832 East 3900 South
Salt Lake City, UT 84107
Salt Lake County
Phone: (801) 269-8383
Fax: unknownWebsite: no website on fileEmail: no email on fileHours: unknown
by Long T. on Drawn to this place ever since I watched every week of Top Chef salivating at every dish that Kevin cooked up, I had to make a trip to Woodfire Grill on my most recent trip to Atlanta. I was not disappointed. Hungry on a Thursday night, I called ahead and found that although tables were booked for most of the night, bar service was come in and get served. I arrived about 9ish and found myself a cocktail table and stalked the bar area until a spot opened up at the bar - you see they only serve food in the bar area at the actual bar. However, as 930-10pm rolled on, the bar area started to clear out. For future reference, if you don't have reservations and you want to eat here on short notice, try swinging by around 9-930 - the bar area had plenty of seats open up and the kitchen closes for orders at 10p (although I had the 5 course tasting menu, which took me well into the 11pm hour). Being from out of town, I decided to go all out and order the chef's surprise tasting menu. I was concerned that this would not fill me up as I was starving and the portions looked small, but by the end of the night, I assure you I was well fed. Maybe it was the pace of the food coming out that allowed my meal to digest and expand in my belly, but nonetheless I walked out satisfied. Chef'a Tasting Menu on 3/4/10 (changes every so often): First item that came out on a spoon was an amuse brouche (sp?), a one bite wonder of flavor that is a precourse bite to get things started. I was a little concerned that this was my first of the 5 courses, but the bartender put me at ease by saying people make that misconception all the time. Anyhow, it was an interesting little bite of whipped goat cheese with watermelon radish and blanched sweet herb. I might also mention the bread was yummy too - basket of pecan raisin bread and an orange focaccia. Official Course #1: Pangrilled grits topped with shrimp and an herb salad. Yummy. Official Course #2: Chargrilled beets with red ace and broccoli salad atop a broccoli puree amidst a lemon vinaigrette. The actual #2 was supposed to be a fried shrimp dish, but because I had given up deep fried battered foods for Lent, the bartender was very accomodating and substituted the 2nd course of the 5 course vegetarian tasting menu instead. The dish was actually very flavorful - with the smoked greens being the highlight of this dish. Internission Course? Black truffle mushroom deviled egg. Described as the country comes to the city, this was an interesting high class touch to the deviled egg. However, I don't think this was one of the 5 as I got a total of 7 distinct items to eat (including the amuse brouche and this deviled egg). Course #3: sweetbreads and lamb loin atop a potato puree and accented with a pork rind. Very yummy. Course #4: pork loin atop pork belly and tomato braised cabbage atop cornbread puree with sweet and sour mustard. VERY yummy. Course #5: Dessert was a molten chocolate cake with coconut ice cream, florentine cookie and all atop a bed of a marshmallow curry cream. A little unusual bite by bite - but after the bartender recommended just mashing it up altogether, the flavors actually complemented each other unusually well. Overall I was very happy with my meal and it lived up to my expectations of an elite Top Chef caliber. I felt like every meal was an episode of Top Chef, complete with someone telling me about the dish and how it was prepared. This was definitely the highlight of my business trip to Atlanta and I thoroughly enjoyed my meal.
by Hannah C. on What the heck is all the fuss about? We went there for Sunday brunch, thinking it would be awesome (cause I've tried the buttermilk chicken at the Vinings location and loved it...but that's another post), but it turned out to be a *shoulder shrug* (at best) kind of experience. So I guess the problem started with the fact that our server was a little out of it/snobby. She looked like she was very distracted/wanted to cry. The soup of the day was Oysters Rockefeller. None of us had ever tried such a thing or knew what it was, so when we asked her to describe exactly what was in it, she kind of snapped, "You've never had oysters rockefeller before?! *eye roll*" No, thank you very much...I haven't had the pleasure. A few of us ended up ordering it anyway, and I have to say that it was quite tasty. I love spinach and oysters, so I wish I had ordered a whole bowl instead of just sampling a few bites from my husband's. On to the entree: ho-hum. I got the Pan Fried Mountain Trout. It came with skillet potatoes, poached eggs, watercress, and hollandaise sauce. To be fair, I'm not a huge fan of hollandaise, but theirs was very good, and I got a fair amount of enjoyment out of it. Potatoes are potatoes are potatoes...perhaps oatmeal would have been more exciting. Watercress is just a fancy way of saying, "we're too cheap to give you a side salad, so here, have some overly-bitter green crap that looks frou-frou". Mountain trout tastes like...well, nothing (maybe like my living room carpet?)...no matter how much pepper or ketchup you put on it (yes, it came with a side of ketchup). I can't even remember what my husband ordered...but whatever it was, our total was like $60. I have no problem shelling out for a good meal, but this one left much to be desired. Maybe I should have ordered some mimosas to help choke down the experience.
