Rye Dinner Drinks | Salt Lake City

Rye is a great new spot, serving up tasty cocktails and fun food next door to Urban Lounge. In fact, it is the owners of Urban Lounge (Chris Wright, Lance Saunders, and Will Sartain) who opened Rye, as a compliment to their already successful club/music venue. And it makes sense too. For those seeking out a pre-concert cocktail or bite, Rye offers both – and even some free tickets to a show or two if you follow them on social media (brilliant!).

Rye offers a variety of small plates, which are great for sharing. Because we visited Rye for dinner, I wasn’t able to check out their breakfast menu, which is also getting some great buzz. However, on our visit, my friend Sarah and I ordered quite a bit from the menu.

We started with Pork Belly “Tacos” (daikon, carrot, cilantro, chili pickles $11) and the Street Dumplings (shrimp, pork, garlic chives, soy vinaigrette $7). The Pork Belly Tacos were really great lettuce wraps – the flavors were very light, which let the pork belly play center stage. The dumplings were also great, staying pretty true to flavors of a traditional dumpling you might find at a great Asian-inspired restaurant.

For our second round of ordering, we order items more on the heavy side. We thought this would be a good way to order, however, we found that the flavors of these three dishes became too heavy together, with truffles taking the spotlight. While each dish was tasty alone, together, it was a bit overwhelming. This was mostly our fault; however, it would have been nice to have our server make a few suggestions about the dishes and what would pair well together. When the wine is flowing and conversations are involved, sometimes guests don’t pay attention to the details of the menu. Yes, myself, a food blogger, included.

We ordered the Mushroom Toast (fontina, creamy duxelles $9), the Truffled Mac & Cheese (gruyere, crispy sage $8) and the Truffle Herb Fries with Roasted Garlic Aioli $5). The Mushroom Toasts were definitely my favorite of this round, however the Mac and Cheese with the crispy sage was delightful too. But I would recommend going with the Garlic Herb or the Spicy Togarashi fries if you order the Mac and Cheese. Otherwise, you are going to be on truffle overload.

Of course, we couldn’t leave without dessert. We ended our meal with the Rye Sundae (Bulliet rye ice cream, bourbon soaked cherries, whiskey caramel, salted popcorn $8). It was wonderful. The Bulliet rye ice cream was to die for and the bourbon soaked cherries were a flavorful, yet not too sweet a compliment. I am not a fan of overly-sweet desserts, so this was certainly perfect for me. Combining booze and dessert? Nail on the head.

Overall, I really enjoyed Rye. The atmosphere is fun and simple and the service was prompt. The prices seem to be on point and nothing on the menu had a price tag that seemed to over the top. This is definitely a local restaurant that I am happy to support.

Thank you to Rye for a lovely night out! You are a great addition to Salt Lake City and I know you are going to be serving up delicious bites for a long time to come.

Rye Dinner & Drinks
Coffee Bar – Daily 8 am – 2 pm
Brunch – Monday – Friday 8 am – 2 pm | Saturday 9 am – 2 pm | Sunday 9 am – 3 pm
Dinner – Sunday – Thursday 6 pm – Midnight | Friday & Saturday 6 pm – 2 am

Located next door to Urban Lounge at 239 South 500 East