Eating the Pac-12, Utah style
ESPN.com writer Ted Miller recently blogged about the Pac-12′s top restaurants and bars. In his piece on Utah’s eateries, he generated a list of must-visit stops (along with help from readers who chimed in).
Miller said he ate a steak sandwich at Moochies and dined at the Red Iguana and he seemed to love them both.
Though I haven’t been to Moochies, I don’t disagree with his assessment on Red Iguana.
He listed The Pie as the acknowledged best pizza in Utah. I used to think that until I started noticing how salty it was. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t taste good, but over time I’ve moved away from the massive salt-and-meat-laden pizzas and toward thinner seasoned pizzas, like those at Tin Roof Grill.
Weirdest “best” nomination I saw? Cafe Rio? To put a chain eatery on the list of best Tex-Mex restaurants is like listing J.C. Penney as the best place to buy a suit.
Someone posted that Forage restaurant is the best in SLC. I haven’t been there, mainly because when I’m eating, I don’t expect to forage; I plan to feast. But as a wannabe food critic, and with apologies to Stacey Kratz, our newspaper’s real critic, let me list a few of my own must-see stops for Mr. Miller and other Pac-12 diners:
Best breakfast: Cottonwood Cafe. Not fancy and not particularly spicy, but definitely home cooked with fresh ingredients. Best of all, they give you too much to eat. Runnersup: The Park Cafe, Ruth’s Diner.
Best lunch: Gotta agree with some of the contributors on this: Lonestar Taqueria. It’s just like someone was cooking it in your house. The shrimp tacos are worth the parking problems and lack of indoor space, which really do make it seem like you’re eating in your house.
Best dinner: Log Haven and Cafe Madrid. Tasteful, elegant worldly and sophisticated (yeah, I know, just like me), and you don’t have to, well, forage.
Note to Pac-12 visitors: Salt Lake’s not San Francisco when it comes to culinary choices, but it’s not Pullman or Corvallis, either.
Same as Utah football, when it comes to restaurants, the Pac-12 could have done a lot worse.
If you have any nominations, send them along.