Tiburon

Where: Tiburon, 8256 S 700 E, Sandy

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Ahi Tuna, Beef Tenderloin, and Boysenberry Cheesecake

What It Cost: ~$75 (we had a Groupon, so I can't remember exactly)

What We Thought:

Tiburon is one of the few expensive restaurants I've been to here in Utah where I really felt like the high price was worth the bill and I would definitely want to return here again. If you are really looking to impress someone with exceptionally delicious food, Tiburon would be a great place to make a reservation. The only thing I did not enjoy about this restaurant was the other restaurant attendees - come on people! If you are going to be spending $50+ on a meal, please wear something nicer than jeans and a baseball cap! But that's just a personal issue...

The service at Tiburon was very cordial, and we started out our meal with the standard bread basket. I have to apologize ahead of time - these are probably the worst pictures I've ever taken at a restaurant, but I just had to share Tiburon with you! It was a very dark restaurant inside so the pictures are not good, but the food was very delicious!

We started out with the standard bread basket, and the bread was very fresh and soft. Instead of just serving normal butter, we received a sundried tomato herb butter, which was exceptionally tasty and surprisingly sweet. I really didn't want to fill up on bread before our real food came, but it was very good!

I heard someone commenting at a table next to us that they will come to Tiburon just for their house salad, and I can certainly see why! Their delicious house salad was served on a bed of baby mixed greens with Granny Smith apples, a house dried Roma tomato, fontina cheese, candied pecans and a shallot balsamic dressing. It had just the right balance of sweet, salty, sour, savory - you name it. This was one sexy salad, and I definitely look forward to having it again! The only problem with it was that my Roma tomato seemed like it was really cold on my salad, but Owen's salad didn't have that problem, so there must have just been something weird going on. 

This little cup may not look like much, but it was a delightful little sorbet that was served in between our salad and entree courses. I especially loved the seasonal raspberry sorbet, with its piquant tartness and rich color. A lemon sorbet was the bottom scoop, and it was a nice way to prepare for our main meal.

Owen received a cut of medium rare beef that was drizzled with a balsamic reduction and creamy peppery sauce. Owen loves pepper, so naturally he found this wonderfully delicious. It was served with some roasted vegetables and I had one delectable bite, but honestly, I was way too distracted and involved with my own meal to pay much attention to what was going on over on his pretty plate...

Man, I wish this picture did any justice to how incredibly amazing this dish was! It was fresh ahi tuna, seared to the most tender rare cut of fresh fish you've ever had in this state of Utah. It was encrusted with black sesame seeds which were so fun to eat when contrasted to the soft, melty meat. It was topped with soy and honey marinated shredded carrot, which helped to freshen up the plate, in addition to some roasted vegetables and pineapple fried rice. The pineapple fried rice was so good, I would order it on it's own! It tasted so light and crunchy, the pineapple was so fresh, sweet and tangy, and I was so full but I had to keep eating it because it was so so so good!

Since I'm from the Pacific Northwest, I get really excited about anything that is boysenberry, marionberry, or huckleberry flavored and we knew we had to order this cheesecake. I don't know how to fully describe it fairly, but this was, without a doubt, one of the best traditional cheesecakes I've ever had. A lovely creme anglais was served with a berry compote atop perfectly prepared cheesecake. It's so unfair that dessert is served at the end of the meal. I always feel like I am too full to enjoy it as much as I should!

What You Should Do: Tiburon is a big YES in my book. Pricey places are so dangerous - you don't want to risk spending so much if it's not worth the cost. But luckily, you have me to guide the way, and I would certainly recommend trying out Tiburon for a special occasion! And make sure to wear something nice!

Read other reviews here:

Wild Mustang

Where: Wild Mustang, 860 West 1250 South, Orem

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Six-Stack of Ribs with side of Vegetables and Sweet Potato Fries, Beef Brisket with New Potatoes and Baked Beans, Chocolate Meringue Pie 

What It Cost: Free...((on accident!))

What We Thought: 

We were originally planning to ride the new FrontRunner train to Salt Lake on the free train day, but like all free Utah things, it was super crazy and packed. So with the evening's plans ruined, we drove back towards home on University, when I noticed that the sign was turned on for the Wild Mustang. I'd seen it before and knew it was a new restaurant, so with last-minute decisiveness, we decided to pull into the parking lot! 

When we arrived, there was a little bit of a wait, and the hostess kept mentioning how she was surprised at how full the restaurant was. We were seated, and then proceeded to wait a good fifteen minutes until our server arrived.

