Em’s Restaurant

Em’s is a simple, laid back, kind of place that you would find in Madison, Wisconsin, Ann Arbor, Michigan, or Berekley, California. It is another reminder of how SLC is a university town that happens to be the most populated capital city lying within a major metropolitan corridor. The dichotomies continue to pile up.
I came to this Capital Hill spot for a charming Sunday brunch, and Em’s did not disappoint. Everything tasted delicious and the service was casual, but on point. Every neighborhood should have a local hang out like Em’s, which adds a certain cache to any residential block. I will return to Em’s, knowing I’ll leave with a smile on my face.

Small joint in the hilly neighborhood near the Capitol. Nice and quite vibe with nice but not great food. Next door to Alchemy Coffee.

I’ve had this place bookmarked for so long, and finally decided to check it out last weekend for brunch. It’s neighborhood location makes it cozy and homey. It was bright with minimal décor and our wait was only long enough for the waitress to clear a table.
Self serve coffee is a nice touch, but I was pretty underwhelmed with everything I tried. The $ 7 Bloody Mary was just vodka and v8. Not sure why it’s priced so high, because it’s far from a crafted cocktail. There was no spice whatsoever, and the salt and pepper shakers on the table barely helped.
The smoked salmon Benedict for $ 12 is typically my go to brunch dish that I always order wherever I go, but I didn’t care much for the dill cream they use instead of hollandaise and there was barely any salmon. The potato cake instead of an English muffin was good, but needed salt and hot sauce.

Great atmosphere, great location. Wine and appetizers were, as always, amazing. However, my free range stuffed chicken was way overdone and flavorless. Everything else was delicious. I want to give Em’s a higher star rating, but over-​cooking chicken is so Applebee’s caliber.

I have always had a positive experience at Alchemy Coffee, so I thought I would try Em’s for a special occasion. We visited for brunch on Valentine’s Day, and were incredibly disappointed by the service. The best way to describe the waitresses is socially awkward. No smiles, no good morning, no eye contact. The self-​serve coffee was also a bit annoying, and would only have been justified if it meant better service.
The food, on the other hand, was excellent.
I would pay more for friendlier service, but to be honest I don’t think I would come here again… unless it’s for takeout.

Cute little place with a great view right on the edge of downtown. Great for a quiet meal with a significant other. They use locally grown foods and their menu is a welcomed vacation from the dinning norm.

Great option for a relatively special occasion, work dinner, or a night of delicious food– just because– that doesn’t totally break the bank at roughly $ 60pp including wine, apps, dessert, and tip. I’ve been twice within the past month and have thoroughly enjoyed both occasions.
Pleasant, dimly lit atmosphere where conversation can be heard across a table of six, unpretentious food, kind and unrushed service.
Food is great. To start, the cold smoked salmon stuffed with crab is fresh, flavorful, and feels relatively healthy. The flatbread with seasonal veggies (onions this time of year, which, admittedly could be more exciting) is topped generously with cheese, the crab cakes are pretty good– crispy but nothing too special, and the pesto gnocchi! OMG don’t forget the pesto gnocchi! It is truly the best I’ve ever had. These are little pillows of potato pasta heaven.
For salad, I recommend someone at the table upgrading to the baked brie salad, as its great to share. Also, the lentil soup is AWESOME. I am a fan of adding a cup. It is really rockin!
As far as mains go, I tried the short rib, which seemed more like an extremely tender brisket with a dark brown/​red wine sauce/​gravy to me than a short rib I’m used to. It was yummy and served with mashed potatoes that were good — seemed fresh and a bit peppery also served with these roasted carrot shavings that are out of this world (I want a hole plate of these carrots, not two slivers) and asparagus.
I also tried the salmon roulade, which was good but the creamy cabbage it’s served over is a bit too vinegary for my liking, as it’s almost overpowering and needs something else on the plate to break up the intensity, maybe half the amount of cabbage, augmented with a scoop of those mashed potatoes?
The pork and steak dishes all get great reviews from my colleagues as well.
Desserts are all good: bread pudding, molten lava cake with raspberry jam, and the brownie with chocolate ice cream. The only surprise is that if you order the brownie with homemade ice cream, there is some spice in there somewhere, and we think it hides in, yes… The vanilla ice cream.
Enjoy.

