Executive Chef Michael O'Dowd offers a very unique culinary experience featuring a special cuisine he calls "Native American with Global Accents". His creative menu is influenced by the rich history and culture of the Pima and Maricopa Native Americans, using high quality local ingredients from the Gila River reservation and the lands of nearby tribes, and masterfully elevating traditional specialties in a modern way with artistic presentations and sophisticated culinary techniques.
The service at Kai was flawless, with waiters greeting the guests in the Pima language and paying attention to every detail. Our dishes were served promptly and we were given careful attention while allowed our private space. Flatware for salads and cold courses was chilled, and heated for soups and warm dishes. The staff was helpful in answering questions about the special ingredients used in the dishes, and in general met each guests' need.
The Kai dining room is gorgeous, as is the impressive Wild Horse Pass Resort in which it is located. Earthy desert colors and shapes are primary tones, and decorative painting upon the walls are by local artists, reflects both ancient and modern elements of Pima and Maricopa art and history. Uniquely, each menu provided also depicts one of various unique pictures by local artists, each seemingly depicting a story or memorable scene.
The menu is arranged distinctively, with appetizers listed under "The Birth", first courses under "The Beginning", main courses under "The Journey", and desserts as the "After Life". Kai also offers two tasting menus, the "Short Story" and a more complete experience called the "Journey". We opted to try the "Journey" tasting menu.
We started with an amuse bouche of a delicate tuna tartar from the Sea of Cortez, lightly flavored with poblano chilies and saguaro seeds. The saguaro seeds are similar in appearance and taste to poppy seeds and come from a special saguaro cactus that is very common in Arizona. The tuna tartar was served with refreshingly sweet and slightly tangy blood orange fruit, as well as an adorable and scrumptious miniature Indian fry bread, and finally topped with a beautiful fennel yuzu foam that added just the right touch of acidity to the dish. This wonderful bite offered a burst of flavors that prepared us for our culinary journey at Kai.
The bread service included three different freshly baked breads, provided in a trio. The first of these was a perfectly crusty and mildly sweet cinnamon raisin bread. Second was a delightful pumpkin seed flavored chemaith, a Native American flat bread that is similar to pita, served still hot from the oven. Third was a slightly spicy cheddar jalapeno bread. A local cold-pressed olive oil with a mixture of native seeds and ground nuts was provided as an accompaniment.
For wine, we ordered a Pinot Noir from Archery Summit Estate, a delightful wine we've had before from winemaker Anna Matzinger, who paved a path in New Zealand before landing in Oregon. The wine was as described by Anna: "intense and inviting, opening with vivid aromas of ripe black cherry, baked raspberries, and clean earth. The palate is polished and plush with loads of black fruits, rich cassis, manuka honey, and Oregon truffle, with intriguing notes of sugared almond and violet pastilles." In short, it had an ideal flavor profile for the melange of flavors to come.
Our first course came with Maitake mushrooms and Rio Zape Bean Mud at the bottom of a deep bowl topped with a cotton candy made from local Pima cotton and spiced with an Aji Amarillo chile. Just as we were admiring the wisps of fluffy cotton candy, our waiters poured a wood-grilled puree of heated butternut squash into the bowl and added a generous portion of black truffles. It was fascinating to watch the cotton candy melt quickly in the warm butternut squash puree. The earthy and smoky flavors of this silky smooth soup were incredible.
Next, we sampled a salad of lettuces picked at local farms, including a farm maintained by the children of Gila River Crossing School as part of a special agricultural and health awareness community program. This salad was served on top of a timbale of roasted eggplant and tomato confit, and accompanied by local feta cheese squares topped with tiny greens and olive oil. Also, on the plate were candied pecans and a pretty snake-like drizzle of white Hawaiian honey that paired nicely with the feta cheese.
