Urban Hill — Restaurant in Salt Lake City

This atmosphere had so much potential. The venue is cool, the seating is comfy, and the ambiance could be awesome — if it weren’t shockingly loud. I wish it could be somewhere we might be regulars.

But in a city with a lot of delicious, upscale and mid-scale restaurants, atmosphere isn’t enough to keep people coming back when it’s the only positive thing about the experience.

Despite a reservation we sat in the freezing entry for five minutes before being seated, which should perhaps be expected at a crummy restaurant but at a place like this the crowded standing-room-only wait was stupid. Especially after sitting in a valet line for ten minutes.

The hostess who sat us was nice, got us our water right away, but then we waited 20 minutes for the waitress. I tried to make eye contact with one of the 20 servers and managers bustling everywhere and talking loudly, but literally no one even glanced my way. Finally someone came to drop off a glass of wine that wasn’t ours, so I politely told her it wasn’t for us and we hadn’t seen a server yet. Two minutes later we got a server, who thanked us for our patience and took our starter and cocktail orders. No problem, sometimes things get crazy.

They came out quickly, delivered by other people, but we drank the drinks, waited forever for oyster utensils and eventually ate them without, and were sitting with empty dishes for another 10 minutes before the same passed by and asked if we wanted a second round. I said we had only seen our server once, (30+ minutes ago) and needed to order our food and another round of drinks. With an unconvincingly-sweet smile she offered to take our order herself, making me feel like a demanding Karen when I was in actuality being way too polite for having been sitting so long without attention.

The food was pretty good and the kitchen / bar was quick. The 100 steak was far under the standard I expect for a steak of that presumed quality, but good enough I wouldn’t complain about anything other than the value. I would skip the oysters and carrots, if someone decides to brave the experience, but the cocktails and steak tartare were great.

After this we finally saw our server again when we were finished (no one even checked on the quality of the steak), where she offered to bring a dessert menu and we accepted. She brought it right away, we picked a dessert, and then waited another 15 minutes for her to come back so we could order it. Rather than order we gave her our credit card and asked to just pay.

After the world’s worst service experience, I expected someone to come explain and make it right, but there was nothing. No free round of drinks or starter, not even bread to the table. We walked out $300 later annoyed and agitated.

To the restaurant: I’ve read the responses to the other negative reviews where people have been told to give you another chance (“everyone deserves a second chance right?”) but without an offer to come try again with at least a discount you’re asking us to again pay $300 to “give it another shot?” It’s bad online reputation management on top of a terrible experience, and if it weren’t so aggravating it would be laughable.

Save your money. Save your blood pressure. This restaurant doesn’t live up to SLC standards for cool,...

UPDATE: Thank you Jessica for the reply. I'm glad to read you will share with the culinary team how much we enjoyed the food. The caliber of the culinary team is clearly outstanding and the James Beard recognition is, of course, well deserved.

As to the operational stocking/restocking of the remote station with ice, glassware, and dishes; I appreciate your comments, but to clarify, all of this restocking that we witnessed -- which was highly disruptive to our experience -- happened within the first 30 to 40 minute of dinner service. A simple fix to avoid this, at least for the first part of dinner service, is to restock the remote station before dinner service starts.

The stark contrast of enjoying some of the best food we've had in Utah, with likely the worst dining ambiance/experience we've had at this price point was quite disappointing and frustrating.

We wish you all the best and have seen the dramatic difference that an outstanding GM can have on the overall dining experience.

I hesitate to give Urban Hill a 3 star rating as the quality of the food is outstanding. It's some of the best we've experienced in Utah. Kudos to the culinary team on their outstanding work.

Unfortunately, the service and atmosphere in our experiences at Urban Hill are lacking. What detracted so much from our experiences here is the ambience. We were expecting ambiance worthy of the caliber of the food and the cost of the meal. What we have experienced here is subpar not due to the quality of the furnishings and finish work, but how the restaurant operates detracts significantly from the ambiance. For example, throughout our dinner we had staff carrying 5 gallon buckets of ice by our table. We're not sure where they were going with it, but I assume it was to restock some remote station in the bar or elsewhere. Odd for it to happen once during a meal, but it happened multiple times during our dining experiences here. A similar experience with restocking, I assume, glasses and plates, with a large wheeled cart going by our table to, I assume, restock clean glassware and plates at some station in the restaurant. When dining at a $150+ per person, we have higher expectations than this for the ambiance.

Service was okay, but just barely. There's an unfamiliarity with the menu and a resulting inability to answer basic questions that was surprising to us. We love outstanding wine pairings. Perhaps we've just been unlucky with servers, but our experience at Urban Hill leads us to conclude that there is a lack of basic familiarity with wine. When we ask for wine pairing recommendations, we cringe when we get an answer like "what do you like?". That has been our experience, unfortunately, at Urban Hill.

The food? Outstanding and some of the best we have had in Utah. We're torn as to whether we will give Urban Hill another try. We're fine spending $150 to $200+ per person on wonderful dining experiences. At that cost, however, the expectation is for an overall wonderful experience, not just outstanding food. Urban Hill is there with the outstanding food, but well below expectations in the...

Brunch at Urban Hill: A Stylish Experience with Stellar Food

Walking into Urban Hill is impressive — the space is incredibly stylish, with an eye-catching wine room and distinct sections throughout the restaurant, each offering a beautiful aesthetic and warm atmosphere. Even the counter seating looked inviting.

We came for brunch and had made a reservation (which was a good call — there was definitely a wait). We were seated in a random back room corner table — more on that later — but we were warmly greeted by our server, who was absolutely lovely. She was attentive and made sure we were well taken care of.

We started with Bloody Marys, opting to add the little tiger shrimp for a small extra charge — totally worth it. The shrimp added a great depth of flavor that really came through in the drink.

Next up: a half-dozen oysters. Being big oyster fans, we were thrilled — they were shucked perfectly, not too salty, and paired beautifully with a cucumber-yuzu mignonette that enhanced their natural brininess without overpowering them.

For entrées, we shared the Creekstone Farms brisket hash — a wonderful surprise packed with flavor, topped with over-easy eggs whose soft yolk added richness to every bite. We will definitely be ordering this again when we come back for brunch.

My other half had the Croque Madame — something I had never heard of before, but it was amazing. The dish featured toast layered with prosciutto and Gruyère cheese, topped with a sunny-side-up egg. The yolk from the egg was perfect for dipping the rustic seasoned potatoes and pulling in a bit of melty cheese, making each bite absolutely incredible.

Even though we were full, we couldn’t resist ordering dessert when we saw Key Lime Pie on the menu. It was massive — the slice was huge! Our server thoughtfully brought two side plates and two forks before it even arrived, which we didn’t understand at first — but once we saw the slice, we realized why. It was the perfect way to portion it out without totally stuffing ourselves.

We closed out with smiles — it was an overall lovely experience.

The only thing I’d change for next time: I’ll request seating in the main dining room instead of the back corner. While the back room was fine, it lacked the gorgeous vibe and lively energy of the main space (plus it mainly looked out onto a driveway). But now we know for next time!

Strictly food and service? Five stars all the way. Urban Hill is a brunch spot we’ll absolutely be...