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| - if yelp gave a 6th star, this would be the first place to warrant one of any that i've reviewed.
my wife and i recently vacationed in phoenix and wanted to have one amazing meal as a late anniversary celebration. in what now looks like a stroke of luck, our first choice, kai, was closed thru august and not reopening until we had left. a client of my wife's recommended binkley's and one look at the website convinced us to make a reservation ASAP.
cave creek was kind of a random place for a restaurant of this quality, but did offer a nice view of the sunset behind a mountain in the distance. we arrived at 6 for our 6:30 reservation, and they had no problem seating us early. my wife immediately took note of the decor, a series of roses submerged in water in large, cylindrical vases in the entrance. we went all in on the 6-course tasting menu, as it was marginally more expensive than the 4- or 5-course menus, and when in rome...
almost immediately after our order was taken, we received the first of many eagerly anticipated amuse-bouches. savory bacon donuts sprinkled with parmesan cheese along with a bacon butter. before i get into the meal itself, for anyone complaining about portions: 1) amuses are meant to be one bite; 2) the service informs you that the tasting portions are smaller than the a la carte options; and 3) both of us were more than full when leaving the restaurant.
over the course of the meal, we were served a total of 12 amuses, most notably including a mini-sandwich trio consisting of muffaletta, banh mi and sloppy joes, truffled potato skins, a platter of chicken liver mousse, pistachio butter and nectarine jam, frozen arnold palmers, mango "bombs", mint consomme with 4 kinds of chocolate dots served on an LED coaster, and a warm cinnamon souffle with apple creme anglaise.
if that doesn't whet your palette, then the actual courses will. for 6 courses, you get a cold appetizer, a hot appetizer, a fish, a meat, a cheese plate (or truffle fondue, my pick), and a dessert.
since my wife will surely offer up her own review, I will just highlight my dishes. when we were served each course, our server (primarily nicole, who was amazing) identified each ingredient in the dish, offering more detail than what was given on the menu. this was followed up by a visit from the maitre d, angus, who gave even MORE insight, on things like the source and seasonality of the ingredients and answered any questions we had (like how DO they make that lobster powder? answer: dried lobster roe pulvarized in a food processor and passed thru a chinois).
my cold app was a poached king salmon with sake-cured salmon roe, cucumber, pickled onion, and dabbed all over the plate by a dill-horseradish emulsion and creme fraiche, served with a little glass of cold cucumber soup with chipotle oil. every course was top notch, but THIS is the one i keep coming back to. just unreal.
for my hot app, i had the uni risotto with a wasabi foam which had a special treat that i've never had the privilege of eating: spot prawn roe. as if the spot prawns themself weren't enough!!
for fish, i got polenta-dusted scallop dish with chorizo rounds, ratatouille and a chorizo corncake that was cooked to perfection. and meat was a mesquite-seasoned ribeye that was somehow not the highlight of that course. that honor was reserved for the oxtail papusa. if you don't know what that is, google it!!
when it came time for dessert, we were already filling up. since my wife ordered the cheese plate, i opted for the truffle fondue, which came with celery, purple potato, popcorn, and dried fruit for dipping. it marked the third time in the meal that we were eating truffles, counting 2 of the amuses.
finally to top it off, a dessert simply called blueberries. there was a blueberry-filled donut, a chocolate and blueberry shooter topped off with a balsamic cream, some kind of blueberry cake, but the real highlight that had everyone in the restaurant looking our way was when our server added the "freezing soup" around the edge of the plate: a combo of blueberry consomme and liquid nitrogen!
it was our second smoky experience of the meal, as earlier i had ordered a martini with liquid nitrogen after seeing one come out of the bar. i had asked angus for some type of chili martini since it seemed appropriate for the desert, but after informing me that they didnt have any fresh chilis to make the drink, he offered up an even better alternative: old tom gin. i'd never had it before, so he brought me a little sip to get my approval and then the martini arrived, liquid nitrogen smoke and all, minutes later.
i could go on and on, but this whole experience was a first for me. the combination of mindblowing food coupled with incredibly accomodating and informative service has to put binkley's at the top of the list of restaurants i've visited. i would make the 2600+ mile trip to the desert just to eat there again!
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