Rewind Diner

Closed, new restaurant in place.
We weren’t so impressed wtih the new one, but they are just getting started.

REWIND DINER IS CLOSED!!!
Their last night of service was late January or early February.
This is a HUGE loss for the community, as well as tourists.
The guy that owned the building housing the Rewind Diner sold it to someone named Elizabeth Berkhoudt, who will be opening «The Mediterranean Table» («Greek, Italian and Mediterranean Cuisine») in its place. Berkhoudt moved to Utah last year, and has been operating a small gift shop called Kanab Kalendars & Kurios.
No matter how good the food is, I tend to doubt a Mediterranean restaurant is going to prosper in Kanab, but time will tell.

Based on recommendation from the cash register at the Shell station across the street, we went to Rewind Diner in Kanab, AZ. The restaurant had mostly locals eat here. Food was pretty good, and prices were reasonable. Love how there is a vegetarian and regular menu. Service was good in the beginning when there were less people, and then wasn’t as great as the restaurant got crowded. Love the diner décor. Red shiny booths were pretty comfy. Received 10% off the bill since the credit card machine was broken.
Surf and turf burger with fries ($ 10.99) — My hubby said that it was like a philly cheesesteak with the thin slices of meat and shrimp. He said it was a strange combination, but he liked it.
Mediterranean platter with pita, hummus, greek salad, and two falafels ($ 11.99) — Overall, dish was delicious and fresh. It was refreshing to have fresh vegetables! I was surprised that the falafels were moist.
Twister dessert ($ 8.99) — I was attracted by the name of the dessert. Oh goodness. So yummy! Deep fried pretzel stuffed with cream and three scoop of ice cream, drizzled with chocolate and caramel. I imagined this dish as a part of Food Network’s Best Fried Food ever. It was that good. I’m still dreaming about the dessert.

Super cute diner in a small town. This was our layover between Bryce Canyon and Grand Canyon. The staff were great — offered us a veg or reg menu. We got the ribs and the mushroom and Swiss burger. Even though the ribs said a half rack, I swear we got a full. Whew! It was decent, and the quantity made up for the price. The burger was fresh and yummy. I didn’t realize they put on the mayo for you, so ask for it on the side if you want to do it yourself. I’d definitely visit again if I was in town again!

Arriving in Kanab from Zion Canyon I was determined to not repeat my mistake of last night (very bad food at Thai Sapa, Unilocal would have told me so) so I checked all the reviews around town for a decent place to have dinner at. I was rewarded for my effort with one of the best Philly cheese steaks I have ever had. Their lemonade was homemade and had actual raspberries in it. I was also impressed by their beer and wine selection. One of the people at my table had the Cajun-​style steak, which was a bit more pricey, but turned out to be huge and absolutely delicious. If you are in the area definitely give this a try!

I grew up in NYC and live in SF. Let’s just say that I was pleasantly surprised at the overall quality of the food in the middle of tourist country (we stayed in town so that we could be central to Zion, Bryce and Grand Canyon North Rim).
As others have noted, the burger was excellent. The chessesteak was just ok. Kid’s chicken tenders were fine. The dessert was ok — not Junior’s cheesecake (those of you from NYC know what I’m talking about), but pretty good for middle of Utah!
Prices were reasonable for the food. I thought the desserts were a bit overpriced. Compared to other tourist restaurants we hit during our trip, this was at the top of the list.

Creative, and delicious, use of vegetables!

We had gotten a recommendation for the Rewind Diner from friends. The cell phone service was a bit iffy, but we read reviews when we could. They were closed when we went and we settled for a lesser place. Once we got in… WOW! Great food. The burgers were awesome. We split 2 to get a taste of each. My better half thought the pickle sauce on the Cloud 9 Saturn burger was suspect but fell in love after the second bite. I would’ve eaten a bowl of the pickle sauce by itself. I wanted a bottle to take home. The other more traditional burger with bacon was out of the park good. The raspberry lemonade was sooooo good. Did I mention everything was good?
Jennie and her daughters gave us great service. The chef (I think her name is Liz) in the kitchen… she knows her stuff.
We found ourselves back in Kanab on our way back and we were both delighted to go back to the Rewind. The fish and chips were wonderful. My better half was delighted to get malt vinegar. I was thrilled to have home made killer tarter sauce. We made time for lunch the next day before we headed back to Tucson.
On one of our dinner nights there when they were busy, we went so far as to catch someone heading off to a lesser place to let them know our table was free. We didn’t want them to miss out on great food.
If it wasn’t so darned far away, I’d go for dinner once a week. But, I’d like to see Zion again and the Rewind is just next door. Maybe I could get a pint of pickle sauce to go…

