pago

i am a bruncher. it is by far, my most favorite meal of all time. and i had one of the best brunches of my life this past weekend at pago. it wasn’t my first brunch there, but something about this experience was different. because i have never written about pago (why have i never written about pago!?!?), let me tell you a few things about it. pago is a wonderful farm to tablerestaurantlocated in the 9th and 9th district of salt lake city – a lovely little corner of town that is home to many great local businesses and restaurants. the space was built in 1910 and uses reclaimed wooden tables, which makes it feel old world, but modern at the same time. pago is also very green and sustainable – in both its building and its food. pago uses products from local farms and artisans – and you can really taste that freshness. pago has an inviting atmosphere and salt lake city locals have embraced it whole-heatedly. scott evans, owner and operator, has been in the slcrestaurantindustry for yea

great find!

in salt lake city for a work trip and thisrestauranteasily accommodated our group of five. the food and service was delicious. i highly recommend the utah red trout. service was pleasant without being intrusive. many options for vegetarians.

ok food. the service was great but some of the food was a little strange. they try too hard to make some of the plates work.
the pumpkin tar tar was not good and the bbq beets were not anything special. my steak was good and the hamburger was good. we all agreed that their fries were the best part of the dinner.
we had a great night still but will not head back until we work down ourrestaurantlist.

awful service. is it possible to give no stars? i have wanted to try pago for dinner for quite some time now. i liked the idea that it was local food and the patio always looked nice when i was walking by. well last night, my friend and i decided to go to pago for dinner to celebrate an exciting event in my life. we walked in and no one greeted us even though there was a hostess just standing there chatting with another worker. i had to go up to her and ask to be seated. we waited about 10 minutes for our server to come up to us to ask for our drink order. i ordered a $5 drink and he said if i liked that drink i would probably love this wine that they have at a deal right now. i didn't bother asking for the price because i figured he would realize that i didn't care for an expensive drink that's why i didn't order one. well, i was wrong. that jerk charged me for a $12 small glass of wine. most of the glasses of wine were $7. when he said special i would imagine it wouldn’t be much more than that. when he asked for my id he bent down in my face and whispered at me asking me if i was old enough. i'm 25! then he proceeded to quiz me about a bunch of things from my id including my astrological sign! it was kind of humiliating. he did the same thing to my friend who only ordered an iced tea. i don’t know why he felt that he had to id her. we both just ordered a cup of soup off of the appetizer menu that said it was $6 a cup. we later both got overcharged $4 for our soups. it was very frustrating. it took 1 hour to get our soups (off of the appetizer menu). 1 hour, i am not exaggerating. it was pretty ridiculous considering we ordered cold soups. our waiter, dave, didn't bother to check up on us in any of that time or refill our drinks. also, it was late at night and there were only 3 other tables in the wholerestaurantwith a full kitchen and staff. how is it possible to take that long? so we finally got our food and he never bothered to check up on us. we finished our meals after about 10-15 minutes and our plates didn't get cleared for another 15 minutes. sigh. so then he asked us if we wanted any dessert. well, i definitely wanted to say no but unfortunately my friend said yes and we asked for a crème brule. well....we ended up waiting for 45 minutes...and still hadn’t seen our waiter or received our dessert. finally he showed up outside to give the table next to us some drinks and we had to grab him and we asked for our order to be cancelled. he had the nerve to tell us that the other people were here first so they get served first and we would be next. so that meant they hadn't even started working on our dessert order! so we asked him to please cancel it and to get our check. he had someone else drop it off without saying anything to us. i was pretty upset when i saw the price of the wine and that he overcharged us for the soups but i just wanted to get out of there. i have never wanted to dine and dash so badly in my whole life. i will never go there again. our waiter dave was very snooty and left us feeling terrible. i just wanted to go out and have a good night to celebrate. pago ruined that and my wallet. i ended up paying $45 for a cup of soup, french fries, and a glass of wine. that is crazy.

