Recs for Salt Lake City

I'm in downtown SLS for 4 nites - looking for a good place --
I've been to the Red Iguana and I'm not impressed.

We did have sushi at Takashi and it was awesome - but I can't go there every night.

Any ideas???

Crown Burger comes to mind. Not bad fast food-style burger. I think there are multiple locations.

Great Belgian style fry place, Brugges
Bruges Waffles and Frites
336 West Broadway (300 South)
Salt Lake City, UT 84101

Right next to it is a great market, great cheeses/meats and they serve sandwiches - Tony Caputo's...

Any updates for Salt Lake City? I'll be there for 4 night for work next week. I've read through the LTH threads--so far sounds like Red Iguana and the places listed above. JeffB's description of SLC as the "worst restaurant city in America" confirms what I've heard from others but I'm hoping there are a few more suggestions out there.
Thanks

Highly recommend Takashi. Excellent sushi and inventive beautiful cooked dishes as well. (Full disclosure, I'm friends of the owners but I'd still recommend it if I wasn't.)

Takashi
18 Market Street
Salt Lake City, UT 84101-2103
(801) 519-9595

thaiobsessed wrote:Any updates for Salt Lake City? I'll be there for 4 night for work next week. I've read through the LTH threads--so far sounds like Red Iguana and the places listed above. JeffB's description of SLC as the "worst restaurant city in America" confirms what I've heard from others but I'm hoping there are a few more suggestions out there.
Thanks

Personally, I am a Red Iguana junkie. I have had four mole dishes on my last four visits and it beats ANY mole I have had in Chicago. That is the MUST eat place in the area.

Worst restaurant city? Hardly. Personally, I think a lot of the complaints come as a result of Utah's less permissive alcohol laws.

Here are some other ideas:

Lamb's Grill Cafe - the oldest restaurant in SLC serves a lot of traditional favorites.
http://www.lambsgrill.com/

Crown Burgers serves a lot of excellent burgers. They are best known for their pastrami burger.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/29/dinin ... d.html?hpw


Due to the number of LDS Missionaries returning to SLC and Provo annually (and their spouses), you will find a wide variety of ethnic restaurants that you generally would not see in a city the size of SLC.

Thanks all for the encouraging suggestions. I'll keep this list handy for my trip this week.

I was quoted out of context. I've spent substantial time in SLC and have been a long time proponent of both Red Iguana and the greek pastrami burger places, including Crown (though they are greasy fast food gut bombs, not In n Out or Father's Office/Burger Bar type places, just so we're clear).

I will stand by my statement that SLC is the worst "big" city for food, however, even taking the above into consideration. Ditto hotels.

Look, it is not a place with a big history of eating out, has a fiscally austere population base, and was essentially dry until things shook loose a bit with the Olympics some years back. The dryness doesn't lend itself to being a great food city. Add to that the fact that wonderful ski towns with tons of restaurants and (apparently) far fewer restrictions exist 30-40 minutes away over the mountains and circumstances converge to make SLC a particularly dull place to be stuck for work. If you don't think I'm the sort who has done his homework and tried to find the good stuff in SLC, I'm sorry. I'm on record that some of the great places in this world to visit have crappy food (see Costa Rica eg). In my experience, most of Utah (edit: and much but not all of the "Mountain West") fits that axiom.

PS: can anyone name a city as large or at least significant enough within its geographic region to support a major league sports franchise (a rough proxy, I'll admit) with worse dining options? I'll eat my hat. Canada, with its hockey outposts, doesn't count, but Green Bay does. Orlando, even.

JeffB wrote:I will stand by my statement that SLC is the worst "big" city for food, however, even taking the above into consideration. Ditto hotels.

.

Cleveland, Cincinnati, Oklahoma City, Orlando, maybe Columbus right off the top of my head.

You had me going there for a second, but leading with Cleaveland as a worse food city than SLC gave you away.

yeah...can't speak for cincy, oklahoma city or columbus since I've never been to any of them but Cleveland has some gems and if you get away from mouse central, Orlando has some good spots too.

By the way, my dismissal of SLC is sort of a "bit" of mine. Not to be taken too seriously.
While it's true in my humble experience, there's nothing to be gained by "proving" SLC has depressingly few good dining options. I end up at the Red Iguana every time and enjoy it (though claims about it being the best Mexican place in the US seem silly to me - it's an ovesized mom and pop with fantastic moles on *good* meats; a GNR for sure). I'd like to find something different and this thread mentions some options. So thanks.

In addition to what's been said and documented about Cleveland (the travel posts are pretty impressive) and Orlando on LTH, Cincy has top ice cream, long had a pillar of US fine dining, and bona fide regional eats such as goeta and that chili. OKC is a closer call and not so great. But it does have traditioally solid BBQ and steak plus TexMex for what that's worth. What the heck: I'll concede, SLC = OKC for dining.