Em’s is my new go-​to place to head when someone else is paying. It’s amazing! I had the best dinner of my life there a couple of weeks ago, but failed to Unilocal about it in a timely manner because I was tragically struck down by the flu merely two days later. Let me share my somewhat blurry memories:
Ambiance: Great. The place is adorable. Dim, candlelit. Waiter: Even better! He’s been working at Em’s for a long time and shared with us the items on the menu that he DOESN’T like in addition to his favorites (the latter list was much longer than the former). Though we didn’t have reservations, we managed to get seated immediately. The service was unimpeachable.
Food: We started with an order of tamales, notable for their conspicuousness on an otherwise American menu. They were not quite as generous as (and quite a bit more expensive than) traditional tamales, but they WERE delicious. Sweet corn con crema. Yum. Would have liked more than three bites. Lamb chop entrée was, like, totally, OMG-​out-​of-​this-​world good. The jalapeño jelly was a fantastic pairing with the meat, which was cooked to medium-​rare perfection. The scallion potato patty was texturally unusual but very tasty. Asparagus spears, also good. I had a chocolate lava cake for dessert that was very satisfying.
We left full and very happy. Will be back.

I came here for a wedding reception for about 30 or 40 people or so. The food was literally OK in my opinion, nothing more to say about the food. The outside area was really nice though I will give them that. It had really beautiful vines and lights which made the atmosphere really nice.
As far as places to host a SMALL event I think this is a nice place. The food, so so. That being said, the parking is on the street and I am never a fan of that. I just don’t want to be bothered looking for parking, who likes that? Not me.

This restaurant is quaint. They were able to host a wedding reception for 30 – 45 people. The food was seasonal and delicious. The outside area was lovely as there was a covered area that had a trellis with vines and warm & festive mood lighting. Great place to host a small event.

I try to only review restaurants that I had a good experience at. But I had such a negative experience at Em’s Restaurant this past weekend, I had to share.
Lots of hype, but completely overpriced. I’m fine spending good money for a good meal. But this was anything but.
We had a reservation for 9 people at 7 pm. We got there right at 7 pm, but the rest of our group didn’t stroll in until 7:15. I don’t believe it was an issue, because the dining room was practically empty, only one other table of people.
Our waitress seemed nice, but the service was incredibly slow. She finally took our order around 7:30. But we didn’t receive our salads until 7:50. The house salad was rather weak, as in literally the lettuce was completely weak and limp. I could barely get any leaves onto my fork. There were no vegetables or toppings, just a weak spring mix tossed in a vinaigrette.
Some of our party ordered the beet salad and they seemed to like it. But they had to pay $ 5 extra to add the beet salad to their entrée.
We didn’t get our entrees until 8:45. That’s a very long time to wait between courses. I tried to be excited and forget about how hungry I was and just enjoy my meal. But there was so little of it, that it was difficult. I ordered the goat cheese and pine nuts stuffed chicken ($ 20) served with mashed potatoes and seasonal vegetables. The chicken had hardly any flavor. Every bite needed to have at least some of the stuffing to be slightly enjoyed. The rest of the breast was dry and flavorless. The mashed potatoes were good, but the seasonal vegetables was literally 2 green beans, and two thin carrot shavings. Definitely left more t be desired.
My husband order the New York strip steak with blue cheese and caramelized onions ($ 25). It came with seasonal vegetables and «roasted potatoes.» The potatoes definitely weren’t roasted. They were boiled. They had no seasonings or oil or any additional flavor on top. He had to scrape off the toppings from the steak to eat with the potatoes. The potatoes were scorching hot, but the rest of the food was lukewarm.
Onto the steak. My husband had asked for the steak to be cooked medium. He took the first few bites into the steak and enjoyed it. but when he got slightly to the center, it was much more pink. Not a problem, he had ordered medium. He cut one more level into it, and was completely raw through the entire center. At this point, we had already been at the restaurant for 2 hours and he had eaten most of the other food on his plate. We could have sent it back, but we didn’t want to wait any longer, we just wanted to leave as soon as possible.
It was a real disappointment. We had high hopes for this place and had heard such good things. But no part of the experience was enjoyable. The seats were uncomfortable. The bathroom was not up to par, everything took 3x longer than we were expecting, parking was terrible, and we left very frustrated about our experience because of all the time and money we lost. Next time, I’m convincing the group to go to Café Rio.