nice intimate setting, food hit or miss. i have had a few really delicious dining experiences at pago over the years since it opened, once for breakfast and a few times for dinner. while therestaurantitself is very charming and the location super convenient, i feel like they get a little too impressed with themselves sometimes and feel okay charging ridiculously high prices for fairly small portions and sometimes just okay cuisine, even if it is "farm-fresh." the servers have also been hit or miss and have been just a tad too pretentious and aloof on occasion, if not downright rude. it quite simply just doesn't have the consistency of lots of other eateries in town where i feel i spend just as much but always leave satisfied.

this is my favoriterestaurantin all of slc. we had the best waitress i've ever had, food was amazing and it was an overall amazing experience.

i only review those restaurants that are either tremendously good or tremendously bad. thisrestaurantfalls into the former category. come hungry and expect to stay a while. the service is wonderful, and the food is just as good. if you like chain restaurants, pago is bit for you. if, on the other hand, you like unique flavors, artisan food, and a comfortable posh atmosphere, you will thoroughly enjoy pago.

pago is a small, and somewhat trendy,restaurantin the 9th-and-9th neighborhood in salt lake city. it is one of the few restaurants in salt lake city that boasts a farm-to-table motto, which means that they strive to use as many ingredients from our local farms as possible. i've also heard it called a "low carbon diet" as well, though i don't prefer that term. pago opened in salt lake about 2 years ago and we've been meaning to try it since, but never really got around to it. it wasn't until a friend kelli, and fellow food blogger (check out her blog post of our recent outing at pago here ), raved about it that we really took it seriously. so, the hubby and i decided to check out the brunch menu along with our seasoned pago veteran kelli. upon entering pago, i was reminded of a really awesome little place we ate at in brooklyn called vinegar hill house which shares the farm-to-table motto. the décor is somewhat reminiscent of an old european country-side bistr

praise for pago! ignore all of the "dislikes" and give pago a try. i'm not sure why everyone is saying it's so $$$. it's much more affordable than tiburon, fresco, or forage.

anyhow, therestaurantis small and quaint. make sure you ask not to sit by the door or the servers station. otherwise it will be cold or noisy. the menu is also small but fabulous. we had the curry carrot soup ($5), the beet salad w greek yogurt, truffled honey, and cinnamon ($9). we followed with mussels & frites w citrus aoili ($17) and lobster gnocchi in a soft, garlic cream sauce ($27). the mussels were cooked perfectly as was the gnocchi. the desserts of the evening sounded interesting, but we were full.

albeit the corkage fee is high at $15, it may still be worth it to bring your own. they have an excellent wine menu, however, many of the wines are $15 per glass.

there's a reason, thisrestauranthas won award after award and has received many accolades...

well.... pago has all the inviting charm one would expect of arestaurantin the 9th and 9th area. they make good use of the space, and it is as hip and as modern as it should be. i have been twice, and the food has been decent both times. decent may not be fair, the food has been well prepared and enjoyable for the most part. my first visit they had run out of trout and eggs at brunch and on my second visit our food took quite some time. my second trip the food was excellent, but our server seemed to concerned with being a ham and i was late getting back to work (i suspect our order wasn't put in because everyone around us was eating even when they arrived after us). trying to hard to be affable, our server wasn't listening and an ingredient i explicitly stated that i did not want included was front and center. i would go back if someone else decided to or if i was at a loss; otherwise, probably not.

pago is a unique spot for salt lake city diners. it provides fresh and local gourmet cuisine in the popular neighborhood of 9th and 9th. they use the 'farm to table'restaurantmodel, going back to the basics and staying local. the goal is to limit the hu

a welcome 9th and 9th addition. pago is small. making a reservation is probably best though we dropped in and were seated immediately. the brick and wood interior is comfortable.

both our dishes were good. the assorted mushrooms, potatoes, and sauce that accompanied my trout were excellent. my wife tried the vegetarian pot pie and declared that it should have been advertised as vegan. i tasted it as well and thought that the vegetable flavor came through very well. i think her real objection was that the dish was not filling enough.

