Pago

I spent the first 4 years of my SLC residency within walking distance of what was once one of the solitary bastions of foodie culture in our town, but I have never written up an evening at Pago. So, we booked a table for four last weekend. On the one hand, I currently list Scott Evans' other venture, Finca, in my top 5 SLC favorites. On the other, I have a spotty history with Pago - I've had good experiences and I've had mediocre experiences. Either Pago has been incrementally improving or we just hit the nail on the head and picked a good night to visit (probably a mix of both), but this time the experience was great.

We started things off in a Belgian mode - mussels and frites. The fries at Pago are really good. Perfectly cooked and truffled, they compliment the mussels well. While the preparation on the mussels was good, it was the size and flavor of the things themselves that blew me away. Gigantic and super tender - please insert your own large and tender mussels joke here. Unlike the Finca preparation, which is also a favorite but dominated by the heavy sauce and the andouille sausage, at Pago the dish highlights the quality of the mussels with light accompanying flavors.

One of the unusual (for Utah) features of Pago is that they keep a somalier around - the ever-charming and friendly Evan Lewandowski. No evening here would be complete without picking his brain about something.  I'm not a wine expert but I do know my Malbecs, and the Colome that we ended up with was super interesting.  Nothing like any Malbec you've ever had - it is an excellent choice.  I liked it even more when Evan told us why he picked it and helped me understand what the surprising flavors were all about.  We chose this wine ourselves, but 5 minutes with the somalier made it all the more enjoyable.

On to the main event - all four entrees were good and each stood out for different reasons. The duck breast with brussels sprouts, squash, wild mushrooms and huckleberry was a mixed experience for me. As you can see below, it is plated in three slices of duck with a perfectly crisped skin on a bed of the vegetables, shredded duck, mushrooms and huckleberry reduction. The largest piece was amazing - and the smallest piece was just OK. This dish was one that I would order again at most restaurants but it was overshadowed by the other three plates so I guess I'd rank it fourth for our evening. To be clear - I'd place Pago's duck on par with the duck breast at Copper Onion, which I love. That rank order speaks to the quality of our food and not to any real deficiency with the duck.

The shocker of the evening was the burger, topped with bacon, gouda, pickled onion and black garlic aioli. I love a few burgers in town - Wild Grape and Copper Onion probably vie for my favorite, but no longer. I'm officially passing the torch and making the declaration: the Pago burger is the best in SLC right now. The crisp bacon atop a perfectly cooked medium temp burger combine with the winter greens and pickled onion to make for a crushingly good experience. Go eat this ASAP, and please, please keep it on the menu Pago.

Next to discuss - the lamb with farro, kale, smoked onion and olive.  I have no idea what that sauce is but it was only bested by the flavor of the lamb itself. Where some of my previous meals at Pago had been spoiled by oversaucing and trying too hard, this plate showed proper restraint and allowed the fantastic piece of meat to be the star. I highly recommend trying the lamb. 

I was really excited about the pork tenderloin cooked sous vide with bacon, polenta apple and turnip. As an unabashed fan of anything molecular, I was bummed when my friend ordered this as it meant that I would have to try something different, but thankfully she shared. Pork may be the ideal meat for sous vide preparation given its tendency to dry out - you get a perfect cut that is moist without any worries that you're taking risks. The bacon wrap allows the meat to be seared crispy on the outside without cooking into the tenderloin. Finally, the polenta was done right - light crunch on the outside and creamy throughout.

We ordered som Charming Beard coffee to accompany our desserts. If you don't know them, Charming Beard is an SLC company that has a remarkably unique product. Ultra light roast botique, single-origin, small batch... yet unpretentious. I love dark roast coffee so I don't often buy Charming Beard, but when I'm in the mood for a light roast I think it is hard to beat!

Let's dissect the desserts in order of how much I liked them. First, we ordered a carrot cake type thing that I didn't like at all. It is ugly on the plate, the cake was dry... not good.

Next, we had a flourless chocolate cake topped with peanut butter nougat. It was good enough - but I wouldn't order again as I expected the chocolate to be richer. The topping dominated the cake here.

Finally, the redeeming dessert - an absurdly good bread pudding with salted caramel and ice cream. Whereas the other two sweets were decidedly sub-par, this one stood out among the best I've had in Salt Lake. We should have just ordered three of them!

