Sound Bites is Sedona’s answer to the Hard Rock Café, with huge photos of musicians and autographed guitars lining the walls (there’s even a gift shop). A large projector screen shows movies and concerts in the main dining room. Sound Bites’ show lounge boasts live music five or six nights a week, and the bar fills up between 4 and 6 p.m. daily for happy hour: $4 beers, $5 glasses of wine and $6 appetizers and cocktails. We love rock ’n’ roll as much as the next person, but it’s the views from Sound Bites chic-meets-comfort patio that really gets us going. Relax in cushiony, oversized chairs behind a railing bedecked with tiny white lights and watch the sun set against Snoopy Rock, the Crimson Cliffs and Cathedral Rock. Then open your menu.
During our most recent sunset sojourn (Sound Bites serves lunch, too), the menu featured salads, burgers, hand-cut steaks and Hall of Fame Favorites such as baby back ribs, pesto-Alfredo pasta and Alaskan King Crab legs. We opted for the latter and happily dipped our sweet crab in drawn butter. The crab comes with your choice of side, and we enjoyed the pineapple, cucumber and basil salad – wonderfully refreshing. Sound Bites has a reputation for steaks; one bite of an 8-ounce filet mignon, and we’d say it’s a reputation well earned. The thick and juicy steak was seared on the outside and cooked exactly as we requested – medium rare – on the inside. The steaks are topped with herb-garlic or blue-cheese butter, or you can pay extra and order the house peppercorn-bacon sauce: green peppercorns, applewood-smoked bacon, bell peppers and onions in a red-wine demi-glace reduction. The sauce is sweet and tangy, but it doesn’t overpower the flavor of the steak.
Sound Bites offers a sizeable dessert menu, too. Try the martini cheesecake, a martini glass overflowing with crumbled New York cheesecake bites, strawberry sauce, granola, strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. Wine lovers take note: Sommelier and restaurant co-owner Stephen Sullins offers a comprehensive selection of wine by the bottle, glass and half-glass. – Erika Ayn Finch. Photograph by Deb Weinkauff.
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