Just wanted to post a few words about my recent trip to Salt Lake City.
First off, sorry to misrepresent your prior post JeffB--you did frame your SLC as a not-so-hot food city assertion as a comparison to other similar size. I was lazy in my paraphrasing.
As it turned out, I didn't get away from the hotel area for too many meals (the Thai place near the hotel served the pa nang curry over penne so that was a bit of a downer). The Asain-themed Chow truck parked near the hotel and the food was totally overrated. But hey, at least I waited about an hour between the line and the food pre.
A couple of my Chicago colleagues RAVED about Red Iguana. So I was sorry to miss that meal. Unfortunately, we were never able to get in to Takashi due to wait times. I did have one really exceptional meal there at Meditrina, on West Temple. They serve tapas (in the small plates but not necessarily Spanish sense) and the food was fabulous. Some highlights include a grilled lamb dish and a grilled prawns over polenta. The red-wine soaked oreo dessert, while not my absolute favorite, actually kind of worked. Thanks for all the recs.

Was in Salt Lake City this week for business and ate at the Copper Onion downtown, which was a couple blocks from Hotel Monaco where we stayed (nice place). The streets were otherwise largely desolate, but Copper Onion was busy and had a very fun atmosphere. Indoor/outdoor seating, and an interesting "regional American" menu. The charcuterie and cheeses looked great, but did not try any. I had a special prix fixe meal served as part of "Dine Out Salt Lake" -- tomato/avocado salad with a great dressing, spicy and garlicky mussels, and (unfortunately unripe) peaches with creme anglais for dessert. My colleague had a crusted halibut, which looked delicious. Beef stroganoff and the tri-tip were on my short list. Would definitely recommend the place for anyone looking for a good meal downtown.

Copper Onion
111 E Broadway # 170
Salt Lake City, UT 84111-5248
(801) 355-3282

I felt pretty underwhelmed after looking at this thread in advance of an upcoming trip to SLC.
In what now feels like another life (a little over a decade ago), I spent a couple of years in Salt Lake City. While it never struck me as a gastronomic capital, it also never left me wanting for good food. 'Not sure whether this laundry list of places will be helpful, but these were some favorites at the time, which appear to have stood the test of time. They're listed in no particular order, but with some luck will lead one of you to a worthwhile meal. In any event, I thought someone should give Salt Lake a little LTH love...

Oasis Café
151 South 500 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84102-1906
(801) 322-0404
http://www.oasiscafeslc.com
A vegetarian friendly restaurant serving fresh food with bright flavors in an upscale new-age environment. I recall nice desserts, organic wines, and an ecclectic bookstore tucked away on the side

Koko Kitchen
702 South 300 East, Salt Lake City, UT 84111
(801) 364-4888
A small, storefront eatery with home cooked Japanese dishes to eat at the counter or to take out. Delicious miso, comfort foods like donburi, and some basic maki.

Ruth’s Diner
4160 Emigration Canyon Road, Salt Lake City, Utah 84108
801-582-5807
http://www.ruthsdiner.com
The food at this restaurant, a short way up one of the canyons, is definitely outdone by the beautiful scenery. Still, I recall finding breakfast and brunch to be quite enjoyable, beside which they always included a fresh biscuit and some homemade jam just for sitting down

Cucina
1026 East 2nd Avenue Salt Lake City, UT 84103-3932
(801) 322-3055
http://www.cucinadeli.com
A favorite for take out of mediterranean style prepared foods, this place is a deli, meets cosy coffee shop and gift shop...

Café Shambala
383 4th Avenue, Salt Lake City, UT 84103
(801)364-8558
A small, unassuming, friendly and tasty Tibetan café serving momos and butter tea among other specialties.

Caffe Molise
55 West 100 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101-1507
801-364-8833
http://www.caffemolise.com
A bustling Italian restaurant with good, rustic food

Park Café
604 East 1300 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84105-1113
(801) 487-1670
http://theparkcafeslc.com
A bright, bright space providing a pleasant spot for brunch

Tony Caputo
314 West 300 South, Salt Lake City, UT 84101
(801) 519-5754
http://www.caputosdeli.com
An Italian deli with scrumptious sandwiches made to order

And for some more upscale fare just over an hour from Salt Lake, the Tree Room at the beautiful Sundance Resort provides modern American cuisine with an eye to local ingredients in a memorable setting worth the trip and money.
Tree Room
8841 Alpine Loop Rd, Sundance, UT 84604-5538
(801) 225-4107
sundanceresort.com/dine/tree_room.html

I’ll be in Salt Lake for four nights next week. I’ll be staying near the airport. Based on the above recommendations
I plan on hitting Red Iguana and Crown Burger. Any recommendations near the airport? I’m open to anything but
try to hit at least one highly regarded local pizza place whenever I can on these trips. Any pointers would be welcome.

