Che-Ah-Chi
If you are celebrating a special occasion I would like to recommend dinner at Che-Ah-Chi, the new restaurant that has opened at Enchantment Resort. We went there to celebrate a birthday recently and the food was amazing.
The resort was recently remodeled and this was the first chance I’ve had to see the finished result. There is a southwest Zen feel to the decor; sparsely furnished with clean lines, and a pallet of earth tones. New since I last was there was an outdoor lounge bar area. Lots of comfortable seating with amazing views of the Cacina Woman rock formation and Boynton Canyon. There was also a wine bar with more than 100 different wines to choose from.
The new dining room now had two levels for seating. This helps in letting us have a better view while we are eating. What I liked most about the space was the lighting. The ceiling light fixtures were so simple but beautiful. A clear ball of glass surrounded the light bulb itself. These were suspended from the ceiling at various lengths. Two walls of the restaurant are windows and at night these lights are reflected in the windows. It looks like stars that go on forever!
Service was great, attentive but not intrusive. The food was delicious, although be prepared for a high price tag. It’s always good to splurge for special occasions though! 
We had squash blossoms to start. In case you don’t know what that is, because I didn’t, lol, they are the flowers of the squash before it turns into a squash. They stuff these with goat cheese, piquillo buttermilk and herbs and fry these in a light batter. They were very good, but you only get 3. After which, just to be fancy, they served an amuse bouche (its French for happy mouth!)…a shot of curried peas.
A friend of mine told me to have the Elk. It was served with a fava bean hash, pancetta, percorino and spinach puree. It was amazingly tender and delicious. My friend had the Rib Eye with caramelized shallot puree, blue cheese croquettes, grilled ramps (no I don’t know what a ramp is) and sweetbread ragout. This was served with fingerling potatoes. We had to order an accompaniment separately, which I thought was odd. All of this food was amazing, but the best part was we got for free! As it was my friend’s birthday they brought her a desert called Chocolate 9 Ways. OMG! This was soooo good! There were all different kinds of chocolate made into a cake/pie thing. The best part was the chocolate mouse. It was the absolutely perfect texture. Not too airy, not to dense…just unbelievable.
So there you have it. If you want a nice dinner to impress the friends I would recommend Che-Ah-Chi. You must make a reservation ahead of time. Be sure to specify that you want to eat there, and not there other more casual restaurant, Tii Gavo. For some reason, they had my reservation at the casual place, but were able to switch things around easily enough. Business casual dress code, no flip-flops…unless you’re like me and sneak them under a floor length sundress…;)
By the way their prickly pear margaritas are very tasty! Every time we head out there we have them.
