St. George Dining

[RobinFinderson]

robinfinderson eats velveeta cheese sandwiches. You may be mis-categorizing him.

Velveeta is a tasty processed food product and makes a delicious toasted 'cheze' sandwich. Though it has been years since we have had velveeta in our fridge, I stand by it as a tasty cheese sandwich alternative. Add a slice of tomato, slice into triangles and eat with hot tomato soup. Velveeta sandwiches and tomato soup. Delish!

[RobinFinderson]

I like the Bear Paw for breakfast.

The Bear Paw makes fine greasy spoon food, but the restaurant is utterly lacking in atmosphere. Look at the name -- Bear Paw. Yet you walk into the place and there is nothing 'bear paw' about it. If The Bear Paw were to tear up the carpet and polish the wood floors, rusticate the place and bring in more fresh air and light, it could realize its potential. As it stands, The Bear Paw serves tasty, mediocre greasy spoon food in an ugly setting. It needs a major makeover.

[RobinFinderson]

Hey...your fellow socal food snob RF seconded my opinion on Benja.

Back off. We don't want you in ST. George anyway.

Benja has delicious food. Their thom ka kai is amazing, and their green curry is very good. I have tasted off of family members' plates, and haven't liked anything as much as the thom ka kai and green curry. That mango desert is also very tasty.

Benja has some excellent choices on the menu, so in a town with a dearth of good food choices, Benja might be as good as it gets in St.George.

[ERCougar]

The Bear Paw makes fine greasy spoon food, but the restaurant is utterly lacking in atmosphere. Look at the name -- Bear Paw. Yet you walk into the place and there is nothing 'bear paw' about it. If The Bear Paw were to tear up the carpet and polish the wood floors, rusticate the place and bring in more fresh air and light, it could realize its potential. As it stands, The Bear Paw serves tasty, mediocre greasy spoon food in an ugly setting. It needs a major makeover.

Which is exactly why I called it a breakfast place. I would never consider going there for any other meal, but they make a mean omelet.

[ERCougar]

Benja has delicious food. Their thom ka kai is amazing, and their green curry is very good. I have tasted off of family members' plates, and haven't liked anything as much as the thom ka kai and green curry. That mango desert is also very tasty.

Benja has some excellent choices on the menu, so in a town with a dearth of good food choices, Benja might be as good as it gets in St.George.

Yeah, we've fallen into the tom khai kai and red curry pattern. I tried the masaman curry once but didn't like it as much as the red curry. Haven't tried the green curry yet.

[kccougar]

Anyone else eaten at Scaldoni's? I've been there once and thought it a good option for fine dining in St. George. I think this is a new one and different than the Scaldoni's that has been around for a while.

http://www.scaldonis.com/


On the opposite end of the spectrum, how about Gimme Sum Asian Grill? Sounds great.

[Fiyero]

This evening I had Troy's BBQ right off of Bluff Street, near the airport. I wasn't expecting much since it was a hole in the wall displaying the name "Troy," but it was fannnn-tastic, the best I've had since leaving Memphis. The dirty rice was at least 25% brisket. Plus if you text Troys to 83043, you get a free drink.

[beelzebabette]

This evening I had Troy's BBQ right off of Bluff Street, near the airport. I wasn't expecting much since it was a hole in the wall displaying the name "Troy," but it was fannnn-tastic, the best I've had since leaving Memphis. The dirty rice was at least 25% brisket. Plus if you text Troys to 83043, you get a free drink.

Thanks for this suggestion, Fiyero. Good coleslaw, great desserts. Like you say, a very pleasant surprise.

[Donuthole]

If you're in St. George and are willing to drive 30 mins each way for dinner, The Bit & Spur in Springdale is great. We ate there this past weekend, and everything we had was excellent. They have a small, seasonal menu (6-8 entrees, tops) but you can tell they've really fine-tuned everything on the menu.

I had the rib-eye with sherry glaze and shoestring onions, and Mrs. Donut had the chipotle chicken salad (I really wanted to order the sweet-potato tamales, but they were out by the time we ordered). My steak was amazingly tender, and perfectly medium-rare (I'm always pleasantly surprised when a chef can actually cook a steak to order--seems like 9 times out of 10 when I order a steak medium-rare I end up with at least a medium steak, and sometimes medium-well). The sauce was awesome, and the shoestring onions were crispy and flavorful.

