Ski Park City, the city

Park City is featured as a Utah ghost town. Times change. Today it is the one of the largest ski resort complexes in North America, despite Utah’s absurd alcohol laws. What triumphs over the domineering Mormon Church’s dedication to stomping out fun is some of the best skiing anywhere. Two mega resorts, Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort, are on opposite sides of the once rich Old West silver-mining boom town, with 100+ historic buildings from the hay days. The Canyons are 5 miles out of town. All manner of accommodations are available, except inexpensive (for that see Ski Heber Valley and Ski Salt Lake City). Rates at Park City’s 30 AAA-recommended accommodations run to ,200.

Park City is 35 to 40 minutes from Salt Lake International Airport, by a four-lane highway that is mostly an expressway. Bus and limo service are available. A car is not necessary thanks to Park City’s extensive town shuttle bus (free, but there is talk of charging a ride), which goes almost everywhere the visitor might want to go. The Canyons run a (free) shuttle bus to/from the hotels in town.

With so many runs, a week is not long enough to ski everything. Your first three to four trips should include visits to all three resorts, so find your favorite. You will find a favorite, for each resort has a different flavor. We have lived nearby for 7 years. We get season passes at Deer Valley. We last skied the Park City Mountain Resort 12 to 15 years ago, and I skied one day at the Canyons in the last 10 years. This doesn’t mean you should only ski Deer Valley. Lots of people prefer the other resorts.

The Sundance Film Festival is the best time to ski Park City if you can get a room. The slopes are relatively empty because most of the rooms are occupied by Hollywood. You will sit next to stars at diner, maybe even on the lift. Restaurants are very crowded, especially late. Skiers report it is pretty easy to get in if you eat early.

Quick Tips:

PC has more chefs per capita than Paris. We’ve never had a bad meal anywhere, and some that approach memorable– Osso Bucco at Grappa, Rack of Lamb at Chez Betty, and Wiener schnitzel, first version, at Goldner Hirsch. The major shortcoming of the food is that it’s all California "yuppie cuisine." We find this quickly gets boring.

Meals are a little less expensive at Kimble Junction, or, if you have a car, in Heber City (see Ski Heber Valley).

Diversions: Cross-country skiing and snowmobiling (see Ski Heber Valley).
Shopping: trendy boutiques on Main Street and the outlet mall at Kimble Junction.
Tour the Old City Jail and Museum, old Town Hall, and Old Town Main Street.
Also see: Ski Heber Valley, Ski Sundance, Ski Odgen, Ski Salt Lake City, Ski Alta, and Ski Snowbird, all within 50 air miles.

Best Way To Get Around:

No car is needed, but it can be handy.

If you have a car, don’t overlook Park City’s proximity to even more resorts. Snowbasin and Powder Mountain (See Ski Ogden) are less than 1.5 hours by I-80 east, I-84, and UT 160. So are Alta, Snowbird, Brighton, and Solitude, by I-80 west and I-215 (see Ski Alta, Ski Snowbird, and Ski Salt Lake City). These last four resorts, along with Park City Mountain Resort, can all be skied in one day on the Interconnect Adventure. Sundance (see Ski Sundance) is about an hour by Kearns Boulevard, US 40, and US 189, through scenic Heber Valley.

Arriving in Park City, make a left at the first light after Albertson’s (on the left) to Deer Valley, a right to Park City Mountain Resort, and then straight ahead to Old Town Main Street.

Chef Jean-Louis Montecot’s menu for the 2004-2005 ski season makes The Goldner Hirsch the top choice in Park City.

The seafood tower ($32) is a pile of tomato slice, grilled halibut, shrimp, portabella mushroom, salmon, and red potatoes that almost looks too good to eat. The halibut--slightly overcooked--was spectacularly broiled under a high flame, which gave it a crisp crust on top. The salmon was cooked to perfection--flaky to the touch, but still moist--and all was as fresh as seafood can be when 800 miles from the nearest ocean. The mushroom and balsamic demi-glaze perfectly accented the fish.