The Verdict?  I had not been to Pago in over a year and things seem to have changed for the better - our food ranged from good to outstanding and where I had been annoyed by the pretense in past visits the entire staff was friendly and completely dialed with their knowledge and recommendations.  Back into the regular rotation it goes!

Zy Restaurant - Brunch

I have been a fan of Zy since my first visit, but until a couple weeks ago I had never tried their brunch.  Conditions have to be absolutely perfect for me to make it out to brunch (rather, they need to be terrible outside) as I'd rather be skiing, biking or climbing on any given weekend morning.  But if you never make it to brunch in Salt Lake, you will miss out on a whole different side of what our best restaurants have to offer.

Everyone starts off with the cinnamon and sugar fritters at brunch.  These are a great start to the meal and are so big that you will wonder if you have any room for what comes next.

Zy's brunch menu splits nicely between sweet and savory options.  This actually created a problem for us as it ended up taking two meals to get a full view on what they have to offer.  In our first visit, my wife had the french toast and I had the Chicken and Waffles with bourbon butter and gravy.  If you are only going to make it out to Zy once for brunch, you can stop here:  get the chicken and waffles.  Thanks for reading but you don't need to know anything else.

The preparation on the french toast was their house made sourdough soaked in the the same custard that they use for creme brulle, topped with roasted pears, pecans, maple syrup and whipped creme fraiche.  'Twas great - as you can see.

I also enjoyed a side of bacon, which is delicious and is used to garnish the Bloody Marys that kept being delivered throughout the restaurant during brunch.  Unfortunately I hate Bloody Marys so I took my bacon straight.

Given that it was just my wife and I, we stopped there, and made a second reservation for the next weekend on our way out the door.

I wanted to try some of the savory items on the menu for the second visit, and I had my heart set on ordering one of my favorite Mexican breakfast foods - Chilaquiles.  However, during the week Zy posted some facebook photos of their new addition to the brunch menu, the bread pudding.  This was a savory bread pudding topped with a sunny side egg, roasted tomatoes, sunflower microgreens and sauce Mornay.  When the time came to order I couldn't resist, and I'm glad I didn't - it was stellar.  Mornay is a Bechamel sauce with cheese added - usually half Gruyere and half Parmesan (thanks wikipedia).  In a nod to the Utah heritage of this dish, the flavor combo of the Mornay sauce and the roasted tomatos, when taken in one bite, sort of whispers "fry sauce".

My in-laws and my newly-relocated-to-SLC sister and her husband were all along for this meal, so they helped us try more than we otherwise could have.  One of us went for the Chilaquiles that I was so keen to try.  They were good - though untraditional.  The preparation is a red version of Chilaquiles and is much dryer (on purpose) than what I'm used to, which would be much more sauce and a sunny side egg, but the flavors were great and I'd order again if I couldn't get the bread pudding.

My brother in law ordered the eggs benny.  A house-made english muffin topped with truffle hollandaise and Cremenili proscuitto cotto.  I thought the truffled hollandaise was really subtle and delicious - it lacked the kick that you get out of a standard hollandaise and replaced it with the best flavor known to man... truffles.

Several in our party wisely opted for the chicken and waffles, so we only tried one other new item - the french toast part two.  The preparation had changed since our first visit and while this one, to me, sounded less interesting on paper, it was the biggest surprise win of the meal.  Same sourdough toast but this time the topping was berries and a goat-cheese creme fraiche.  The goat-cheese and sweetness combined into a breakfast miracle.  Obviously, Cheff Matt Lake knows his cheese, and I'm glad to see that come out across the entire spectrum of the brunch menu where surfacing that knowledge might require the most effort.

We also tried the herb fries.  As I've been thinking about fry power rankings lately, I was surprised by how good these were and they may have advanced my placement of shoestring potatoes a few slots.

My last note is that you'll probably see more Zy on my blog next month as we are attending a dinner on April 28 dedicated to the recipes of The Modernist Cuisine.  I'm incredibly excited about this - call Zy for info by it sounds like it will be a great night and a crazy-good value.

The Verdict?  I love Zy and their brunch made me a bigger fan than ever.  Regardless of what you are in the mood for, Zy puts out a brunch that is complex, filling and will please both the foodie and the diner who would normally default to a greasy spoon joint.

