The Market Restaurant at the Radisson: Yuma

While Kirk and Cathy are still eating and writing and preparing posts, today ed (from Yuma) wants to tell you about something new in the desert.

March 2011 update: The Recession hit this place hard. The food went on a slow decline (the last calamari I had there seemed to come frozen right out the the Sysco truck). The restaurant is still in business, but recently hired a new chef. I have not tried it recently. If you have, please comment here.

About a month ago, I was a volunteer pouring wine at the Yuma Art Center, which was hosting a wine tasting to benefit its galleries and collections.  A young man, who turned out to be the son of friends of friends, handed me several cards good for a free appetizer or dessert at the newly opened Market Restaurant.  At first, I felt special until I realized that virtually every attendee had received several of these cards.

Truth be told, I was not even aware that we had a new Radisson Hotel in Yuma, much less that it housed a restaurant with serious pretensions.  From the outside, the place looks very nice, and the restaurant is on the main floor on the right-hand side of this picture:

The inside of the restaurant is bright, tastefully brash, stylish, and comfortable:

 

 Within a week, the Munch Lunch Bunch arrived for a Friday lunch.  Most of the lunch orders looked positively yummy.  This pizza with sun dried tomatoes and fresh basil leaves was a work of art:

Chip was very pleased with his burger and thought the light touch of blue cheese was a perfect complement to the beefiness of the patty.  He was also extremely impressed by the french fries, ordered extra crispy.  "The best I've had in town!"  he exclaimed:

My sandwich was called shaved prime rib with boursin cheese on ciabatta (?) bread.  While nothing earth shattering, this roast beef and cheese sandwich was quite tasty.  The creamy cheese and the focaccia bread provided enough richness so that no other spread or topping was needed:

 All in all, the food had been good enough so I wanted to return for dinners.  One time, the first thing to hit our table was a rather unusual amuse bouche, deep-fried risotto balls served with marinara and a sprinkling of domestic Parmesan.  The crunchy exterior set off the creamy rice goodness inside. On my plate, one serving looked like this:

Both dinners began with complementary pita bread, seemingly housemade, with a chewy texture and fresh-baked wheaty flavor.  Paired with balsamic and olive oil, it hit the spot:

Also available was an appetizer choice of three spreads for the bread, one light Middle Eastern spiced tahini based, one centered on "Salmon caviar," and one dominated by blue cheese flavor.

Everyone was wowed by the blue cheese choice, the Greeky one provided a nice mild contrast, but I found the fish egg spread far too salty and fishy.  And I love ikura.

My favorite of the appetizer choices has been the calamari:

 It doesn't get any better than this.  The cracker crumb crust was incredibly crunchy.  The squid itself  was tender soft and flavorful.  Most of the seafood strips and circles were thick enough to provide a complete contrast to the breading.  The deep-fried cephalopod pieces were accompanied by a small ramekin of mild chile aioli.

I have also liked the spanikopida and the shrimp appetizer, which features three jumbo shrimp bathing in a tomato/feta sauce:
One shortcomng to the restaurant's dinner menu has been the limited number of entrée choices.  My favorite of the pastas is this creamy vegetarian orrechietti:

The restaurant prides itself on flying in fresh seafood daily, and I have had a very good chunk of sea bass wrapped in prosciutto with a mild red sauce the color of old bricks that tasted of sweet tomato. Though I would have preferred a more neutral side starch than the risotto it came with, it was a successful and flavorful plate.  You don't want to see the picture, trust me.  Greg had some well prepared Hawaiian yellowtail with a nice vegetable medley, although the mashed potatoes didn't strike me as the best of accompaniments.

Another strategy is simply to make a dinner out of the small plates.  On my first evening visit, I ended up with an appetizer for a main. So these lamb riblets became my entrée:

My apologies for the quality of that picture, but the curse of fine dining (for those of us who like to take food photographs) is that fine dining does not equal fine lighting.  The three lamb chops were perfectly prepared, cooked to an exact medium rare, and generously portioned.  The only thing not to like was the bed of overly salty deep-fried onions on which the chops lay.

On that same evening, I tasted a truly incredible dish.  When I heard that the soup special was a mushroom bisque, I just had to order it; plus it would be interesting to compare their version with the truly fine one that I had eaten at The Better Half over Christmas break.

But I wasn't prepared for this:

 This soup was OMG outstanding.  Seriously, I don't have enough superlatives to describe how good this tasted.  While a certain creaminess and a touch of marsala wine lay in the background, the dominating flavor was porcini mushroom.  That's not quite an adequate description; the taste of porcini mushroom was intense and pervasive.  It was not hard to find the reason for this intensity because every spoonful of soup turned up slices of chewy fresh porcinis:
Along with some good cannoli, I was impressed by one other dessert, the deconstructed bananas foster. While the banana slices were nothing to rave about, the chocolaty brownie, topped with sweet mascarpone, golden brown caramel syrup, and a fresh raspberry was very good:

 I have no copy of the menu with me and poor notes, so I can only provide a general idea of prices. Except for the pastas (which were $15-19), mains were in the $20-25 range. The small plates run $5-10. To my mind these prices are fair, if not a screaming deal.

