Comments (0) Best Place to Take a New Yorker - 2008
Kai
Sometimes you just have to turn the tables. Got a New Yorker pal who's hard to impress? Yeah, we feel ya. It's not always easy coming up with something that outshines the allure of the Big Apple, but after years of racking our brains, we've come up with a bunch of ways to show off the joys of living in Arizona. Dinner at Kai is one of the highlights. We guarantee that in the City That Never Sleeps, there's no fine-dining spot with the kind of cuisine they serve at this high-end eatery, whose distinctive menu revolves around indigenous Arizonan ingredients done up with traditional techniques — a sort of haute Native American, if you will. Think grilled tenderloin of buffalo with smoked corn purée, barbecue scarlet runner beans, saguaro blossom syrup, cholla buds, and mushrooms.
There are enough intriguing, unusual things on the menu to spark the curiosity of even the most jaded gourmet, although even traditionalists will find something to love (like the juicy bone-in New York strip). The bonus at Kai is the view, if you can swing a table near the windows. It's the opposite of a cityscape, but just as breathtaking.