When she finally did come around and ask if we wanted drinks, we were each given one of these sad looking rolls. I had thought that this restaurant was going to be similar to Texas Roadhouse (with hopefully shorter lines!), and they did give us some honey butter, but I was just so put out by this poor little roll. So ugly, so haphazard.

After taking our order, she gave back in another 15 minutes and brought this basket of rolls -- much better! A whole basket, beautifully shaped, and much prettier! The honey butter was soft and spreadable on the warm rolls, and my hopes were lifted again.

It took probably another twenty minutes or so for our food to arrive, so when it did, we were absolutely ravenous. My dish was probably the highlight of the meal - these were some of the best ribs I've ever had in a restaurant. The barbecue sauce was tangy and had just the right amount of smokiness and sweetness, and the meat was perfectly prepared. Sometimes restaurants manage to make "slow-cooked" into "super dry and awful," but not here! They were easy to eat, superbly flavorful, and if I'm ever in the mood for ribs, I'm going to come to Wild Mustang! The side of vegetables was alright - not really a variety of vegetables, but it was nice to have something relatively healthy to try (though I'm pretty sure they were cooked in loads of butter....)

My first side option didn't arrive with the meal because they were all out (the soup of the day), so I decided to try the sweet potato fries. Of course it took another ten minutes for them to arrive, but they were pretty good. They were out of ketchup, so I went with ranch - a viable option.

Owen ordered the beef brisket, which was served on a slice of country toast. We thought the toast was a little weird, but it ended up being pretty good if you ate the meat on top! The brisket was a little drier than we had hoped, but was still overall fairly tasty. We had to laugh at the side of "new potatoes," which were literally just two baked red potatoes, completely plain. When our server asked if he wanted butter with the potatoes, we said yes, and were brought another little container of the honey butter. I'm not sure if this was on purpose, but the honey butter on the potatoes was a little weird (but not horrible). The side of baked beans was the smallest portion of baked beans I've ever seen, and they were definitely unique - full of meat chunks and different types of beans. They weren't our favorite baked beans ever, but they weren't bad.

We decided to go for a piece of chocolate meringue pie, and she ended up bring us out two! It wasn't the prettiest pie, but it had pretty good flavor. I especially liked the meringue and thick buttery crust.

When we asked for the check, she told us that everything was on the house because tonight was the Friends & Family soft opening event! We were totally surprised and honestly awkward, but that totally explained our "complaints" about any service or lacking menu items! They didn't even have their registers up and running yet, and they were super busy (if you're going to have a lit-up sign on University on a Saturday night, people are going to come in!) with probably a not-full staff, so I completely forgive them of all service issues we had! Not to mention -- free food! Yeah, we totally lucked out on this one...!

What You Should Do: I would definitely recommend checking out Wild Mustang...now that they are open for real! Wild Mustang is like a less busy Texas Roadhouse, with better ribs! Though they were quite slow, I really can't blame them, and the service was still all very friendly. As far as the food presentation and side dish size complaints go - I'm sure they were also due to the soft opening craziness, so all in all, pretty good! We hope to be able to visit again some time when they have been up and running for a while!

Read other reviews here: 

Cubby's Chicago Beef

Where: Cubby's Chicago Beef, 1258 N State Street, Provo

Who Went: Chelsey & Owen

Number of Visits: 1

What We Ordered: Cockadoodledoo Chicken Sandwich, Tri-Tip Steak Sandwich Cali-Style, & Blue Cheese Buffalo Fries

What It Cost: $19.90

What We Thought:


Finally! A place so much more worthy than Little Caesar's, Carl's Jr, or Sonic to eat at that is within walking distance of our house! I've been really excited to try this restaurant ever since I saw the sign pop up around the corner, and am pleased to announce that it more than lived up to my hopes and dreams.

When we first entered Cubby's, Owen immediately loved the chic wood and chalkboard interior. When we asked Cubby what was "Chicago" about the beef, he explained that the meat is from local sources (making it extra fresh and delicious) but is prepared in traditional Chicago styles, like the steak sandwich and hot dogs.

I'm a huge buffalo sauce lover, so I knew we HAD to try the blue cheese buffalo fries. The blue cheese was milder than I had anticipated, so it really was a great balance for the spiciness of the buffalo sauce on the fries. I usually prefer thicker fries, but these ones were great with just the right amount of sauce and flavorings.