This is probably my favorite place to eat in Kanab. I was in town last week for work, and in the span of 5 days, I ate here 3 times. And enjoyed it each time!
There are two different menus at Rewind — the vegetarian/​vegan menu and the «regular» menu. I have ordered off of both, but as a meat eater, I prefer the regular menu. Both menus, though, have ample options, and everything that’s vegetarian can be made vegan, though sometimes there’s a slight upcharge.
A couple of my go-​to items on the regular menu include the Salmon Salad and the Surf and Turf Burger. OMG, how I love that burger — it’s more like thinly chopped steak, topped with cheese, tartar sauce, cocktail sauce, pickles, tomato, onion, and… SHRIMP! Yum. The spinach and artichoke dip is also good, as are the fries. They’re perfectly seasoned, and you get your choice of dipping sauces: ketchup, ranch, fry sauce… etc.
My vegan friend loves the Vegan Rib sandwich, and the Un-​Philly Cheese Steak is also pretty good. Though the desserts have sounded tasty, I’ve never ordered one, but believe me, they’re BIG. I think people probably think they’re expensive, as they’re about $ 9 apiece, but I was with a group that ordered one dessert for the entire table (6 of us), and there was more than enough for everyone.
Another great thing about Rewind is that you can get a beer or a glass of wine here. That may not sound like a big deal to some people, but believe me, not a lot of places in Kanab serve alcohol, so if I can have a surf and turf burger and a glass of wine, I’m very happy!
The only downsides to Rewind, and why they don’t get 5 stars from me, are that service can be VERY slow when it’s busy (and it’s frequently busy), and sometimes the hours are odd. It’s a small town, so places close for things like graduations, birthday parties, etc. Kind of a downer if you’re expecting to go to Rewind for dinner, only to find out that it’s unexpectedly closed. But I guess that’s also part of the small town charm.
I will definitely be back for the surf and turf burger the next time I’m in Kanab. No doubt about it.

Bottom Line… Best damn burger I’ve had anywhere and it’s in this little town most people don’t know exists!!!
Welcome to Kanab! If you’re lucky enough to have cell phone reception to access internet in order to view this Unilocal comment, congratulations! Since the people of Kanab are in practice, (through ACTUAL word of mouth) the embodiment of Unilocal,most of them need not come here. This means that you are probably passing through Kanab on your way to Best Friends, Zion, Bryce, The Grand Canyon or you’re just taking one of the roads less traveled. So… IF you are in Kanab and you’re lucky enough that the Rewind Diner is open (for reasons yet to explained to my rational way of thinking, they tend to hold odd hours) consider yourself fortunate and EAT THERE!!! I may not be from Kanab but I’ve spent a lot of time there and been to just about every restaurant in town once. The only two that really REALLY hit home are The Rocking V and The Rewind Diner. If you’re looking for a ‘diner’ and not an elegant «dinner,» The Rewind is your ticket!
I’ve eaten many hamburgers in my life. Many made by me, many made by gourmet places (ala Father’s Office in LA), many plain old fast food ‘why did I eat that’ burgers and of course those carnivorous (man vs. food’esque) caloric catastrophes that exist in dark Reno casinos or at some roadside dive. After all these, can’t quite place my finger on why it is the Cloud 9 Saturn is the best burger I’ve ever had. It seems humble enough and without much fanfare but when I take that first bite, I wanna curse all the burger place I’ve ever wasted my money in. Every ingredient in this burger is carefully thought out and of the best, freshest quality it can be.
Kudos to you Rewind! In all my travels, you have yet to be beaten!

Excellent. Good food, reasonable prices. Nice service.

Great food and service

There are so many cool things about this place. A diner with beer and wine. Open when Rocking V isn’t.
Our first trip here was after a fairly full day of driving and hiking, and we just wanted a beer. A nice selection of local brews and a few others. We added a few appetizers to round it out — their version of onion rings, which were heavily breaded — I guess they know that if you’re ordering onion rings, you’re not holding back. And they also had these potato cakes — potato salad, but sauted with some extra goodness thrown in. What a great idea!
We weren’t initially going to go back, but Kanab doesn’t have a whole lot of options, and, with their vegetarian menu, it wasn’t a hard choice to come back and try out a few more of their dishes. Most of their entrees have vegetarian versions, and their fake meat selection is awesome! The southwestern salad BBQ thing that I ordered hit the spot!
The desserts were intriguing, but we were too full to order any of them. But, the next time I’m in Kanab, I know exactly where to go now.

