We are frequently asked to recommend restaurants with beautiful views, and we’ve just added a new one to our list: Open Range Grill and Tavern in Uptown. Whether you sit at a table in the cowboy-themed dining room or outdoors on the newly remodeled patio, you’ll be treated to views of Snoopy Rock, Crimson Cliffs, the Mogollon Rim and the lush banks of Oak Creek. You’ll have to force yourself to peel your eyes away from the red rocks long enough to study the menu.
Open Range offers a little bit of everything including Mexican specialties, barbecue platters, soups, salads, chili, burgers, steaks, and even homemade macaroni and cheese. Perhaps we were inspired by last month’s Thanksgiving story and its kale salad recipe because the Kale and Salmon Salad immediately caught our attention. (Our server’s eyes lit up, and he nodded knowingly when we placed our order.) The salad features chopped kale, Bing cherries, peanuts, almonds, feta and a dusting of quinoa. It’s tossed with a tangy cilantro-lime vinaigrette and then topped with a substantial salmon fillet. This has to be one of the healthiest, heartiest salads found on a Sedona menu. We also ordered the 7-ounce Top Sirloin steak. Open Range takes pride in using Arizona-grown, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, all-natural, never-frozen beef, and it shows. The steak was juicy, flavorful and incredibly tender. It was served with steamed green beans and carrots, and though it usually comes with mashed potatoes, we’d heard good things about the restaurant’s cooked-in-soybean-oil French fries, so we requested a substitution, which paid off. The fries absolutely live up to their reputation. If you are a meat-and-potatoes type of diner, this is your entrée.
Longtime readers know we rarely pass up dessert when we dine out, and this trip was no exception. The Caramel Lava Cake features a devil’s food chocolate bundt cake with a gooey caramel center. The cake is crowned with chocolate sauce, walnuts, whipped cream and, should you so choose (and who wouldn’t?), vanilla ice cream. We say go for it. After all, you ate salmon and kale for dinner. – Erika Ayn Finch. Photo courtesy of Open Range Grill and Tavern.
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