I never thought I would be so pumped about a chicken sandwich - usually chicken sandwiches are just the more boring and healthy alternative to burgers. Not this sandwich, my friends. First off, the chicken is cooked to perfection - flavorful and surprisingly moist. The Swiss cheese paired great with the meat, there was just the right amount of mixed greens, and the homemade avocado spread really brought it all together for me. We loved the whole wheat roll it was on, and were altogether impressed with how incredible this normally-boring option was!

I knew the tri-tip steak sandwich was going to be good, and it totally lived up to my expectations. I ordered it Cali-style, which added thick slices of avocado, melty cheddar cheese and crispy maple bacon, and opted to get spicy rather than sweet barbecue sauce. It probably would have still been delicious without the bacon, and I was glad that I chose the spicy BBQ sauce - it was a great combination with the creamy avocado. There was so much meat on the sandwich, all richly seasoned and tasty, and I also loved the grilled onions, which added a perfect savory sweetness to the sandwich. Someone asked me the other day what kind of bread it came on, and to be honest with you, I don't really remember much about the bread except that it wasn't horrible, it held the sandwich together, and I was way too distracted by the wonderful things that were going on inside the bread!

What You Should Do: Definitely check them out. Keep on walking past that cheap-o, horrible Little Caesar's and get yourself a real treat here at Cubby's. The sandwiches were unique and gratifying, and we will definitely be coming here again to try some of their other menu options!

Read other reviews here:

Texas Roadhouse

Where: Texas Roadhouse, 1265 S State Street, Orem (right west of University Mall, follow the smell of meat...)


Who Went: Chelsey & Owen, for Owen's birthday


Number of Visits: 1


What We Ordered: Raspberry Smoothie, Hot Wings, Medium Rare Sirloin Steak, "Fall Off the Bone" Ribs


What It Cost: $35.00* (with tip)


What We Thought: 

I don't know what the deal is with Texas Roadhouse, but the lines there are insane -- longer than the wait for Toy Story Mania at Disney California Adventure, I swear. They are always SUPER busy, and like Outback Steakhouse, usually full of some pretty manly (hairy) men, which is always interesting.

When we finally got a seat (I hear you can make reservations now, which you must make if you want to go here at a normal hour!), we started chowing down on some peanuts they had there since we were so starving. We got some of their "famous" Texas Roadhouse rolls and honey butter -- Owen thought the honey butter was weird, and I thought the rolls were only so-so. I really think that their secret is to make you wait for at least an hour so that by the time you get any food, you think it is the most wonderful thing in the whole world because you've been starving (similar technique seen at Cheesecake Factory).

Since it was his birthday, we decided to get Owen a frozen raspberry lemonade. It was pretty good and very large, which was good since it was so pricey. Then we got hot wings since we looove hot wings, and they were your typical, not too spicy buffalo wings. Good amount of wing sauce, decent dipping sauce, not too dry -- but nothing that blows your mind. I got the "Fall off the Bone" babyback ribs with mashed potatoes. First off -- the potatoes were so loaded with sour cream and butter and FAT FAT FAT that you really couldn't tell that there was any potato in there, so order vegetables or something on the side! The ribs lived up to their name I guess -- they did fall off the bone, but since they were so overcooked (slow roasted for forever apparently), they were SUPER dry. The barbecue sauce they tried to coat it with did little to hide the dryness of the ribs, and I was pretty disappointed.

Owen ordered his steak medium rare. When we got it, and he cut into the steak, it was completely cooked and brown all the way through. This my friends is not medium rare. We told our server this problem, and she brought the cook out there to talk to us. The chef told us about how most people in Provo don't know how to order steak correctly, and they always complain about it being too raw, even though they ordered the meat that way. He was super nice though and cooked up another steak for Owen, and we got it on the house! Bottom line is...Texas Roadhouse = not such great food, but really good customer service.

It was also fun because I told the server that it was Owen's birthday, and she made him get up on this little horse mount and shout "Yee-Haw!" while others sang and danced around him. This was mostly for my enjoyment, and I very much enjoyed it. Plus we got a free birthday ice cream. Never a bad thing.

What You Should Do: Go if you have to. But I would recommend taking a little drive and going up to the Texas Roadhouse in Lehi -- I have heard from many that this more well-established site has much better food than our Orem version. And, learn how to order a steak and be sure to inform your server that you actually know what you're talking about, and you really do want that steak medium rare.

image source