Thanks In Advance.

Everything is near the airport. SLC is big for where it is, but it's not big. The airport is very close to downtown, and Red Iguana is in between on the drag that connects the 2.

Found this post in my archive. I must have forgotten to post it.

Enjoyed a recent trip to Salt Lake City with the family. I last visited about 8 years ago and things have changed a lot. There is a robust local coffee roasting and beer brewing culture that made it feel a lot like other Western US cities. It was also common to see children out at restaurants with their parents even after 8PM, which made life easy for us since we were traveling with our infant daughter.

The most noteworthy bites of the trip were from two restaurants with Navajo chefs.



I don't have much experience with Navajo cooking, but I quickly learned that their staple food is frybread. We stopped by Navajo Hogan, which is a short drive from downtown, for a quick lunch and were pleasantly surprised. The shop is owned by a friendly couple with the husband greeting customers and the wife making frybread to order behind the counter. They primarily serve "Navajo tacos" and a daily special that comes with a side of frybread. We ordered the traditional Navajo taco, which is frybread topped with beans, lettuce, tomato, and cheese, and the daily special of mutton soup. Both dishes were simple yet satisfying.

Navajo Hogan
447 E 3300 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84115



The undisputed highlight of the trip was a visit to Black Sheep Cafe in Provo. It's described as contemporary Southwestern, Native American cuisine and I felt they represented that label well. We started off with a pitcher of their cactus pear lemonade that was on nearly every table and refreshing. They are famous for their hog jowl tacos that are topped with pickled jicama and served on blue corn. These were solid, but not as unique as the green chile pork stew or red chile beef navajo taco. The roasted chile flavor was well balanced in both dishes playing off the garnishes of cotija cheese and onions. The pork stew is served with nanniskadii which is a lavash-like bread that is also used in place of a bun in their buffalo burger. The server told us they are a "from scratch kitchen" so the food takes some time to hit the table, but the effort was worth it. Provo is a bit of a drive from Salt Lake City, but this was definitely the most memorable meal of our visit to the region.

Black Sheep Cafe
19 N University Ave
Provo, UT 84601
http://www.blacksheepcafe.com/

Some other notes from the trip:

-There are two French bakeries putting out quality baked goods. Eva's Bakery and Les Madeleines have similar offerings such as croissants, pains au chocolat, kouign amanns, etc. I'd say the quality (and the prices) is a little higher at Les Madeleines, but either is worth a visit and conveniently located near major landmarks. The kouign amann at Les Madeleines was the closest rendition I've had to the one at Bad Wolf.
http://lesmadeleines.com/
http://evasbakeryslc.com/

-Moochie's Meatballs and More is a good spot that advertises handmade meatballs and philly cheese steaks. From what I could tell, most people go for the meatball subs and the one I had was good. More memorable, for me, was the fry sauce. It's a mixture of ketchup, mayonnaise, and relish that can be found all over town. Moochie's fry sauce the best version I had, more tangy and less sweet than others. I also enjoyed their jalapeno fry sauce, which is a popular dipping sauce for the fries and the meatball subs.
http://www.moochiesmeatballs.com/

-Brunch is popular and there are a couple spots that serve it every day. We had some nice fluffy pancakes served with thick-cut bacon and bottomless coffee at the super popular Park Cafe. By 9AM the place is packed, so if you're in the mood for brunch go early.
http://theparkcafeslc.com/

-Bruges Waffles and Frites have a couple locations in the area and we were fortunate to happen across the location in Provo when we were hungry for a snack. It's an interesting concept that does brisk business. The Liege style waffle we had was solid and inspired me to start researching recipes to make them at home.
http://www.brugeswaffles.com/

-Tony Caputo's Market and Carlucci's Bakery are in the same complex next to Pioneer Park and make for a good one two punch. Tony Caputo's has a good deli counter where you can get Italian subs and also a market area with some interesting imported pastas and other Italian goods. Carlucci's fills their cannolis to order and makes a good variety of biscotti.
http://www.caputosdeli.com/
http://www.carluccisbakery.com/

-Bambara is often described as one of the best restaurants in the city. We were staying in the Hotel Monaco so we ended up at the bar on the first night for a quick dinner. Granted it's a hotel restaurant, but everything was overwrought and completely out of balance. The elk tartare was dripping with vinaigrette, the arugula salad was limp with creamy dressing, and the burger was smothered in mayonnaise. Perhaps the food in the dining room is better, but at the price point I'd be hesitant to give them another shot.
http://www.bambara-slc.com/