Should lamb shank braised in molasses be the daily special ($34), don’t pass it up. The fork-tender lamb falls off the bone at a touch, and the lamb, sauce, and bitter greens blend into a fine combination. Spaetzle compliments the dish well. This dish hits the spot on a cold winter evening and was clearly superior to the $46 rack of lamb at the nearby Café Mariposa.

Weinerschnitzel, sauerkraut, and Spaetzle are other excellent dishes. This plate has gone through three to four variations since Jean-Louis took over the kitchen, and excellent as the current version is, I preferred version number one, where the veal, slightly creamy sauerkraut, and baked apple with cheese complimented each other to perfection.

The apple strudel was all you could ask for. Heimbeer Kuchen is a super-rich, semisweet chocolate fudge cake topped with fresh raspberries, whipped cream, and a raspberry sauce and will satisfy your sweet tooth for a week.

Wines cost from $32 to $110 and are also available by the glass.

Last but not least, the decor and ambiance of the restaurant are superb. You feel good just sitting here.

The Goldner Hirsch is located at Deer Valley’s mid-mountain base and is on Park City’s free bus route. By car, take Royal Street or Marsac Avenue/Empire Canyon Road from the Deer Valley traffic circle. When parking under the hotel, enter from the rear, or park in the lot next to the hotel.

For lunch and après ski snacks, the restaurant is just off Mt. Cervin Plaza, behind the Silver Lake Lodge and half a block from the lifts. Leave your skis at the free ski check.

Dinner #2
Although the elk chop convinced me I don’t much like elk, this was the elk’s fault, not the restaurant’s, for the dish was superb. The chop was perfectly cooked to the medium-rare stage that is best for game, and the sauce was an excellent compliment to the meat. The side dishes, wild mushroom and onion pie and a small baked potato topped with mashed potatoes, were superb.

Veal Marsala, a daily specialty, was the best version of this classic either of us has ever encountered.

A meal at Grappa could and should be better than it is. Everything on the menu has great potential and is nearly ruined by the kitchen’s excessive use of salt and pepper. They don’t even put salt and pepper shakers on the tables. There is no need to add your own, since the kitchen puts in more in than any sane person ought to use. I find Grappa frustrating because everything tastes a bit like licking a potato chip—all you get is salt. Carol loves it because she uses lots of salt. The bottom line is that if you automatically reach for the salt shaker, you will probably love Grappa. If you have high blood pressure or other salt-sensitive medical concerns, stay away.

The frustration is that beneath the brine are many really wonderful dishes. Osso Bucco, a specialty of the house, can be a delight, but it also caused us to stop eating here for three years after I got one that was really loaded with salt and pepper. Over the last year, I’ve had it three times, and it wasn’t so bad. To repeat—if you don’t mind lots of salt on your food, this is one of best meals you are likely to find anywhere for $32.

As for specific dishes, the menu changes constantly except for Osso Bucco, so there is no point in describing things no longer on the menu. Suffice it to say that everything we had on six visits last summer was top-drawer, except for the too-much-salt factor.

We first ate at the Easy Street Brasserie in 2005. It was so good we went back not too long after. Then Easy Street closed for 2-3 years while a hotel was more or less built on top of the restaurant. By 2009, it was open again, and back we went. The interior looks much like the same attractive setting we remembered.

I’m of the view that one visit to a restaurant is not sufficient to judge it’s quality. You may be fooled by the chef having an unusually good or bad day, or changes of staff in the kitchen, or by the accident of what you ordered. Properly judging a restaurant requires several visits and several dishes. There is a puzzle about how many times we have eaten at Easy Street, which was forced to close for two years for massive contraction project next door. We ate there twice before the closure, and once since the reopening. Can we judge their consistence on three meals with a two year gap? Possibly so, for it seems to be much the restaurant we remembered. The kitchen is open to view from one of the three dinning rooms. I said I recognized the head chef. She said I was crazy. So first, our most recent meal and then the two from two years ago.