Zest Kitchen & Bar

We wanted to try out the new vegetarian and vegan joint, Zest, as their cocktail menu looked intriguing and they bill themselves as offering "globally inspired seasonal cuisine featuring organic, local, sustainable ingredients, when available".  That sounded like it had potential.  Zest is located in the spot that used to house Acme Burger.  The decor has not changed too much - but about 1/3rd of the space is now evidently a dance floor complete with DJ booth.  

We thought we'd start with a couple of small plates and drinks.  I asked for some ideas and we were told that the parmesan stuffed mushrooms were the most popular item on the menu.  We also ordered the sweet potato fries.  I ordered the jalepeno margarita as well.

We thought that the staff at Zest was friendly.  Unfortunately the food was really, really bad.  The mushrooms really had zero flavor and we had trouble finding any parmesan in them.  The baked sweet potato fries were a stack of baked sweet potato devoid of seasoning.  Off!

So they can't cook - but maybe the mixologist at Zest could save the day?  Restaurants that turn into night clubs perhaps trend towards drink-focused, so I had hopes for the "bar" half of the menu.  Unfortunately, the jalepeno margarita tasted like you had muddled some jarred peppers into a glass of Cuervo margarita mix.  Just a sugary bomb.  Given the skills that are on display lately in the SLC bar scene at places like Pallet, Finca, The Wild Grape and Bar X - it's impossible not to come down hard on Zest.

Given that it was St. Patrick's day, I decided to have a Jameson and call it good.

The Verdict? I like to be constructive with my feedback but sometimes you gotta hope that restauranteurs will just cash it in and make space for someone else.  The space currently occupied by Zest is such a nice location that I'm hoping we'll eventually see a tenant that lives up to its potential.

Taqueria 27

I found Taqueria 27 on Twitter and made a mental note to stop in since I drive by the restaurant almost every day.  I didn't take the time to check out their website so I wasn't sure what to expect but was pleasantly surprised.  Taqueria 27 does quick takes on some pretty complex ideas, then wraps them in a tortilla and calls it a taco (sometimes it is, sometimes that is a stretch, but it was always delicious).

Our meal progressed from decent to mind-blowing.  We started with the roasted guacamole, which was one option among six guacamoles.  Good flavor with roasted chiles, garlic, lime and cilantro, but it certainly could have benefitted from more of those ingredients as it was super mild.

We also grabbed some house margaritas, which were mixed with blood orange, citrus and agave nectar.  A bit tangier than I'm used to, I really appreciated that they had tried something new (if only slightly) for their house recipe.  If it weren't for all of the other appealing drinks on the menu I would say I'd order these again.  Can't go wrong with a house marg here.

The tequila menu was fairly extensive although you're not going to find anything too exotic outside of the "extra anjeos".  I would love to see some of the reposados and anejos built out with a few boutique options, but was pleased to see some favorites on the menu for sure.

Our tacos all came at once.

I'll work up in order of what we enjoyed.  The fish taco was a grouper that was "flash fried" and topped with slaw, cilantro-lime crema and jalepeno tartar sauce.  This was a perfectly fine fish taco, but I would note that it is deep fried, not exactly flash fried, in grease that was nearing the end of its useful life.  I can't complain because the result was a perfectly cooked fish taco, but be ready for fried if you order fried.

Both of the other tacos we ordered were fantastic and we were split on which was best.  The special that day was a pork skirt steak marinated in sriracha and soy sauces then served with an asian slaw.  I was skeptical about pork skirt steak but it was every bit as lean and tender as the more commonly seen beef skirt.  The asian flavors were cool, but it still pretty much felt like a taco - so kudos to Taqueria 27 for making everything work together without creating a tortilla-wrapped spring roll.  This one was a flour tortilla, and I might go flour on them all next time as it was particularly good.

The last two tacos to mention were the duck confit.  Given the time requirements around traditional confit methods (cooking the duck in its own fat), I thought it was pretty unique to find a taco joint able to create this.  The taco is finished with fire-roasted veggies, leeks and chipotle crema.  By far my favorite item of the night.

The Verdict?  Taqueria 27 is haute cuisine made into tacos that span the cullinary gambit at a reasonable price.  I haven't found the unique mixture of well-executed interesting cooking, price and quick, casual atmosphere anywhere else in SLC (yet).  The environment is fun for a date but also friendly to kids.  The drinks are good.