This restaurant is in a residential area close to Temple Square. We stopped by here briefly to catch a quick lunch and left not super impressed.
My sandwich on sourdough bread was super plain. It was good but not really what i expect at a restaurant for ten bucks. The herb crêpe with cheese was the exact opposite — it was the richest most cheese (soft) filled item i’ve ever eaten. It was difficult to eat because the flavor was so … cheesy. The texture was way too gooey.
There were also a ton of people doing somekind of a meeting there on a wednesday morning at 11. I’m assuming it wasnt an early lunch.
Overall I’d skip the place.

Dear reader: please don’t interpret my rating here as an indication that this restaurant serves good/​average/​redeemable in any way food. Let me be clear: the food here sucks. There is one redeeming factor, however: the people are awesome. The servers knew exactly when to step in and ask what we needed and when to back off and leave us alone.
One recommendation: only order the Salmon Roulade when/​if you are prepared to admit that rubber is your favorite base ingredient. Or if you don’t mind spending about 18 hours sitting on the porcelain throne trying to pass a glue-​ey Boulder.

Excellent food, awesome service, dog friendly patio, parking behind the Restrauant, what more can you ask for?
The halibut was out of this world! Short ribs were to die for! Beef was wonderful. Good wine list. I’m totally hooked!

Em’s is a delightful spot, with a lovely setting and a menu that steers toward light, inventive cuisine. The brunch is especially delicious and the garden bower is a beautiful place to be outdoors yet completely shaded in summer.
I’m afraid, though, that I have to knock a star off for the unpredictable hours. We sometimes walk there from the Avenues — and after more than one experience of its being closed when the website said it would be open, or being told that seating for brunch was over at 12:45, we learned to call and check before going.

We discovered this place this morning after reading a review about it. Located in the ‘Marmalade’ district of Salt Lake City the architecture varies from Russian influenced to gothic revival to victorian mansions. We showed up right at opening time. They have self serve coffee which is a great thing. The wait staff was professional, courteous and friendly. I had the Salmon Eggs Benedict and Shannan had the Fritada. Both were absolutely excellent. We were going to try one of the sticky buns, but we forgot to order one… so next time. It appears that they take reservations — so since it is a small place it might be wise to do so.
We looked at the dinner menu and it seemed very interesting. Can’t speak on that… yet.

Wow were we impressed.
My group of six pulled up in two taxis and we asked our driver if he had the right address because it sure did’t look like he had after he stopped in a residential neighborhood. But there it was across the street,
Em’s is small, but we had called for a reservation and had a great table. Drink orders were filled quickly and we ordered some appetizers — Smoked Salmon & Crab Rolls with Avocado, Sesame Seed Vinaigrette & Cilantro Oil for $ 12.00, Tamales stuffed with Goat’s Cheese served on a bed of Chipotle Con Crema for $ 9.00, and a nice charcuterie plate pff the special menus.
For my entrée I had the Red Wine Braised Short Ribs with Seasonal Vegetables & Mashed Potatoes for $ 24.00. It was served with a salad.
I really liked my entrée. The meat was tender and delicious. Everything on the plate was excellent.
My share of the bill (appys, wine, entrée and tip) was $ 60 and I thought it was a very good value for the quality of the food

An absolute gem. Tucked away in a residential neighborhood up by the Capitol, I’m very glad it was recommended to me because I don’t think I would have ever found it on my own. This definitely will be added to my SLC dining rotation. Garden patio was very quaint, perfect for a summer evening meal. Service was very friendly and unobtrusive.
Started with the tuna on cucumber and the tomato/​mozzarella/​prosciutto appetizers, both light and fresh and very tasty. Was surprised by a course of complimentary salads for our table. Then went on to the main course of pinenut and goat cheese stuffed chicken w/​veggies and mashed potatoes, which (although I hardly ever order chicken when dining out) was a great call. Also tasted the halibut, which was very nice.
There were so many other things on the menu that looked exceptional, I’m definitely going to need to come back soon to further round out my perception of this place — but great first time around.

