Blind Dog Grill & Sushi Bar
1781 Sidewinder Drive, Park City ; 435-655-0800
(see
map)
Whether fish or meat is on your mind, Blind Dog's got it covered. Proper seasoning would improve many dishes.
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| Food |
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| Mood |
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| Kid-friendly |
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Cuisine: American, Sushi
Price: $$$$
Hours: Open nightly, 5-10 p.m.
Liquor: Full Service
Corkage: $ 15
Reservations: Recommended/required
Accepts:    
Website: http://www.blinddoggrill.com
Recommended Dishes: Vanilla bean pound cake and brioche bread pudding, BBLT salad, house salad with spinach, bacon and Gorgonzola.
January 22, 2009
Blind Dog takes a bite out of your wallet
By Lesli J. Neilson
Park City » Whether you feel like eating fish or meat, Blind Dog Restaurant & Sushi Bar has got you covered. If you're hankering for a glass of red and a big steak, use the left entrance, which leads to the more formal dining room. For a quick beer and a burger or a sushi roll or two, enter the sushi bar to the right.
The 10-year-old restaurant's menu has something for nearly everyone. Unfortunately, I have found that the bigger the menu, the more inconsistent the dishes, and Blind Dog is no exception.
The wine list is equally large, with more than 400 selections, something Wine Spectator has awarded several years running.
Both spaces are cleverly designed with canine elements throughout: Dogs are depicted in oil paintings and etched glass, paw prints meander on the ceiling and the menu offers such sayings as this, credited to Andy Rooney: "If dogs could talk, it would take a lot of the fun out of owning one." Plasma televisions occupy the four corners of the low-key but svelte dining area within the sushi bar, while white tablecloths and premium stemware adorn the tables in the dark-wooded grill.
And while it costs a substantial sum to maintain two restaurants in Park City, the jump in menu prices, in the span of just two months, was staggering. I visited in October and again in December.
Though many menu prices saw an increase or decrease of a dollar or two, a few prices skyrocketed. Butternut squash ravioli went from $15.95 to $22; macaroni and cheese with bacon soared from $12 to $20; and meatloaf jumped from $16.29 to $24. High season indeed!
Paying those prices, you expect that every dish would be meticulously prepared. But no. Many of the slips were due to under- or overseasoning. Edamame ($6) were at once heavy and bereft of sea salt. The fillings and pasta for both ravioli dishes -- butternut squash ($22) and wild mushroom ($24) -- desperately needed salt, making them dull and unappealing.
Fish also suffered. A fillet of flaky salmon ($28) lacked seasoning, while its sides -- green beans and wasabi mashed potatoes -- were well cooked. Crab bisque soup ($10), on the other hand, was overly salted and viscous.
The $26 hamburger was particularly egregious. This signature "big burger" is a ¾-pound patty of "Kobe beef." It's safe to say Blind Dog is not purchasing its beef from Kobe, Japan, so that would make it "American-style Kobe" or "wagyu." Second, for $26, that requested medium-rare burger should not arrive raw and cold at its center and have to be sent back for another stint on the grill. Once cooked, it was a good burger but not worth more than $18, even if it is supplied by the prestigious Snake River Farms in Idaho.
Other items were just poorly executed. A salmon skin handroll ($6) had thick strips and no crunch. The hard, cold rice marred it and a clunky spicy tuna handroll ($6).
I wish the handrolls had been prepared with the same amount of care as the small sashimi combo ($24). Twelve pieces of thinly sliced tuna, hamachi , salmon, shiro maguro , squid and aji (Spanish mackerel) came replete with lovely embellishments of shredded daikon radish, seaweed salad and an Asian slaw.
I can't rave about the kitchen's signature items, either. Two crab cake orbs, with dipping sauce and green beans, should not cost $33, no matter how fresh the crab. Meatloaf ($24) was better, a moist chunk of beef, veal and pork alongside mashed potatoes, but the dish could have used a sauce to round out the plate.
But the warm vanilla pound cake bread pudding ($8) needed less sauce. The pudding swam in rich crème anglaise, but the vanilla and cinnamon flavors were a hit. The butterscotch crème brûlée ($8) was textbook, with a lovely burnished cap.
Salads were good, too. The Blind Dog BBLT ($10), with blue cheese, bacon, grape tomatoes and romaine hearts, and the spinach-bacon-and-Gorgonzola house salad ($10) were copious, balanced and well dressed.
At both visits, neither restaurant was busy. Despite that, each server was friendly but lacked the finer points of service. One evening, we received our entrées before some of us were finished with our appetizers. The uncomfortable shuffling of empty and full plates began. Our server then tried to remove two salads that were still being eaten. He even stood behind one of my companions, with entrée in hand, until she finished her salad. After that, water and wine were slow to be refilled.
It's obvious that, for 10 years, Blind Dog has filled a niche. Would I go back? With those prices, a kitchen that's missing the basics and servers who need training, I have to say, not at the moment.
