Carson Kitchen — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

I honestly had much higher hopes for this place. However after the repeated looks from staff and the 5 min wait to even be acknowledged should’ve been my tell tell sign as to just leave. But hey you know maybe they were slammed on a Wednesday night at 8. (They weren’t FYI.) Anyways; We eventually got sat and scanned our QR code’s for the menu and began our quest to find delicious items to fulfill our hunger. The waitress was nice and friendly. Perhaps my first impression was wrong. Nope! I ordered a glass of Malbec and the others ordered their respective drinks. My wine was brought out and so I proceeded to taste like I typically do with any glass of wine. Let’s just say the wine was so warm I could’ve sworn it was in a decanter on the surface of Mars prior to the arrival at our table. I swear Elon musk and space x had finally figured out how to put a man on Mars and my glass of wine was his first mission. So to continue with the evening. I placed an order of the black rice and ox tail risotto, my wife ordered the Italian flat bread, and finally the mother in law ordered the burger well done (which is a total sin btw). Miraculously my dish was done first and brought out in a very cute modern bowl/plate/flying saucer looking thing. Now my issue isn’t the dinnerware but rather the fact it came out a solid 10 minutes earlier than the dishes of my cohorts in this venture. So using the table manners my mom taught me through various ear flicks and other forms of medieval torture you don’t see parents doing to their unruly kids in public in fear of child abuse charges no matter how much the kid deserves it. I waited until the remaining dishes came out to eat my wonderfully mostly cold entrée. Let’s just say the risotto should’ve just been called a risotto minus the ox tail. I’m throughly convinced they got the tail from a shrunken mini baby ox because there was such a minuscule amount of meet I could’ve gnawed off my pinky finger and had more than what was in that dish. Enough about the insanely over priced risotto. With the open air kitchen and the beautiful wood fire oven I had assumed maybe they were slightly confused and should be a pizza joint. So like a thief in the night I stole a piece of my wife’s flatbread in hopes it had a better taste and would satisfy my hunger. Fooled again!!! The dough was undercooked and very unsatisfactory overall. Honestly I don’t know how she ate as much as she did. She’s a trooper and former waitress herself she’s much more empathetic to those on the front line in a restaurant than myself. As the wicked witch aka the mother in law proceeded to cut her burger in half as to show she’s much more sophisticated than a baboon she gasped in fear in realizing the burger was cooked to the correct medium rare it should be! This typically wouldn’t be a problem for a normal non witchy person but she wants it burnt to a crisp before she eats it. However she must have dove deep into her primal instincts and demolished a half of that burger like a champ. Bravo wicked witch you finally may gain your good graces at a family bbq again jk!!! The dinner coming to an end the Jersey shore looking guy with the way to tight shirt whom we presumed was the captain at the helm for the evening came and brought us our check and proceeded to tell us they took the burger off the ticket due to its still slightly mooing nature. Hooray we exclaimed! One less overpriced subpar item to pay for. Although it’s a little to late if you’re bringing us the check after you’ve ran the card. My guess is he was to busy practicing his fist bump in the mirror to notice earlier. I mean Friday is just around the corner and the clubs are finally open. You’ve got to have that on point. As we come to the conclusion of this review let me remind you this is no fiction you read. I have the proof of our treacherous endeavor called Carson Kitchen in the form of a time stamped receipt. Anyways until the service gets better and the food gets on par with the prices they’re requesting I don’t...

We went to Carson's kitchen on Cinco de Mayo because I had a family member staying in downtown for the week. We didn't want to go to a Mexican restaurant for fear of it being crazy crowded. The reviews of this place meant WE HAD TO TRY IT. We showed up at 640 and found my aunt had been waiting for 20 mins for a glass of wine so we were a little concerned it was going to be a bad service night. However, about 10 mins later, the manager came over to explain what was happening. Apparently, the apartment upstairs had a faulty drain and their maintenance team poured 50 gallons of water down it and it RAINED on a whole table of guests.... they were busy addressing that and trying to decide if they should stay open. We told the guy that we were fine, not to worry about us. That was clearly a bigger issue than our drinks. We are SO HAPPY they chose to stay open because the food was delicious. All of our drinks were so unique and full of so many flavors as well. Below is a list of everything we got.

