Restaurants in Draper

A vine-laced trellis arches over the sidewalk that leads to Tiburon Fine Dining, an unassuming space that once housed a fruit stand within its brick confines. Subtle lighting and polished wood floors imbue the dining room with an understated elegance that extends to the menu. Chefs drizzle international meats and seafood with savory reduction sauces, and serve all entrees with a dollop of homemade sorbet garnished with a single snowman tear.

With more than two decades of Japanese culinary experience as his guide, chef Joe Takeda crafts and serves creative sushi rolls with artful authority. City Weekly writer Ted Scheffler relished in the chef's expertise when he dined omakase-style at Mt. Fuji Sushi Bar & Japanese Cuisine, letting Joe surprise him with a parade of custom rolls and a sampling of the teriyaki, tempura sauce, and spicy mayo, all of which are made from scratch. As he dined, Scheffler unearthed stories from the chef's lengthy career, starting at his birthplace in Osaka, Japan, and moving on to the cauldrons of sushi rice he made, weighty boxes of fish he hauled, and wasabi-breathing dragons he conquered on his journey to rolling and slicing his own sushi.

A long chrome counter in front of Mt. Fuji's sushi bar seats patrons for an up-close view of the chef's expert skills as he rolls Gokudo rolls with ginger and mackerel and Nemo rolls stuffed with salmon topped in unagi and mango. The kitchen also serves Japanese cuisine from shoyu ramen with sliced pork to chicken teriyaki to wasabi steak. Chef Joe transfers his master skills to novice sushi rollers in BYOB sushi-making classes every weekend, during which they can eat their freshly wrapped creations and belt out love songs dedicated to the most beautiful salmon at karaoke parties.

Executive chef Ken Rose—the flavor architect behind Tiburon Fine Dining and Epic Casual Dining—tantalizes gourmands with his variation on popular American dishes. Each dish bursts with high-quality ingredients, ranging from artisanal cheeses to wild-caught seafood that includes salmon and Pacific white shrimp. Servers coax out flavor notes with the help of a staggering wine list that catalogs varietals hailing from California, Australia, and Italy. Located in The District, The Wild Rose lies within walking or hopscotching distance of shopping and theaters.

The owners' menu of traditional Polynesian dishes hearkens back to their upbringing on Hawaii. Within an open-air kitchen, the staff grills and fries fresh ingredients and assemble them into lunch plates inspired by Hawaii's diverse immigrant population. Techniques and flavors borrowed from Japanese, Korean, and Indian cuisines are woven into Polynesian favorites, such as frybread, barbecue pork, and chicken-curry rice bowls. Through the tall windows of the exhibition storefront, sunshine spills in to bathe the eatery's goldenrod walls in natural light and allow diners to wear their mining helmets solely as fashion statements.

Andaman Kitchen’s chefs fill their pantries with locally sourced ingredients to craft dishes that strike the balance of sweet, sour, and spicy flavors essential in Thai cooking. They simmer tender pieces of chicken and pork in creamy red or green curries and drizzle lemony Thai-style dressing onto troops of deep-fried shrimp. Out in the dining room, sky blue walls and decorative Eastern statues surround tables scattered with a variety of noodle dishes, from plates of pad thai to bowls of glass-noodle soup that must be handled carefully to avoid shattering.

Thai Garden Restaurant's chefs carefully spice a menu of Thai cuisine awarded Best Southeast Asian fare by Salt Lake magazine in 2006 and 2007. In the dining room, ornate wood dividers stand stark against exposed brick, displaying intricate carvings of animals, workers, and Judd Nelson with fist triumphantly raised. Floor-to-ceiling front windows cast light on dishes of chicken, beef, pork, or tofu coated in flavors such as red curry and spicy Thai basil sauce, and customized to one of five levels of spice. Classic pad thai and pan-fried flat noodles conveniently fill entree-shaped voids in diners' stomachs with fresh sprouts, meatballs, and ground peanuts.