Vermillion 45 — Restaurant in Kanab

We wanted to like this place. It felt short. Very short.

The place looked inviting. The decor matched the intended ambiance. Simple, yet tasteful. French Country. We were in. The menu fit. Thus the two earned stars ⭐️ ⭐️ so far. We were waiting for the final punch to grant more stars. Then, the food was served.

The French Onion soup had an inviting presentation, fitting the ambience. The flavor was up to par. No complaints. Earning points for some additional stars.

First main dish tasted. Wait? Undercooked Risotto? The claimed of French trained Chefs (plural) came as a shock. Second bite, the same. Next dish, Pesto Gnocchi, first byte. Undercooked Gnocchi, we are talking raw! Next byte, next piece, the same. We are in double shock. Well, we thought, shame on us by when delighted by the menu, with a French trained chefs and Country French ambience ordering Italian? Well, we were in the mood for comfort staples. But even so, this is not permissible! These dishes, a good chef, any trained Chef, must get these right. Well, they didn’t! So, we ordered bread, no they didn’t offer it, which I found odd, neither did they offer wine, which we also had to order (aka ask for)… why order bread? Well, thinking this being a French place, bread must be good. No, the bread was plain and simple, old!

We have been to France, not once but several times. Even for just long weekends! More than once… I know this sounds not believable, but trust me for a second, we have. We have never tasted bad bread in France! Yet, French Chefs - we heard them speak, so it seemed they were indeed native French. Yet, get bread wrong? and served old bread? Not acceptable.

I am trying to be objective. We are not upset, it is what it is. It was what it was. A quaint place that looks inviting - even the kitchen setup had us in at arrival. But simply put, the failure at execution, missing the mark at some staple dishes and waitressing staff missing at fundamentals, offering basics and timely delivering of the essentials.

As a side note. The owner at the door, using techniques, pretending high end, screening customers? Upon arrival, asking if we had reservations? On a not busy day, kind of an off season night, midweek day, when the place was not even a quarter full then. While we dined, the place barely reached a third of its capacity, if even. Not quite a warm welcome giving the timing.

In short and as summary, this place pretends to play a role, but falls short, except for the high pricing! Well over $100+ for simple and well known dishes, poorly executed, serving bad bread, after waiting, having to remind the staff where our bread was, half way through eating our dishes.

No, we are not the type that return dishes. We move on, yet must...

Decent desserts, but overall fairly underwhelming.

I’ve eaten at many world-class restaurants (including several with Michelin stars) so I had pretty high expectations for Vermillion 45 after reading that the chef trained in Michelin-starred kitchens. However...the meal was pretty unremarkable.

The escargot appetizer was pretty good but uninventive. The fried zucchini and other vegetables were all pretty soggy — I don’t think a single piece was crisp.

The ribeye was both over cooked and too juicy — like a prime rib as opposed to a dry-aged steak. Sego’s Koji-aged ribeye is much better.

The vegetable Wellington seemed extremely doughy and didn’t have many vegetables — it was mostly potato.

We got two burgers, and both were overcooked with an overly-thick bun. The Belgian fries were exquisite, however. Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.

The beef bourguignon was pretty good but the portion was much smaller than the other dishes.

Fortunately, the desserts were generally better than the entrees. The créme brûlée was solid but not groundbreaking. The salted caramel was decent. The desserts all tended toward extreme sweetness though, and would have benefited from some additional fruit or other acidity.

Probably one of the better restaurants around, but definitely not anywhere close to even one Michelin star.

TL;DR: decent food, but nothing groundbreaking and the execution was far...

Just a HUGE NO! I’m gonna help all of you travelers as a traveler myself. I went based off of the reviews and no review prepared me for what my son and I walked into.

1. Complete deserted Restaurant at peak dinner time (should have been the sign and for us to turn around)
2. A shiny nose hair found in my son’s chicken dish.
3. my chicken dish was served to me in a chipped bowl 2 chicken dishes and 2 sodas.. $70+15 tip for the female server who just looked annoyed and faked a smile.

After owner response: yes we took the left overs and went straight to trash. How can anyone really tell you how they feel about the cooking with the way you respond to people on google 🤣 in other google reviewers pictures, it also shows your restaurant empty.. I guess those days must have been all baseball games as well right? Regarding the hair, it was thick and silver, it was quite gross. I went to a grocery store and had to go home to cook me a meal after eating at your place when we drove by again, 1 person was in your restaurant. The server never asked us if everything was okay, she just said how about a box after she watched me pushed my broken/chipped bowl away from me after my son found the hair in his food. You’re simply unapproachable as a business owner and simply unrealistic. Travelers if you would like a real French meal when traveling through Kansa City please try ...