We both ordered "Pan Seared Sea Bass with Mediterranean vegetables and Spinach" ($32). The Sea bass was cooked perfectly, something you cannot count on in Utah, and as fresh as it is possible to get ocean fish in Utah. The Mediterranean Vegetables on one side of the plate were mostly excellent beans with some chunks of zucchini and leaves of wilted spinach other stuff. On the other side of the plate, the room temperature salsa was OK for out of season tomatoes. The butter was properly soft for spreading. The bread was a decent standard French style. The menu said something about Onion Bread would be returning, which we didn’t understand at the time. When I got home and looked up my earlier IgoUgo review of Easy Street, I saw that we had been very favorably impressed with Easy Street’s Onion Bread, so a good move when it happens.
Portions are large. The entree alone was very filling, all we needed for a meal.

Service was perfect. Food was on the table very quickly and the attentive staff kept water glasses filled and had the table cleared with dispatch and the bill ready.

Entrees include mussels, sea bass, rib eye, lobster mac & cheese, short ribs, veal chop, tenderloin, vegetarian pasta, seafood stew, tuna, prime rib, and roast chicken. Entrees run $23-48. Veggie sides include four types of potatoes, green beans, and sauted spinach. All priced at $5. There are five salads, $10-15. Appetizers include Buffalo Carpaccio, calmari quesadilla, deviled crab, onion soup, shrimp pate, salmon with caviar, and pizza, $9-19. There is also a small raw bar

We arrived just as the kitchen was opening and the kitchen staff was setting up in full view of some of the tables. We got to watching one cook who was putting big rubber mats down on the floor to see if he washed his hands before touching any food. It looked like he wiped them on a towel several times, but we saw no soap and water employed(there were times when his hands were out sight, so he might have washed them. We can only hope). This is a bit of a buzz kill. Probably cooking killed any germs encountered. Restaurants with open kitchens should take care to prevent scenes like this.

Based on that one meal, we would place Easy Street among Park city’s finest restaurants, which what it ought to be for the high prices. That conclusion was confirmed by our two meals there two summers ago. On our first visit, I had braised Lamb Shank ($29), and never had to touch my knife to get the well cooked meat off
the bone. The lamb was accompanied by garlic mashed potatoes, French fried onion rings, excellent asparagus spears, wax beans, and carrots surrounded by a brown sauce with a pool of
pesto floating in on one side of the platter. This was a fine dish, but so was her goat cheese ravioli
($24), which included remarkably tasty tomatoes for a mid-November meal.

Although the wait to order was a little long, the food was on the table very quickly and the attentive staff
kept water glasses filled and had the table cleared with dispatch and the bill ready.

On a second visit, we both had Seared Scallops in Squid Ink, another good dish after we asked the server to tell the chef we nated the scallops cooked through, not the quasi-sushi version many Park City restaurants offer where the scallop is quickly browned but left raw inside.

Service was clearly the best in Park City. Although the wait to order was a little long, the food was on the table very quickly and the attentive staff kept water glasses filled and had the table cleared with dispatch and the bill ready.

There are two dining rooms at street level, both attractive and somewhat reminiscent of a restaurant in France, and a more informal(staff decritption, we didn’t see it) room downstairs.

From the transit center for Park City’s free bus system, cross the parking lot jus down hill. Heber Ave. is the street to your right. Easy street is at the far end of the short block.

A note on Park City prices. Easy Street’s prices are in line with the better Park City restaurants and the less expensive places fare not all that much less. On the trip home, we heard a commercial on the radio for Motel 6 where Tom Bodett uttered the line, "If lobster in mac ‘n cheese costs $15, is it still comfort food?" Lobster in Mac ‘n Cheese at Easy Street costs $30. That had better not be comfort food. We will probably try it on our next visit.