I had never noticed this diner until this last time I was driving through Kanab with an appetite. I’m sure glad I stopped though. There was an actual chef who used real ingredients — a hard thing to find these days!
I was with a party of four, so I got to sample more than one entrée, and I can safely say that nothing was mediocre. Even the corn dog was impressive — same size as a Ball Park dog.
The Swiss mushroom burger was excellent — fresh mushrooms and the beef patty was hand pressed. The addition of a a special creamy pickle sauce gave it a unique taste. The soup special was an asparagus cream soup. Also outstanding! The strawberry lemonade was just the way lemonade is supposed to taste — tart!
The owner and chef of this place is the sister to the chef at the Rocking V Café down the street (according to our server). Cooking good food must run in the family!
I highly recommend this place as a must if you’re passing through Kanab.

Part of why this place gets five stars is simply for serving vegan food in semi-​rural Southern Utah. After eating rice and beans cooked over a campfire for three days, being asked «regular or vegetarian menu?» was like music to my boyfriend’s and my ears.
The vegetarian menu is diverse and delicious– we liked our dinner so much we returned the next day for lunch. Our waitress at lunch was so helpful and friendly she even mentioned that vegan mayo and cheese were available to us even though they weren’t on the menu. Definitely a step above and beyond.
It’s definitely a local’s place as well, as a lot of the diners coming in greet each other and the staff by first name. It’s popular, because it’s friendly and delicious. If I ever find myself in the area again I am definitely going back.

On the days the Rocking V is closed, here is your next choice. Good friendly service, good, creative food.
Nice selection of beer and ale.
The hummus was nice, could have used a few greek olives and some more lemon for my taste, but you may differ. The warm pita really makes it nice.
Salad quite good, croutons especially nice. The Saturn burger was cool — a patty cooked with provolone and cheddar melted on it so that the cheese spreads out well past the patty and bun, giving you a Saturn ring of toasty cheese to munch. I liked it — it was creative and tasty.
Large desserts — the Xango was reported to be nice, but someone didn’t share… I had the cream-​stuffed pretzel with vanilla ice cream on top. The ice cream was excellent. The cream-​filled pretzel was good, but needed more cream.
Definitely a place to return to. We did dinner, maybe lunch next time.

I loved this place! I loved the décor, the food, and our waitress!
Food… My husband and I ordered pretty much half the things on the menu. I’d like to point out that it was just the two of us and we ordered 2 apps, 1 entrée each, 2 desserts… and finished almost everything! For our apps, we ordered the hummus & hot wings. The hummus was creamy and came with warm slices of pita bread. The hot wings were probably the best I’ve ever had! They weren’t drenched with hot sauce like most other places, but, instead, the hot sauce was drizzled over the perfectly deep fried wings. I don’t know what kind of breading they used, but it was sooooo good! Then my husband ordered the saturn burger and I ordered the cali-​wrap. The burger was deeelicious! It had a pickle sauce? I’m not sure, but I’d get that if I ever go back. My cali-​wrap was also pretty good. Then we ordered the twister and xanga? (not sure if the name is correct) for dessert. At first I wasn’t sure it was a good idea, but once I got a taste of both of them, I felt like I had bites of heaven. The twister is a cream cheese filled pretzel with ice cream on top… need I say more? The xanga was a cream filled pastry and it was just as good! We cleaned off both plates of dessert like it was nobody’s business.
Service… was excellent. They made everything once we ordered it and it all came out promptly. Our waitress was very attentive and courteous. I’m pretty sure she was amazed at how 2 little asian people were able to shove down so much food.
Value… For the quality and quantity of food we got, everything was definitely worth the price.
Overall… If I’m ever back in Kanab again, I will be stopping by this diner without a doubt! I want to try the other half of the menu next time.

It seems like I found the Rewind Diner in Kanab, UT the same way most folks did. My husband and I were on our way back from a vacation at Bryce/​Zion Canyons and decided to stop in Kanab and walk around. We stopped into the Rewind Diner and fell in love.
The restaurant is small, but food wasn’t. Nothing fancy, pretty basic food, but it tasted fresh, and my husband still thinks his Retro Burger Delux was the best burger he’s every had. The diner has great atmosphere with a lot of original 1940s furniture. It’s all black, white and red décor — art deco-​y — if you can imagine.
We can’t wait for our next trip to out in the spring because the Rewind Diner is now «our spot» in the cute little town of Kanab.

