335276 Wed Oct 18 21:19:43 -0700 2006 3 6 Southwest 0 1955748 My husband and I are in Sedona right now and I thought I would take a few minutes to give short reviews of a few restaurants we have visited... Heartline Cafe--Romantic dining room although we were seated near the door and it was really cold when opened. The restaurant has a short menu of about 12 entrees. All entrees come with a dinner salad so we passed on the appetizers. I had the Chef's Pasta with wild mushrooms, butternut squash and oil oil. It was simple but really fabulous--the wild muchrooms were nutty and earthy and the squash chunks added a unique texture. My husband had the gnocchi with a light tomatoe sauce, roasted garlic and broccoli. I didn't care for it very much but he like it a lot. Both dishes were heavy on the oil oil so a bit rich. We also decided to skip dessert when we saw the size of the sorbet brought to the table next to us--huge! We recommend Heartline Cafe. Orchard Cafe (in uptown)--We came here out of desperation because the wait at Cowboy Club across the street was too long. (At the Cowboy Club we got on the waiting list and were told 30-45 minutes but when that time was up, they told us it would be another 30 minutes. I really hate that.) Anyway, Orchard's had no wait which should have been a good indication of the quality. First of all, the atmosphere is like Denny's--very sterile. The fried calamari was fine; not great but not bad. My husband ordered a nice glass of pinot noir but it had turned to vinegar. His replacement glass of another choice was also bad. I guess they don't sell enough wine to keep it from going bad. I had tortilla soup, which was loaded with vegetables, chicken and avocado. It was very good but a tad salty. My husband ordered chicken walnut salad, which was a scoop of mayonnaise-based chicken salad on a fruit platter. It's hard to do wrong with fresh fruit but it wasn't what he had expected. We wouldn't go to Orchard's again. Oak Creek Brewery--Nice atmosphere like your typical fashionable brewery. I had a good lager. We had a couple of "designer" pizzas--one with feta cheese and the other with pesto. Very similar to what you would get at CA Pizza Kitchen. We also got the BBQ ribs, which had a very sweet heavy sause. We wouldn't necessarily recommend but it wasn't bad. Reds--Just went there for breakfast after some locals told us the Coffee Cup Cafe isn't as good as all the hype. We each had 3-egg omelets with a variety of extras. I liked the fact you could choose as many ingredients as you wanted--onions, green pepper, sausage, bacon, etc. Nice fried potatoes. They had a few other items on the menu that sounded great like whole-wheat crepes, etc. Although the service was not that great, we would go back. The Haunted Hamburger in Jerome--The place was packed at 1:30 in the afternoon with a 20-minute wait. Great views from the outdoor seating area. The hamburger was better than average but nothing spectacular. The chili dog was char grilled and huge. Great seasoned steak fries. We would go back simply for the view. Wed Oct 18 21:19:43 -0700 2006 12505 bohemiana 1 1957964 My hubby and I were in Sedona a couple weeks ago and also had a very good dinner at Heartline. You didn't miss much by not going to Cowboy Club. The dinner we had there was just OK. The cactus fries were interesting, but my buffalo skirt steak and hubby's buffalo filet were nothing to write home about. I've had buffalo before and liked it, but our entrees were indistiguishable from beef. Infact, I found my entree tougher than the beef equivalent, even though I had it done rare. I think the way the meat was sliced may have contributed to this, bias cut pieces but rather thick. Thu Oct 19 18:25:08 -0700 2006 1955748 11613 noodlie 1 1959964 We ate at Heartline a second night--our final night. I ordered the roasted free-range chicken with bacon and garlic, and my husband ordered the daily pasta special, fetticini with smoked salmon and asparagus in a vodka tomatoe cream sauce. Funny thing was that neither of us liked what we ordered so we just traded. I was expected a savory chicken but the chicken was topped with a sweet BBQ sauce, which I hate. My husband's was unappealing to him but I found it fine--not great but better than the usual smoked salmon in vodka sauce. It was less fishy than others I have had. This time dining, our waiter was extremely unfriendly and unattentive. Another staff member brought our entrees to us and our waiter didn't check up on us until we were finished. The night prior to last we went to Cucina Rustica in the Village of Oak Creek. My husband was thrilled with the restaurant and I thought it was better than average. Our fried calamari was great--tender, lightly breaded and not at all greasy. His ribeye with chipotle sauce was fantastic. I had prawns wrapped in proscuito in a light lemon sauce. The 5 shrimp were quite small and the proscuito's saltiness was overwhelming. The lemon sauce tasted like regular hollandise. The main thing I really disliked about Cucina Rustico was how dark it was inside. We had to ask for flashlights to read the menu! The waitress said we couldn't keep the flashlights during the meal because other guests needed to use them to read the menu. Doesn't that tell them something?? Fri Oct 20 14:38:55 -0700 2006 1955748 12505 bohemiana 2 1961137 RE: Cucina Rustica, VOC It could be worse. A year or so back, we ate there after (apparently) a new alarm system had been installed. The alarm must have gone off 20 times while we were there, and boy was it loud! Why they just didn't pull the plug escapes me (and believe me, we asked!). Incidentally, you may want to try Dahl & Deluca in W. Sedona next time -- it's the parent restaurant, and still the better. Though C.R. is prettier... Cheers -- Pete Tillman, Rimrock Fri Oct 20 20:12:13 -0700 2006 1959964 12254 Tillman