Quaint. Quiet. Unassuming. Neighborhood spot. I’ve heard all of these things used in reference to Em’s, and it was high time I check the place out.
It’s all of those things. It’s the perfect picture of a Capitol Hill neighborhood eatery done right. It has an interesting building, a simple menu, a host of regulars, but it’s upscale enough that you feel like you’re having a night out.
Picture an old brick building, meant to look old, but also contemporary and new. The art on the walls is modern, and the tables are neatly set and the servers and host alarmingly proficient. No teenage girls texting in between seating guests. No riff raff. That’s what you’ve got. Surely you can put up with the mildly inconvenient street parking for that tradeoff?
Now let’s get to the food. Em’s may have occasional specials, but they stick to the same menu pretty faithfully. If you’re a regular, rejoice in the specials. if not, you’ll be fine with one of the tried and true standbys. They’re really honed these things in.
Amongst the standouts (both from my belly and from those that others always seem to rave about and I got to try) are the rack of lamb and the pork chop. Lamb is so hard to do, and they give it a delicate treatment and offer some jalapeño jelly to balance out the meat flavor. And the pork chop with its maple and bacon flavors. Not, like, «Oh, look at me! I’m bacon and I’m a gimmick.» But genuinely used as a flavor.
I also was blown away by the sweet potato purée. I know that’s supposed to be a side that they throw on, but honey, oh honey, that was sweet magic. Others rave about the phyllo goat cheese app – but I’d skip it. Go for the patee. But hold on tight for flavors in your mouth, what with the mustard and olives served alongside. It’s potent.
I was bracing myself for pure magic with the bread pudding. Maybe it was an off night or expectations were too high, but it didn’t knock my socks off. Should you order it? Oh yes, definitely. But don’t expect that it will redefine the dessert for you.
What a pleasant time. Sad I had a dinner scheduled here a few years ago that got cancelled. I would have loved to have tried it sooner. They’re just so quiet (chefs never compete or participate in any other restaurant thingy-​events that happen all the time in SLC), but once you discover it, you’ll want to join them for dinner more often.

Visit on 03/​29/​2014
–Country Pâté (chicken) with mustard, olives and toast points. Mmm, chickeny! The combination of pâté and mustard is a treat, for sure. The flavor of the chicken intensifies over time.
–Potato Lasagna — Yukon Gold potatoes layered with Parmesan, Ricotta, Whole Milk Mozzarella & Seasonal Vegetables. The pleasant surprise of the evening. Very flavorful, herbaceous, and silky smooth.
–Rack of Lamb with Potato, Shallot Custard & Jalapeño Jelly. Definitely a safe pick, every time. The lamb is not gamey at all, and the accompaniments are just that, accompaniments that enhance the main event.
–Marinated Pork Chop in a Maple, Mustard & Bacon Barbeque Sauce with Mashed Potatoes & Seasonal Vegetables. Also a safe pick every time. So tender, juicy and flavorful.
–Pan Roasted Duck Breast with Spiced Plum Sauce and Sweet Potato Purée. Sweet potato purée to die for! The duck fat was not rendered enough (not crispy), but the duck itself was delicious.
–Pork Tenderloin with Yukon Gold potatoes. What can I say? It was tender, not dry and nicely executed.
–Crème Brûlée. Silky cream. Not that cold hard pasty ‘stuff’ they serve at other restaurants. Delicious, and just the right size for a single dessert serving.
–Caramel and Toffee-​Almond Ice Creams. OMG. Just order it.
The Pecan Bread Pudding was more dense and chewy than it’s been in the past. It lacked ‘breadiness’, and pecans in general. Disappointing.