text: If one had asked me 10 years ago if I'd ever eat somewhere with the caliber and focus of an institution like Binkley's, I would have pondered for a minute and probably responded only if it was by the desire and grace of a girlfriend's sufficiently endowed parents or a reception catered by the Google Gillionaires I would surely be surrounded by as a result of a blossoming interest in the tech industry. If one had asked if I'd ever be there at the suggestion of my family who would be equally, if not more, at home at Claimjumper, I wouldn't have deigned the question worthy of response at all.\n\nI would have been (at least temporarily) wrong.\n\nAt the behest of a curious mother living nearby for years, we ventured. Unassuming from the exterior in a strip mall with such high end boutiques as Enterprise Rent-A-Car and sharing a zip code with a cowboy tourist targeted bar that features bull riding of the non-mechanical variety, Binkley's is a tiny destination restaurant that seems slightly uncomfortable with its surroundings, and we were equally slightly out of place with our sinusoidal experience not for control freaks:\n\n- Greeted by name due to party size and expected arrival time being unique resulted in feeling like VIPs confused by their own fame\n- Sending away the sommelier a bit dejected when we unanimously declined wine\n- Realizing our head waitress was a bizarro version of a friend from back home\n- Opting for the highest end 5-6 course tasting menus ($82 - $89, wine pairing $40-50 extra) like non-confused VIPs, but skipping the foie gras surcharge (+$14)\n- Being thankful of no collective food restrictions or allergies to impede chef creativity\n- Impressed by a nearly endless train of experimental amuse-bouches\n- Processing that we were 3-4 courses in without seeing anything we ordered\n- Recalling that some of us were no stranger to this dining style when it's called omakase, except then there's no illusion of input into the majority of the meal\n- Hitting our stride with the hot appetizer, including a superb soft shell crab course\n- Enjoying the best black cod I've ever eaten in a sea of unusual but not quite as enjoyable candidates\n- Starting to feel full around the penultimate course, an amuse of chocolate souffle \n- Understanding without bitterness that soda refills were not free ($2.50) despite the staff's complete lack of hesitation in providing them\n- Taking home satisfaction levels ranging from grudgingly enjoying the expensive dinner show to thinking it was the best overall food experience in months if not years\n\nMenu guidance would be a futile endeavor since, as the head waitresses helpfully informed all non-returnee tables, it turns over completely around every two weeks. However, overall, the seafood dishes were stronger than those with meat, of interest if one is opting for a menu with a single main. Instead:\n\n- Prepare for the onslaught of Kevin Binkley's culinary whims\n- Pretend the a la carte menu doesn't exist\n- Make a reservation well in advance, especially for a weekend\n- Bring your wallet, possibly two\n- Expect to spend at least 3 hours luxuriating over the meal\n- Sigh longingly while realizing how far in the future the next justifiable visit will be\n\nRegardless of apprehension, except in the face of a diet with statistically outlying strictness, it's worth trying once for a special occasion to form one's own opinion. While I could easily think of a number of small tweaks, the application of the formulaic main draw is, in Yelp's terms, semantically indistinguishable from as good as it gets.