stella

A little while ago, a couple of work friends and I decided to have a girls' night out.  We all live fairly close to one another - south and east of SLC - and so the task was to find a good (but not super expensive) restaurant somewhere in our vicinities.  Jody, a lifelong Salt Laker girl and self-professed foodie, suggested several options; Susan and I landed on Stella Grill (4291 South 900 East).

We met there at 6:30 p.m. and man, the joint was jumpin'!  I had to circle around several times before snagging a parking spot on the road.  Susan had gotten there a little early and put our names in for a table, so by the time I straggled up ten minutes late, the hostess sat us right down.  The restaurant is much bigger than it looks from the outside and even has a small outside patio that was packed on the night we went, due to the nice night.  The building is a converted garage and they've kept the big rolling doors - which would be super-cool if they opened during scorching summer evenings (cannot confirm this).  The decor is sleek and painted trendy earth tones: soothing yet fun.

The menu is "eclectic," with wide-ranging New American cuisine: grilled chicken sandwiches, burgers and salads; tacos, enchiladas and fajitas; dinner appetizers, including crispy duck rolls, roasted pepper and goat cheese timbales and crab cakes; and entrees like prawns and pancetta, coriander-encrusted salmon and local lamb tacos.  We split an order of the crab cakes (served with a spicy aioli - mmm).  My two companions each got the lamb shank with a mint reduction and asparagus risotto which was dee-licious (I scored a bite - my friends are the best!).  I was tempted by the prawns and pancetta (served with fettuccine) and the local lamb tacos but decided to Be Good, since I hadn't been running much, and went with the grilled southwest chicken salad, which was full of avocado, jicama, pepitas and queso fresco.

Stella has a full bar and we girls ran the gamut: a tart and tasty pomegranate martini for Jody; a pretty pink rose for Susan; and a pale ale for me - Stella is owned by the same restaurant group as the Desert Edge brewpub and so has all their beers on tap.

The restaurant was not too noisy to talk, even with how busy it was; the service was good and friendly; and the prices pretty reasonable.  H and I have been looking for a solid go-to restaurant for when folks come to visit: nicer than a dive bar (not that there's anything wrong with dive bars) but not out to break your bank.  Something like the Front Room from back in Portland.  Stella is the closest thing I've found to that so far - I just have to go back with H and see what he thinks.  Hmm - maybe this weekend ...