Sundance Film Fest--Park City, Utah

We're heading West to sit on our butts--both on the hills and in the movie theaters. Any ideas for food in Park City? (We won't have a car, so Salt Lake City is out this time, but I'd welcome any suggestions for future visits.)

Thanks!

First off, you might want to make reservations in advance. Park City restaurants are quite busy just on a normal ski weekend, but during the film festival, I'm betting the popular places will be jammed.

Three places come to mind. Grappa is considered the best Italian. I've never been enthralled, but it's always been good. There is a place called River Horse (or possibly Wild Horse) that has very good modern American type cooking. Finally, there used to be a place called Chamayo that was sort of Southwestern. There's a good seafood place I'll try to remember the name of.

Thanks for the suggestions, Jonah. Riverhorse was a no-go since it was a hotbed for deals made during the fest. We eyed Chimayo--it looks like a beautiful spot and the wild mushroom pot pie sounded like an interesting vegetarian option, but we didn’t get there--hopefully next year!

As you mentioned, it was a zoo during Sundance. We tried to get reservations at Shabu, a nice Japanese place. The attitude of the hostess convinced us to spend our hard earned money elsewhere. We hopped the free shuttle to Prospector Square to try Blind Dog, which another site called a "must try". This place is bi-polar in a cool way--one half is gourmet American comfort food and the other half a sushi bar. You can order from both menus on the sushi side, so we chose that and got a seat at the sushi bar. Where else in the US can you get butternut squash bisque, mac & cheese, a spicy cup of miso and an impromptu veggie sushi combo made up by the chef on the fly? I also ordered the gomae, which was different than expected--it was a quite-large fresh baby spinach salad with a nice dressing. All was good and it was a fun setting.

Another place we tried for the first time was Taste of Saigon. I had a 1/2 off coupon which may have been a mistake. We got there right before a big rush. One entree arrived (can’t remember what it was--it was ok), then our appetizer (imperial Rolls served with peanut sauce) which was fine.

Then it was a loooong wait for the next entree (Vegetarian Spicy Curry in Clay Pot -- Pan-fried tofu & veggies sautéed with coconut milk and a yellow Vietnamese curry sauce.) We finally inquired, the waitperson said she thought we already had it, then she spied it under the heat lamp. We may as well have passed on it anyway--it was a bland, nothing special dish. We should have stuck with our usual fav, Bangkok Thai--they handle crowds well and the food is above average and served in a pleasant atmosphere.

Right near the wunnerful Bad Ass Coffee spot on Park Ave is a new place, Good Karma, which has communal tables and a large carryout biz. They offer a mix of Japanese noodle soups and Indian curries for very reasonable prices--lots of vegetarian options. The only low point was the soggy samosas--maybe they were microwaved?

Our fav breakfast place is The Eating Establishment. Yum--and breakfast served until 4pm. We got a great seat by the window and watched the Scene at the Egyptian Theater as we sipped fresh-squeezed oj and ate huevos rancheros, etc.

For Italian, we tried Buona Vita in a location that seems to change hands every year or so. Though the place was only 1/2 full, apparently we weren’t on the “hip” list and were seated in a ridiculous seat almost under the stairs. But the nice server and very good food made up for this. The bread was quite good as was a tasty eggplant appetizer. We each had gnocchi--one with pesto, the other with wild mushrooms. The sauces were extremely rich and we couldn’t quite finish our meals, very unusual for us.

Last,but not least, we headed a ways out of town on the Kimball Junction bus to check out the Spotted Frog bookstore/coffee shop and the Loco Lizard Cantina. We had to settle for Starbucks after finding the Frog closed for a party. We headed over to Loco for a nice last dinner--the chips and salsa were quite good and as were my wild mushroom tamales. It was better than the other Mexican places we’ve tried in the past (Baja Cantina, El Chubasco, La Casita Mexican Restaurant), but not as easy to get to w/o a car.

One usual place we eat at is Wabo House for decent Chinese/Malaysian. As always, the ski areas offered better than expected lunch fare, with Deer Valley going way above and beyond with an amazing salad and soup selection (and their desserts!!).

One place to find a lot of Park City menus is: http://www.parkcitymagazine.com/


Bad Ass Coffee
651 Park Ave., Park City, UT
(435) 655-9811

Bangkok Thai on Main
605 Main Street, Park City, UT
(435) - 649 - THAI
http://www.bangkokthaionmain.com/

Blind Dog
1781 Sidewinder Drive, Park City, UT
435-655-0800
http://www.blinddoggrill.com/

Buona Vita on Park
628 Park Ave, Park City, UT
(435) 658-0999
http://www.buonavita.com/

Chimayo
368 Main Street, Park City, UT
435-649-6222
http://www.chimayorestaurant.com

The Eating Establishment
317 Main Street, Park City, UT
435-649-8284
http://www.theeatingestablishment.net/

Good Karma
817 Park Ave., Park City, Utah
801-787-5907

Loco Lizard Cantina
1612 Ute. Blvd., Park City, UT
435.645.7000
http://www.locolizardcantina.com/

Shabu
Main Street Mall
333 Main St., Park City, UT
435-645-7253

Taste of Saigon
580 Main Street, Park City, UT
435-647-0688

Wabo House
Park City Mountain Resort
1385 Lowell Ave., Park City, UT
(435) 649-7800

veghead,

Thanks for the awesome report on Park City. We're headed out there to do some skiing in a few weeks and I'll definitely be printing out your recs to bring with. Nothing worse than skiing hard all day and not having good chow to look forward to at the end of it.

