Eating in St George

Thanks for posting this up. We head to St. George every year for climbing (usually Tday weekend) and pretty much hate all the places we've tried. This year we'll be heading through on way to Cedar City, Maple, etc in June so will stop by to eat after picking up some trash at Moe's.

Looking forward to some tasty Mexi instead of the usual wannabe that most states have. Living in Socal has many advantages and comida perfecta is just one of them : )

El amate is closed, it was sold and under new ownership, the new resturant at the location is not very good

I really hope that isn't the case. El Amate is/was BY FAR the best restaurant in St. George.

When did this happen? Talked to the owner on my last trip in November and he didn't mention anything. Ony possible upside would be if he found a spot to open in SLC, since we always told him would be easy money.

Downside, of course, is that once again St. George is devoid of civilized eating options. Both Scaldoni's and the good coffee place (admittedly terrible location) have closed as well. What in God's name is wrong with the locals? Did Joe Smith profess some edict about consuming shitty food?

It's true, they are closed. So I've tried a couple of the places on this list. Seriously?

Cafe Rio. Digusting. I would not feed it to my dog. Not kidding. We did not bring our leftovers to the dogs and I always bring leftovers to my dogs.

Pancho and Lefty's. Holy crap! It's not even real food. It's just "Mexican" ingredients with cheap cheese dumped on top of it. The margaritas were awful. The vibe was about as inviting as a day-car center.

But, hell, at least it had alcohol (assuming there was some in my margarita). Last night we ate at "the best sushi in St. George" according to a bunch of reviews on the interweb. It was a buffet. I shit you not. With no saki. Or even beer. At least you got to sit on convention center chairs.

So far the best place we've eaten was Jazzy Java, which serves food worthy of, I dunno, a fraternity house maybe. Not exactly something you look forward to unless you're hungover (very unlikely around here) or have ridden and climbed all day on nothing but a couple cups of cheap motel coffee. Thankfully we had.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and track down the owner of El Amate and see if I can talk him into moving to SLC.

steve edwards wrote:It's true, they are closed. So I've tried a couple of the places on this list. Seriously? Cafe Rio. Digusting. I would not feed it to my dog. Not kidding. We did not bring our leftovers to the dogs and I always bring leftovers to my dogs. Pancho and Lefty's. Holy crap! It's not even real food. It's just "Mexican" ingredients with cheap cheese dumped on top of it. The margaritas were awful. The vibe was about as inviting as a day-car center. But, hell, at least it had alcohol (assuming there was some in my margarita). Last night we ate at "the best sushi in St. George" according to a bunch of reviews on the interweb. It was a buffet. I shit you not. With no saki. Or even beer. At least you got to sit on convention center chairs. So far the best place we've eaten was Jazzy Java, which serves food worthy of, I dunno, a fraternity house maybe. Not exactly something you look forward to unless you're hungover (very unlikely around here) or have ridden and climbed all day on nothing but a couple cups of cheap motel coffee. Thankfully we had. Tomorrow I'm going to try and track down the owner of El Amate and see if I can talk him into moving to SLC.

Hmmm... 80% of the population likes Cafe Rio on UrbanSpoon, it gets 4.5ish/5 stars on Google, and 4/5 stars on Yelp.

High standards much?

Bummer for you. I guess I can consider myself lucky to have been born with an apparently proletarian palette.

Cafe Rio is really good if you grow up in St George and and thus never eaten anything decent in your life. If you've eaten and enjoyed mexican anywhere outside of Utah, you probably will hate it. But if you are looking to be cool, Cafe Rio is the place to be. All the trendiest people in town eat there. It somehow makes you cool.

The restaurant situation in St George is so weird. All the good food places go out of business. I know Bishops used to be good and super cheap and went out of business but recently came back somewhere else. I haven't been there so I don't know if its still cheap or good. For Sushi, Benja actually is extremely good, but not cheap at all. Don't ever go to Samurai 21, that place is one of the worst places I've been. Famous Daves rocked, now closed. Not sure how good the new BBQ place on 700S, but I've heard good things. You'd think an area that has 100k people and tries to be all hoity toity would be able to come up with a handful of decent restaurants...

Tristan Higbee wrote: Hmmm... 80% of the population likes Cafe Rio on UrbanSpoon, it gets 4.5ish/5 stars on Google, and 4/5 stars on Yelp. High standards much? Bummer for you. I guess I can consider myself lucky to have been born with an apparently proletarian palette.

Tristan - going by what the masses like is always a tricky proposition. Olive Garden in Saint George has 4.5\5 stars on Yelp. Denny's gets 81% on Urbanspoon. KFC gets 82% and even Golden Corral pulls down 65%. I cater weddings and love arugula and goat cheese but I'm no snob; I like greasy burgers and occasionally gas station hot dogs. Proletarian bona fides aside, deferring to the same people who rave about Denny's to give an accurate impression of Cafe Rio probably isn't your best bet.

If you want some good Mexican, come down to Springville with me this week. I've got a great place down there.

Source - urbanspoon.com/nf/312/37304…

My wife and I live part time in the St. George area, but we rarely go out to eat here. When I saw this thread start, I chuckled a bit. One would be hard pressed to find a worse town to discuss fine culinary. I also laughed a bit when someone from SLC was dumping on St. George's options as though SLC was some cosmopolitan utopia itself. We were ice climbing in Provo once and drove all over this significant college town looking for a fine establishment before it hit me that we were still in Utah.

It is real simple folks. When you stunt alcohol revenue, whether by funky outdoor seating laws or just via the prominent local religion preferences in general, it makes one of the toughest businesses to excel at in the US that much more of a challenge.

