Nosh Pit

New Restaurant Review: Cuoco

The South Lake Union pasta house “lacks a fresh vision.”

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Aug 01, 2011 at 10:30AM 0 Comments

Photo: Olivia Brent

The pasta station at Cuoco.

As was mentioned in this post re: Tom Douglas’s SLU coup, Kathryn Robinson dedicates her most recent review to TD’s Terry Ave pasta house, Cuoco.

It’s Douglas’s 15th venture and “visually it may be the showpiece of his entire collection,” the Seattle Met critic decides. Though some of the pastas were “sticky, even gummy,” Robinson does discover two dishes she likes: a Yukon gold ­gnocchi and lamb-stuffed ravioli. In the bistecca—“a major romp for the palate”—she tastes Douglas’s visionary flair, but the plate wasn’t enough to salvage Cuoco from what she deems a lack of originality: “Cuoco feels derivative; as if Douglas cast his hungry eye around town cherry-picking concepts he admired.”

For more, read the full Cuoco review.

Add a Comment »

Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Tom Douglas, Restaurant Reviews

Taking Stock of Two New Vegas-Style Restaurants

Our reviewer gives Munchbar and Pnk a go.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on May 10, 2011 at 03:03PM 0 Comments

Vegas, Northwest style. Inside shots of Munchbar and Pnk.

Seattle Met critic Kathryn Robinson digs in at dine-then-dance eateries Munchbar and Pnk. The two are bound by several common denominators—both in malls, both loud, both laden with Vegas glitz. “But,” Robinson writes, “there the similarities end, for Bellevue Square’s frenetic Munchbar—an actual Vegas export, modeled on an outpost at Caesar’s Palace—aims lower, demographically and gastronomically.”

And Pnk? “The food—though flawed—is real, a little higher up the food chain than Munchbar’s…”

For more on Munchbar and Pnk, including an eyebrow-raising bubblegum vodka cocktail, read the review.

Add a Comment »

Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Restaurant Reviews

Madison Park Conservatory: “Best Restaurant Real Estate in Seattle”

Seattle Met’s restaurant critic reviews the Cormac Mahoney dinner house.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Mar 30, 2011 at 10:22AM 0 Comments

Cormac Mahoney works the kitchen. Picture courtesy Madison Park Conservatory.

Buzz for Madison Park Conservatory has been mounting, and Seattle Met’s Kathryn Robinson takes her turn weighing in.

If you’re not familiar, MPC is the new venture from chef-owner Cormac Mahoney, whose previous venture had him operating Eastlake’s erstwhile Tako Truk. (Remember that from the summer of ’09? What fun.) Considering its shiny-classy, bi-level digs skirting Lake Washington (“best restaurant real estate in Seattle," Robinson opines) Mahoney makes what appears to be a 180 with the Conservatory.

Which begs the question: How well does Mahoney ride the transition from street food slinger to pedigreed Madison Park? Read the restaurant review to find out.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurant Reviews, Madison Park

Lecosho: Where Porkophiles Go to Eat

(We could’ve said “pig out,” but that’s just too easy.)

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Feb 24, 2011 at 03:22PM 0 Comments

Photo: Lindsay Borden

The porchetta at Lecosho: a must-order.

Between pie and porchetta, Kathryn Robinson has had one belly filling month.

For her latest review, the Seattle Met restaurant critic sits down at Matt Janke’s Harbor Steps restaurant, Lecosho, where not only is she enticed by the sophisticated, buzzing vibe, but a bill that trots across countries and cuisines.

Among the many porky dishes she encounters—chorizo-embellished mussels, pork belly rillettes, house-brined pork chop—the aforementioned porchetta is the headliner. Look at that picture—it’s a round of pork tenderloin plumped with pork belly, then served over white bean and baby turnip ragout—and it’s easy to see why Robinson calls it a new classic.

To learn what other dishes had Robinson getting piggy, read the review of Lecosho.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Downtown, Restaurant Reviews, Lecosho

New Restaurant Review: The Book Bindery

The restaurant is destined to make chef Shaun McCrain famous, says Seattle Met’s critic.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Jan 04, 2011 at 02:02PM 0 Comments

Photo: Lindsay Borden

The Book Bindery.

If the inclusion of The Book Bindery in our list of 2010’s most exciting restaurant openings left you wanting more, Seattle Met‘s Kathryn Robinson has a spankin’-new review of the Fremont Canal stunner. Here you are.

When you go—which you certainly will after reading the review—be sure to order the hamachi crudo.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Fremont, Restaurant Reviews

La Bête: “The Current Toast of Capitol Hill”

Seattle Met‘s critic hunkers down at Bellevue Ave’s new crowd-packer.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Dec 07, 2010 at 01:33PM 0 Comments

Photo: Lindsay Borden

An inside shot of La Bête on Capitol Hill.