The restaurant is also building up a wine list and already has several excellent bottles to choose from:

 I should point out, however, that many early diners at The Market restaurant were disappointed by the lack of any listing of wines. Several people felt that they paid far more for wine than they should have.  Although the markups on the wine are now very fair (a $30 retail bottle selling for $55, a $19 bottle selling for $35, and a $58 bottle selling for $99), the list is still tilted toward the high-end consumer.  In these economic times, I think many individuals (not just us poor folk) would appreciate a wider range of value choices.

It's far too early to anoint the Market Restaurant at the Radisson as the culinary King of Yuma, and who knows how long the restaurant will continue to provide some truly outstanding food, but nonetheless, I must say that they have served me some of the finest fine dining dishes I have ever tasted in Yuma (hey, in some cases, anywhere).  I can only wish them the best of luck and continued success.

The Market Restaurant at The Radisson Hotel Yuma, 1501 S. Redondo Center Dr,  Yuma AZ  85365,  928-373-6563

Comments

[janfrederick]

I don't know, I'm starting to think you just might be a mushroom soup junkie. ;)

I'm going to have to make some now!

[donna]

Just stopped in to say hi.. found you through Passioonate Eater and am glad I did. I love all your photos. Awesome blog. It interests me to learn of and see other places I probably will never get to see.. Thank you.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Actually, Jan, I'm a shroom junkie. I still think about that bacon, tofu and 4 mushroom thing I had last time at Sakura. What was amazing about this soup was total porcinis. I din't even know you could get fresh porcinis in the US. The soup at the Better Half had a few porcini slices, but was mostly portebellos - hence its gray color.

Loved your blog too, donna. You are a wild woman and a cook! Both good things!

[ed (from Yuma)]

I should also say that some of the photos in this post suck. The Market is bright during the day, but becomes fine dining dark once the sun goes done.

[Masa Assassin]

Thanks Ed I enjoy your post from Yuma. Im always looking for places to hit in Yuma on my way to Puerto Penasco

[micaela]

how does one join the Munch Lunch Bunch? We'd love to join y'all on a lazy Friday. Today would've been a really good one because we would've had a sitter. We're still so new to the Yuma scene, and try to follow your reccs whenever we can. I think we'll have to visit The Market very soon...

[rob]

Those are some very tasty-looking images, and I'm really intrigued by the interior decoration and lighting of the restaurant. Wish I could afford to try it out someday...

[ed (from Yuma)]

Hey, MA, I love your CH posts on SD and TJ. Glad you stop in Yuma once in a while. Be sure to hit Pupuseria Cabanas next time you come through (except on Thurs when its closed). You'll like.

micaela, the MLB is a small group of mostly AWC faculty that dates back to when 3 of us started at the college. At one point, it had a dozen people (or more) but that really limited where we could go because most places with 12 free seats on Fridays at lunch were places we didn't want to eat, so we have pruned membership back to a small group so we can hit tiny places. The Radisson visit was unusual. Nonetheless, I'd love to get some friends together with you and yours for a lunch someday.

yeah, rob, the place is spendy, but some of the lunches and small plates are affordable and worth the tariff.

[caninecologne]

hi ed
too bad i don't live in yuma. that mushroom soup you described sounds pretty awesome...

[Carol]

I think we need to charge Ed to get the recipe for that mushroom soup! ;-)

[Jim P. Radisson Hotel Yuma / Market Wine Bar Bistro]

Thank you for your review. I am the owner of the Radisson Yuma and Market Wine Bar Bistro and we are committed to serving the finest cuisine in Yuma. We have a very accomplished Chef that is constantly improving our menu and striving for excellence. We only buy the highest quality products available and we want to provide the community with tremendous value. Please join us on Monday nights for Wine and Tapas from 4-7pm ($20.00 for five pairings) and our multi-course wine dinner in June. I have forwarded your site to our Chef Anthony Spinella, so the next time you are in, please introduce yourself and ask for one of his Chef's Specials (His Bone in Veal Chop is Awesome!!)

Cheers!

[Beth]

We had Christmas Dinner 2011 at The Market. It wasn't one of our finest dining experiences. We were seated and then forgotten. Finally a very nice young lady took over our table, even tho apparently is wasn't her station. The decor is great; the food was okay; the prices were too high. Holidays aren't a good day to review, probably. Our rack of lamb was tough - had to ask for a steak knife to cut it. Perhaps it was a rack of mutton? (BTW, the knife was not sharp!!!) The table next to us ordered prime rib and had to also ask for a steak knife. The soup and shrimp/scallops on the 'small plates' were excellent! The dessert - we both had spicy bread pudding - was terrific. The wines were all too pricey, in our estimation - run of the mill cabernets for over $50 in Yuma is a bit much - or $8 per glass. Might go back and try the Osso Bucco, but if that's not fantastic, it's too late.

[ed (from Yuma)]

Beth -- thanks for the comment. The last meals I had at the Radisson were OK. The date poppers (deep fried dates) were interesting, but cloying. The blt salad was tasty. We also had OK salmon and properly cooked halibut. An Oregon Pinot Gris was reasonably priced at $32. A meal with steak and a lamb shank was less impressive, but we did have a discount coupon. In addition, other reports I've been getting have corresponded to your experience. The restaurant at the Radisson was opened at the height of the boom, and it seems hard to keep good food coming out in this economic environment.