Review: Pago
In the past week (Feb 12-17, 2023), I have been staying in the beautiful city of Salt Lake City, Utah, and exploring some of the sights, fun, and food that the city has to offer.
Salt Lake City, and the surrounding area, has a wide variety of restaurants that range from a charming café with incredible breakfast to some high-end Italian restaurants.
To finish off my week, I thought that I would treat myself to a local upscale restaurant in the city’s downtown area, Pago.
Opening in 2009, Pago has been blessing Salt Lake City with an offering of dishes made with fresh, local ingredients for the delight of their many diners.
Having gone there for dinner on my final night before returning to Colorado, I would like to share my honest opinion about the service, the experience, and, most importantly, the food.
Walking in, the restaurant had a cozy atmosphere with its brick walls, wooden tables, and small but intimate space that made me feel right at home.
I was also introduced to my server who, while I might’ve forgotten to get his name, did make sure that I was well taken care of and had everything I needed to make the experience as pleasant as possible.
Looking at the menu, it was quite hard to decide which of the many dishes Pago had to offer that evening that I would like to sample. With modern classics like a kale caesar salad, cacio e pepe, house-made gnocchi, and braised lamb shank, it was tempting to order the entire menu!
I did, however, end up making a decision, and this is what I had.
For my starter, I decided to kick things off with their crispy fried Brussels sprouts. I already knew that deep frying sprouts was a delicious thing to do as it gets the leaves crispy while keeping the insides crisp and delicious, so I had some expectations for these.
Nestled in the same bowl as the sprouts were crispy strips of bacon (Put Brussels sprouts with bacon and I’m already a happy guy), capers, shallots, and a molasses-sherry vinaigrette.
To me, they were a smash hit! The sprouts were fried to perfection, the bacon was crispy and provided added notes of smoke and salt, the shallots were a nice touch to add some sweetness, and the vinaigrette was a beautiful balance of sweet and sour to lift the whole dish!
I will say that the capers seem to have gotten lost in the salty bacon, although it was also possible that I ate the dish so fast that I didn’t have time to look for capers.
All together, it was an excellent start to the meal.
There was a bit of a wait for my entrée, but I chalked that up to the restaurant being busy that night, so I’m going to let that slide.
Next up was their beef short rib stroganoff with penne pasta, mushrooms, crème fraiche (similar to sour cream), and dill.
There were many highlights to the dish: fork-tender beef, perfectly soft pasta, that bit of crème fraiche to mimic the sour cream that’s normally in stroganoff but give it a French twist, and the dill to provide some brightness.
Here is where things went a bit south for me. When I think of beef stroganoff, I think of a thick, rich, creamy sauce that the pasta and the beef are meant to sop up.
While there was the crème fraiche to give some creaminess and there was a bit of flavorful liquid at the bottom of the bowl, I didn’t really get the warm, rich hug that a stroganoff sauce normally gives me, so the dish was somewhat dry for me.
Also, I only found about 5 pieces of mushroom in my bowl. I know it’s common for higher-end restaurants to give smaller portions, but considering how there was much more beef and pasta in the bowl, I did feel like I needed those mushrooms to add some counteracting vegetation.
The dish tasted good, and I don’t want anyone to think that I’m trying to sound like a jerk, but I do feel like if I’m promised stroganoff, then I should get stroganoff.
To finish off the evening, I decided to further treat myself to one of Pago’s desserts. Between the two desserts they offered that evening, I chose the dessert titled ”pineapple and pearls,” which was featured on a tasting menu that was offered that evening as well.
The dish consisted of rum-braised pineapple chunks and a scoop of limoncello sorbet, all sitting on a bed of ginger tapioca pearls.
For those who don’t know, those pearls are made by adding tapioca maltodextrin to a liquid, then slowly dripping that liquid into oil to turn it into tiny spheres or pearls.
I found that the sorbet had a nice lemony flavor and a wonderfully creamy mouthfeel, the pineapple chunks took on the dark richness of the rum and were nicely glazed, all of that was perfectly fine.
What did fall flat for me, however, was those pearls. Although they were formed nicely, I did not taste any ginger at all!
As someone who is a natural-born ginger, I do find ginger to be one of the best-tasting things in the world, so I was a bit disappointed to not get that sweet, slightly spicy punch that ginger has to offer.
As this was a dish that was featured on a tasting menu, I thought that it had to be one of the best dishes the restaurant has to offer, so I was a bit surprised to not taste any ginger. Perhaps if they had sprinkled on some chopped crystalized ginger or something like that, it would’ve tied the whole dish together.
If you’re wondering why I didn’t say anything to my server at the time, my introverted mind made me unsure if I even should’ve said anything. I did eat the whole bowl, and everything else about the dessert was a hit, but it felt like a case of style over substance to me.
Ginger-lacking pearls aside, Pago definitely brought an eating experience that I won’t likely forget for some time, and was an excellent way to end this great trip to Salt Lake City.
