Like my opinion matters... Cafe Diablo in Torrey, UT (restaurant review)

Sometimes you strike gold when you find a great restaurant in an unexpected place while traveling.  Such is the case with the Cafe Diablo in Torrey, UT.  Garrett, at the hotel, had recommended this restaurant along with one other restaurant as having gotten the most favorable recommendations from visitors at the hotel.  We actually chose the other restaurant first, but it wasn't open yet, and so we decided to go in to Torrey instead.  We were so lucky!!  One disclaimer here-- the restaurant was pretty price-y.  We probably spent nearly $40 a-piece and we didn't get drinks or appetizers.  So keep that in mind if you decide to go there.  Its definitely a splurge but if you are expecting that, the food was awesome and presented beautifully.

First off, the waitress brought us a tapas plate with some bread and marinated vegetables on it.  She warned us about the jalapeno being hot so we carefully avoided eating that. I took a bite of something that looked a bit like a mushroom but must have been a pepper because there was a bite to it.  Not too hot to enjoy though-- I actually thought it was pretty tasty.

I ordered the salmon (shown above) and it came with chicken flautas on the side, a wilted lettuce type salad on the fish, and a tangy, savory tomato/cheese sauce.  The salmon was a good sized piece and cooked really well.  Eating around the plate was fun because there was just one taste sensation after another.  Really, really good.

Kim ordered the steak and it also came beautifully presented.  Don't you love the cut-out cactus bread decoration?  The highlight for her was the mashed potatoes that were served in a bowl made out of a potato skin that had been fried.  I had a bite and she was right-- Five stars for the mashed potatoes alone.

I hadn't actually planned on ordering dessert at the restaurant since we'd had pie for lunch and pie the night before.. but, as we were eating we saw people bringing in what looked to be homemade desserts.  The chocolate cake by itself would have changed my mind although that wasn't what I ordered.  Kim ordered the chocolate cake and I ordered a berry amaretto cake.  Both came with a scoop of ice cream-  raspberry truffle for Kim and Drunken Monkey for me...  It was actually served all on one plate and looks like an awful lot of dessert!  Wasn't able to come close to finishing it but it was sure fun trying...  Again, part of the experience was the chance to taste so many different flavors around the plate.  Wonderful presentation!

No doubt in my mind that Cafe Diablo deserves a 5-Star rating.  Eating there was one of those dining experiences where the act of eating itself equals the goodness of the food.  Now, this is one restaurant that I might drive 200 miles to just to eat there again...