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| - Our thoughts about Orange Sky mirrors many of the other comments here. The bad offsets the good. We arrived for a reservation timed to watch the sun set. As others have noted we had to walk through a smoke-filled Casino to get to the private elevator up to the restaurant. I'm not sure if there is another way in, but we asked several outside staff where we should park for the restaurant and followed their directions. Once inside the casino from the west parking area, we followed the signs on the ceiling signs to get us into the general area, although not all signs along our path indicated the way. We had to look around until we found other signs that brought us to the private elevators. There's a young lady there who we assume is the doorman preventing the general population from getting up to the restaurant as looky-loos, which we appreciated. What we didn't really like was the dress code. Not that there was a dress code, but why bother if it only excludes the most basic t-shirts, flip-flops, and baggy pants. We were dressed up for our special occasion, but most of the other patrons to this high-end restaurant were dressed like they were going out to shop at Walmart. Not really the experience we were expecting. We would have liked the code to rather tell you the minimum standards of dress. The ambiance at the restaurant is simply spectacular, less of course the view of the parking lot. We didn't find it as distracting as some others, but the point is noted. That being said, the sunset was amazing and when it got dark the lights on the 101, the Pavilion, and the houses on Camelback were just beautiful. The open floor plan is very appealing also. Many people talked about their private booths on the way into the main seating area, but we like to see all the action.
The service was OK, but we've had much better at places like Remington's and Casa Mia. While the staff pays attention, the interaction is just not at the level of professionalism you'd expect at a high-end place. The exception was the Sommelier, Lukas, who knows his stuff and added a lot of class to the experience. Another issue we found was the waiter stations located in-between every other table against the windows. We were uncomfortable having conversations with the staff standing right behind our chair and their constant movement around us distracted from our experience. Why in the world are there wait stations on the floor in-between tables?
Food presentation was mixed. We started with the Antipasti plate. It was a work of art, laid out wonderfully with flatbread accents on a wooden platter. What ruined the whole thing was the metal sauce cup, which held the delicious fig compote. These are the same ones you get at a diner to hold Ketchup. Why they wouldn't put it in a white ceramic bowl I don't know, but that little change would really step it up instead of having the cheap metal cup drag it down. Attention to detail if you're a 4 star restaurant.
Our steaks came on a giant white plate with the steak and a small pepper as a garnish. Food presentation can't be stressed enough. We stared at our plates and found it to be of limited appeal. While the steaks were outstanding, they didn't look very appealing all alone on the big white canvass. Yes, the sides are served in separate bowls and you need the room on the plate to put them, but that doesn't excuse being served a slab of meat on a giant white plate. Pretty plain. The steaks come with a side of sauce. Again, the sauce came in a cheap SMALL metal cup that was placed on the table instead of a white ceramic bowl matching the plates, and placed ON the plate. That would have helped with presentation. The blue cheese butter was piped in the cup instead of the typical "coins" made by rolling the butter and cheese into a log, then cutting it into coins. The coins are easier to place on your steak and melt much better. The coins would have actually provided enough for the steak. The amount that came in the cup with the steak wasn't even worth serving with a $38 steak, and an extra cup was $4. I would rather have given the small amount back and had them knock $4 off the steak.
Wine. This is always a touchy area and there are several schools of though. First, Lukas's wine list is spectacular. It has a wide range of offerings at a wide range of prices, and he has probably the best selection of Cakebread in the state. That being said, I found the prices all over the place. Some were priced at 100% markup, some at 200% and some even higher. I don't mind paying 100% as this is probably the maximum "fair" price in my view. That's my school of thought. Other's, including Orange Sky, may think they can charge more because of the view out the windows. That's their prerogative, and maybe they have the clientele that doesn't mind paying these markups. Maestro's does this and that's their niche, but Maestros is head and shoulders above Orange Sky in
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