Right next to the host/hostess’ stand at Westward Look’s revamped
Gold restaurant sit a couple of recent AAA Four Diamond Award
plaques.
That can’t help but raise a diner’s expectations. After all, only
six Southern Arizona restaurants currently enjoy that honor (and only
one, the Ventana Room, has earned Five Diamond honors).
What, exactly, does it mean to be a Four Diamond restaurant? Let’s
look at the criteria from the AAA Web site (ww2.aaa.com/aaa/common/Tourbook/diamonds/whatisthis.html),
and see whether Gold fits the figurative bill on our two visits.
• A Four Diamond restaurant is geared to individuals in
search of a distinctive fine-dining experience. For the most part,
Gold qualifies. The view of the city at Gold is one of the most
wonderful in town, and the menu … well, let’s look at the next
criterion.
• Often orchestrated by an executive chef and an
accomplished staff, menus reflect a high degree of creativity and
complexity, using imaginative presentations to enhance high quality,
market-fresh ingredients. Gold qualifies here, too. Executive chef
James Wallace’s menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner all exhibit
creative touches; we had trouble deciding what to order, because so
many things sounded good.
On our dinner visit, we ordered the Dungeness crab tower ($11) from
the “chilled offerings” section of the menu; the lobster and toasted
corn risotto cakes from the “hot off the presses” section (cute); the
hearts of romaine salad ($8) and the soup of the day—green chile
corn chowder ($6)—from the “salad and soup” section (not so
cute); and the molasses cured pork tenderloin ($24) and the “short
stack” with filet mignon, yellow fin tuna and a day boat scallop ($29)
from the “now for the main event” section (back to cute!).
The breakfast menu has less creativity, but includes some intriguing
dishes, including the two we ordered: the Westward Look eggs Benedict
($11) and the breakfast burrito with scrambled eggs and chorizo
($8).
(And now, a side rant: The breakfast menu at Gold’s Web site was not
the same as the actual menu at the restaurant; an entire section of
breakfast sandwiches was missing at the restaurant. How hard is it to
make sure accurate, up-to-date menus are online, dammit?!)
Interestingly, the AAA criteria don’t include anything about
execution—how well the restaurant delivers on what’s promised by
the menu—and Gold had some problems here.
The Dungeness crab tower consisted of tiny cylinders of a
crab/avocado/etc. mixture, and three small slices of blood orange.
Thanks to the orange, the dish was fantastic: The sweetness and the
acidity of the orange brought out the subtle flavors of the crab
concoction. It’s a genius dish. Unfortunately, we ran out of blood
orange before finishing off the towers, and without the orange, the
rest was rather unremarkable.
A bigger sin was committed with the lobster and toasted corn risotto
cakes, with jicama slaw and smoked chile remolade. I took one, and
Garrett took the other. I was instantly smitten: The cake was an utter
delight, packed with innumerable complementary flavors, and exhibiting
a creamy, pleasant texture. Meanwhile, Garrett took a bite and wrinkled
his nose before declaring the cake to be awful. After a moment or two
of confusion, we traded cakes and figured things out: The cakes were
night-and-day different. Garrett’s cake must have been the last of a
batch, as it consisted mostly of corn breading, and little else; on top
of that, it was overcooked, and had the texture and taste of an
overdone tater tot. The chef who sent this out was not paying
attention.
Fortunately, no sins were committed in the preparation of my soup;
the corn dominated, and there was just a hint of chile, but I enjoyed
it.
Our entrées were both big successes (with one glitch).
Garrett’s pork tenderloin was perfectly prepared, juicy and delicious.
My entire short stack was also lovingly prepared to order: The small
filet was medium-rare; the tuna had just a light sear; and the scallop
was taken off the grill and plated at just the right moment. The
accompanying mashed potatoes on my plate and vegetables (carrots,
broccoli and asparagus) on both of our plates were also prepared
well.
That glitch: The caraway spaetzle cake that came with Garrett’s
pork. As one could guess, it had a sort of licorice taste;
unexpectedly, it also had the texture of (bad) licorice: hard and
dry.
On our breakfast visit, there were no problems. My Westward Look
eggs Benedict were typical in every way, save one: The house-cured loin
bacon elevated the dish; it was far better than average ham or Canadian
bacon. I also asked for a side of the chipotle hollandaise that comes
with the Sonoran eggs Benedict (eggs, corn tortillas, chorizo, tomato
and black beans, $11), and enjoyed the mild heat it offered. Garrett’s
breakfast burrito (which I got for him to-go) was tasty, largely due to
the spicy, savory chorizo.
• The equally proficient service staff demonstrates a
strong desire to meet or exceed guest expectations. A wine steward is
typically available to provide menu-specific knowledge on wine
selection. While service during my breakfast visit was impeccable,
dinner service, unfortunately, had ups and downs. Everyone was
pleasant, but we had longer-than-average waits between courses, and
dirty plates stayed on the table far longer than they should have.
These delays, in part, led to our decision not to get dessert ($7 to
$9, including a tempting crème brulee in a phyllo cup with
seasonal berries).
• The ambiance is highly refined, comfortable and
well-coordinated, incorporating quality materials and a variety of
upscale design enhancements to give a first-class impression. Gold
qualifies here; the renovated room is pleasant, with various visually
appealing touches, including a wall partially covered with small tiles
(gold and other earth tones), art including a prickly pear sculpture,
and an earth-tones carpet with red highlights.
• The overall dining experience is typically expensive. I’d say Gold doesn’t necessarily meet the criteria—in a good way.
While the food here isn’t cheap, it’s certainly not out-of-whack
expensive.
In the final analysis, Gold fit most of the criteria for those
proudly displayed AAA Four Diamond Awards, although the service and the
execution on our dinner visit could have been much better. Maybe it was
just an off night for Gold; I look forward to returning and seeing if
that, in fact, was the case.
This article appears in Sep 3-9, 2009.
KUAT – AZ Illustrated reporting Thursday evening that Ventana Room is closed.
My spouse and I dined at Gold two weeks ago and were utterly unimpressed. The service was not up to the four star standard, for sure. Our waiter hurried us to place our order and then disappeared for an inordinate period of time. As we had asked for another moment to look at the wine list, he never took our wine order until after someone else had delivered our first courses from the kitchen. They grew cold while we waited for the wine.
The waiter had no clue about how to serve wine. Twice, when doing refills, he refilled my husband’s glass without a word and then asked if I wanted some. When I said yes, he made some absurd comments. In his world, do only men drink wine?
We might have forgiven this amateur service if the food made up for it, but regrettably, that was not the case. I ordered the salmon, and unfortunately it was less than fresh. It was not quite spoiled, but it had a gamy taste that told me it was on the way. All the fancy compote in the world couldn’t cover that up.
Lastly, Mr. Boegle must have been seated at a banquette. Either that or he is quite tall and/or has the posture of a Marine. Otherwise he would have mentioned the chairs. They would provide excellent back support for the members of the UA basketball team, but for folks of ordinary height (I am 5’9″) they provide no more back support than a bench might afford. Fortunately, the place wasn’t busy when we were there, and we were able to move to a banquette. Otherwise we would have left.
Which actually might not have been such a bad idea, after all.