Kim

Just got back from some skiing in Park City. Thanks to Jonah and veghead we ate very well while we were there.

The first night I suggested Shabu, but my 14 y/o son had eyed Kampai on a stroll around town and wanted to go there. Since neither he or his 18 y/o brother are sushi fans, finding a Japanese place that had good sushi for the husband and I as well as a wide variety of cooked entrees was paramount. We had a magazine in our condo with printed menus from most of the restaurants, and after perusing that, it seemed like Kampai fit the bill. We were all very happy campers. The husband and I had what we surmised to be some of the best sushi ever and the boys loved their entrees. One had grilled salmon teriyaki and the other had udon noodles with grilled chicken. Park City is overrun with sushi places and apparently Kampai is one of the originals in town. After eating there I can see why they've stuck around for as long as they have despite the competition.

The second night we headed for the Wasatch Brew Pub which is just good bar food in a nice atmosphere. We were all happy with our food, but the tables are a bit too close together for my tastes and felt like I was dining with about 12 other people as opposed to just the three I came in with. I don't think that would prevent me from going again, but next time I'd make sure to get there early before the crowds.

What's a trip to Park City without a stop at Robert Redford's place, Zoom? It's also been made famous by the other RR, Rachael Ray, on $40 A Day. Even though one of my son's pointed out a Rachael clone at a nearby table, I tried not to let that get in the way of a good meal. The husband and I had some wonderful pecan crusted sauteed red trout with a maple beurre blanc. The 18 y/o had the most gorgeous NY Strip I've ever seen, small, but very well trimmed, and the other had baby back ribs. Other than the stack of Sundance catalogues in the foyer, the place is very low key and seems to be more about the food and service than hyping RR.

I would've loved to have tried Loco Lizard, but since we were walking distance to Main St., that lost out to La Casita. Nothing terribly fancy but truly good Mom and Pop Mexican food prepared by people who care. Need I say more?

The last night we hit Mustang. After Jonah and veghead's mention of Riverhorse, I wanted to try Bill Hufferd's new place. It was definitely the best meal we had. I started with a Laura Chenel goat cheese salad served over grilled bread. My sons shared some grilled bacon wrapped shrimp stuffed with cheese and served with a chipotle sauce, and the husband had a terrific looking Caesar salad also served over grilled bread. I had red trout (again) sauteed with some capers in a lemon butter sauce. Perfect. The husband had roasted sea bass served with some sauteed baby shrimp that he also raved about. Apparently the consensus from some locals that we spoke to about Riverhorse is that it's suffered in Hufferd's absence.

The Mustang
890 Main Street
Park City, UT 84060

http://www.lacasitaparkcity.com/

http://www.sundanceresort.com/zoom.htm

http://www.latituderg.com/Kampai.aspx

http://www.wasatchbeers.com/menu.html

Any current intel on Park City restaurants? We'll be spending a week there later this month. Thanks!

I can highly recommend the High West Distillery. It's a pretty new place right near the downtown strip. As the name indicates, they distill their own whiskey and you can do tasting flights. The building has two bars and a lot of small rooms for dining; we found it a very cool layout. Given all this, I was suspicious that the food would be poor, but it was actually quite good. All in all, a very entertaining dining experience. As always in Park City, reservations are frequently necessary.

Thanks, Jonah. I'll add that to the list of possibilities. It sounds like you've been there more recently than 2006 when this thread started. Would you make any further recs?

I have been there many times, but I've been eating mostly at the home of a friend and a couple of very casual places out near the highway. High West is the only real recommendation I've got.

We made it there for a week this winter (disclaimer: we were on foot and are vegetarian:)

Good Karma --has moved since I last wrote-- a bit more upscale, but very good

Shabu --finally made it in: expensive, so-so food and lots of attitude from patrons and staff (though our server was great)

Squatters Pub--Weird menu (burgers to green curry to middle eastern) but we had a great dinner here (green curry and mac & cheese).

The Eating Establishment --best breakfast in town

Morning Ray at top of Main Street in Treasure Mountain Inn--also great breakfast, looked like they're offering lunch/dinner, too

Taste of Saigon --noodles and veggies, yum...but don't expect world-class Vietnamese

Wanted to try Chimayo but were warned off due to over-priced, badly made vegetarian option

Bad Ass Coffee is gone--no good coffee that we could find...

Thanks, veghead. I'll let everyone know what we find.