Lamb's Grill Cafe
169 S. Main St., Salt Lake City ; 801-364-7166
(see
map)
A kitchy restaurant is a Utah original. The place has a lot of history and makes the food an afterthought.
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| Kid-friendly |
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Cuisine: European
Price: $$
Hours: M-F, 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; S, 8 a.m.-9 p.m.
Liquor: Full Service
Reservations: Not accepted/necessary
Accepts:    
Website: http://www.lambsgrill.com
Recommended Dishes: Corned beef hash, grilled Reuben, milkshakes, rice pudding.
February 22, 2006
Lamb's embraces the patina of tradition
By Mary Brown Malouf
Journalists are used to one-way conversations. Many of us write about life-changing news all the time without hearing a peep in response.
Not so for me. People may not be able to find the time to comment on redistricting or tax reform, but if I complain about their favorite restaurant, you bet they'll find the time to write.
I get a lot of mail; usually it is when I have been negative. But I expect some outcry in response to this review for the opposite reason. I love Lamb's Grill Cafe.
Somehow, uninspired food, an old-fashioned setting and matter-of-fact service all add up to a great experience. To say it's greater than the sum of its parts is vastly understating the case.
Am I biased? Well, yes I am. For years, the Tribune offices were practically next door to Lamb's. It was the perfect spot for an interview, an easy place to have lunch with a friend or to dine with a spouse after a long day of shoveling words.
Convenience counts immensely in the restaurant business. And so does custom. Restaurant reviewers, who anonymously visit myriad restaurants, seldom have the opportunity to get to know the servers, the chef, the host and the owner of one particular place.
Lamb's is best when you know it. Otherwise, as you enter, you might question the decorative value of the kitschy stuffed and ceramic lambs lined up over the long bar. You might wonder "why?" when you see "eggs Vienna" ($5.50), two eggs poached on toast with bacon and hot milk, and steamed "finnan haddie," ($11.95) served with a boiled potato, on the breakfast and lunch menus.
Our chatty server said the milk toast is for "our older guests" and the finnan haddie is for "people who know what it is." In case you don't, it's smoked haddock, a Scottish dish typical of the old-fashioned breakfasts on Lamb's menu.
A baked large Rome Beauty apple ($2.25) is another rarity -- warm, sweet and tart all at once, it made me wonder why we don't bake apples anymore. Grilled corned beef hash ($6.95 with two eggs, any style) is another.
If you're new to Lamb's, you might be tempted to point out that there's nothing particularly Greek about the Greek bread and you might wish that it wasn't served cold. But if you go to Lamb's often, you'll know that those quibbles are as useless as asking your mother to leave the ketchup off the meatloaf. You'll know to order the restaurant's specialties -- trout ($10.95) for a leisurely breakfast, pan-sautéed and sided with toast (we asked for rye) and hash browns that had probably seen a freezer.
The menu and the Web site (http://www.lambsgrill.com) proudly claim that Lamb's is Utah's oldest restaurant, opened on Feb. 22, 1919 in Logan by a Greek immigrant named George "Lamb" Lambropoulous. In 1939, Lamb moved his restaurant to Salt Lake's Main Street. Three years later he took on Ted Speros as a partner and Ted's son John still runs the restaurant.
So no wonder the restaurant has a feeling of accumulation rather than design, of historical accretion rather than considered arrangement. Everything, from the art deco light fixtures in the two-person wood booths, to the handy hooks for the fedoras men used to wear and the ornate Viennese carved chairs, bears the patina of unpretentious aging. The background clatter of cups and saucers, the thick white china, the way the conversational murmur floats up and loses itself in the high ceiling, would have sounded much the same in 1940.
The menu reflects the same resistance to change: Cinnamon toast, cut diagonally, is made from a pre-sliced, plastic-bagged commercial loaf. Grapefruit is the thick-skinned white Florida variety that requires several packets of sugar to eat without wincing. Milkshakes ($3.25) are gloriously still made from scratch, not extruded. Surf-and-turf still rules the dinner menu at a lofty $19.50. Rice pudding ($1.95) is a favorite dessert. Coffee is just coffee; for $1.50, it's refilled as often as your server stops by.
Lunch at Lamb's includes just what you'd expect: a more than respectable cheeseburger ($5.45) with a nice-size, medium-pink patty on a kaiser-style roll served with '50s-style fries; a good grilled Reuben on rye; a nod to the trend of topping a pungent Caesar salad ($3.95 small; $6.95 large) with chicken (choose the grilled, not the bitter blackened); and a nod to the past with baby beef liver and onions ($8.50).
I have no idea if the latter is good or not because I learned as a child not to eat this unless my mother made me.
Lunch slides almost imperceptibly into dinner via an early-bird special from 3:30 to 6 p.m., when soup or salad, a beverage and a choice of one of four entrees is only $11.95. In the evening, the kitchen reaches a little higher.
The best bets are the Greek-tinged specialties -- the "famous" spaghetti sauce that comes with the spaghetti ($6.95) bears a hint of sweetness that is more reminiscent of Eastern lamb dishes than straight Sicilian style. Barbecued lamb shank ($14.50) is not barbecued at all, but braised like osso buco until it was falling off the bone into the rice pilaf. Chicken breast, boneless and a little pricey for $14, was seasoned heavily with oregano and lemon, which can be a real wine killer.
The Salt Lake Valley has several restaurants that are institutions -- I've written about most of them -- Ruth's Diner, Hires, La Caille. Whatever the style, old-fashioned or trendy, the standard is set by the place itself. Is this restaurant what it aspires to be? Does it deliver what it promises?
In the case of Lamb's, pretty much.
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.
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