Mrs. Donut's salad had chipotle-coated chicken, thin slices of butternut squash, sun-dried tomatoes, shallots, and goat cheese, and was lightly dressed with some sort of vinaigrette.

We were both satisfied with the portion size (large) and the quality and flavor of our meals. Also, the homemade chips and salsa were both delicious and copious.

[RobinFinderson]

We are back in Los Angeles after a long Thanksgiving weekend in St. George. On this trip we finally made it to The Painted Pony, and I thought it was a very nice dining experience. We had a party of five, and our meal came to $220, with tip. I had one beer, but otherwise there were no beverage purchases, so that gives you a sense of the price... not cheap. I had the big tenderloin, dad had short ribs (special that day), Faith had a butternut squash ravioli (the only vegetarian entree), Little Robin had the lamb shank with turnips, and my sister had some other meat dish, but I don't recall what it was. Everyone raved about the food. The portions were large considering this is supposed to be a 'fine dining' experience, and we ended up skipping desert because we were too full. For appetizers we had the baked brie (only vegetarian option), and these delicious dates, stuffed with almond paste, wrapped in bacon, and baked. Very yummy.

Benja update -- not this trip, but our last one, the family headed out to Benja's second restaurant, and the food was very mediocre. I'm not sure what changed, because we ordered our regular dishes, but it just wasn't very good. We are done with that place.

[ERCougar]

We are back in Los Angeles after a long Thanksgiving weekend in St. George. On this trip we finally made it to The Painted Pony, and I thought it was a very nice dining experience. We had a party of five, and our meal came to $220, with tip. I had one beer, but otherwise there were no beverage purchases, so that gives you a sense of the price... not cheap. I had the big tenderloin, dad had short ribs (special that day), Faith had a butternut squash ravioli (the only vegetarian entree), Little Robin had the lamb shank with turnips, and my sister had some other meat dish, but I don't recall what it was. Everyone raved about the food. The portions were large considering this is supposed to be a 'fine dining' experience, and we ended up skipping desert because we were too full. For appetizers we had the baked brie (only vegetarian option), and these delicious dates, stuffed with almond paste, wrapped in bacon, and baked. Very yummy.

Benja update -- not this trip, but our last one, the family headed out to Benja's second restaurant, and the food was very mediocre. I'm not sure what changed, because we ordered our regular dishes, but it just wasn't very good. We are done with that place.

We've hit the Painted Pony for lunch and it's much more reasonable. Great restaurant, but I think it is a bit overpriced.

I haven't hit Benja in a long time because we have a place in Cedar that I've sworn was opened by the same owners. I wonder if there was a split or defection.

Has anyone tried the Orchids? I've been planning on it for a while because we enjoyed his restaurant in Silver Reef (which is now closed) so much.

[RobinFinderson]

We've hit the Painted Pony for lunch and it's much more reasonable. Great restaurant, but I think it is a bit overpriced.

I haven't hit Benja in a long time because we have a place in Cedar that I've sworn was opened by the same owners. I wonder if there was a split or defection.

Has anyone tried the Orchids? I've been planning on it for a while because we enjoyed his restaurant in Silver Reef (which is now closed) so much.

We had the pleasure of hitting Cosmopolitan before it closed, and it was amazing. Definitely a whole class above Painted Pony. I've read reviews of Orchids and people are reporting that it is basically the same chef, menu and service, but just lacking the ambiance. If the prices drop a bit to match the new digs, it would be awesome to go back.

How about Xetava?

[wuapinmon]

Thanks for these reviews. Now we know what to give my wife's brother and his wife for Christmas.

[ERCougar]

Went down to play in the Dixie Narrows with the kids and once again reminded myself that there is no better taste in the world than a Carmel Cashew custard cone at Nielsen's.

[risicam]

Went down to play in the Dixie Narrows with the kids and once again reminded myself that there is no better taste in the world than a Carmel Cashew custard cone at Nielsen's.

Carmel cashew is absolutely the best!!