Considering move to SLC (Park City: fit in, buy, school)

[berger12345]

Originally Posted by kletter1mann

As they say, De gustibus non est disputandum. I've been consistently disappointed by restaurant scene and have yet to be blown away. The chichi, upscale places here serve up what I'd say is just mid-market fare and often with an attitude of too-cool -- and I'm from New York. And if you crave Italian (whether northern or southern) you're just flat out of luck. Good Italian should be better than you could easily do at home. Here it's universally worse.

I’m not saying we have the best Italian but you don’t like Valters, Sicilia Mia, Cucina Toscana, or Caffe Molise?

[berger12345]

I find SLC’s restaurant scene rather robust for a city our size and I lived in Chicago for a good while. Portland’s and Dallas probably have more options for certain things but they are also larger cities.

[Katzpur]

Originally Posted by berger12345

I’m not saying we have the best Italian but you don’t like Valters, Sicilia Mia, Cucina Toscana, or Caffe Molise?

Sicilia Mia is right in my neighborhood but I've never tried it. Thanks for the recommendation. I'll have to make it a point to go there. Also, Gracie's has a very good reputation, but I haven't been there either.

[Hiruko]

I have to say that The Copper Onion and Current Fish and Oyster are among my absolute favorite restaurants. Communal down in Provo is also very good. The two dining rooms at Sundance are also reliably good in my experience. The worst experience I have had in Utah was at Grappa in Park City.

[Bearhamcat]

So is the consensus that SLC has good restaurants for its size, or not? I'll admit, the food I had when I visited was fabulous, but I also cherry picked awesome restaurants (Current Fish & Oyster, Red Iguanas 2, Penny Anne's). The worry I had when driving around is it seemed like areas were all full of chains, not as many unique local restaurants. Do others feel this way?

With regards to SLC bikeability - I remember seeing a bunch of bike lanes during my stay there. Do you feel like people actually use them, or are they just kind of there but everyone drives?

[berger12345]

Originally Posted by Bearhamcat

So is the consensus that SLC has good restaurants for its size, or not? I'll admit, the food I had when I visited was fabulous, but I also cherry picked awesome restaurants (Current Fish & Oyster, Red Iguanas 2, Penny Anne's). The worry I had when driving around is it seemed like areas were all full of chains, not as many unique local restaurants. Do others feel this way?

With regards to SLC bikeability - I remember seeing a bunch of bike lanes during my stay there. Do you feel like people actually use them, or are they just kind of there but everyone drives?

I feel like SLC has really good restaurants and there are new ones open all of the time. We have chains but there are dozens of great local restaurants of different cuisines. I try not to ever eat at chains if I do t have to. I ate Mexican yesterday and Indian today, going to a new local brewery tomorrow.

In terms of biking the closer you get into the city the more bikeable and walkable it becomes, you also have to know which streets to bike on. For instance most people drive on 7th east going north south, but don’t realize that both 6th and 8th east are designated bikeways set up for bikers. Also downtown some streets are really bikeable but some are still very car centric.

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

I have to say that The Copper Onion and Current Fish and Oyster are among my absolute favorite restaurants. Communal down in Provo is also very good. The two dining rooms at Sundance are also reliably good in my experience. The worst experience I have had in Utah was at Grappa in Park City.

My experience with Copper Onion has always been very mixed. One time great food but atrocious service. Next time good service but lukewarm food or some similar flaw.



As for seafood, I freely confess to being a kind of seafood snob. I've just spent too much time in places where seafood goes from sea to table the same day (Cape Cod, Maine, etc) so I don't bother elsewhere. I do realize that this isn't a reasonable standard.

[kletter1mann]

Originally Posted by berger12345

I’m not saying we have the best Italian but you don’t like Valters, Sicilia Mia, Cucina Toscana, or Caffe Molise?

Offhand I can't recall whether I've been to those places or not. Will try. After a string of duds I stopped trying. Maybe they're good.



Much of my objection though, is that lots of these places are fancy, expensive, special occasion places with NY prices and even greater pretensions. To be fair, there ARE some good places. However, they simply aren't the mid-market "place around the corner" local restaurants that just happens to have great food for 1/3 less $$$ than the fancy places. It's either fancy or chains, and I've had some major disappointments in fancy places. Such mid-market restaurants DO abound in some areas. NY metro comes to mind. Yeah, yeah, I know, I'm not in NY any more and didn't come here for the Italian. Still, when the topic arises I can't put a good face on it.

[ut new]

6th and 8th east are designated bikeways set up for bikers

Is this the divided streets that run down to Liberty Park ?

[Ankhharu]

Originally Posted by Hiruko

Restaurant & Bar options
1. Dallas, 2 (tie). Salt Lake City, 2 (tie). Portland

You couldn't be more wrong here. Portland's bar scene is 100x better than SLC's along with better food and restaurants. SLC sucks for bars and restaurants period.