My fiancé took his pediatric boards yesterday and that calls for a no-more-studying-at-coffee-shops-during-dinner celebration! We are brand new to Phoenix and these last few months have been eating lots of Mexican and some more Mexican, which we are not complaining about in the least, but it was time for something different. Our neighbor recommended Richardson's/Rokerij as his favorite so I made a reservation for Monday night.

We sat in their downstairs dining room tucked in a generous booth in the back corner. My fiancé ordered a Dark and Stormy and we split a bottle of Pinot Noir as our server informed us of their 1/2 price bottles of wine deal. Hurrah! We ordered 2 appetizers: the bacon-wrapped scallops and the crab-stuffed mushrooms. One bite of the scallops and we were in heaven. They were GIANT, perfectly cooked, and beautifully placed in a pool of amazingly different dipping sauces. You can never go wrong with wrapping bacon on a piece of, well, anything, but this appetizer was magical.

My fiancé ordered the Rokerij Steak with roasted corn and mashed sweet potatoes in a chili pepper. I'm not a steak lover, but took one bite of his dish and it melted in my mouth. Fantastic. I ordered the Swordfish special with roasted eggplant and mashed sweet potatoes in the chili pepper as well, and I devoured every bite! 

What did it for me, however, was the dessert. We shared the truffle with vanilla gelato topped with berries. The truffles were like buttery brownies in a hard shell and perfectly portioned to satisfy. Very memorable. We will be back, even if it's just for the truffles!