The Chimi Project: Red Iguana

For eating Mexican food, the Red Iguana is a landmark in Salt Lake City. Whenever a discussion about where to get good Mexican food occurs, it will always get a mention. When I figured out that it had chimichangas on their menu, we put it on the list of places we needed to evaluate as part of our ongoing Chimi project.

Suprisingly, due to the distance between my house and the Red Iguana it has been many years since I’ve eaten there. Fortunately, the ideal opportunity presented itself recently and we made a visit.

Visiting the Red Iguana is all about the food. The decor is utilitarian, but measures up where its important — it was very clean and welcoming. We got there early in the evening so we were able to go in and sit right down. By the time we were finishing though, it was starting to get busy. And I have been past there on nights when there are a lot of people waiting out front on the sidewalk.

The menu has a wide range of food and being only two of us, we barely scratched the surface. There are loads of appetizers, salads, seafood, steaks, eggs, enchiladas and on and on and on. Since my brother’s focus is chimichangas, that is what he got. Their standard chicken chimichanga. Since I’m just along to eat I always like to stay away from the chimis and try something besides a chimichanga.

Often, my standby at mexican restaurants is some form of a bean and cheese burrito. Over the years I found that this almost always hits the spot when I need mexican food to eat and just about every mexican place I’ve been to has some variation on this. Lately though I’ve been intentionally trying to try things other than just a burrito. That came into play during this visit, although I was tempted by the burritos at Red Iguana, surved enchilada style with one of their sauces over the top. The problem I ran into, once I left the burrito section of the menu was that Red Iguana had multiple menu items that I really wanted to try. Here is the short list:

* Enchiliadas potosinas: corn masa filled with queso ranchero and onions, pan fried, topped with cheese, guacamole, salsa, and green onions

* One of the several mole dishes on the menu

* Puntas de filete a la nortena: sirloin tips sauteed with bacon, chiles, onions and tomatoes sitting in a nice pool of almond mole

* Chile rellenos

I finally settled on the puntas de filete a la nortena, knowing that I would have to return soon to try some of the other dishes. And it was a good choice. It made me happy. The sirloin tips were cut in thin strips and then sauteed with bacon, chiles, onions and tomatoes. Add all that hot sauteed goodness to a beautiful almond mole with just enough spice and dinner was excellent. My problem now is that when I go back I will want to order that same dish again and may never get around to trying the other items on my shortlist. Be warned, if you go to Red Iguana it may require a multiple visit commitment.

As for the chimichanga, my brother only gave it mediocre marks. And it was far down on his list of places to get the best chimichanga. It didn’t have the necessary crunch on the outside and inside they had polluted the filling with beans, which according to him have no place inside a chicken chimichanga. So the hunt goes on for chimichangas, but if you want some of the best mexican in Salt Lake City food Red Iguana is a must on your list.

Red Iguana

736 West North Temple

Salt Lake City, UT 84116

801-322-1489

www.rediguana.com

Rusted Sun Pizzeria

My brother and I had a double whammy lunch last week. Tuesdays is new release day for DVDs and whenever there is a movie I want to own I head to Wal-Mart (which always has great prices on main stream new releases). Due to the upcoming Christmas season I won’t divulge what I was after, but fortunately there is a Wal-Mart between my office and the Rusted Sun Pizzeria so we could hit both during a single lunch break.

I first remember hearing the name Rusted Sun Pizzeria several years ago. It seems to consistently come up on lists of best pizza places in Salt Lake. But until I started working in Salt Lake it was hard to make visits to any of the places I heard about. I was reminded of Rusted Sun shortly after I started working up here when I drove past it one day on my way to work and put it on my list to visit.

In my family growing up, food was a general theme that was incorporated into almost everything we did. And as a subset of that the pizza genre was always high on the list. If we ever caught whiff of someplace that was reputed to have good pizza, it was like bloodhounds on a scent. We would seek it out and add it to our data set (by consuming it) of good pizza.

Once we decided to visit Rusted Sun Pizzeria, I started looking for anything I could find about it. Websites, review, etc, etc, etc. They don’t have a website and other than the using minimal listing on citysearch and other review sites (and the submitted reviews) I couldn’t find out much about them. The best source of info I stumbled across was a collection of restaurant reviews originally published in the Salt Lake Tribune that had a good bit of background about Rusted Sun. The full review is available online, but the highlights I picked out to help set the context for our visit included:

• Rusted Sun was originally name Deloretto’s
• The current owner bought, renamed it, and upgraded the dining experience (linen napkins, real plates and silverware, table service)
• Locally owned and run

The big plus for me is that it is not part of a chain and that it is locally owned and from what I could see on our visit, the owner was in the kitchen directing the stuff and cooking the pizzas. We went on a Tuesday and arrived shortly before noon. Table seating is limited, there are maybe six booths along the front wall. There is also a bar facing the kitchen with seats for another 8 or so people. We originally sat at the bar, but moved to a table as soon another group left. The service was efficient and friendly with nothing missing. They were prompt taking our order and quick bringing our drinks out. The server also made sure we never ran out of drink. The menu had other stuff on it besides pizza, but I didn’t even pay it enough attention to remember what else they offered.

As is our procedure for any new restaurant we ordered a pizza, half with pepperoni and half with just cheese. There are two philosophy’s at work here. One, even though most of the places we have visited offer pizza by the slice, we always order a whole pizza so that we can guarantee we get one that is freshly cooked and served straight from the oven. Two, my brother is all about pepperoni on his pizza. For me the first visit is always cheese only, because I operate under the assumption that if they can’t make a good cheese pizza, chances are toppings won’t make it any better. It is also a pizza that you can find at every pizza place. With all the different things you can get on your pizza today, I like to make sure our pizza eating is as close to an apples-to-apples comparison as possible.

The pizza at Rusted Sun came piping hot to our table. So hot, that we had to let it cool for a minute before we could really eat it. And that was after I had burned the top of my mouth with the first bite. One of my entries about pizza at some point needs to describe our proposed classfications for categorizing pizza styles, but for now, I’ll just say this falls into the traditional category (the other choices are cracker thin, NY style, traditional-thick, deep dish/stuffed/Chicago, and Sicilian). It had a NY style crust that was a little crispier and crunchier than true NY style. And it passed all the tests required for me to want to return for another visit, which is truly all the matters, is it not?

On our next visit I want to try a calzone, which they offer for all the pizzas on their menu. Some of their house specialities looked good as well.

So overall, Rusted Sun Pizzeria is on the list of good places for pizza in Salt Lake. The thinks going for it are locally owned, fresh cooked pizzas with good flavor. It is a solid entry in our directory of Utah pizza.

Rusted Sun Pizzeria

2010 S State St

Salt Lake City, UT 84115

In Queue: ZPizzeria

Z Pizzeria
3295 S 2000 E
Salt Lake City, UT

www.zpizzeria.com

In Queue: Rusted Sun Pizzeria

We visited this the week of November 5. Check out the full report here: Rusted Sun Pizzeria

Rusted Sun Pizzeria
2010 S State St
Salt Lake City, UT 84115