Tribune's rating system
Overall rating
1 star Good
2 stars Very good
3 stars Excellent
4 stars Extraordinary
Entree price
$ Entree under $10
$$ $10-$18
$$$ $18-$25
$$$$ Above $25
Restaurant Noise
1 bell Quiet (under 65 decibles)
2 bells Can talk easily (65-70)
3 bells Talking somewhat difficult (70-75)
4 bells Raised voices (75-80)
A bomb Too noisy for normal conversation (80+)
The Tribune covers the cost of all meals at reviewed restaurants. Star ratings are based on a minimum of two visits. Ratings are updated continually based on at least one revisit. There is no connection between reviews and advertising.
February 13, 2004
By Nancy Hobbs
PARK CITY -- The masterminds behind The Blind Dog Grill had quite a vision when they conjured the idea of a classy bar and grill that morphs and extends into a topflight sushi bar and restaurant. But here it is, high-altitude surf-and-turf, tucked into Prospector Square among the maze of snow walls that grow ever higher during a promising winter season.
Order hamachi sashimi or oysters on the half shell, both pulled from the Pacific less than 24 hours before they appear on your plate. Or delight in a juicy ribeye grown closer to its destination and cured to "prime" perfection.
Chef Pen Lehman-Kinsey, who opened The Blind Dog Grill six years ago with her husband, Derrick Kinsey, and father, Chappie Lehman, is rumored to be a stickler for perfection, starting with top-of-the-line staples and continuing through to the finished product.
During recent visits, our parties tried both parts of the restaurant: first, the sushi side, with beautifully upholstered booths along the walls, each separated by high sides and fabric valances. Tables for larger parties fill the center area. By early evening, nearly every table is filled by diners who called ahead for reservations; seating at the sleek sushi bar is available on a first-come-first-served basis.
The grill side has a more elegant feel, with beautiful wood paneling, more subdued lighting and tables situated along a lengthy, plush banquette.
Linen-covered tables throughout the restaurant are set with large dinner plates bearing the perky-eared labrador that is the original logo of Blind Dog, named in honor of Rigger, the family's blind black lab. (A new sleeker logo is being transitioned in.)
Dogs also adorn the walls in pictures, and have even left their mark in paw prints on the ceiling over the bar. The dog theme is cute, but not overdone; there is other art throughout the restaurant, including Olympic images and framed prints.
We began our sushi meal with a tasty smoked squid salad ($5), and a fairly traditional miso soup ($3). Then it was onto the sushi, offered in more than a dozen rolls and almost that many choices of sashimi.
The "Firecracker" roll, made with fresh tuna and tempura, was delicious, as was the unagi maki, or eel roll, priced at $12 and $6 respectively. The "Jupiter Access" was pricey at $15, but was certainly a visual treat, made with tempura shrimp and hamachi, or yellowtail, and albacore tunas.
Thee highlight, however, was incredibly fresh hamachi sashimi, beautifully sliced to impart its full flavor, and unagi sushi, made with slightly sweet, grilled freshwater eel.
Our server, who generally worked the grill side and apologized at the outset for not being familiar with the sushi-side of things, struggled to get our order right, and was perplexed when we mentioned our "rolls" had yet to arrive. Hopefully she was on top of things after another shift or two under her belt, as our visit was just the week before Park City's annual Sundance invasion.
Our server on the grill side during a more recent visit was familiar with the menu and attentive without being overbearing. Even he, though, seemed overwhelmed as the restaurant filled up and perhaps had too many tables to handle.
The inviting menu on the grill side offers lots of fresh seafood, including two kinds of crab cakes, both made with Atlantic blue crab, as are the crab cocktail and crab bisque. The restaurant also generally offers three prime steaks: a New York strip paired with a crab cake -- dubbed "steak and cake" -- for $36; a thick, center-cut filet, pepper-crusted and served with blue cheese butter ($32); and a daily special, usually a ribeye or T-bone.
We ordered the ribeye ($30), which was served on a generous bed of crispy homemade fries. The crab cake -- called "the best this side of the Chesapeake Bay" -- was definitely in contention for those boasting rights.
This is Derrick's special, made with lumps of crab and cooked on a small toast to help prevent it from falling apart (which means more crab and less binder).
The ahi tuna, cooked to order, but best just seared, was luscious, served with tasty fried onion "haystacks."
Dinner prices are high, so you may be tempted to pass on appetizers that range from $7 to $15, or on the $8 salads. But if they are within your means, splurge.
Salads can be ordered in half sizes that are quite generous, and if you like blue cheese, the BDG B.B.L.T. is terrific. Tender leaves of romaine are dressed with creamy blue cheese dressing and then topped with grape tomatoes, crumbled bacon and more fresh blue cheese. The Southern salad is a nice combination of greens with dried cranberries, apples, toasted pecans and blue cheese with a poppy seed dressing.
In fact, a whole or even half salad along with a single crab cake off the appetizer menu ($15), or an order of crab, lobster and shrimp egg rolls ($10), could make a satisfying dinner. Add a side order of those homemade fries for $6, and you are set.
Whatever your dinner choice, Blind Dog has a wine or beer to go with it. There is a nice selection of wines by the glass, and several pages to choose from if you select a bottle. The restaurant has been honored with the annual Wine Spectator award for several years running.
Blind Dog has a warm, friendly feel to it; one that is inviting for special nights out, but just as comfortable for a casual outing. Be prepared for Park City prices, but likewise be assured of top quality.
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