deseo is a modern upscale Latin Restaurant located in The Westin Kierland Resort and Spa in Scottsdale AZ. They offer a separate bar, an open kitchen with rail seats available and a comfortable dining room.

I’ve been here several times and the food has always been amazing. Here are not all but a few of the dishes we tried at deseo.

A few years back at deseo I tasted a side dish that was made of red lentils, tomatoes, greens, almonds, dates, Spanish Cheese and stock. It left such an impression on me that I recreated my own version of a similar dish on my site. It was absolutely FORKING delicious!

We decided to visit deseo again and have found that some things have changed. The long time Chef has been replaced with another Chef and the new menu differs some. I wasn’t sure about going back after I heard this news but my husband is very optimistic and said to me that maybe deseo is even better now!

We started out by sharing a Hamachi Appetizer called Tiradito Nikkei.

This was a very good dish. Very balanced with truffle ponzu, cilantro, avocado and nori. You can’t see the little pearls of rococo chile. I was hoping that they’d be spicy but they really had little or no heat. Still it was a very nice very delicate balanced dish.

We shared a side dish called Pastel de Choclo. It was described as Peruvian Corn, cumin, Spanish Olives, cotija cheese and eggs.

I really don’t know. Both me and my husband found this dish not palatable. I think it’s possible that this dish is an acquired taste. I just couldn’t stand the taste and textures. It’s very difficult to describe. The Peruvian Corn is very chewy and the rest had a strange flavors that didn’t taste like food to me or my husband. Sort of like some sort of lumps of clay mixed with corn in my mouth. This dish hit both of us the wrong way. Could it was just be horrible????? or Maybe this dish is made correctly and is simply for an acquired taste? I DON’T KNOW!

For dinner I had the Wagyu Hanger Steak “Churrasco” Style.

This dinner was a very large portion. I think for most people this is two portions. The steak was developed with flavor and was mostly tender and covered with lots of sprouts. The Argentine Chimichurri was very mild and delicate. For me it didn’t have or add much flavor to the steak. But the potatoes were amazing. They had almost molten centers. The potatoes were my favorite part of the dish. The potatoes were delicious!

My husband tried the 24 hour Wagyu Short Rib also covered with lots of sprouts.

The Beef was very tender and lacked rib fat. The meat was prepared in a SousVide were it sat in a water bath for 24 hours. It had a black garlic flavor to it. Neither of use tasted the jalapeño chimichurri this dish was suppose to have. The horseradish potatoes were too mild and almost didn’t taste like they contained any horseradish. I only had one bite and didn’t taste any horseradish. My husband said he didn’t taste any horseradish until he got to the last bite or two. (opened batch of horse radish?….or they ran out?…????)

In all my visits to deseo I never had room for dessert before. Since I had most of my dinner wrapped up I finally had room to try the dessert cigar.

WOW! What an AMAZING LOOKING Dessert! An edible (sort of) Match pack, a quality multi chocolate and chocolate mousse cigar, cream and gelato. The cigar itself was amazing. Fabulous!

A sweet ending.

www.KierlandResort.com

My experience may differ from yours but on my visit that was mostly ok…… but also was a mix of some hits and some misses.

The Truth is that Every FORKING thing is subject to change and YOUR experience may or MAY NOT differ.