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Being a restaurant critic for The Salt Lake Tribune is a dream job — eat at the newest restaurants and tell readers if the food and experience are worth their time and money.
It sounds delicious, except on the occasion when food and service miss the culinary mark.
Fortunately, many of the restaurants we visited in 2015 were standouts and offered items worthy of being called one of our Best Dishes of 2015.
We were especially enamored of seafood this year, from octopus and squid to a whole branzino. But globally inspired dishes with the flavors of Nepal, Korea, Japan and Persia also impressed our palates.
Closer to home, we liked one hearty Southern breakfast and an over-the-top cream of mushroom soup.
Here are all the dishes we enjoyed this year and hope to revisit in 2016 and beyond.
Best vegetarian entrée • The eggplant with garlic sauce at Chef Gao's ($8.95) is a must-order for vegetable lovers. Spears of eggplant are enrobed in a garlic sauce spiked with roasted chiles for a slightly sweet, salty kick, while julienned peppers are tossed in for a crunchy, fresh counterbalance. — HLK
Best ocean appetizer • Until recently, octopus wasn't all that common in Utah unless it was in a sushi restaurant. Copper Kitchen's octopus appetizer ($17) is an interesting and delicious interplay of flavors. It's big enough to share with the table or would make an interesting entrée choice paired with a salad or other small plate. Four pieces of tender meat are mixed with chunks of celery, crushed green olives and just enough sliced jalapeño pepper to add spice without eclipsing the sweetness of the octopus. Fortunately, it's now available at lunch and dinner at this newest sibling of the Copper family. — AW
Best whole fish • Branzino is having a restaurant moment. This sea bass, which hails from Europe, has been turning up on quite a few Salt Lake City menus. One of the best versions is at Current Fish & Oyster ($30). It's served whole, which means diners must eat slowly around the bones. But that just means more time to savor the flaky flesh, topped by a layer of crunchy marcona almonds. Underneath, soaking up all the lovely drippings, is a bed of tender, buttery greens that vary with the season. It's the ultimate slow food, unfussy but still sophisticated in its simplicity. — AW
Best global experience • The chicken chili ($12.99) at Guras Spice House is the perfect introduction for those looking to dip their toes into the waters of Nepalese cuisine. The dish leans more toward familiar stir-fry than exotic curry, built on aromatic garlic and ginger. Crisp bell peppers, sweet onions and deep-fried slices of chicken make up the bulk of the dish, which is finished with tomatoes and soy. The balance of sweet, salty and spicy will be sure to have you exploring more of the menu from this fantastic family business. — SM
Best Southern flavor • Kentucky Hot Brown at Hub and Spoke Diner ($11). If breakfast is the most important meal of the day, then it's pure genius to put all the main food groups in one dish. Start with carbs in the form of tangy sourdough. Add protein with lean smoked turkey and smother it with a dairy-infused béchamel sauce. Top with more dairy, à la Swiss cheese. Don't forget the vitamin-rich fruits: tomato and avocado. And because this is going to last us until a midafternoon snack on the mountain, we need fat! So top it all with a couple of strips of bacon and a fried egg. Oh boy, that's one of the best day-starters ever. — AW
Best soul-warming soup • The silky chanterelle mushroom soup ($9) at Kimi's Chop & Oyster House is earthy from garlic, rich from cream and port wine and meaty from mushrooms and beef broth. It's finished with chunks of hickory-smoked bacon and topped with dried cranberries and crème fraiche. — HLK
Best stir-fry variation • At Hot Dynasty, making a selection from a menu that includes way over 200 dishes is no mean feat. Thankfully, most of Hot Dynasty's Sichuan-inflected menu is top notch, especially the stir-fried lamb with bamboo shoots in cumin sauce ($11.95) Velvet soft and finely trimmed lamb is stir-fried with crunchy bamboo shoots in a sauce with a lively zing from Sichuan peppercorns. — SM
Best foie gras pairing • In Park City, the Mariposa's small plate menu is filled with interesting pairings. A favorite was the tender bison filet ($26) topped with earthy Deer Valley Artisan Triple Truffle brie rolled with cipolline onions and seared foie gras. To cut through the luscious fattiness slightly, it's accompanied by a yam/parsnip/Yukon gold potato gratin that's drizzled with a cabernet reduction sauce. — HLK
