Emigration Brewing Co. — Restaurant in Emigration Canyon

In a nut shell, Emigration Brewing (EB) is alright. Maybe we caught them on an off day where staff was low and maybe EB are just not a brunch place. I think the price is a little over the top. I understand the image they are trying to go for but when you have a iconic restaurant (Ruth’s) right next door that gives the same atmosphere but is half the price for two people, price makes a difference.

I will come again, I want to give their dinner a shot and see if things are better, plus it is always good to give a place two chances incase, like today, they have an off day.

Atmosphere: A+. The atmosphere feels like a cross between a home and the outdoors. It is very open, love the wooden interior with the open windows. They have made it so you get the best of both worlds, in home cooking with nature letting you know it’s there.

Food: B-. Food was a few steps over mediocre and certainly not worth the price. I had the Bison sliders. They met my expectations of a burger or slider, the bun was toasted, so the sandwich did not turn into a soggy mess and was flavorfully. The fries were very crisp and not at all soggy and lightly salted, just enough to complement the crispy taste. Not sure I was sold on their fry sauce, it had weird aftertaste. Over all, it was good food but nothing I would write home about.

Side note on this however, I had asked for some sourdough toast and when they had brought it out, it was just one of their slider hamburger buns. Was a bit weird but I took it as me not reading the sides page or maybe they did not hear me right. Then they fell into a massive pet peeve of mine. I had asked for butter and they brought a 1/4 stick of butter that pretty much had been taken right out of the refrigerator. It was hard to cut, harder to spread and turned into me eating a hamburger bun with a stick of butter smashed on it. EB is not the only restaurant that does this, even Ruth’s falls into this but they at least try to warm up the butter by serving their home made biscuits on top of small sticks of butter.

Service: Pending Grade. I have been a waiter before and I know how it is when the restaurants is short staffed. This looked like they were short staffed today. The host looked to be playing double duty helping with the service, so no one was there at the stand when I came in. They did come out and showed us how to get the menu and seated us. We asked for raw sugar and never got it. Had to ask for coffee a few times and it would be a long wait before the refill came. Before I left, I wanted to buy a 4 pack from their market and no one was around for me to purchase it. So I put it back and left. Clearly, they were having a busy day, which is very good for a restaurant but I suspect they were understaffed. You could tell they were trying but were overwhelmed with the amount of people they were serving.

Overall...

We were hoping for a nice birthday dinner out but the pros were out numbered by the cons.

We were seated fairly quickly. Due to the restaurant being unusually not busy (according to Google) so we could have arrived earlier without a compulsory reservation time of 7:30.

To say we had ample time to review the menu was an understatement. It took a while for someone to come to the table.

Once our server arrived we placed our starter choice and our main choices at the same time. We'd heard good things about their pretzel and that's what we ordered for the appetizer. I ordered the rib eye steak and my wife ordered a pizza for our mains. It was then I was informed that they were out of mashed potatoes and I was given other choices for a replacement. Out of potatoes???

Significantly more time went by. When the food arrived the plates were carelessly plopped on the table instead of placing them gently. And off went the waitress. No "Enjoy your dinner" comments, either.

As I looked down we had no utensils, napkins, and our appetizer never arrived.

Once my wife got the waitress's attention, she came over and I pointed out the missing utensils and napkins and I said that she could take the pretzel off the bill.

The steak was tender and flavorful. Although it was cooked a bit longer than the medium rare I ordered. The pizza was mediocre. The sauce was pretty flavorless.

To the credit of the waitress she did offer a complimentary dessert. We declined as we were full. She ended up taking half the price of the pizza off the bill.

Was it worth the drive from Sandy? No. We'd much rather go to Garage Grill where we know we'll get superb service and delicious food and it's much closer. Oh, and Ruth's is right next to Emigration Brewing Company and we'll make the drive...

We visited the Emigration Brewing Co. on a Friday night. We arrived around 6pm and the parking lot was packed. If you're in a pinch, you can park alongside the road. The atmosphere was amazing. It's so nice that something has moved into the building next to Ruth's. They've done a wonderful job making the building feel inviting and the interior is beautiful. The tables are spaced far apart which creates an intimate feeling for your group. They also have outside seating but bring a jacket because it can get cold. Our waiter, Benjamin, was great. He was attentive and offered some great insight on what to order. We had a pretzel for an appetizer. The pretzel was very tasty. It had a crunchy outside with a nice, soft inside. It came with different dipping sauces (mustard and beer cheese). We liked the beer cheese the best and would recommend ordering an additional bowl. For entrees, we order the Korean short ribs and Thai Halibut (which was the special). Both dishes were very good but we felt the meat was a little dry. The flavor of the mashed potatoes was really good and the green sauce on the Halibut was spicy (and good)! For dessert, we got the chocolate chip cake and lava cake. Both were good but I liked the lava cake better because it had caramel sauce. The pricing on the menu runs anywhere from $15 for an appetizer up to $50 for an entree. The beer and wine selection was great. My wife ordered a glass of the Gulp Hablo Orange which was different from most wines and worth a try (we both really liked it to the point where we're going to buy a few bottles). We enjoyed our experience at Emigration Brewing Co. and...