The menu is pricey, but during the off season, which is Spring, Summer, and Fall, Easy Street, like many Park City restaurants, regularly puts a 2-for-1 coupon in the local paper, The Park Record (sold in boxes on Main St.)

Bistro 412: second dinner

About a month after our excellent meal at Bistro 412, we had a second one, with some changes.
In the interval, there was a change of chefs, but not in the menu offerings. She again ordered the
Trout Amondine, but there were some differences from the first visit. Carrot mashed potatoes-
had been replaced with plain mashed potatoes, and, although were fine, the carrots blended into
the earlier version added a nice touch. The trout wasn’t quite as fresh and the almond layer was
not as thick and crusty. We both agreed that while it was still an excellent dish, the earlier version
was better.

The dipping oil for the nicely crusty french bread even better flavored than before.

I’ve had lamb shank at 5-6 Park City restaurants, and I’d put Bistro 412's lamb at the head of the
list. The lamb shank appeared to have been roasted rather than braised, making it not quite as
tender as at some of the other places, but still tender enough to remove from the bone with a fork.
The accompanying sauce was the best I’ve ever encountered for any lamb dish. A medley of
vegetables– pearl onions, green beans, and a mini carrot also came with the meal. Green beans
are one of the tests of a fine restaurant. A great restaurant serves fresh, small, very dark green
beans that are cooked just beyond the crunchy stage but far short of soggy(like canned green
beans). Bistro 412 hit everything right, a feat beyond the ability of most of Park City’s noted
chefs.

Prices are on the moderate side for one of Park City’s better places to eat, with entrees about
$17-29.

Servings are large. We found that an entree only was more than enough food.


See review of first meal it Bistro 412

To get right to it, JeanLouis is Park City’s best restaurant. JeanLouis is Utah’s best restaurant. This is world class food. No detail is too small to overlook at a great restaurant, so consider the basket of bread American are served to kill time while the meal is prepared. JeanLouis usually serves Volker’s bread. Mr Volker is an Austrian immigrant to the Park City area whose family has been professional bakers for over 300 years. Volker’s provides bread to fine restaurants and discriminating diners from Denver to Salt Lake City to Las Vegas. In the summer, truck loads of bread fan out from Volker’s in the wee hours to farm markets all over the intermountian west, and shoppers stand in line at $5 a loaf (a loaf of bread at the neighborhood grocery store goes for 89 cents). The night we ate at JeanLouis, Chef JeanLouis Montecott had, as he told us, “experimented a little with bread today” and baked his own. The result was the finest French baguette we have ever encountered, including 62 days traveling around France. The loaf was light and airy, but properly chewy and sturdy enough to hold up in mopping up the plates to capture the last drops of the superb sauces that dressed the entrées. The high point was the crust, crisp as potato chips. Things are off to a great start when you can rave about bread, and what followed lived up to that high standard.

A high point of haute cuisine is combining a sauce with meat so that the combination is greater than the parts, producing tastes completely different from either alone. Never before had we both encountered this at the same meal in two different dishes, but JeanLouis pulls it off in both the Salmon with Petite Pois and in the Braised Lamb Shank.

Salmon was perfectly cooked, fork flaky with a sauce out of this world. Lamb was well simmered, tender, and falling off the bone. Nobody needed a knife. Both were the finest meals of their type we have ever eaten. Both were accompanied by a melange of perfectly selected veggies mixed into the sauce.

Should you read reviews of Deer Valley’s Goldner Hirsch written between 2000 and summer 2006, note that JeanLouis was chef there then. That was a fine restaurant, but JeanLouis is better. Pleasant, dark atmosphere, impeccable service.

There’s a western style steakhouse 80 miles from our house so good at what it does that when we have a hankerin’ for grilled steak or chicken, we make the trip rather than go to lesser but closer alternatives. That’s an 80 mile restaurant. JeanLouis is a 100 mile restaurant. Don’t miss it when you are in the area.