Best seafood presentation • Queen Asia's grilled pusit ($12.95) is served as a whole, cooked squid that's been stuffed with fresh tomatoes, onions and ginger before being grilled and served on a sizzling cast=iron platter. The tentacles are slightly crunchy and charred, while the body is sliced into palm-size calamari rings that offer up juicy, toothsome bites. — HLK
Best hands-on cuisine • The epitome of hands-on cuisine is the Tableside BBQ (starting at $25.99) at Seoul Garden. To begin, select your protein — spicy chicken, pork belly, pork butt, brisket, beef or boneless short rib. Your choice comes wheeled out ceremoniously via cart and thoughtfully presented alongside a gas-powered tabletop burner. The woklike cooking area is greased with glistening butter, and once the surface starts to lightly smoke, it's time to take tongs in hand and get to impressing your tablemates with your expert skills. — SM
Best ramen house • Tosh Sekikawa was a chef at Naked Fish before striking out to open his modest ramen house, Tosh's Ramen, in a State Street strip mall. And he knows his stuff, especially when it comes to the holy grail of ramen, the broth. In the Karai ramen ($9.95), a serving big enough to share, the broth is silky and opaque, brimming with noodles and spicy ground pork that has a low, slow burn. Bean sprouts, bamboo shoots and onions add crunchy counterpoints, while half a boiled egg contributes even more richness. The crowning glory is a marinated shiitake mushroom cap that lends a little sweetness. Diners can add more egg and mushrooms for a slight charge, a good investment in my opinion. — AW
Best Persian combination • The chicken soltani ($15.99) at Zaferan Cafe offers a duo of charbroiled kabobs, one koobideh and one barg. The latter is a juicy, lemony-bright skewer of grilled chicken breast pieces and the former, succulent, seasoned ground chicken. The whole plate comes with an enormous side of high-quality, aromatic basmati rice, making for a plate that will probably stretch across two meals. — SM
Where to find our 2015 favorites
Chef Gao • 488 E. 100 South, Salt Lake City; 801-363-8833. Open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10 p.m.; Friday, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-10:30 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m.-10:30 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; chefgao.com
Copper Kitchen • 4640 S. 2300 East, Holladay; 385-237-3159. Open for brunch, Saturday-Sunday, 10:30 a.m-3 p.m.; lunch, Monday-Friday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m.; dinner, Sunday-Thursday, 5-9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 5-10 p.m.; copperkitchenslc.com
Current Fish & Oyster • 279 E. 300 South, Salt Lake City; 801-326-3474. Open for lunch, Monday-Friday, 11 a.m.-5 p.m.; dinner, Monday-Saturday, 5-10 p.m.; brunch, Saturday-Sunday, 10 a.m.-3 p.m.; currentfishandoyster.com
Guras Spice House • 13400 S. 5539 West, Herriman; 801-666-8754. Open Monday-Thursday, 4-10 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 3-10 p.m.; gurasspicehouse.com
Hub and Spoke Diner • 1291 S. 1100 East, Salt Lake City; 801-487-0698. Open daily, 7 a.m.-9 p.m.; hubandspokediner.com
Kimi's Chop & Oyster House • 2155 S. Highland Drive, Salt Lake City; 801-946-2079. Open Monday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-4 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.; closed Sunday; kimishouse.com
Hot Dynasty • 3390 S. State St., South Salt Lake; 801-809-3229. Open Monday-Sunday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; hotdynasty.com
The Mariposa • 7600 Royal St., Park City; 435-645-6715. Open Tuesday-Sunday, 5:45-9 p.m.; closed Monday; deervalley.com/dining/wheretoeat/mariposa
Queen Asia • 9155 Redwood Road, West Jordan; 801-282-8686. Open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 8-10 a.m. and 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; closed Sunday; queenasiarestaurant.com
Seoul Garden • 2701 S. State St., South Salt Lake; 385-375-4904. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.; Sunday, noon-9 p.m; acebook.com/pages/Seoul-Garden/892205330842443
Tosh's Ramen • 1465 S. State St., Salt Lake City; 801-466-7000; Wednesday-Thursday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-8 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11:30 a.m.-3 p.m. and 5-9 p.m.; Sunday, 3-8 p.m.; toshsramen.com
Zaferan Cafe • 2578 Bengal Blvd., Cottonwood Heights; 801-944-6234. Open Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.; Friday-Saturday, 11 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. zaferancafe.com