Ah, Rewind Diner — you fell prey to something that makes me never want to return to a place: a bad last course. For me, a dinner can be fantastic, but if the last thing I eat is gross, that’s all I’m going to remember. I’m sure there’s a name for that kind of effect/​fallacy, but I’m not sure what it is.
I mean, when I think about this place, I get mad, but if I take a second to think about it honestly… our meal was actually fairly good. I had fish and chips that rivaled anywhere in the English countryside, and they were served with both tartar sauce and malt vinegar, which I appreciated, since that way I could feel like I had ordered them ‘authentic’ (malt vinegar) while still eating mostly the sauce that wasn’t authentic, but actually tasted good (tartar).
The lemonade was exactly the way I like it… tart as hell and practically undrinkable to everyone else. I especially like it tart and lemony with greasy food… that way I sort of feel like I’m drinking a healthy serving of fruit (even if that’s just a lie I tell myself).
Our burger was also perfectly passable, though we didn’t get a choice of how we wanted it cooked.
Our waitress was so incredibly friendly that it makes me sad to say anything negative about the restaurant. She gauged our mood and adjusted her joking-​around-​o-​meter accordingly. When we were happy and living it up with our main courses, she was there to enjoy it with us, and when we were glaring at our dessert place with outrage, she smartly steered clear.
Because our dessert plate was awful. It was supposed to be fried cheesecake with caramel sauce, but the only accurate descriptor in the menu was ‘fried’. The ‘caramel’ sauce tasted like — no, not tasted like: WAS — thinned out maple syrup, I’m almost sure of it. And the cheesecake was something else entirely. Mushy, sort of cottage-​cheesy. Gross. I don’t even want to think about it.
I feel uncomfortable like the odd defector in Asch’s old psychological study about conformity when I give someplace three stars that has only five star reviews… but bad cheesecake will do that to a girl.

So S and I are driving driving along, completely drunk with the gorgeous landscape of Southern Utah, windingly making our way to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. In the «where the day takes us» spirit of this trip, we decide we’re going to go hiking in Zion National Park (more about that later) and that we’ll have lunch in the small town of Kanab, Utah («Utah’s Hollywood»). Among other things, pretty little Kanab is home to Best Friends, the world’s largest no-​kill animal sanctuary, which we were definitely going to visit.
We pulled up in the town’s tidy Main Street, which did indeed have a nice updated Western feel (as it turns out quite a few minor Western movies were shot in and around Kanab) and asked the nice lady at the front desk of the local Best Western where we should eat. «Rewind Diner is excellent» she stated, without hesitation, and since she seemed pretty hip and cool (she gave us directions to a variety of local sites even though it was clear we weren’t going to stay at her hotel), we followed her tip. Thank you, hip and cool girl!
Rewind Diner was, indeed, excellent. Spotlessly clean and filled with 1940s and 50s (and some 1960s) memorabilia (reproductions and authentic), we were handed a large menu which included much diner comfort food but also, befitting a town with its share of animal rights advocates, some great vegetarian choices.
Our friendly waitress sat us in a big booth and immediately brought out for me a steaming cup of the best coffee I had during this whole trip (amazing how simple brewed coffee can be delicious if the beans are top quality). As we awaited our food (made to order, and not re-​heated) we eavesdropped on the conversations of the two strapping but clean-​cut bikers in the booth behind me. Or rather I eavesdropped and tried to convey the convo to S via mouthing (S: «What? What?»), hand gestures, and semaphore. The best lines:
Bearded biker 1: «You’ve really got it bad for her, don’t you?»
Clean-​shaven hot biker 2: «Yeah, guilty»
Biker 1: «So what are you gonna do to win her back?»
Hot guy: «I dunno, any ideas?»
Biker 1, uttering the phrase I never thought I’d hear a biker utter, ever, never: «I kinda see you as the John Cusack guy with the boom box over your head, ya know.»
OK, that alone was worth stopping in Kanab.
My chicken tenders arrived, beer battered but not at all greasy, were deliciously flavorful. The breading was their own recipe, and would have been good on its own, but the tender and juicy chicken was mighty fine as well. The accompanying fries (fries again! see review for Burger Brasserie) were good, hot, and crisp. And that coffee…
S had a fake chicken sandwhich. I say no more. He liked it. Now I really say no more. But honestly, after being at the shelter and after hanging out with our veggie friends in Santa Fe, I’m seriously thinking of taking the no meat step (but what about the sea kittens??).
We chatted with our pleasant waitress, who gave me a huge to-​go cup of that coffee because I’d praised it lavishly (speaking very, very fast). We took lots of photos (I tried to catch the bikers, but it would have been too obvious) and then moseyed around Kanab, basking in that Utah friendliness and wondering if we’d been converted to Mormonism by that point.
Rewind is totally worth a stop if you’re in the area. And have a slice of pie for me, will you? I didn’t have room after the chicken tenders (this is a recurring theme throughout this trip, by the way).