We live in Canmore (10,000), AB part time and St. George (100,000) part time. Our social life in Canmore is quite abundant. The unique and diverse restaurant selection is almost unlimited. Our friends and acquaintances hail from all over the world.

St. George is about weather, period. That equates to mountain biking, running, climbing or golfing for most. Anyone expecting anything else is just whining about something that never existed to begin with.

Utah in general leaves a lot to be desired in terms of indoor culture, but its outdoor culture is unmatched in the lower 48. Enjoy it for what it is and forget dreaming about what it is not.

Don't be so easily offended. There are exceptions in any town or state, including St. George. The lack of diverse culture in Utah is just a reality. Nothing wrong with it, I enjoy the quiet compared to California or Colorado. And I truly appreciate the landscape and weather. I am a full time climber, and it is impossible to beat for my needs. But dude, don't try and sell Mormon laced SLC as some fine cultural melting pot. Brag instead about your rock and ice climbing compared to many states in the lower 48 not to mention the quality of your dry snow.

Some of you folks really need to grow up and learn how to be a bit more objective instead of trying to defend and sell your home town for something it is not. Focus instead on selling it for what it is...... if it is so important for you to defend it. You will earn more credibility that way, all around.

Ben Folsom wrote:

"If you are interested in world class theater, music, dance, museums and a robust film scene, try one of these venues..."

"I just pointed out some of the cultural options available here.."

These two statement contradict each other. You did not "just point out" you called them "World class."

Beside the outdoor industry, and the one thing that you did point out that is world class (The Sundance Film Festival) there is nothing in the Salt Lake City area, or Utah that is world class.

I don't want to make assumptions here Ben: have you lived any where else? Have you heard the opera any where in Europe? Been to a play at the Kennedy Center in D.C.?

Rob S.

I don't mean to pick on you Ben, I really don't. Nor the Mormon religion. I am rather agnostic by most organized religion's definitions. I actually consider most Mormons I meet to be far less intrusive on my personal religious freedoms when compared to other Christians I have encountered through life and I am 48 and lived in quite a few places.

All that being said however, on a per capita evaluation, I, along with the majority I dare say, Americans or otherwise, find culture and diversification in Utah rather stagnant. This bleeds through to the restaurant industry via a variety of ways. The most impeding of which is that creative restaurant entrepreneurs and chefs like to get paid. Alcohol sales and particulary alcohol profits make up a significant portion of that pay. Therefore, the better restaurant owners and chefs would rather work in other states. A drain on talent in that industry if you will. Restaurants in St. George really do suck, that is just reality. The patio dining for a town that gets 330 days of sun a year is quite laughable. Part of that is due to some weird alcohol laws regarding patio dining brought about by local politics affected by local religion.

I have lived here part time since 2007 and don't mind really. It is still a great place to live, along with good folks living here.

If this is truly more about you, keep talking about your relatives accomplishments, your travels, etc. If about restaurants in St. George or Salt Lake, well.....they are not comparable to other western cities of their size....not even close. A minor trade off, but well worth it.

Too bad about El Amate. I thought it was pretty darn good food. The owner was from Nayarit.

Nearby and across the street is Las Palmeras. Doesn't have the atmosphere of El Amate but the food was good enough.

Anyone eat at Irmita's or Don Pedro's?

The Player's Sports Grill is a decent enough place to watch a game, and get a pizza or hot sandwich and beer.

I agree on many points with both Ben and Dow but we're getting seriously off topic. Compared to St George SLC is like a combination of Paris, London, and Hong Kong. SLC is also about a million times better than it was in the early 90s. I couldn't live here then. I like it now, in spite of fact it's not LA, SF, or even Portland when it comes to culture. Might not even beat Canmore for many things but factor in outdoor sports, easily-accessed airport, and lack of traffic and there is nowhere else I'd rather be in the US. I call it the Grenoble of America. I'm not sure I've seen another place like St. George anywhere. It's filled with folks not unlike the pod people from Invasion of the Body Snathchers. They seem to be alive but what, in fact, are they actually doing?

Btw, hit Bean Scene on the way out of town and will declare it back. It went through some rough times in transition but the latest version was very good. Excellent breakfast sandwich. Stellar vegan burrito, and Cafe Ibis. Of course, it was nearly empty.

We ended up at Pancho and Lefty's for a NYE dinner. Thoughts...

atmosphere was pretty crappy run of the mill dippy family mexican restaurant. We ended up sitting and eating in the bar, which was probably a good idea.

Asada Burrito was not great looking, but actually was pretty good. tasted pretty fresh. Standard rice and beans on the side.

The Cadillac Margarita was decent. Not amazing by any means, but pretty good for Utah. We had some margs at the Blue Iguana in PC a few weeks before (my parents' idea) and this one blew that out of the water.

All in all, I had a good meal, I think most of us left happy. But we also said that we couldn't really recommend the place. It wasn't really awesome enough to rave about.
Alas, it seems that according to the rest of the thread, a rating of "meh" might be enough to warrant a visit.

The Bit and Spur was good last time I was in Zion and its a bar by night so you can get drinks a plenty.

bitandspur.com

A couple things:

1. Of course there's no good restaurants, St G is only 1.5 hours from Vegas...a food MECCA.

2. Every local knows the Vietnamese place in Washington City is yummy, AHSYA.

3. Only other (northern) Utahns who are constantly teased by hip Cali/CO posters on MP would stoop low enough to tease their lesser exciting southern half of the state, but it's cool, we'll just keep enjoying the 60 degrees and sunny. :)