Purple Sage — Restaurant in Park City

I wrote the following letter to the owner of Purple Sage and never received a response, I think you too would write a similar letter if you had the same experience our group had. I never intended to write a bad review had I at the very least received a response but two months later no word and so... here it is.

Dear Travis,

After our experience Friday night most people would just written terrible reviews and warn customers to never go to your restaurant again. I believe most customers would have also handled our awful experience Friday a little less delicately than our group did. We aren't ones to make a scene or complain unless necessary, but truth be told the way you and your employees created and then handled our situation Friday was hugely disappointing and made for an awful experience. Just to recap what happened, my wife emailed you regarding her gluten and garlic allergies and never heard back (but went ahead and made a reservation because you did have good reviews). Our waitress went back to speak with the Chef, not once, but twice, and both times came back and told us that absolutely nothing could be made without garlic and that everything was pre-marinated in garlic. Just so you know, we have never had a situation like this, followed by you assuring us anything could be made without garlic and it wouldn't be a problem. This in itself was incredibly confusing and caused for a very disappointing evening. You came over and repeated the order (Salmon and salad plus carrots), but shrimp and salad plus carrots were served. All of our food was not good with the exception of the appetizer and fries. The steak was medium well and sub-par, my fried chicken I ate half of, the macaroni was rather tasteless and basically the rest of the food was pretty overcooked.

You as the owner not once came back to make sure the food or experience was satisfactory (which probably was the most surprising). But maybe not as surprising as the fact that you didn't offer to comp anything other than the shrimp and lettuce you brought my wife. In this situation ANY other high-class establishment would have offered to pay for something as a result of our experience. It's absolutely crazy that we spent nearly $300 (and tipped the waitress well) and had such a TERRIBLE experience.

If you had come back just once at least to check on us, or offered to comp a meal or appetizer (we would have been totally happy with it). We get that the waitress may have been new (which is why we still tipped nicely) and that the chef may have been stressed. However that should not bleed into our experience like it did, and you owed us a lot more than you actually provided us...

Excellent. Some of the best food in Utah. Purple Sage serves excellent food with a laid back ambience.

Food: Five stars. The food was perfect. Service: Three stars. Some of the serves looked like they were falling apart. This may be a result of the corona-economy. Ambience: Four stars. I loved the booth we were sitting in, although it was a bit close to the door. Velvet backs with long sheet-curtains. Beautiful booth. The rest of the ambience was kind of weird. Tiled ceiling painted with clouds? Why? Generally the vibe was one of "we serve awesome food but we're trying to be too cool to care about being fancy". I for one am not rich enough to pay $35/entree and not want it to be fancy. But I'm sure it works for some people.

We ordered. Charcuterie board: local meats and cheeses. Loved pairing the bison sausage on bread with mustard and the sharp cheddar. Delightful. Duck pâté nestled next to goat cheese.

Bread: we were served bread before hand. It was great. Snuggled in with the bread were tasty little cornbread muffins. I love cornbread. I wish my cornbread were like this.

Meatloaf: Normally, I wouldn't think of meatloaf as being fancy. This was fancy. Meatloaf smothered in a poblano sauce with the perfect amount of tang. Carrots braised in honey were tender yet firm. Mashed potato heaven.

Utah Trout: Trout is not second-rate fish. Perfectly seared; served with a butter-lime-serrano sauce. I didn't know you could do mashed potatoes with fish. You can. Potatoes were just the right amount of smooth and creamy and potatoe-y. The green beans I thought were a little too undone, but better than over done. Apparently the "Utah" Trout is actually farmed trout from Idaho? Whatever, that's about what I expected, although if it is actually Idaho Trout, it should say so.

Bread pudding: Everything a bread pudding should be. The cranberries stole the show. Topped with cinnamon ice cream and a not-too-much rum sauce. I hate it when the rum sauce is too much; this was not.

I would go back. And I would recommend this...

I don't normally write reviews. I don't care to write negative reviews however I felt that people who come here should know the truth about this restaurant. I am visiting from out of town and saw a good review and wanted to give the restaurant a try.

My initial thoughts were that the ambience is very upscale and it seemed like a very nice restaurant and I was excited to try the food. We ordered three drinks off of the drink menu and for lack of a better term, they all tasted like various forms of cough syrup. Two appetizers were ordered one was the beet salad the other was the "pork belly brussel sprouts". The braised beet salad should just be called a salad with a few beets sprinkled on top. The brussel sprouts had overcooked pieces of bacon and not a visible piece of pork belly in sight. I'm including a picture of the butternut squash ravioli for everyone to see. This mind you was $26. The flavor tasted like old vinegar, it was not sweet, it had no semblance of comfort food as you would expect.

We approached the manager to express our concerns. Out of respect for future customers and to advise them that maybe they need to taste the food to ensure quality and he seemed less than interested in hearing our concerns. This is one of the worst dining experiences I've ever had in park city over the past 7 years. If you enjoy quality food don't trust the good reviews. This place is an overpriced...