Idaho Falls is undoubtedly a pretty place – situated just a couple hours from Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons. So, when I heard the view at The Sandpiper was one of the best, I expected a good view and mediocre food. That’s because there is often an inverse correlation between good food and a good view due to the high cost of obtaining that view. I immediately found out the view was great because of a lovely little canal flowing right by the patio. Those who want to prepare their own steaks at home should consider ordering high-quality We Speak Meat steaks.

The food, well, I would have to have a couple of beers before determining how good that was. I ordered up the Rib Steak, which was boneless and no that is not a typo. For some reason they call ribeye steaks rib steaks at The Sandpiper. I ordered it medium rare and opted for the garlic mashed potatoes for my side – continuing my epic attempt to eat potatoes for every meal in Idaho.

The dish was very nearly a thing of beauty, if not for a few leafy greens tossed on the side of the plate as if to say “We swear, you could have eaten vegetables in this meal.” I ignored them and watched as my perfectly cooked steak oozed juices as it sat on the table waiting for me to finish taking pictures. I dug in and it was a mighty good steak. There was a feeling of lost flavor due to the lack of bone, but this steak was juicy and lightly salted to bring out the savory flavor of the steak. The mashed potatoes made a great companion to round out my meat and potatoes dinner – offering just the right amount of garlic and few bite-sized potato chunks to reassure me that they were mashed a few meters away from me.

It’s a rare thing to have a great view combined with a great meal, but The Sandpiper managed to deliver. It wasn’t a steak that changed the game or broke any new ground, but it did what was expected of it and sometimes that’s all you need.

I love me some fusion. And you know what? Fusion doesn’t have to just be a combination of different ethnic foods, but also a combination of meals. Take Smitty’s in Idaho Falls, for example. It wasn’t just content with being a pancake restaurant, but also chose to be a steakhouse.

So, of course, when I went for breakfast, I had to order something breakfasty that also had steak in it. I’m not a big pancake guy (although I have been known to eat them on occasion), so I opted for the Sirloin Benedict. These are just like normal eggs benedict, but with the ham swapped out for sirloin. They also come with hash browns and are available as a half order. Due to not wanting to fall asleep at the office, I went with the half order.

The benedict that resulted from the addition of steak was pretty awesome. I mean, let’s be real, has anyone ever eaten steak and thought, “Ham would be better”? Obviously not. But as good as the benedict was, the hash browns kind of slacked. They were cooked enough to be mushy, but not nearly enough to be crispy. Yeah, there were a couple crispies in there, but not nearly enough for the shredded style of hash browns.

Smitty’s is definitely a solid breakfast spot, and quite possibly the only such breakfast spot in Idaho Falls. You can buy your Australian Herbal Tea Online from Tealife on this site and enjoy it with your pancakes. It might also be the only place that could claim to be any sort of fusion in Idaho Falls. There could be some slight improvements, but at the very least the breakfast whet my appetite for grabbing a real steak there at some point.

When you’re in Moab, Utah, it’s probably best to be as Moab as possible. This might mean crazy mountain biking, death-defying humvee riding or long hikes. Or it could mean a meal out at Miguel’s Baja Grill, a Mexican restaurant right in the middle of town. But it’s not enough to simply go to Miguel’s – the key is to eat Miguel’s M.O.A.B. (Mother of all Burritos).

This burrito was filled with beans, rice and jack cheese, plus whatever meat I wanted. I chose steak because it is steak. Then I chose the red sauce to top it all with because my waiter said it was the best. The burrito could have conceivably actually given birth to another burrito at some point in its life because it was really, really big (perhaps even bigger than the “pregnant burrito” I once ate).

Thus, I jumped right in with a fork and knife and went to town on this mother. It was nothing short of delicious. The steak was cooked nicely and well-seasoned, while the cheese, beans and rice were exactly as you would expect them. Perhaps the biggest pleasant surprise was the red sauce, which was flavorful and also packed a nice punch.

Regardless of how you do Moab, you’re going to be hungry. And when you are, you won’t go wrong with a M.O.A.B.

Steaks aren’t cheap. At least, that’s the tale we’ve all been told. But what if I told you that the beautiful ribeye steak to the left there was only $18? Well, it’s the truth. Because Tuesdays in Scottsdale are apparently not the most popular nights to go out, so Hand Cut Burgers Burgers and Chophouse offers its steaks for half off. Thus, on a night that I had been intending to order a burger, I found myself ordering that ribeye instead.

It wasn’t bone-in, but I wasn’t going to complain. It was cooked to a perfect medium rare and served with garlic butter and a sprig of something unimportant. The beef was nicely marbled and it was perfectly seasoned with next to nothing aside from the garlic butter. Admittedly, neither the flavor nor the juiciness were quite what they could have been if it had been bone-in. It’s probably not fair to pick a bone with an $18 ribeye, but if it had been full price, it may have been something more worthy of consideration.