pago has interesting appetizers. we tried the gougères, the hot new item on food blogs, and were not that impressed, but i think that has more to do with personal preference than how therestaurantprepared them.

great food, exquisite restroom facilities. i give it an over all seven gold stars, five thumbs up and one walker b nomination for best newrestaurantof 2009!

shiver me timbers, blow me down. everyrestaurantopens with truest wishes that people will flock to their doors, become regulars, and love their product. no one i know in the food biz is there to skip-load the money into their bank accounts---they're there because they love food and love giving a great dining experience to their clientele, whether it's a dog cart in d.c. or a michelin 3 star. but most restaurants struggle with standing out and finding their loyal clientele, especially in this tough economic drift. not the case with pago, located in the 9th & 9th neighborhood of salt lake city. tucked into a brick building with only 48 seats, open kitchen, and two of the most talented chefs at the stoves anywhere, pago serves food that is bright, innovative, and crave-inducing. the wines are thoughtfully chosen, and affordable. you won't have to get a 3rd mortgage to eat here on a regular basis. plus, they've got weekly lunch and brunch on the weekends, so how can you miss?
i went to a preview dinner and each dish i tried was awesome. findlay has the chops with flavor, but he scores big points for texture and surprising depth that unfolds with every bite.
to wit: a salad of cinnamon beets. i loath almost anything with cinnamon in it, largely because the flavor overpowers everything else in the dish. here, plump slices of red, yellow and striped local beets were served slightly warmer than room temp with a silky slab of goat cheese atop them. sprinkled over the cheese was a light vinaigrette and cinnamon basil sprouts. genius? yes, but more sublime was the cinnamon/nut/chocolate brittle sprinkled over the plate. perfect accent that neither fought nor overpowered the simple complexity of the dish.
the entree was sole on a bed of artichokes and fava beans with a shimmering veil of sublime aioli atop the perfectly cooked fish. the velvety back of the favas with the tang of the artichokes made the perfect frame for the fish---wish i had both the salad and entree in a big fat left-over box in the fridge right now!
dessert was a conundrum so i had a 1/2 &1/2 and am i glad i did. one was a sparkling strawberry rhubarb tart in house made pastry. served warm and topped with lush vanilla ice cream and mint chiffonade, i seriously was thinking how i could snatch the waiting tray and spirit the ruby beauties home for breakfast. the other 'half' of my dessert was banana bread pudding. chef richey was off the hook for that little gem. dense little square of banana bread like i thought only my grannie made, served warm with some insane whiskey caramel sauce and the aforementioned ice cream. honest, i have no idea what happened to the rest of the pan!
i had a great wine as well, that i drank through all the courses. it was bright and mellow at the same time, with grapefruit notes that slowed to buttery sweetness in a surprisingly dry wine. scrumptious. it was ermita veracruz verdigo 2007 and i can imagine it with any summer menu.
i like to sit at the bar overlooking the kitchen---i've learned more from watching my favorite chefs at work than i ever did in the myriad classes i've taken. the kitchen at pago is teensy, but mike and adam have a concert of motion that balances the food across from the pass, and the stellar wait staff is over the top in everything service should be, and is here. not too formal or stuffy, looking out for both their own tables as well as lending a hand to other waiters when things get dicey or rushed. watch the pass in anyrestaurantand you'll know instantly if either the chefs &/or the wait staff give a rat's hairless tail---it is evident that the care is deeply ingrained at pago. don't be surprised if you see the owner, scott, pitching in with a wine suggestion, or working the pass himself!
pago is the kind of neighborhoodrestauranti'd go after a long day, maybe for an appetizer or dessert with a great glass of wine, take the relatives there for sunday brunch, or go for a special occasion. the food is 'wake-up-in-the-middle-of-the-night-craving-some' good, the prices are fair, they use local suppliers and they love what they are doing. i predict you will as well.