Kathryn Robinson finds herself a few new favorites at La Bête, the Chez Gaudy successor on Capitol Hill.

Of a dish of beef cheeks served atop farro, chard, and porcinis, Robinson writes: “I found it lovely, executed with precision, until my fork uncovered dark orbs that I figured for olives but turned out to be grapes, at which point it went stunning…” Kabocha squash soup served in a teacup and paired with a popover of Bleu d’Auvergne cheese and red onion jam proved an “eloquent comment on the soul of La Bête” with its “its vibrant interplay of Old World refinement—the fancy china, the autumnal squash puree, the old-fashioned popover—and edgy intensity…”

Robinson encounters a few snags here and there, but overall decides “these chefs land on the balmy shores of sweet success.”

For more on Tyler Moritz and Aleks Dimitrijevic’s new restaurant, check out the review.

Add a Comment »

Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Capitol Hill, Restaurant Reviews

The Sitka and Spruce Reboot

How is the restaurant settling into its new Melrose Market digs? Seattle Met’s critic finds out.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Sep 27, 2010 at 02:59PM 0 Comments

Photo: Lindsay Borden

Sitka and Spruce at Melrose Market.

One of the more anticipated restaurant debuts of the year, Sitka and Spruce in Melrose Market has packed in Matthew Dillon disciples since service started at the end of May.

As Kathryn Robinson points out in her new review, the restaurant’s polished and sparkly surrounds are quite a contrast from the wee Eastlake storefront where Dillon first launched S & S four years ago. There, Robinson makes note, she encountered “one of the finest forkfuls I have tasted.”

Does Robinson find the same slack-jawing fare at Sitka 2.0? Read the review and find out.

Add a Comment »

Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Capitol Hill, Restaurant Reviews, Melrose Market

The Restaurant Review Index

Forty-plus picks—and some pans—from a cultured critic.

Posted by: Christopher Werner on Sep 01, 2010 at 01:35PM 0 Comments

Steak from Frank’s Oyster House and Champagne Parlor in Ravenna, reviewed in April of ’09. Photo courtesy Louis Lesko

If you’ve yet to peruse the many channels of this site, let me point you, avid Noshers, to one you’ll find particularly resonant: our restaurant review index. The catalog—41 deep—spans all cuisines, all costs, and all neighborhoods, and is brought to you by the power palette of Kathryn Robinson.

Most recently, K Rob found herself sampling the small plates at Scott Carsberg’s newly revamped Bisato in Belltown. There, she declares, “Flavors on these plates redefine intensity.” Impressive.

To find out which dishes had Robinson raving, read the write-up of Bisato.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurant Reviews

Reviews Revisited: Anchovies and Olives

In its first year, the fish house drew applause from across the country. What did Seattle Met think of it?

Posted by: Seattle Met Staff on Mar 08, 2010 at 01:30PM 0 Comments

Photo: Courtesy Geoffrey Smith

Anchovies and Olives: Superfresh shellfish and seafood are served with Italian embellishments amid briny, tangy flavors.

Before Ethan Stowell’s Anchovies and Olives found itself a James Beard Foundation semifinalist for Best New Restaurant, GQ’s Alan Richman was already deeming the restaurant one of the nation’s top 10 best to open in 2009. And before that, Seattle Met was deconstructing the mythic hype surrounding the Cap Hill fish house.

THE LATEST PROPERTY in restaurateur Ethan Stowell’s metastasizing empire went mythic right out of the blocks. For months before its opening, local food cognoscenti had been jawing in earnest: Was the menu really going to be all fish? Would the wine list really hold only whites? The February night it opened the newborn restaurant instantly inherited a slew of preconceptions based on Stowell’s earlier ventures. Preconceptions that my visits proved completely wrong. Hence: The top five things you thought you knew about Anchovies and Olives. Continue reading review…

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurants, Awards and Accolades, Restaurant Reviews

Reviews Revisited: Spring Hill

What “because it’s there” is to a mountaineer, “because it’s tasty” is to the insanely talented Mark Fuller.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 23, 2010 at 01:49PM 0 Comments

Everyone’s always raving about Spring Hill, Mark Fuller’s West Seattle hotspot. In fact, Fuller recently became a James Beard semifinalist, nominated for Best Chef in the Northwest. Learn all about his restaurant in this Seattle Met review.