Note: hopefully this is the last post where you see dreamy photos with a light haze around them - I ordered a new lens for my iphone camera, which should fix the issue.

Eva

I've been to Eva once before and had a decent experience but wanted to document the latest visit here.  I was with a couple of friends and we had a chance to try quite a few menu items.  Here's the rub with Eva: if I'm paying you to create food for me, it should be better than what I can do for myself, or less expensive (in terms of time, money or both).  I'm not sure that Eva met that hurdle for us.  The photos are really poor this time due to bad lighting and my continued unwillingness to carry a proper camera to the dinner table... sorry.

We started out with the roasted beets and goat cheese topped with garlic chips, mint and hazelnut vinaigrette.  If this looks good to you, I have good news - you can go to costco and purchase the cooked baby beets, slice them up, throw some goat cheese on there and you will have this dish!  Honestly, it wasn't exciting at all.

We also tried out the Brussels Sprouts, the "most popular item on the menu".  The preparation is a shredded sprout with toasted hazelnuts and cider vinegar.  I thought the flavor was pretty good though I  wasn't blown away.

The best dish of the night was the tri-tip bruschetta - a thin-sliced tri-tip steak bruschetta with lemon, parmesan, aioli and radicchio.  My only critique on this one is that I'm used to a medium or mid-rare preparation on a tri-tip steak, and the steak in this dish is cooked well done.

The oink-oink-oink was the final dish in our first round of small plates.  This is a skewer with pork belly, bacon and pork tenderloin.  Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love pork belly, which is why I was so frustrated to receive the overcooked skewer of pork that came out with this order.  The tenderloin was rubbery and burnt and the pork belly was a sub-par cut of meat made worse by too much cooking.  Off.

We went around a second time and the first arrival was the wood-fired flatbread served with truffled white bean, arugula pesto and olive tapanade.  This plate was OK - the flatbread had tons of potential but I felt like the pesto wasn't very balanced and the truffled white bean was underwhelming.

I wanted to try the calamari and it was probably the number two most disappointing item on the menu behind the oink-oink.  It was served with a few fried jalepeno chips, but really had zero flavor going on.  Think about how Long John Silver would cook calamari and you get the jist.

We had the spanish organic green salad with manchego, marcona almonds, red peppers and honey truffle vinaigrette.  This salad was pretty good - I would definitely repeat it if I was back at Eva.

The grilled asparagus topped with a poached egg, romano cheese, chopped proscuitto and jalepeno aioli was pretty good as well and stood out as one of the better items of our night.  Maybe I'm spoiled by Finca's take on this dish, which is infinitely more well-executed, but I was a bit let down by Eva's asparagus.

Lastly, I have to mention that I ordered the Eva's whiskey - which is a wood-fired lemon muddled in Maker's on the rocks.  Maybe just a function of Utah liquor laws, but this is basically a water with a spritz of whiskey and a charred lemon.  Not a fan.

I would tell you how the crab cakes were that we ordered, but they never came.

The Verdict?  Eva's has a super interesting menu but is foiled by terrible execution on all fronts.  I don't recommend it but I suppose there is hope for the joint if they import some chefs.  Nice beards, plaid, checkers, paisley and vintage floral only cover up so much.  If you're thinking about Eva - do yourself a favor and head over to Finca instead.

SLC Pop

We decided to try out SLC Pop last weekend on a whim when Chef Katie Weinner posted some avaialbe seats on their Facebook page. It was a really cool experience and I'll mostly just use my iPhone shots to tell the story. The event is held at the Nata Gallery, which Katie and her partner Mike Burtis have leased as a multi-dimensional community space which will host meals for SLC Pop as well as other events. Check out their Kickstarter video for details, but it seems like a space that could be used similarly to the Missio Dei space that The SLC Foodie uses for all of her events. I love people who are trying to build up the food and culture scene in Salt Lake City, so I love the thought behind the Nata Gallery.

When we arrived we got an original take on the BLT - a pork rind topped with tomato, beet green and fry sauce. It was a single bite course, but a fun idea and tasty for sure.

