Binkley's Valentines Day Dinner 2021

For Valentine's Day dinner this year Erik and I spoiled ourselves with an amazing dinner at Binkley's in Phoenix. We were also celebrating some financial milestones so we did indeed splurge a little by going to this restaurant. We had to make reservations and hire a babysitter. Dinner started at 6:00. I liked that they started us immediately as we sat down. It was nice to not have to make any decisions on what to order!   Our first course was an alcoholic beverage, Erik said we don't drink and they were kind enough to make us a non-alcoholic version. I have to say, every course was absolutely delicious and perfect. I thoroughly enjoyed the dinner; it was as if I died and went to heaven for a few hours! There was one course I enjoyed less than the others, and that was the duck. I think it was mostly due to the fact I was starting to get full. Other then that I loved every course! I hope we get to go back again someday, I hear the chef completely changes his menu every 3-4 months or so.

Green Apple Sparkling Cocktail made with ginger beer and prosecco (wine, but not in ours)

Snack Platter: steelhead tartare (finely chopped, raw fish), creme fraiche (sour cream), salt and vinegar huckleberry gold potato chips, hot and cold cauliflower, smoked comte gougeres (gruyere puff pastry), Japanese peaches, iberico hamburger, radishes and goat butter. All was delicious! I could take or leave the hamburgers, and I'm not a huge fan of cauliflower but the dip was neat, so I'll take it! I actually loved the potato chips; I didn't realize there was such a thing as gourmet, perfect potato chips! 

Yellowtail shooter with wasabi grapefruit, baby pickled ginger, and cilantro. There was a grapefruit-scented bubble on the top that you were meant to pop with your nose! So fun! The drink was interesting. It was a chunky, savory drink so it was kinda weird but I enjoyed it nonetheless. 

Nantucket Bay Scallops with tangerine, avocado, muoga quince, gochugaru ponzu (chili sauce), and lemon oil. The scallops were so, SO good and tender.

Blue crab custard with fines herbes (french herbs) and old bay butter. One of our favorite dishes. So good and creamy and delicious....!

Asparagus with baby beet, pickled red onion, sumo orange, and chevre mousse (whipped goat cheese). Yep that one spoon, one course, and one bite! It was interesting and yummy!

Black truffle grilled tuna with water chestnuts and celery black truffle pear vinaigrette. I would say this was the main course. It was perfect. I tried seared tuna at another restaurant years ago and never ordered it again because I didn't like it, but this one was delicious perfection! I also loved the truffles (yes, real truffles!) and the pear sauce.

Blood orange and tarragon soda, house-made. It was unique! 

Morel mushroom ragout (vegetables in sauce) with croutons, perfect paprika egg yolk, and aged red cow parmesan. They told us they feed their chicken paprika in order to get the dark orange yolk color! The mushrooms were very meat-like, heck you could have fooled me! Delicious course, if a little bit salty but I really enjoyed this one.

Deep fried pork belly with mustard caramel glaze and coleslaw sorbet. I believe this was Erik's favorite. He liked the glaze. The coleslaw sorbet was probably the weirdest thing I've ever ate in my life. It was weird because it really DID taste just like coleslaw--but in sorbet form it was just so strange! I could only eat some of it but it sure was a neat experience.

Duck breast au poivre (peppered) with brussels sprouts and cherry chimichurri sauce. By this time I was starting to get full, so I didn't enjoy this meal as much as the rest. Also the duck was a little fatty. The cherries were yummy but really sweet.

Pomegranate Infusion: lavender, rosemary, ginger, turmeric, hibiscus, fennel anise (licorice), coriander, and lime. This was tea made in a Japanese siphon tea maker. As you can see, the herbs and fruit and "flavorings" were place on the top half and the water was on the bottom half. The server turned the heat on and the water boiled up to the top half where it soaked up all the flavors (and color!) from the stuff at the top. When the heat was turned off, all the herb/fruit infused water flowed back down to the bottom half, and voilà , tea. I'd prefer a little sweetener in it, but it was still pretty good, if not scorching hot.                         

Strawberries and cream with pistachio mint and meyer lemon zabaglione (custard). It would have been really really good had my strawberries been ripe. 

A non-edible cup of vanilla-scented fog. I suppose it existed just for novelty's sake.  

Flash frozen banana split with vanilla scent. I didn't get a picture of the banana split but you can see it in the video. It was good. There were "Dippin' Dots" on the banana split but they were house-made. 

Here's the menu. I didn't look at it because I wanted to be surprised by each course!