Bloody Mary grilled oysters- WOW. So sad there was only 3 on the plate because I could've eaten 20 by myself. They tasted like Bloody Mary and were chilled and spicy.

Devils eggs- best deviled eggs I've ever had. The pancetta pieces were a great addition and there was no Mayo or mustard taste which was great. Plus CAVIAR TOPPING? Hello.

Pork belly- these were good but a tad dry. I would've liked more of the sauce myself but still good.

Crispy chicken skins- these may have been the best thing we got. This is so unique and I've never tasted anything like this before. They were light and spicy yet still chewy and the honey sauce was such a smart accompaniment. YOU MUST GET THESE!

Baked Mac and cheese- SO CHEESY. This paired perfectly with the short rib steak. Usually Mac and cheese lacks actually cheesy goodness and this has NO SHORTAGE of delicious creamy cheese and soft noodles with crumbly toppings.

Oxtail risotto- meh. Risotto was undercooked and this lacked taste. Could have gone without this.

Short rib steak- the steak was cooked perfectly and the sauce on top added much depth to the plate itself. It also had more food than the other dishes so a good one to share.

Fudge brownie with brown butter ice cream- meh. The fudge brownie should've been soft and warmed up so that it would melt with the ice cream. Personally, unless they change the item to be a warm brownie, I wouldn't recommend getting it.

Regardless, this night was great and i am so glad they stayed open for those of us with reservations. I would definitely come back and recommend others to eat here. It is tapas style so be prepared to share each plate snd order ALOT of food :)

Note: I should mention that the drain issue was 100% the fault of the apartment upstairs and was being handled while we were eating. I doubt they have any additional problems related to...

A group of 6 of us ate here while attending a work conference. I was excited to try some new food I really hadn't ever tried before.

The concept of this place is really like a small plates place where you get a bunch of things and you all try and share dishes. This is facilitated by a lazy Susan in the middle of the table that rotates the dishes.

Together we ordered: Gyro Tacos, Killer Shrimp, Brussel Sprouts Ceasar, Watermelon Feta, Baked Mac & Cheese, Pepp on Pepp Flatbread, Beef Short Rib, and both deserts.

In my opinion the flatbread was really pretty boring, bland, and really not tasty. I didn't eat the shrimp since I don't like seafood, but everyone else said it was really good.

The Gyro Tacos were very interesting, tasty, and a different spin on gyros pretty solid. The Watermelon Feta was very good, I don't even like Feta but paired with the Watermelon it just worked so well. The Brussel Sprout Ceaser featured shredded Brussel sprouts and it was awesome. Not normally a fan of sprouts and how bitter they are, but presented in this dish as a salad of sorts changed them up and made them vibrant and delicious.

Baked Mac & Cheese, well most macs are pretty much all the same wherever you go, this one was well above average. Great taste, perfect creamy consistency, everything you'd expect in a M&C. Finally we come to the short rib. Holy moly was this thing SOOO good. Perfectly cooked medium rare, tender as all get out, rich beefy flavor. It had it all. 10/10 on this one.

Finished out with desert. Glazed Fried Donut Bread Pudding. Not a hit for me, the others liked it. Now the Brownie with Brown Butter Bacon Ice Cream. Yeah this one hit hard!! It was so good. Almost reminded me of fried ice cream taste wise, salty with bacon, sweet with brownie. I'd eat this one any day of the week.

Overall this was a really good place to eat in SLC. The waiter was super friendly, very knowledgeable about the menu and suggestions. The restaurant itself was very clean, modern, right decibel level for good conversation.

Definitely a solid 4 and I'd give it a 4.5 if the...