JeanLouis’s is a snowball toss from the central bus station for Park City’s free buses, at the corner of Heber Avenue and Swede Alley, one block off Main St at the bottom of the hill.

Ghidotti’s is becoming one of our favorite Park City restaurants (we live about 30 minutes away). This review is based on 4-5 diners there.

Two dishes are real stand outs– Cheese Lasagne and grilled Sea Bass (not always available). Cheese Lasagne is loaded with three different Italian cheeses, and is the second best lasagna I’ve ever eaten– truly outstanding.

The two of us have had Sea Bass twice, that is four servings. The first two were absolutely perfectly cooked. Properly cooked fish is rarely encountered in any restaurant in Utah, so Ghidotti’s gets five stars for that. The next two servings were just a bit overcooked, still outstanding for Utah, but a noticeable step down from the first round. On both occasions, the fish was as fresh as can be expected 1,000 miles from the nearest Ocean (it is possible to get fish flown in from both coasts overnight in Park City and Salt Lake City, which comes pretty close to being fresh fish). The thick piece of browned crisp on toy fish was served over a roast chicken in rosemary and garlic had no rosemary flavor, but the garlic stuffed under the skin was mild and far from offending. The side dishes– carrots, broccoli, and mashed potatoes were just about perfect. On the downside, the chicken was way over cooked and dried out. The lack of any noticeable rosemary flavor, probably another consequence of overcooking, and the dry meat lead me to veto this dish. Don’t bother. Braised Lamb Shank (a daily special) was fine, but not terrific. Nicely cooked so the meat was all but falling off the bone, and accompanied by a good vegetable mix and excellent mashed potatoes. The accompanying brown sauce did nothing to highlight any of the flavors, but it was OK.

I don’t like Ravioli, but every now and then I try some just to be sure that my dislike was not the result of an incompetent kitchen. Ghidotti’s is the second best I’ve ever had, but it did nothing to change my opinion of this dish. I guess if you like Ravioli, you will like this. The high ceiling attractive dining room is spacious with lots of windows, unfortunately offering only a view of the mall streets. But still, the newer JeanLouis in Park City is better.

Ghidotti’s is out of the way, about six miles outside historic old Park City. The free Park City bus will take you there. If you are driving, exiting I-80 on UT 224 to Park City (at Kimble Junction), turn left at the second light, then take the first right into Redstone Mall. Ghidotti’s is on the left about 3/4 the way down the mall’s main street.

From Park City, you will see Redstone Mall on the left just before a stop light. Turn right, then right again as above. Free parking.

A fine food experience ruined by an incompetent operation.

After four visits to Schneitter’s Sunday Brunch Buffet, I rated Schneitter’s “Very Highly Recommended” for the consistent fine quality of the food offered. After 8 visits, the food remains excellent, but the incompetence of this operation leads to advising you stay away. It’s too great a risk that the staff will ruin your expensive meal. A breif summary of some of the operational problems: 1) published phone numbers that nobody answers, and once I let it ring for 10 minutes just to see what happened. 2) But then, if you have question, it’s no help if some does answer the phone, for the staff seemed totally uninformed of anything except the name of the place. One day, I got three people and three different answers to my question. Another time, a positive sounding answer that turned out to be wrong. Another time, four different answers. 3) If you need some information on the restaurant, forget it. There seems to be no way to reach them by phone. All calls, should they happened to be answered, go to the ignorant front desk. 4) although the restaurant seems well staffed, staff are never around if you need something. They all hang in the kitchen. The buffet has a carving board (roast beef, lamb, etc) and an omelette bar, but there is never any one in sight to carve or cook. Nor is anybody watching from the kitchen to see when if are needed.

Schneitter’s advertised a special Christmas brunch ($45), from 11-5. We made reservations for 4:15, two weeks in advance. Called the day before to ask about it. Arrived on the appointed day at 3:45, to be greeted by the hostess who said the brunch ended at 3:30. We said, we have reservations for 4:15. She said the chef called everyone and told them there was a time change. He didn’t call us, or else the reservationist screwed up when the reservation was originally made.

