ta Brie-like robiola cheese. Check this out: once upon a time, the people at Fox got a little upset that we said the burger at Black Chile (a Mexican restaurant) was better than the burger at Zinburger (a Fox-owned burger restaurant) next door. Well, now, people of Fox, we believe that the burger at North (an Italian restaurant) is better than the burger at The Grind (a burger shop) next door. You can’t win all the time, but you won this one.

Mafaldine Pasta – Of the seven pastas on the menu, we chose this for spicy rock shrimp and mix of shaved fennel, tomato, garlic, chili, basil, and white wine. It all came together beautifully.

And in case you think they may have taken them up on a freebie given the glowing report:

One more thing you should know—although this glowing review might read like lunch was paid for by PR, it indeed was not. We ponied up about $120 for said meal, and the stuff really was as good as we said it was. Damnit. We’d like to hate Fox for the mediocrity so many feel he serves up, but this place was a damn joy to eat at. And we’ll be back. Damnit.

[EaterAZ]

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