Our third course was a refreshing macerated Heirloom tomato tart with goat cheese and mascarpone. The tart crust, made with buckwheat and saguaro seeds, was wonderfully crumbly and delicious. The tart was served with "black ice", essentially a granita made with a syrup from saguaro cactus that had a very unique taste like sweet molasses with hints of balsamic vinegar. On top of the black ice, the server also spooned a generous portion of aromatic basil foam. While I liked all of the components of this dish, the "black ice" was the true star for me on this plate, and I could have eaten a whole bowl of it just by itself.
Next, we had a lovely seasonal dish of pan-flashed white and green asparagus accompanied by a Chanterelle mushroom fondue and cholla buds. Cholla buds are picked from the buckthorn cholla cactus in early spring and are similar in flavor to asparagus and artichoke. The asparagus was topped with a tiny fried desert quail egg. The sweet and tangy reduction of red currants and aged sherry was a great sauce to pair with the earthy flavors of this dish.
With perfect timing, just as the Kai staff opened the restaurant’s curtains wide, in time for us to enjoy a spectacular view of the sun setting, we were served a sweet and refreshing cocktail of similar colors, comprising mesquite bean syrup and passion fruit puree.
Our journey continued with a very unique dish of a Spanish Sea Bass Swimming in a Native Stew, Scented with Truffle Saffron Broth. This was perhaps the most symbolic story-telling dish of the night. The sea bass was perfectly cooked and rested on a huge "boat" of a toasted buttered bread, descending into a "sea" of very flavorful truffle saffron broth with buttery and nutty black and white tepary beans. Among the many components on this plate were also sweet grass steamed cockles, octopus, cholla buds, Mexican anchovies, and Black Iberico Chorizo sausage. While we loved the concept of this dish as well as Spanish-Native American fusion of ingredients and flavors, we found the huge bread to be a little ridiculous and was a little bit overwhelmed by the number of the components of this dish. Overall, the complex flavors did blend together well. Some components were almost lost, however, and the dish may have been cleaner featuring the tepary beans and the truffle saffron broth more prominently. The oversized bread was not especially tasty in contrast with earlier breads we had been served, and it served best to use an end portion to soak what was left of the delicious broth as a final bite.
A Celebration of Mushrooms followed, with three different kinds of mushrooms in different preparations. First was a succulent Abalone mushroom wrapped in apple-wood smoked bacon and immersed in a Bordelaise sauce. The second mushroom was sautéed morel with a wild ramp. While we liked the seasonal pairing with the wild ramp, the morel itself was surprisingly gritty and not tender enough. A final element on the plate was a crispy fried croquette with liquid Chanterelles and truffles inside, accompanied by crunchy and salty thin mushroom "chips".
Next, we tried the Kurobuta Pork Torta. The pulled pork was smoky and flavorful with a bit of a kick, spiced with Chimayo chile, a medium spice chile from a New Mexican village of Chimayo. The Arizona harvested Medjool Dates and Quince jam offered a sweet aromatic taste complimenting the torta. We didn't particularly care for the wild lavender and spearmint madras curry yogurt with a cucumber, finding it an unnecessary component for this dish. The warm chia seed popover served on a side, however, was excellent.
Before our main course was served, we next enjoyed a cool and refreshing lemon lime aloe vera sorbet served in a chilled cracked egg shell bowl. It was topped with La Saba syrup, which is a sweet muscat grape vinegar, similar to a balsamic vinegar reduction.
The main course was a Grilled Tenderloin of Buffalo, perfectly tender and cooked on the rare side. An unusual saguaro blossom syrup added a sweet dimension that brought out the natural delicious flavors of the bison. We also loved the rest of the accompaniments, including a smoked corn puree, barbeque Scarlet Runner beans, cholla buds, and mushrooms. These elements were very flavorful but understated and did not overwhelm the bison, which was the true star of this dish.
The cheese plate featured the global influences with a nutty Appenzeller cheese from Sweden and a creamy blue cheese from New Zealand. These excellent cheeses were served with Hawaiian white honey, candied pecans, balsamic vinegar, and crispy chemaith crackers. The flavor profile was consistent with the meal, although it was something of a surprise to find that no local cheeses could be found in the spirit of the rest of the meal.
