Category Archives: I, Me, and Myself

Game Creek Restaurant

I didn’t go out and celebrate my birthday last week. I got busy at work; had to cover for a co-worker who went on a medical mission to Mosul. Plus, I read about this awesome mountain dining experience that seems to be in vogue here in Vail. It is way out of my price range but I might be able to drive it closer under the guise of an important milestone event. So I decided to wait for a week for my 45th birthday celebration.

Game Creek Restaurant will come up as one of the best dining places in the Rocky Mountains. It is an adventure in itself because it entails going up to a mountain by a gondola then ride a snow cat to get you to the place. Of course I had no idea what a snow cat is. Naturally I googled it.

So a snow cat is not some sort of feline carrier. It’s a huge-ass vehicle which can plow through the snow, even in the most frigid conditions. Fancy.

Before we got to this snow cat, we had to take the gondola. Now that ride is majestic. I chose the hour at twilight so we would be able to take the best pictures as we rode up to the mountain.

The twinkling lights of Lionshead below us with a stunning backdrop of the mountain. This  pic was just from my iPhone.

These two rides will take you to the mountain restaurant which is so breathtaking.

If it looks postcard-perfect, it’s because it really is.
Inside, the decor has a very warm and lodge-y feel. Very welcoming.

They have a prix fix menu ranging from 3 course to 5 course. We opted for the 4 course because the five course had wine pairing and we had a minor with us. Besides, as I learned the hard way, you get drunk a lot faster in high altitude so we had to take it easy with the alcohol.

We started with a moscow mule and D had a petite syrah.
Chef’s complements. I totally forgot what these are. I know that the puff pastry had foie gras in it, I don’t know the mousse-like concoction. Fail.
Beans chose rabbit for his starter. It has purple potato, chorizo and tarragon

I’m really glad that Beans has taken the food adventure spirit like me. He is always up to try new things. He liked the rabbit. He was able to appreciate how it was cooked perfectly and look beyond the fact that he is eating his favorite cartoon character.

D and I had crab – it had
bay scallops, leeks, saffron chive sauce
For soup/salad, Beans and I had trout chowder. it had fennel-potato hash, lemon crème fraiche. Not very photogenic, but it was excellent.
This is my entree. I had VENISON with
red onion jam, rutabaga, carrot, cassis. It was cooked perfect medium rare, not gamey-at all.
D had BISON with
confit potato, zucchini, smoked mustard seed.
Beans had COLORADO LAMB with
gingerbread, sweet potato, red cabbage, thyme sauce. This is the best among the three entrees that we had.
My dessert!!! I had BANANA MOUSSE with
chocolate, cherry, salted caramel ice cream, peanut. Absolutely divine.
D had PEAR CREPE with
golden raisins, cinnamon ice cream
And once again, Beans had the best order. He had CHEESES (blue cheese, goat brie and cheddar) with
truffle honey, crostini, cracker, fig jam

Overall, it it one of my best dining experiences ever. From the commute, the views and food, everything was excellent. The only thing I regretted was that despite the fact that we specified in our reservations that it was my birthday, my dessert did not have a friggin greeting or a candle. D, of course, asked for the manager. After profuse apologies, they offered a bottle of champagne, but we were so full!!! We respectfully declined. I will let this go. I am not turning 45 for nothing. I can overlook a mishap and I can certainly recognize a sincere apology when I hear one.

What can I say, we are happiest when we share good food together.

We are far from being a perfect family but we will always find the perfect food!!! Happy birthday to me!

Sweet Basil

My family is spending winter break in Vail, Colorado. The Texas heat has simply overstayed its welcome so we thought it would be nice to go somewhere where you don’t start sweating just by breathing. As luck would have it, as soon as we left Houston, there was a  cold front and it started cooling down… Oh well….There’s so much fun stuff to do in Vail, and gustatorily, this place is no slouch either. So we might as well go.

Sweet Basil is the place that comes up every time you Google “best restaurant in Vail”. And I mean EVERY SINGLE TIME. So either they’re truly remarkable or they have the best PR people money can buy… Either way, the foodie that I am, I just had  to try it. They’re on OpenTable for a thousand points, goodie for me!

I scheduled our dinner for three right after a day of snowmobiling. I opted for early dinner because I want to have enough light from the outside to capture the famous ambience of the restaurant.

It boasts of a huge picture window that overlooks the park outside.

I’m glad they gave us a table next to this. I could look at those twinkling lights for the rest of the night. The park is next to  Gore creek which is semi-frozen at this time.

For appetizer we had Warm Blue Crab Dip — horseradish, salmon roe, rye cracker
Beans ordered Caramelized Onion & Fig Tortellini — it has gorgonzola fondue, roasted fennel, pistachio crumble, rosemary. The pistachio crumble is amazing.
I had Mediterranean Stone Bass —
served with shallot butter, vadouvan spice, melted leeks, parsnips.
I guess by now you already know what D ordered. Steak, of course ! He had Mishima Wagyu New York —
confit sunchoke, brussels, potato puree, brown butter hollandaise

The waiter boasted that their specialty dessert has been on the menu for more than 20 years. Naturally, we had to try it.

Sticky Toffee Pudding— it has 
brown sugar rum ice cream, peanut brittle
B had their homemade caramel swirl ice cream because he can’t have the rum in our dessert.

Overall, I know that this restaurant is not from a very good PR machinery. It is popular for a good reason. It is clearly superior than their sister restaurant, Mountain Standard. We were there last night and I am still debating whether I should blog about them or not—it was that disappointing. Sweet Basil is one of the better restaurants I’ve been to. Menu is inventive and properly executed. Definitely a must-try if you are ever in the Vail area.