Lots of people come skiing in Utah at Christmas, many even on Christmas Day, and this episode is especially important to them because an open restaurant in Utah is hard to find. If you do not have an advanced reservation– days in advance– you will stand in line and wait a long, long time to eat Christmas diner once you find an open establishment in Utah. Our community, surrounded by ski resorts, has four  high quality resort restaurants. Not one was open on Christmas.

So eating at Schneider’s is a crap shoot. If everything goes right– and it never has in our experience–you can get a fine meal. If things go wrong, you might not eat. Since there are so many reliable fine restaurants in the vicinity, why take a chance?

A week after our first visit, we returned to JeanLouis. In the review of our first visit, I recounted the specular bread that resulted when Executive Chef Jean-Louis Montecott experimented with baking bread rather than serve bread from the highly reliable Volker’s Bakery. This visit started with the usual fine loaf from Volker’s, and it served t confirm our impression on the fist visit that Chef Jean-Louis had come up with the finest bread we have ever eaten, all of which is not say there was anything wrong with bread II, for it was a fine dense, chewy bread, perfectly suitable for any good restaurant. It’s just that Jean-Louis’ was better.

Bread is served with a nice greenish fruity olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping. First visit, it was a nice change from butter. Second visit, we were wishing for the superb herb scented butter Jean-Louis served at his previous place of employment, the Goldner Hirsch Inn.

Veal Picatta came with a generous heaping of capers and was accompanied by butter noodles accented with fresh herbs. Perhaps, somewhere in America, it is possible to get veal the equal of European milk fed veal, but I’ve never found it. That aside, the veal was about as good as you’ll ever find in the USA. The noodles were perfectly cooked aldente, and the herb flavors were excellent.

Osso Bucco, a daily special, featured superbly cooked veal, tender enough to eat with a spoon, no need for a knife, and accompanied by a complex tomato based sauce, all served atop a bed of saffron risotto. While the sauce was tasty in and of itself, it did not do anything much for either the veal or the rice. I would have preferred as a sauce a reduction of the braising liquid for the veal, which had picked up a wonderful flavor while cooking in something, something which probably formed the base for the sauce, but was largely changed by the late addition of tomatoes
(there is a lot of personal preference and speculation here. You could well love the sauce. It’s a matter of personal taste on this one).

Large servings. No room for dessert. However, we have been eating at restaurant where Jean-Louis was chef for 8 years, and, as you can see from my reviews of the Goldner Hirsch and Jean-Louis on IgoUgo, he is a top rank chef, and we can speak from some experience that desserts may be his strongest point. At one of his previous restaurant, there was a Sunday buffet where we had lunches that were 80% desserts– start with desserts, eat some other fine stuff and more desserts, and then end with desserts.

Service was impeccable and efficient. We were in and out in 35 minutes. That’s “fast food” pacing for top rate continental cuisine. How do they do it?

We have dined 1-3 times a year for the last 7 years at the Mariposa (open only during ski season), and, until this year, never thought the place lived up to its high reputation as the best restaurant in Utah. Yes, it was good, but flawed (see previous review). This year, it scored. The only problem with our visit was that we both ordered the same thing, so we can’t say if they finally got everything under control, or only the Mixed Grill.

As for the Mixed Grill, which was much improved over what was encountered in years past, it was superb. Still, it was not without flaws. The biggest improvement is that Mariposa seems to have finally figured out how to cook vegetables. Previously, veggies were uniformly under cooked. This year, perfect. The other great improvement was in the sauces. The Mixed Grill serves a terrific wild game sausage, lamb chop, and slice of veal tenderloin. Our recollection of years past was that all were accompanied by a nondescript common sauce. In 2006, each had
its own sauce, and each was an excellent pairing with its meat.

