Chimayo: Big City Prices in Park City

After a day of hiking at Sundance Resort, we treated our friends and hosts David & Ann to dinner at Chimayo. Dave & Ann live in Park City during the winter so are a wealth of information about where to eat, what to do, and so forth and we had a delightful couple of days hanging out with them at the start of our trip (including awesome, albeit expensive, drinks at the fabulous and empty St Regis resort on the other side of town).

Knowing of our love of Southwestern food, they thoughtfully made a reservation at Chimayo, one of the most respected restaurants in the little but oh-so-chic hamlet of Park City. We did have a lovely meal there, although the prices were a bit shocking.

Ann and I started with duck enchiladas. What could be bad? Only the size...two tiny little rolls (more like the size of taquitos than enchiladas...think of a very thick pencil, but not as long). The flavor was delicious though. Ann and I stayed in tandem and both had the "london broil" of elk which was wonderfully flavorful and just gamy enough. Michael started with a stuffed avocado on greens and had, of course, salmon (this incarnation was mustard seed encrusted and grilled) which he reported was excellent. I forget Dave's appetizer but his main course was the buffalo flank steak (which was my second choice)...Dave said he should have had the elk as the buffalo was rather unexciting.

We had two bottles of wine...a Hogue Gewurztraminer which was delicious with a distinct but not overwhelming sweetness...and a Qupe Syrah which I found disappointing with a rather acid edge to it, not nearly as rich and soft as I was hoping for. Michael also had a glass of Conundrum with his salmon. Wine availability in Utah is much better than it used to be but pricing is still painful...the two bottles together were just about $100. In general the less expensive bottles seem to be marked up an inordinate amount, although maybe that was just this restaurant.

With entrees over $40, the total bill after tip for this...with no dessert or cocktails ... was well over $400. The meal was good, but not that good, especially since the room was very plain (bare wood tables and chairs) and service, while pleasant, was not very polished. Probably Chimayo suffers (or we suffer) from it being once of the fanciest restaurants in a very expensive resort town and the pricing attributable thereto.

Good food...arguably very good...but not a very good value.