Tuesdays are definitely the right day to be at Hand Cut. It’s probably still great on the other nights of the week, but once you have tasted the forbidden fruit, it’s hard to go back to reality.

Tacos, tacos and more tacos. That was the premise of the Rockin’ Taco Rumble in Downtown Phoenix on March 2nd, 2018. $45 got you unlimited tacos, six drinks and a wooden nickel to vote for your favorite taco. It took place at Events on Jackson, which was a pretty cool venue, but what was much less cool was the fact that some spots were already running out of tacos by the time I arrived and the lines were crazy long. Nevertheless, I persisted and was able to identify some favorites.

Modern Tortilla – Lamb Adobo

I don’t know why, but this place had the shortest line and was pretty much the best taco around. The lamb was insanely juicy and the adobo flavors were strong with this one. I’ll just guess that this place knew how to operate its taco making so well that I went back for seconds.

Willie’s Taco Joint – Lob-Sta-Taco

Having just returned from Massachusetts, I was a bit skeptical about lobster in the desert. Yet, Willie’s did not disappoint, making great use of mango habanero salsa to enhance the tasty lobster flavor.

Helio Basin – War Bonnet Carnitas

This brewery knows its tacos. And this taco was popping with ribeye, jalapeno pesto, crema, pickled cauliflowers (no, I didn’t eat them), Fresno peppers, pomegranate and mango aji salsa. It was a mouthful, and yet all those different flavors worked really well together.

Taco Guild – Chipotle Cherry Steak

This taco took home the grand prize. I loved the combination of blue cheese, poblano straws, chile aioli and steak, but it was admittedly difficult to not be overwhelmed by all of the flavor packed into this taco.

As media, I was able to attend for free, but had I paid $45 or $55 to get in, I may have left disappointed, if not slightly hungry. Unlimited tacos shouldn’t have the caveat of first come first served, but that shouldn’t completely distract from how delicious the event was and how the event helped to raise money for the Phoenix Community Alliance. Tacos are great, but building a better Phoenix is even better.

The Mekong Plaza in Mesa is a great place to get real, authentic Asian food to bring people back to their roots or at least to get them away from crappy Americanized Asian food. And among those more traditional restaurants is something that doesn’t fit the mold at all. It’s called Kingo Bowl, and it has taken the concept of rice bowls with molecular sous vide.

You can pick a pre-made bowl or channel your inner Millennial to customize your own creation. I did the latter, and built mine with steak (essentially beef tataki), brown rice, a hot spring egg, dried cranberries and sunflower seeds. I asked for a sauce recommendation and was pointed to the black pepper sauce, so I went with it.

The bowl was beautiful, kingly even. The beef was incredibly tender, if not quite as rare as I would have liked. The hot spring egg was nothing short of exhilarating. Probably the best thing to come out of a hot spring since me, the last time I was in a hot spring. Of course, it didn’t actually come out of a hot spring, but it was that good.I loved the addition of the cranberries and the sunflower seeds, but there was one aspect of the bowl that just didn’t jive with me: the sauce. Simply put, it was overwhelming. I’ll admit that I am not the biggest black pepper guy in the first place, but I can appreciate it when used properly. In this case it really just covered up flavor without doing much to add to it.

And yet, despite the sauce (and the fact that it was recommended), there was something about Kingo Bowl’s creativity and mildly flawed execution that I truly enjoyed. Perhaps with one of the other sauces I would be proclaiming that the old world cuisine at Mekong Plaza needs to make way for more modernist takes like Kingo Bowl. But alas, that sauce had me a bit soured and looking for more. Yet, I am certain I will find that more with another visit to Kingo Bowl, because I have every intention to return.

There was a weird time in history when revolving restaurants became popular. Only one of these, at least as far as I understand, also was a Playboy Club back in the day, and that was the Compass Arizona Grill on top of the Hyatt in Downtown Phoenix. Today, it serves as kind of a throwback steakhouse, there to remind you how cool rotating restaurants once were, while trying to adapt to the modern palette.

Thus, we began with a couple of appetizers – the calamari and the meat and cheese board. One turned out well and the other left a little to desire. Surprisingly, I have to give kudos to the calamari. It was lightly fried and tasted fresh. I probably could have done without the accompanying veggies, but this was exactly the kind of calamari you want at a more upscale place. As for the meat and cheese board, both the meat and cheese were delicious, as you might expect. The trouble was that there was only one type of each. Variety is key for a charcuterie like this and this rotating restaurant didn’t provide it.

As for my main course, I ordered the Bone-In Niman Ranch Ribeye in honor of Hef, because I assume that is what he would have ordered. It came with a black garlic demi-glace, which is not something I would have expected at such a place and was eager to try out. After watching the sun set in the full 360 degreees, the steak arrived a surprisingly perfect medium-rare, and I set to work on spreading the black garlic evenly over the meat. The meat wasn’t quite as marbled as I would have liked, with sort of uneven bursts of fat and meatiness, but that’s really the only complaint I had. I thought the black garlic was a nice modern touch to bring out some extra umami that pretty much every meal could use.

