Block Restaurant — Restaurant in Provo

It looks like Utah Valley now has a new king when it comes to dining. It brings in a chef and front of house manager that have serious credentials with this type of restaurant. It looks great, even though it's obvious this restaurant was built out on a budget. The food is not done on a low budget, however. I started with their Manhattan. It's a simple drink that is regularly screwed up all over SLC, including top places charging a LOT more than the price here. They are not only using top shelf Rye with the High West, they are using ulta-premium sweet vermouth as well. It's served "up", and wasn't mixed with so much ice as to be watered down. Bravo. A truly excellent version. The wife's drink was also well done. We started with the fig tapenade with goat cheese. It's the only quibble of the evening. The large amount of tapenade overpowers the dish. After scraping off 2/3rds of the tapenade, it was an excellent, balanced, dish. The kitchen was nice enough to send out another appetizer of snap peas, tendrils with house made aioli. The peas were al dente, and aioli perfect. It had no overpowering raw garlic flavor. This was probably the best dish of food I've had in the valley -- ever. There are two things I will never order at almost all restaurants. Pork chops, and Chicken breast. They will both be over cooked and dry. We've learned we can trust Kelcee's judgement. We've known each other from previous restaurants she's been at. We get tired of always getting the standard beef and fish dishes. The chicken and pork looked really good. She said to trust her. The wife's chicken was delicious, and moist. My double cut pork chop was cooked medium rare as asked. Being that it's heritage pork, it had fat, and flavor. Bravo again. I've included a picture, that while not pretty, it shows it was cooked as asked, and was moist. Finally, we were talked into deserts. It didn't take a lot of talking. We ordered the panna cotta with kettle corn. It was very nice. A piece of chocolate cake also appeared. I'm not normally much of a cake person, but this was delicious. In the end we pretty much waddled out. In rebuttal to a number of other reviews, the drinks and wine list are very inexpensive. We brought wine. Having a well stocked walk in cellar provides me better options than they supply, but I'd be happy to purchase their wine at the price they charge. The corkage is a reasonable $15. The courses were well sized, and prices at similar price, or less, than the places in SLC with the same ingredients. If they can keep the quality up when the place is busy, this place matches nearly anything available in SLC. We were able to visit briefly with Adam. He's a modest guy with solid cooking chops I won't bring up here. Utah County has needed a nice restaurant for many years. Communal can be very good, but it fills a different niche. Restaurant Roy, and Chef's table were always expensive, mediocre food. Nearly, everything else is casual in nature. Asado, and Black Sheep, fill a different niche, but are worth your...

This is painful to give a restaurant of what SHOULD be in the fine dining caliber a 3 star review, however. Here’s the truth.

If you’re seeking an expensive, casual restaurant with unique food. This is the place for you.

But it is NOT a fine dining experience whatsoever, and you should absolutely not expect it to be of the caliber of a restaurant charging the prices they do.

Hostess was mildly friendly, but not super welcoming…. No problem. I rarely expect that.

I was informed there was a separate menu for the bar if I wished to sit there & I opted not to since I was coming in for a more upscale dining experience.

From the start I was seated, given my menu and I did not have water until the manager recognized I hadn’t been greeted for around 3 minutes or so. No problem here, as my server was with another table taking an order.

The water however tasted unfiltered and mildly slimy. Big no-no of a restaurant charging a PPA of at least $65+. If I had to guess I’d say it was straight tap with no filter. Which is just unacceptable. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m one of those with a palette where I can tell how water has been filtered, fairly well.

Kai, my waiter was absolutely impeccable. Terrific attitude, knowledgeable about the menu was wonderful, and frankly he was best part of this experience.

I ordered the tomato soup with an upsell for $4 of garlic bread - which I wasn’t aware of, however a restaurant of “this caliber” I wouldn’t expect to ask if I’m okay with an extra $4 so that’s no problem. Both the garlic bread & tomato soup were exquisite. Bread was slightly burnt in a few areas so more crunchy than preferred, but overall flavor was chef’s kiss

After ordering that, as well as my meal, I had to ask Kai for a cocktail / drink menu because one wasn’t provided from the hostess. This of course is quite annoying seeing that I’ve now been here 7+ minutes at this point & haven’t even seen a drink menu yet.

I ordered a German beer & asked for a wine to be paired with my meal.

The beer was hoppy & quite tasty.

I ordered the duck breast for dinner prepared as normal and it was incredible! The pine nuts, kimchi, puréed sweet potato, all of it was delicious and carefully thought out. Duck was cooked perfectly.

However….. I was halfway done with my meal before my wine came to the table, and I did not even know what the wine was because the manager did not inform me. So until I got the bill, I didn’t even know what wine I was drinking. Again, second big no-no for a restaurant of this caliber.

At the end of the day I spent $95+ as a single person table, which included a 20%+ tip to Kai, as he made the experience enjoyable, regardless of the hiccups.

All in all, if I had not had Kai, I probably wouldn’t return & this would be a 1 or 2 star review.

Food - *.5 Waiter - * Atmosphere - * Overall service - *.5

Overall...

I debated for a minute on how many stars to give this restaurant, because I didn’t want to ruin anyone’s experience, but I also wanted to be honest.

Good service is paramount to any experience, I firmly believe. I also think there is a difference between fine dining and higher end casual dining. I would say this restaurant is higher end casual dining, the attention to detail and service were not fine dining-worthy in my opinion.

We made reservations for 4 at 7:30, changed to 2 people, then 4, then to 7:15 (all through open table). When we arrived, we were still early, maybe 7:05. We walked in and two hosts were at the front. They weren’t friendly, which is fine- I guess I shouldn’t expect any different- but they told us our table would not be ready until 7:15 (after I explained we were early).

The restaurant wasn’t full, but most interestingly, the table where we sat was empty when we arrived, and sat empty for 10 minutes, it was a Tuesday night…I understand servers limits, kitchen being backed up, etc. so we sat and waited- no problem- It was the hosts that set a weird tone for the evening, there is a way to tell people “you’re early so just sit down and wait” without saying that.

We were seated and Kai was our server, he did a great job orienting us to the menu. I think he was just busy- he filled our water once at the beginning and there were bottles left on the table, so I assume, since no one filled them, we were to refill them ourselves.

The charcuterie board was good, the fried cauliflower was awesome, the beet salad was amazing. The main dishes were good. I had the gnocchi with the short rib and it was pretty greasy and heavy. Others in our party had seasonal pork, duck, and steak. I think everyone liked their dishes.

I think, for the price per dish, it’s not my favorite- but maybe it’s a nice option in Provo. I’ll have to see if we decide to go back.

** food

• waiter (just because he was stretched too thin) service 3.5 overall would be my rating if I...