The Wild Rose

The Wild Rose is one of the most surprising restaurants we've ever had the pleasure of stumbling upon. It's located in a strip mall in South Jordan of all places (The District, to be exact), not exactly a location that screams class or originality. And the decor is all over the place. It looks like someone took a 12-year old to IKEA and said, "What do you think looks classy?" There's weird twigs, mismatched furniture and artwork, and dark walls. But none of that matters, because this place has perfect food, wonderfully sophisticated and harmonized. We've tried several dishes, and while we've never had anything below par, we definitely have some favorites that we keep coming back to.

We always start with the pork belly, and we get the jalapeno grits on the side. We've eaten a lot of pork belly, all over Utah and on both coasts, and this is the best we've ever had. It's perfectly cut, succulent with a strip of fat, and a light BBQ demi-glace on the side. The sauce doesn't overwhelm the pork, and it's a beautiful dish. We order it every single time.

(kurabuta pork belly)

We don't always order a salad because we get a lot of food, but the house salad is our favorite: fresh greens with apples, candied pecans, and a balsamic/basil emulsion.

(house salad)

All their dishes are well-balanced in a rare way. Most of them highlight reductions or demi-glaces that complement the dishes rather than overwhelm them, enhancing flavors of the meat rather than masking them. Their rack of lamb has a white wine and dijon reduction with blueberry mint chutney and asparagus.

(australian rack of lamb)

Okay, the crown jewel, the best of the best, a shining dish, and one of the best dishes we've ever had ever is the beef tenderloin. It's served with a port-demi glace with a hint of dark chocolate and a pad of a creamy bleu cheese. The pairing of elements is out of this world-- perfectly harmonized and balanced. It sounds like a strange dish, but it's the money-maker. We would cross oceans and deserts for this dish. Superb.

(tenderloin of beef)

The Wild Rose is located at 11516 South District Dr, South Jordan and their website is http://wildrose-district.com/index.html.