Wigwam Resort's signature restaurant serving New American cuisine amid a rustic, elegant atmosphere.
THE PERFECT PLATE
It's been a long, long time since I had as good a restaurant meal as over-the-top excellent, grand-slam-home-run great, as I did last night (April 22, 2022) at Litchfield's at the Wigwam Resort near Phoenix.
The menu is relatively small compared to many up-scale restaurants, but don't let that fool you. They appear to be working toward perfection on a few things, rather than "that's pretty good" on a bunch of things. And in my case, without question they succeeded. It was the best restaurant meal I've had since a 2-Star Michelin meal 13 years ago in France. And by far, it was easily the best restaurant meal I've eaten anywhere in the Phoenix area.
Details?
Let's start, as I did, with the Berkshire Pork Belly. Perfectly sized, for one or sharing for two. I have this often as a starter, and this is the best I've had anywhere in the USA. Nicely seasoned, devoid of the "overly fattiness" often experienced in this dish. Perfectly rendered and served with cherry preserve (dried cherries in a light sauce) and, would you believe, bits of peanut brittle...a master stroke that added both a bright saltiness and sweetness as well as a textural contrast. A brilliant presentation on a bed of celeriac root (OK, just to retain some sense of pretend balance, a few drops of light heat in the celeriac root on the plate might be nice for a bit more color and more life to the celeriac. A very minor nitpick if I say so myself).
Next, on to the salad...in many restaurants an afterthought, usually very nice but not something to write home about. Consider this my letter home. My wife and I chose to split the Gem Salad...and it turned out to be the best version of a Ceasar Salad we 've eaten since a Ceasar prepared for us tableside (eggs and all) in 1965 in the Matador Room of the famous Davenport Hotel in the Pacific Northwest. Fresh Romaine ends with a house-made Ceasar dressing lightly spread on the plate with lime oil (slightly tart and exceptional), with shredded bits of romano pecorino and perfectly crispy easy-to-eat flavored sourdough croutons. A salad perfectly sized when split for two. VERY tasty.
And now for the closer. I had the Sea Bass, my wife the Jidori Chicken. Both were exceptional, and both were not something you will find on most any other restaurant menu in terms of their flavors and presentation.
The Sea Bass, in particular, was the Perfect Plate...taste, texture, and presentation all right on the mark (I understand the chef often experiments with different presentations of the same dish as time goes on, but I hope he doesn't stray too far, too fast, with this one!).
This sea bass, with perfectly browned and very crispy skin, was moist, flaky perfection. It was served on a bed of Forbidden Rice (black rice, never had it before, but I will again) in a light lime sauce with perfectly cooked sugar snap peas, a wonderful textural contrast and a great color addition to the plate. On the side near the sugar snap peas were seared and flavorful (but not overpowering) maitake mushrooms. As added color and contrast, a light green very thinly sliced mild-tasting seagrass was lightly swirled over the sea bass, rice, and mushrooms. I've never seen a plate of fish so nicely presented with other items, and outside of a meal we had at Le Bernardin in New York (the fish there must have been from another world, it was so good), Litchfield's was better than most any other fish anywhere I've eaten.
My wife's Jidori Chicken with Peruvian potatoes was accompanied by excellent small pearl onions, baby planet carrots, and a very flavorful light background sherry sauce. It went far beyond most chicken dishes you get in most restaurants.
As a small side we added Honey/Dijon new potatoes, mostly because we weren't familiar with some of the sides we'd be getting with our main course (such as the Forbidden Rice). It turns out we didn't need these, but they were very tasty anyway. They might have benefitted from a light sprinkling of sea salt before serving just to brighten them up a little, but that's as close as I can get to anything even close to negative about this meal.
We obviously didn't try any of the steaks they serve or the risotto or other things on the menu, but if they can serve those items with anywhere close to the creative tastes, textures, and presentation in our meals, you can't miss.
And no, neither my wife nor myself are related to or even know anyone at Litchfield's. It was a birthday gift from my wife, and we decided to try something different and outside of Scottsdale. And are we glad we did!
Back another year later on a Friday night.
We sat at the bar and around 5pm asked the hostess(es) for a table in the nearly-empty dining room. They seemed surprised and confused by the question. No, we had no reservation but it's early and there's tables everywhere. I asked them to sort it out and get us at the bar when they found one.
They never showed up. 30 minutes later, with the restaurant still wide open we decided to eat at the bar. Good choice-we had a great time with the bartender, Jessica. Friendly!
Her filet mignon with hericot verts over Gouda mac'n cheese was perfect, though more than six or seven noodles would better fit the idea of a serving.
Roasted Brussels sprouts were just a bit overdone and overly salty.
My ribeye over new potatoes was thin, too salty and disappointing. As was the dessert called "cheesecake". It looked great, but it was not. And not cheesecake either.
Prices are ridiculous for the value received, but we like the place and will return.
We decided to come to this restaurant for my birthday. We've come before as a staycation at the resort which we've stayed at several times throughout the year. Both during winter and summer times as well as in the spring and the fall we always stay here because it's so close to home and we are able to have a great staycation at the resort. During which we visit the restaurant. But this was the first time we came to the restaurant without having to stay at the resort for the first time. It was actually really nice. We had a great evening lots of wine lots of food amazing customer service wonderful delicious fresh food and the entire evening was a success. I highly recommend it
SO GOOD! Visiting from NY on vacation & it was the best meal we had...the salmon was so damn good- I never would've put blueberry & salmon together but it worked so well. Everyone loved their meal. Service was good, drinks were strong & we left happy, full & tipsy. GO HERE!!