For our dessert, we enjoyed a Maize cheesecake. This was a very unique cheesecake made with roasted corn and encrusted in caramel corn and local seeds. Spiced curry fig chutney and a unique "mushroomy" huitlacoche (a fungus known as "corn smut" and considered a delicacy in Mexico and Southwest) syrup were wonderful accompaniments to the cheesecake. This was an excellent desert, not overly sweet, and in harmony with the dishes that had preceded it.
We had an amazing journey in Kai, experiencing wonderful traditional elements of Native American cuisine presented in a modern way, with locally produced special ingredients. The flavor combinations of each dish were very unique and complex. I did feel, however, that several dishes had a few too many components on the plate, making it a little difficult for some of the more special ingredients to stand out. In particular, we had wanted to taste more of ingredients like Saguaro syrup or the cholla buds which often got lost among the numerous other components of the dishes. We really appreciated the artistic presentations and concepts of all the dishes, with almost flawless execution. Kai succeeds as an excellent example of fine dining with Native American influences, and is a testament to some of the best of the American Southwest.
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5 Star Foodie Junior:
On our trip to Arizona and New Mexico, we had dinner at Kai. Kai is a 5-star restaurant in a resort hotel in Arizona and it has special fancy Native American cuisine. I really liked looking at the menu because there was a beautiful painting on it and the dishes were listed not as "first course, second course" as usual but it was like this: "Birth", "Beginning", "Journey" and "After Life" which was actually dessert. First, we had the amuse bouche. There was a blood orange, it tasted like an orange except it was a little tangier. There was also Indian fry bread which was fluffy and delicious. I also liked the tuna tartar because it was very tender and refreshing.
There were three kinds of bread: Raisin, Pumpkin seed flat bread called chemaith, and jalapeno cheddar. I only ate the flatbread, and it tasted like pumpkin seed and it warm and fresh. I liked dipping it in the mixture of oil and nuts.
The dish that I ordered was Escargot with Truffles, Wild Mushrooms and
Caramel Goat Cheese. I tried the caramel goat cheese first and it tasted like blue cheese and it was very yummy and it melted in my mouth. The escargot tasted earthy like mushrooms because it was cooked with mushrooms. There was also a sweet French brioche toast with truffle crema which was very good. With the French toast I tried the drops of two different colorful sauces.
One of our palate refresher was juice made with mesquite bean syrup and passion fruit. I thought that it was delicious and fruity. The other palate refresher was a lemon lime sorbet. It was kind of sour and kind of sweet, and it was very cold. The cracked egg bowl for the sorbet was very cute.
At the end of the meal, we had chocolate truffles. The chocolate truffles were rich and chocolatey. I enjoyed my dinner at Kai.
There were three kinds of bread: Raisin, Pumpkin seed flat bread called chemaith, and jalapeno cheddar. I only ate the flatbread, and it tasted like pumpkin seed and it warm and fresh. I liked dipping it in the mixture of oil and nuts.
The dish that I ordered was Escargot with Truffles, Wild Mushrooms and
Caramel Goat Cheese. I tried the caramel goat cheese first and it tasted like blue cheese and it was very yummy and it melted in my mouth. The escargot tasted earthy like mushrooms because it was cooked with mushrooms. There was also a sweet French brioche toast with truffle crema which was very good. With the French toast I tried the drops of two different colorful sauces.
One of our palate refresher was juice made with mesquite bean syrup and passion fruit. I thought that it was delicious and fruity. The other palate refresher was a lemon lime sorbet. It was kind of sour and kind of sweet, and it was very cold. The cracked egg bowl for the sorbet was very cute.
At the end of the meal, we had chocolate truffles. The chocolate truffles were rich and chocolatey. I enjoyed my dinner at Kai.
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We have now enjoyed dining at 15 of the Forbes Travel Guide rated 5-star restaurants. To see how Kai Restaurant compares with the other 5-star restaurants, please check out my 5 Star Rating page.
