You may have noticed the lack of restaurant review and round-up in the last 7 days. We took a brief weekend break in Las Vegas and decided to take a week off from the website to boot. Vegas was a nice warm break from rainy SLC. We didn’t win a single penny, but enjoyed some sublime meals at restaurants like Thomas Keller’s Bouchon and the Michelin 2 starred Picasso. I briefly pondered a ‘GSLC on the road” style post, but thought better of it. Suffice to say I am now solidly addicted to duck confit.

In light of the 7 day lull, this week I will be writing a dual round-up of both weeks 04/25/08 and 05/02/08.

04/25/08: Lesli J. Neilson of the Tribune takes a look at two Breakfast/Lunch joints. Eggs in the City and Carl’s cafe both get a quick review. Eggs in the City in particular gets the nod as the best place, with its “hip” decor and food.

Both places look good to me but I doubt I will ever get the chance to try them. I’m not a morning person at all, is there anyone that truly is? My only thought in the first hours of the day is caffeine, and plenty of it.

05/02/08: Vanessa Chang of the Salt Lake Tribune checks out Stella Grill. We visited Stella a few months back and found the experience largely O.K. Vanessa seems to be on the same page, touching briefly on the fact that a few menu items are ubiquitous across the Pub Group restaurants (Desert Edge Brewery, Red Butte Café and Martine).

Carl’s Cafe: 2336 East 7000 South, Salt Lake City

Eggs in the City: 1675 E. 1300 South, Salt Lake City

Stella Grill: 4291 S 900 E, Salt Lake City, UT 84124

04/25/08: Ted Scheffler of the City Weekly runs the rule over four Pizza joints. Namely Lazy Dog Pizzeria, NYPD Pizza, Sweet Home Chicago Pizzeria and Rocky Mountain Pizza. The quirky naming scheme at Lazy Dog in particular made me smile as I read the review.

05/02/08: Ted talks about the Secret Ingredients cookbook this week, so it’s not just me on holiday, missing the weekly review then. Just kidding Ted!

Lazy Dog Pizzeria: 317 S. Main, Salt Lake City, 84111

NYPD Pizza: 8208 Gorgoza Pines Road, Park City, Utah

Rocky Mountain Pizza: 3977 S. Wasatch Blvd. Salt Lake City, Utah

Sweet Home Chicago Pizzeria: 1442 E. Draper Parkway, Salt Lake City

A new addition to the round-up is In Utah This Week. Annoyingly, their website will not allow direct links to their articles. If you follow the links below though, you will go through to a general articles page. From there hit “dining” to reach the reviews. Curiously their dining section also focuses on bars and drinks.

04/25/08: In Utah This Week sends Sam Vicchrilli to Roma Ristorante. On the whole Sam is happy with Roma Ristorante, but he does comment “My only complaint is that the noodles were overcooked”. I think Sam lets them off a little too lightly, surely competently cooked pasta should be a cornerstone of any Italian eatery?

05/02/08: Sam Vicchrilli’s next review focuses on Johnniebeefs in Midvale. Johnniebeefs is a simple fast food joint, whose menu consists of Chicago style hot dogs and fried sides. Health food this is not. I’m with Sam all the way on his comments about food fascism and cheap eats. Heck the number of Gyro’s I eat, I couldn’t say anything else. I don’t think I have ever tried a Chicago-style dog, so I may have to give the place a whirl one day.

Roma Ristorante: 5468 S 900 East, Salt Lake City, 84117

Johnniebeefs: 194 South Union Park Ave, Salt Lake City, Utah

04/25/08: Speaking of Gyros, Trompos Mexican Grill is the destination for Stacey Kratz of the Deseret Morning News. Most intriguing to me was Trompos’ Mexican take on the spit-roasted meat classic, “Carne Al Pastor”. Stacey describes this as much like Gyro or the middle eastern Shawarma only “seasoned with Mexican spices”. I drooled all over my keyboard just reading about that. A word of warning from Stacey though, regarding the restaurants location on the road, approach from the East only.

05/02/08: From what I can see there is no restaurant review in the Deseret this week. Coupled with the lack of review in the City Weekly, I don’t feel too bad missing a week myself now…

Trompos Mexican Grill: 1005 E. Fort Union Blvd, Midvale, Utah

05/02/08: Finally, I came across saltlakecity.about.com just recently. They seem to also run restaurant reviews every so often. That said they are quiet brief and lacking detail. Case in point is this weeks review of El Taconazo. The reviewer briefly touches on the unusual menu on offer: “El Taconazo has a lot of unfamiliar menu items for American eyes but once you get past the lingo, the dishes are exotic, flavorful and good”. However they do not go on to actually build on what any of these dishes may be.

El Taconazo: 7962 South State Street, Salt Lake City, Utah

El Taconazo: 3505 South Redwood Road, Salt Lake City, 84119