The Amuse was excellent. I forget the irrelevant paragraph long absurd description of what it was, for that is just yuppy BS. The important point is that it was real treat– enjoy. The bread basket featured a fine baguette and an even better whole grain loaf. Again, hard to beat, although no match to what chef Jean Louis Montecot can turn out at his eponymous Park City establishment when he opts to bake bread.

Presentation is masterful. The Amuse is an amusing, colorful pile of stuff. The entrée plate is divided into thirds, one for each meat, by a mashed potato dike and within each segment blocked off by the potatoes, is a pool of sauce with one of the three meats swimming in the center. In sum, considering the inflated prices which are found at all resorts, Mariposa’s expensive Mixed Grill is hard to beat, but it is not yet perfect. I want to make that point before I take up the
remaining significant flaws in the Mixed Grill that still keep it short of perfection, and why not expect perfection at these prices? Never in America have I had veal that compares to what is routinely served in Europe. Part of the problem is that American restaurants overcook veal, and so does Mariposa. The Lamb Chop is oddly red on the inside but devoid of juiciness. I don’t know how this can be done, for it defies all the rules of cooking. The butter was refrigerator cold. At these inflated prices, one would at least expect an herb flavored butter, but good lord, to be served rock hard plain butter? What is this? Joe’s Slop House?

Mariposa still has significant flaws, but they are outweighed by its strengths, at least for the Mixed Grill this year. Well worth a visit for the Mixed Grill.

Ahi Tuna ($28), a summer menu staple, with a sesame oil based ginger sauce was impressive. Jean-Louis’ onion rings are sliced impossibly thin, lightly breaded, and a treat. The Tuna was so good, she cleaned up her plate. That rarely happens, especially with large servings such as those at Jean-Louis. I usually get some of her meal, but not here. I got only a taste of the Tuna. Take this as the highest possible recommendation.

Boneless Buffalo Rib steak with sauce Bearnaise ($38), the daily special, was more than worth every cent. The Buffalo was cooked a bit on the rare side of the ordered medium rare, but no big deal. Buffalo is a very low fat meat, prone to quickly toughening if overcooked. Stick with rare or medium rare. The lack of internal fat also means Buffalo, even properly cooked, tends toward dryness. Buffalo needs lots of sauce. Consequently, there was a generous serving of an excellent Bearnaise Sauce covering the large piece of Buffalo– terrific. Sides were onion rings and sweet potato french fries, something I’d never had before. Sweet potato fries, at least like Jean-Louis makes them, should be a staple on every menu. Dusted with a flavored powder and deep fried, crisp on the outside and meltingly soft in the interior, making a great combination of flavors and textures. Entrées come with a choice two sides. Make the sweet potato fries one of yours.

The only negative, and it was not serious, was the excessive application of pepper in the kitchen. The Sauce Bearnaise was decidedly spicy. The pepper on the onion rings and fries was barely noticeable alone, but when the three peppered foods were consumed together, there was a build up of fiery tongue and lips.

Service was swift and efficient, but a little less attentive than on our previous visits because the wait staff seemed a little overloaded by the number of diners present at 5:30 on a Monday. As usual, Chef Jean-Louis Montecott occasionally roamed the dining room, keeping a practiced eye on things and chatting with the customers.

On another visit, we both had the daily special, “White Tuna” on a bed of roasted summer vegetables fixed in the Italian style. Everything was perfectly cooked, the fish was as fresh as fist can be 700 miles inland, and the roast vegetables marvelously flavored. This was a terrific, but high risk meal. “White Tuna” is not tuna but some obscure fish nobody ever heard of because it is rarely eaten because of its very unpleasant side effects for some people. It can trigger the same symptoms as Olestra– stomach upset and intestinal disturbances (Including the infamous “anal leakage”). I got it, she didn’t. So, while I’d never order it again, it was a treat for the first two hours.

Outside tables are available in summer, overlooking a parking lot and the entrance portal to Deer Valley.

Bottom line: still the best in Park City.