There seems to be no limit to what kind of food can be prepared on a truck. While mobile operations might traditionally have been associated with hot dogs, tacos, and other hand foods, some seem to thrive on finding ways to prepare items like pizzas or lobster rolls in the cramped space of a kitchen on wheels. Years ago, EZbachi created its own niche with a food truck version of hibachi, loosely based on Japanese grilling techniques and often conflated with teppanyaki. Then, like many food trucks, EZbachi graduated to a bricks and mortar restaurant.
EZbachi’s food trucks operate at multiple locations through the metropolitan area, but the location at Central and Mohave, half a mile south of Buckeye/Central station on the B Line, has been upgraded to a full service restaurant. A building formerly used for storage and preparation has since been refurbished with a modern dining room and contemporary decor. The food trucks are still parked on the south side of the building, and the posts holding up the canopy for the former dining area are the best place to lock up a bike since no rack is available on site.
The restaurant’s refurbished interior is simple at first glance with red tables in a dining room filled with lively music and a few prints of pop culture and parasols. Requisite selfie opportunities are found at a swing outside the main entrance and under some neon signs. A patio shaded with vines on trellises has replaced the previous outdoor dining area that was characterized by a view of a parking lot and I-17. Along with the move to upgraded indoor quarters, there is now a host station, although customers are typically directed to take any seat they wish to occupy.
The menu offers a spectrum of grilled meat dishes with some slight east Asian influences. As food truck fare, it might have seemed pricey, but ingredients like filet mignon, shrimp, and even lobster are not typically associated with low prices and probably shouldn’t be. Of course, now being able to eat inside with full table service adds value. With the move to a full kitchen, EZbachi’s menu has also expanded beyond bowls and plates to incorporate appetizers, alcohol, and even dessert – all items that were understandably unrepresented on the food trucks.
The meat choices are chicken, salmon, shrimp, lobster, and beef in both New York steak and filet mignon form. Each one is featured on its own in various sauces, as well as in combinations like the EZ Trio featuring filet mignon, chicken, and shrimp, and the EZ Choice, a bigger entree that combines filet, lobster, and shrimp. The menu features six sauces, sometimes used during cooking and at other times offered as sides for dipping or mixing with food. Garlic butter seems the default choice, but EZ Menace, a slightly spicy aioli, appears in many dishes as well.
Those two sauces seem to be the two most popular ones, and they’re sold in bottles to take home. In terms of how the sauces are used in the restaurant’s own kitchen, Blazing Chicken with grilled poultry and diced bell peppers is characterized chiefly by the presence of sriracha. That popular Asian condiment is also combined with honey as a coating for both shrimp and salmon. The EZ teriyaki sauce is applied to salmon, chicken, or beef and benefits from a classic blend of sweet, smoky, and salty flavors, as well as a generous dusting of sesame seeds.
Full size entrees, regardless of the main ingredient, generally come with some shrimp cooked in garlic butter on the side (unless shrimp is already the featured protein), as well as a vegetable (mostly zucchini) and a double dose of carbs: both fried rice and udon noodles. The result is a whole lot of food and the likelihood of taking home leftovers or the possibility of sharing a main dish. The lunch bowls offered at midday are lower in cost and a bit more restrained in size with either rice or noodles as the supportive starch depending on which specific bowl is chosen.
With the move to an indoor format, EZbachi has taken advantage of the opportunity to expand its menu, and that means using the rice, udon, vegetables, and proteins that dominate its usual entrees in other formats. One of those is burritos. The Bachi Burros, as they’re known, are stuffed with fried rice and a chosen meat while the tortilla is coated on the inside with one of the sauces. Another alternative format is a bowl of udon soup full of thick noodles in a dashi broth with the option to add either shrimp or gyoza stuffed with a choice of ground pork or chicken.
Those gyoza are part of an appetizer menu that also includes edamame, skewers, and wings. At the other end of the typical meal sequence, EZbachi now also offers dessert in the form of cheesecake. Three varieties are listed – plain, yuzu, and hot honey – but availability varies. Drinks have also expanded. In addition to its previous choices of sodas and iced teas, the restaurant now has a liquor license enabling it to offer bottled beer and cocktails, mostly sweet and fruity ones, like the Golden Dawn, which combines rum, mango, and grenadine.
If there’s one avenue for menu expansion that seems to have escaped EZbachi’s attention, it’s the absence of any vegetarian items on the menu. Since the vegetables, udon, and fried rice would all go well with tofu or simply thrive in a combination by themselves, that seems an easily correctable oversight. Otherwise, the move from food truck to full service restaurant seems to have been a successful one. Just as a fixed route is a key facet of rail transit, a fixed location has allowed EZbachi to add variety to its menu without losing sight of its core strengths.
1713 S. Central Ave., Phoenix AZ 85004
http://ezbachi.com
PHX Rail Food 