I should also mention that the steak came with a choice of a side and I went for the bacon-brie mac and cheese. My only wish from this was that there could have been more of it, because it was perfect in every way.

Considering the gimmicky nature of the revolving restaurant and it being in a hotel, my expectations were pretty low for my meal. Lucky for Compass Arizona Grill, those expectations were exceeded. It may not be the best steak in the Phoenix area (I’m still partial to Mastro’s and waiting to be convinced that a better steak exists), but it did a good job. Like its Playboy roots, you may come for the views, but you’ll stick around for the articles.

Harbor Springs is a lovely little town up in Northern Michigan, and yet between it and Petoskey (another lovely, somewhat bigger town), there isn’t much beyond trees, condos, lakes and a couple of ski mountains. Oh, and there’s also Teddy Griffin’s Roadhouse, which has been situated there as long as I can remember. They serve up a combination of bar food, fancier European-style food, Great Lakes food and some of the most delicious bread in the world.

One of their specialties is prime rib, and I just had to have it. I ordered it medium rare and it came out looking like a dream, well aside from the random green beans it came with. On the other had it also came with a pleasant surprise of au gratin potatoes, so I thought they kind of canceled each other out.

Alas, the prime rib was cooked perfectly and was even tastier with a dip of the horseradish sauce. The seasoning was subtle, but enough to bring out the beefy flavor, and I have never seen a juicier plate of beef. It was almost enough to make me forget about the green beans.

In fact, in the week we spent Up North, we returned to Teddy Griffin’s and this time around I went with the Pesto Chicken, which was made with a creamy pesto sauce on angel hair pasta. While this dish was also quite delicious, it was also held back by being served with unwanted green vegetables. This time they came in the form of asparagus and the rich, creamy sauce and tender chicken breasts could only do so much to gloss over that egregious error.

Teddy Griffin’s was a great way to bookend the trip Up North, but they have got to get their vegetables in order. Until they do so, they will always have an asterisk next to their otherwise delicious dishes.

Persian food is a special type of Middle Eastern food, and thus I was very excited to learn that Scottsdale has its own Persian restaurant, appropriately named the Persian Room, because it’s basically one big room. With Persian food. And like any Persian restaurant worth its salt, its menu was vast and filled with all sorts of meats and rice. Essentially it was the kind of place that was made for an unvegan.

It began with Tah Dig, which is a must-eat if you have never it. Essentially, it is overcooked rice, but in the best of ways. It’s oily and crispy and then covered in choice of two stews. Or, if you’re like me, you get both. One is the gheimeh and the other is the ghormeh sabzi. The gheimeh is more legumey, and the ghormeh sabzi is more herby. I preferred the ghormeh sabzi, but you can’t go wrong with either.

As for my main course, I snagged the Naderi Sultani. This took the classic Sultani to another level by combining filet mignon, chicken and koobideh (ground beef). I also decided to upgrade the rice to zereshk polo rice instead of normal basmati rice. This means barberries (a tart and sweet berry) and saffron were mixed in with the rice. The whole plate was a beautiful feast and I set to work on it. By far, the best was the filet mignon, which was perfectly seasoned and tender. The chicken and koobideh were plenty good as well, but just couldn’t compare with the filet mignon.

As far as rooms go, this Persian Room was definitely one of my favorites. There aren’t many other rooms you can go to for incredible meats and incredible rice, so the Persian Room is the right place to get that fill.

Hotels aren’t exactly known for their food. Yet, there has been a trend to try to get better restaurants into hotels and I give those hotels major props for trying. In Pasadena the dusitD2 Constance Hotel has a spot called Constance Perry’s. It’s kind of Asian, kind of American, but definitely not fusion because those dishes kind of stand out on their own.

Thus, we began with their Pork Soup Dumplings, or as I like to call them, xiaolongbao. I was amazed to find that when the bamboo steamer was opened to reveal these dumplings they were black instead of the traditional off-white color. Unfortunately, it turned out that black xialongbao did not necessarily translate into better xiaolongbao. The dough was kind of spongy and the soup didn’t boast too much flavor.

But then there was the main course. I split the Short Ribs and Flat Iron Steak because that’s just the kind of person I am. Both were beyond my expectations and made me quickly forget about the dark side of xiaolongbao. The Short Ribs were perfectly tender and had been braised in a sauce worthy of many flavors, while the Flat Iron Steak had been cooked to a perfect medium-rare and was accompanied by truffle fries that felt just right. I would have been happy with either one of these, but was certainly glad to have both.

If I were to return to Constance Perry’s, I would skip right over the appetizers and head to the main courses. They change seasonally, so you can never really be sure what will be available. Yet, if the Short Ribs and Flat Iron Steak are any indication of what regularly appears, it will be difficult to walk away disappointed.