We arrived in Durango yesterday and I spent an hour walking around checking restaurant possibilities for dinner last night. I had previously looked on Trip Adviser and had narrowed the possibilities to three--Chez Grandmere, Ken and Sue's and Mahagony Grille. I quickly discovered that Chez Grandmere had closed. Ken and Sue's looked ok from a food, wine and ambience standpoint, but I wasn't completely sold. The setting was too casual, the wine list too ordinary and the menu not very inventive. Mahogony Grille looked to be more of a steak house. We checked out the Plalace. Again, fairly basic menu. Nothing to write home about.

I then stumbled across Seasons. It had a simple decor, but a classy feel. Nice white tablecloths. Tables were set with oversized white dishes. Reidel wine classes. It had a very nice patio with about 15 tables for alfresco dining--weather permitting. I checked the menu and wine list and found both to be superior to the other options. I couldn't understand why Seasons was not rated on Trip Advisor. I found the listing several pages in, but there were no user reviews. I discovered that the restaurant had been open for about ten years, but a fire two years ago completely destroyed the restuarant. It was re-built and opened for business last March. Still, with the appeal it had, I'm surprised there were no reviews.

I decided to follow my own intuition and booked a table. It exceeded my expectations. It also looked pretty popular since all the tables were full on a Thursday night just prior to the peak season in Durango. I was a little disappointed at first since I was planning on ordering the Wood Grilled Kurobuta Double Pork Chop that I had seen on a menu from a couple days ago. But, that special was not available last night. No problem though, there were several alternatives that looked equally appealing. My wife had a spit-roasted chicken with garlic mashed potatoes and haricots vert. I chose the parmesan-crusted chicken breast with yukon gold roasted potatoes, haricots vert and a shallot-sun dried tomato cream sauce. Both meals were outstanding. My chicken breast was huge, but cooked perfectly. Everything from my Caesar Salad to all the dinner accompaniments was well prepared and uniquely presented.

The wine list was superb. I often pick a restaurant based on the wine list. Seasons was a multi-year winner of Wine Spectator's Award of Excellence and that had an impact on my decision. The list was a perfect mixture of value and high end selections. It also had something I had not seen before--a section called 20-20. That stands for 20 bottles, all priced at $20. There were ten reds and ten whites. They were all good values--highly rated wines that were reasonably priced--with modest mark-ups from retail. I had the Penfold's Koonunga Hill Shiraz-Cabernet blend, which I knew was priced at $8.99 retail and, believe it or not, had a Robt. Parker rating of 92. It might be one of the world's best wine values, and it was on the 20-20 list at Seasons. It was excellent. There were a lot of other choices apart from the 20-20 section. My second choice was a Jim Barry Lodge Hill Shiraz at $39.

The dessert menu was not overly impressive, which is one reason I did not give the highest rating on the food. We passed on dessert.

Judging from the crowd, it appears that this is a very popular restaurant. I also talked to someone from Albuquerque, where there is another Seasons restaurant and they said it was one of their favorite restaurants. Maybe some other diners at the Durango restaurant will write a review and get this place rated. I would have appreciated a heads-up on this restaurant from the Trip Advisor ratings. This does point out a flaw in the Trip Advisor system of relying solely on customer reviews. I consider myself fortunate to have stumbled across the restaurant and picking it over more highly-rated alternatives.