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| - Special occasion tasting menus are a dime-a-dozen across the resort restaurants and fine dining establishments across the Phoenix metro area. I hesitate at taking the bait and buying into a $80+ per person dining experience that has in past experiences left me less than satisfied. The problem with the experience is not necessarily the restaurant itself, but the mass produced and sometimes simplified menu that caters to an audience that is typically much larger than the restaurant is accustomed to handle. Case in point: T. Cooks, an otherwise excellent restaurant, left a poor impression due to slow service and cold food back on Valentine's Day 2013.
So when I decided to book a $145 per person Valentine's Day dinner at Binkley's, I had my reservations that it might not hit the high expectations it had set from the hype I've heard about the restaurant and the chef. I thought to myself, my first experience there should probably be on an average night rather than a pre-fab menu experience. I cannot tell you how happy I am to report that I was wrong. It managed to pull off the second best dining experience I've had in Arizona and undoubtedly one of the top-ten meals I've ever had.
Starting with the service, the wait staff was attentive, friendly, and unbelievably accommodating. Another Phoenix area restaurant, Kai at the Wild Horse Sheraton, should be considered to have only marginally better service. To put it into perspective, Kai took the prestigious top honors of best service in the USA last year on Open Table. Binkleu's knocked the service out of the park by employing a huge staff to roll out the meals in perfect timing and included perks that are only part of the finer dining experiences - e.g. replace napkin upon using the restroom, new and highly customized silverware for each course.
Absolutely nothing bad can be said about the unbelievably creative and diverse meal that was served over the next two hours. While the tasting menu listed 6 courses, there ended up being a total of 19 individual rounds including appetizers, amuse-bouches, digestives, and palate cleansers. One element of surprise throughout the courses was the use of molecular gastronomy such as foams and liquid nitrogen, which was very well executed.
From the six main courses, the highlights included a savory and not too overpowering black truffle winter vegetable soup, a delicate scallop on the half-shell with citrus flavored foam, and Wagyu beef prime rib with scalloped potatoes. Stand-out intermediary dishes included an intensely flavored micro-sized sloppy joe sandwich and a flash frozen vegetable medley. Each of the dishes were well sequenced - when a meal includes so many rounds, it is impressive when the meal can tell a story across the meats, vegetables and starches served.
Upon leaving the restaurant, I was satiated and not overstuffed. 19 rounds may seem like overkill, but consider that a majority of the dishes could be eaten in just a couple bites. It allowed a first time Binkley's diner such as myself to try a vast array of the offerings, exemplifying their culinary capabilities. The restaurant catered to every aspect a diner would want for a special occasion and more importantly (for them), I left longing to come back to try the food again.
Rounds: (Main courses marked with asterisk)
1. Fried Chips - Snake skin, dill pickle, bacon, chard, dried soy milk
2. Lamb Consume
3. Miniature sloppy joe
4. Warm soaked prune (curved fork)
5. *Cauliflower carpaccio
6. Flash frozen winter vegetable medley (curved spoons)
7. *Black truffle winter vegetable soup
8. Mango bomb (Japanese spoon)
9. *Scallop on the half shell
10. Tangelo soda
11. *Wagyu beef prime rib
12. Creme Fraiche with carbonated grape
13. *Warm open faced sandwich
14. Cranberry consume
15. Hickory smoked creme brûlée
16. Hibiscus tea - Coffee syphon
17. *Freezing strawberries
18. Macaroon
Note: I missed one round from the above list. It was a flash-fried fish chip towards the beginning of the meal.
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