Peekaboo Canyon Wood Fired Kitchen — Restaurant in Kanab

First things first: this is a vegetarian/vegan restaurant that uses PLASTIC utensils (?!?!? Any climate or environmental benefit generated by not using meat is immediately eliminated - and then some - through the use of PLASTIC utensils). It's also a restaurant that doesn't explicitly indicate its non-carnivore nature anywhere - not on its menu, not on its website (at least not in the "about us" section). You have to ask to confirm. And the reason you have to confirm is because some menu items say "chick'n" and others say "chicken", and some menu items say "vegetarian sausage" and others say "sausage" (in this case it's two different pizzas side-by-side on the menu). And given that it's vegetarian/vegan, wouldn't it at least be nice to know it's real cheese, not non-melting cashew mush?! (This could be explicitly explained very easily in the menu.) I have no problem whatsoever with it being a vegetarian/vegan restaurant - but please just communicate that. Otherwise it's bait-and-switch - which as a vegetarian/vegan restaurant in southwestern Utah they have to be playing a bait-and-switch game since most of their customers are probably tourists.

But this above complaint is but one avenue for disgruntlement. We were seated for 20 minutes and no one came to talk to us about anything while everyone around us (including those seated after us) were placing orders and having their food/drinks arrive. We tried to get someone's attention and we were ignored. It took another customer telling a server he thought we'd arrived first for our existence to be acknowledged, but then the server said he wasn't assigned to our table so he couldn't help us. When I told him we'd been waiting and waiting, and could get no one's attention, he said he'd go talk to our server, only to return a couple minutes later and tell us NO ONE had been assigned to our table so he could take our order now. No one assigned to our table - what?!?!? - so what happens when one doesn't speak up?And to add insult to injury, there was no acknowledgement whatsoever of the delay or non-attention, not even a simple "Hey - sorry about the mix-up." (That stuff can go a long ways with reasonable people;)

Then there's the food. Really nothing special - and overpriced at that for what it is. The "wild" mushroom pizza had 15-ish small (penny/nickel sized), marinated white button mushrooms on it. The weirdly-spiced ketchup (cinnamon?!). The meatball sub involving a roll that fell apart instantly, eliminating its sandwich nature b/c it required the use of a PLASTIC knife and fork to eat.

Lastly: common sense. The customer at the table next to us noted to the server that it was busy. The server said they didn't know why, they had been taken by surprise. We noted that Memorial Day weekend was a couple days away, and that it would probably get busier. This revelation seemed to take the server by surprise - in a town that is a jump-off point for tourists for a season that "officially" kicks off on...Memorial Day weekend.

If you go here, you will be fed but you will not be satisfied. Every table around us had leftovers and when asked if they'd like a "to go" box invariably said something along the lines of "No, thank you - we're good."

P.S. Ask for your check early b/c it's a minimum 20 minute wait to get someone's attention to...

I was so excited to find a nice vergitarian restaurant We drove 3 hours to get there and we arrived 8:40 it says they close 9:00 we didn't know the time zone is different but we still made it 20 min before closing The kitchen was still up and running the orders was still coming in receipts being printed and a table of 6 was still giving in their orders But they didn't want to take our order saying the kitchen is closed I begged that we drove 3 hours and we are going to drive back now 3 hours and we won't have food everything will be closed by the time we get back and even if we find something we are already hungry now after driving 3 hours, but nothing they didn't budge The girl by the counter had some mercy and tried asking the pizza guy if he would still make 1 pizza but he said NO although he still had everything unpacked and later made for that table that was ordering as we speak So she tried the main kitchen but the same they just said NO although they still had to be open for the table that came 2 min before us and was giving in their order We didn't have a choice and ordered 3 cakes that was ready Cheese cake Carrot cake And chocolate cake It was ok but too sweet for my taste but some like sweet cake after all its cake So I can't really rate it as I didn't get to try their food besides the cake This is inhumane to treat people like this when your clearly still open I must say I once had a delay of a flight to Florida and when we arrived to the restaurant the kitchen was actually closed and the owner saw that we won't have where to eat he asked his employees to reopen the kitchen for us that's an act of kindness and humanity Obviously we ordered a lot so he made some extra for being nice But here nothing helped It's disappointing to travel 3 hour on your honeymoon only to get rejected for food when clearly they are still open

I highly recommend to stay away from this place unless you show up 2 hours before they close and I'm sure they might find a reason to say NO

Thanks for nothing in a time that the world needs more kindness in it

Ps. I never give bad reviews. Look thru all my reviews, I always try to give the benefit...

We ended up eating at Peekaboo Canyon after a long day's hike in Zion and after the three other restaurants that we wanted to try turned out to be closed. And we are thankful to the fate for leading us there. We came again the day after, after our hike in Bryce Canyon, which is not that close to Kanab.

Our waiter on the first night was Ryan, and on the second we were welcomed by Gina. Both of them gave us sense of belonging, and make us feel not like guests, but more like a family, a part of the story that is unfolding there. While this feeling wasn't so uncommon in Europe and Canada where we lived before, this is the first restaurant in the US where we have experienced it. And by that criteria - our favorite restaurant in the US.

Food we tried was also work of art, something you can experience there and there only. Despite being a Neapolitan pizza zealot, I enjoyed the creativity of Angel's Landing, Peekaboo pear and Mushroom Madness pizzas. I would have preferred a different dough, but that thin crispy unleavened one also worked with well-balanced toppings. And I agree with reviewers who are enamored with Hell Dive, it was so addictive we could have eaten the heated plate it was served on.

However, the top spots in their menu are reserved for the cakes. Carrot cake, vegan one, has put our all time favorite (which we ate in a small town near Zakopane, Poland), to a distant second place. When my wife saw my reaction to their lime meringue cake, she was so concerned that I will try to propose the lady who made it, that she asked for the recipe. We tried two other cakes and they were all not just a work of art, but the truly - the work of magic, an enchantment of taste and textures, a unique treat in the country that cannot brag about its deserts, other than those made with paralyzing amount of sugar.

This felt like the Europe's best in the heart of American Wild West desert. A culinary and hospitality pilgrimage everyone should make when visiting The Mighty Five. Even if you're not...