WHEN MARK FULLER WAS HEAD CHEF at the Dahlia Lounge, his boss Eric Tanaka bugged and bugged him to put a particular dish on the menu: Veal sweetbreads with dipping sauces; one sweet, another barbecue, maybe a third like housemade ranch. Yeah, that ranch—Homer Simpson’s salad dressing of choice. At, yes, that Dahlia—big-deal Seattle chef Tom Douglas’s elegant flagship restaurant. “We’ll call it McSweetbreads!” beamed Tanaka. Fuller laughs at the memory and shakes his head. “I just couldn’t do it.”

So to find “crispy veal sweetbreads with three dips” on the starter list of Fuller’s own restaurant, Spring Hill in West Seattle, was an unlikely surprise—yet there they were, between the duck egg yolk raviolo with garlic chips and the apple-wood-smoky rib-eye steak with steak tartare and potato cracklings. And they made a most cerebral comfort food. The sweetbreads contributed their luscious mouthfeel and quiet almost-sweetness, the frying produced a perfect coat, the dips—fireweed honey, coffee barbecue, and, there it was, housemade ranch—delivered cool, satiny counterpoints. Why the chef’s change of heart? Continue reading review….

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurants, West Seattle, Restaurant Reviews

Stunning Dinner at Poppy

Where small plates actually harmonize

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jul 29, 2009 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

Popped in for an impromptu dinner at Poppy the other night—and would have had our socks knocked off. Had we been wearing socks.

Here’s the thing: We knew chef Jerry Traunfeld was a perfectionist. (You don’t spend years and years at The Herbfarm if you’re not.)

So it wasn’t a huge surprise that the Neah Bay salmon topped with sea beans and bacon in a creamy Pinot Noir sauce was flawless, in conception and execution. (The sauce-fish coupling actually recalled a similar dish at one memorable Herbfarm dinner a few years ago.)

Or that the blush-perfect grilled Wagyu steak with Walla Wallas and a dollop of braised farro was divine…or that so was a bracing little bowl of cool cucumber gazpacho with lemon basil…and ditto a vivid beet,currant, and purslane salad that was not only palate-satisfying, it was outright mind-opening.

In his thali concept of eating, all these dishes (plus six more) arrive on a single tray for a single diner—arrayed in small bowls. Think small-plate dining—only without the pesky sharing.

And there wasn’t a dud in the bunch.

But here was the revelatory part: Not only were they stunning individually, they tasted great—even intentional—together.

And hence Poppy addressed a quibble we’ve long had with small-plate restaurants—where’s the chef’s vision? The master-plan? In small-plate joints, diners assemble meals from a-little-of-this, a-little-of-that. Taste good together? Um…well, maybe. But only by chance.

At Poppy, by contrast, the diner gets to enjoy small plates while remaining in the chef’s estimable hands.

And we are talking estimable. The best chefs in the world have palates that understand not just flavors, but layerings of flavor. Layerings that transform a simple oiled toss of leeks, taggia olives, and fresh savory, for instance, into something that transcends sum-of-its-parts altogether.

Best chefs in the world? After a dinner like that…we think it’s apt.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurant Reviews, Jerry Traunfeld, Poppy

Dinner at the Hunt Club

How’s that new chef?

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jul 15, 2009 at 12:00PM 0 Comments

Remember how the Hunt Club staged that reality-show-style cookoff for a new top toque last spring?

Now that winner Matthew Mina has had time to find his stride, it seemed only fitting to take his menu for a test-drive.

The room hasn’t changed, still dark and brick-warm and classic as the manor library after the hunt. It smelled like roasting lamb…but then the Hunt Club has always smelled like roasting lamb. If only figuratively.

But still…a whisper of an update hung in the air. Now in place of the jazz standards on the sound system, hip acoustical tracks. Instead of the mannered, feminine typeface on the menu, the declarative Times New Roman.

And less of a Mediterranean sway to that menu than on our last visit. Still the beet salad with goat cheese; still the tomato-basil soup; still the Penn Cove mussels. But now, duck confit with watercress, and scallops with raisins and almonds and pureed cauliflower in place of the carpaccio and antipasto.

That confit? Executed nicely; faulty in conception. Too bland. A heap of lovely duck, topped with watercress and other oiled greens, including some slivers of Granny Smith, and then capped with grilled Como bread. No contrast, color- or flavor-wise. Ho-hum.

Bolder was a pork belly entree served with swoony roasted creamed corn—coulda eaten a bucket of this—topped with a tangle of savory greens and served alongside some well-intentioned pickled cherries.

Bring on the cherries, absolutely—‘tis the year for this crowning gem of Washington orchards. It just wasn’t the most harmonious match for this plate.

Can’t wait to see more of what you’re doing, Chef Mina. (Including your Friday afternoon First Hill Block Parties, which bring street food to the fancy piazza of the venerable Sorrento.)

But this particular diner would like to see a little more of the chops that landed you the job.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Restaurant Reviews, Hunt Club, Matthew Mina