Next course was a raddish and some Amish butter served in a jar filled with applewood smoke. Chef Katie told us that we could wait a while to open the jar if we would like a smokier flavor, so we waited a good five minutes to sample the jar.  The combo of radish with salt and butter is a typical French snack, but usually served over a baguette or crouton in my experience.  Two complaints about this - the smoke just didn't permeate anything for me and without a bread to perch the dish on we basically ended up eating a raddish and then a little fork full of butter.  I dig the creative presentation and I highly support the use of a smoke gun whenever possible, but this was the only flop of the night for me.  

Releasing the smoke was fun!

The next dish was number three on my top three tastes of the night list.  Presented as an "edible rock", we got some Barely Buzzed shortbread (made with a local lavender-and-espresso-rubbed cheese of the same name).  The shortbread was served with honeyed goat cheese stuffed medjool dates (from Trader Joe's!) with cocoa nib salt, butternut squash butter with honey and pepper jam.  The shortbread was killer alone but the flavor combos were all interesting on this plate.

The next dish was the cheese course and the soup course all in one, and I would put this in the running for the best soup I have ever had.  Did you hear that?  True.  It was a smoked mozzarella cream with chunks of smoked fresh mozzarella, topped with a pear and triple creme brie soup.  Forget the photo, this soup may have been worth the price of admission.

We came back to earth for the next course and enjoyed a Sri Lankan beet curry over coconut Daikon noodles and topped with some beet greens.  The Daikon noodles are soaked in coconut milk and end up tasting a lot like they are actually just slices of coconut.  The beet curry was good - I think that there was some coffee involved in the recipe, which makes beets particularly awesome.

The next course rounds out our top three, coming in at number two.  It was a purple polenta (made with blue corn) topped with jalepeno elk sausage and green apple.  Really tasty and the elk was farm raised so it had a very different flavor than most of the elk I've had in the past - much more mellow.  I wish we had received more than a few bites of this one.

The palette cleanser was a citrus granita with agave nectar and violet caviar.  I was glad to see a bit of molecular work its way into the meal with the caviar.  

The next course wasn't really food, but it was fun.  We got a painter's pallet with a variety of edible ink, including violet, yogurt powder, fizzy thingers (?), finger lime caramel (yum), orange curd, chocolate caramel, red wine and beet-buddha hand.  Then we got rice paper and were told to paint a picture and then eat it.  This was all pretty funny and it would have only been better if we would have all shared our art around the room.

Here is my lovely creation.  The eyes are done in pistachio paste, in case you were wondering.

Next we started into the desserts.  The first course was a slow roasted pineapple confit, but since pineapples don't really have their own fat for confit roasting, butter was used instead.  This was served with a tangerine zabaglione with honey comb and amoretti.  It was good and the amoretti cookies were probably the highlight.

The next dessert course was a beet cereal with Kaffir lime milk.  I won't lie - when I saw that one of the previous SLC Pop dinners had featured a cereal I was pretty bummed.  I hate cereal.  But Chef Katie gave us the download on how she had dehydrated then fried up the beet chips, and I do love beets, so I gave it a try.  I did enjoy this dish and the lime milk added a super interesting flavor to the mix.  I just told myself I wasn't really eating cereal and it all worked out in the end.

We finished the night with petit fours: a thyme macaroon, whiskey gummies, red wine meringue, guiness chocolate cake and the house take on a Butterfinger.  The chocolate cake was dry, but everything else was delicious and the coffee was good too!

It is really hard to comment on the SLC Pop experience as an unbiased critic because it is such a personal event.  The chefs really involve you in what they are doing - we went back and checked out the kitchen and even got the backstory on the bathroom sink at Nata.  Overall, the dinner showcases some of the best culinary talent that our city has to offer and for that reason I would put this on your tick list if you care about food in Salt Lake.  The only qualm I have is that we left hungry.  If we had bumped a couple of the portions in size I think the meal would have been perfect, but if you arrive hungry you might consider following your 10 courses at SLC Pop with a hamburger at The Green Pig next door.  The other thing I want to add is that this dinner felt very much like it belonged in Salt Lake City - not sure if that will make sense to anyone but the vibe was local and I loved that about the meal.

The verdict?  I was really glad that I went and felt that every course had something unique and interesting to offer.  For the price ($75 per person), you're also getting bargain access to some of the same folks who can charge a whole lot more at events like Mist.  I'm looking forward to engaging Katie on some other events in the future - she said they are very open to customizing meals for groups so hit them up if you've got an idea.