The Rest of the Best
40 of the city's top restaurants.
Café Campagne
French The quintessential French bistro, tucked in Pike Place Market’s beguiling Post Alley by the good people who brought us Campagne. Perched at one of the amber-lit tables beneath a vintage French poster—savoring steak frites or crackling duck confit, tippling a Kir Royale—you may find yourself seized by the urge to stand and belt the Marseillaise or tragically break someone’s heart. Not to worry. The urge will pass, and you will soon be content merely to become a regular along with the rest of the Francophiles in town, coming perhaps on a quiet early weeknight for a solo nosh (a particularly lovely place for that), or on a summer evening for a café table on the alley, or on a weekend morning for a sensational breakfast, when the sunbeams slant in to spotlight your brioche. 1600 Post Alley between Pine and Stewart Sts, Pike Place Market, 206-728-2233; campagnerestaurant.com.
Campagne
French The soul of elegance, from the courtyard entrance off the Inn at the Market to the tips of its pretty white tablecloths. For over two decades Campagne has earned regional, even national, reverence for its exacting renditions of the classics of southern France—coq au vin, ris de veau, roast leg of lamb, côte de boeuf for two—prepared without stodginess, consistently putting flavor first. (Its Market address doesn’t hurt in the freshness department.) The kitchen’s cassoulet is a smoky, mellow version loaded with pork, duck confit, and garlic sausage; its coquilles St. Jacques a masterful preparation of delectable scallops over bright carrot puree crowned with bacon. Best, for all its legitimate claim to pretension the place is too classy to allow it: Denim and Gore-Tex fit right in among the pinstripes and fur. The bar is small and serene, wrapping itself around you like a cashmere shawl. 86 Pine St between First Ave and Post Alley, Pike Place Market, 206-728-2800; campagnerestaurant.com.
Chez Shea
Northwest One of Seattle’s most intimate destinations roosts high in Pike Place Market’s Corner Market Building, where mottled salmon walls, raw-wood rafters, vintage chandeliers, and an enchanting outlook—through Palladian windows, across Market rooftops—evoke a Parisian garret. Ditto the food, which leaves its innovative Nord-Ouest imprints all over the French standards available off a seasonal menu or an eight-course prix-fixe feast. Tiny flaws have beset recent meals, but when the kitchen is on it produces wonders like a hunk of buttery sablefish, perfumed with a lime beurre blanc and served over a poblano corn cake with three perfectly crisped oysters—just the right imagination quotient for a stunning preparation, which is nearly always the case with Chez Shea’s seafood. Desserts shine, like a little orange-mascarpone-in-phyllo number wreathed in crimson spears of poached rhubarb. The cocktail bar, Shea’s Lounge, twinkles next door; there you can sup on the same food and enjoy the same view in, if possible, even more romantic quarters. Proposals happen on the half-hour. 94 Pike St at First Ave, Ste 34, Pike Place Market, 206-467-9990; chezshea.com. Closed Mon. Valet parking Thu–Sat; not wheelchair accessible.
Chiso / Kappo
Japanese Chiso is the stylish, youthful enterprise of sushi superstar Taichi Kitamura, whose career was launched by tours of duty at I Love Sushi and Shiro’s. At his Fremont home base, done all in windows and clean-lined neutrals, Seattleites bliss out on pristine raw fish (order whatever’s on the fresh sheet), a terrific black cod kasuzuke, excellent tempura, and daily specials that truly are. (If the Japanese pine mushrooms called matsutake are on the menu—order first, ask questions later.) Upstairs (entrance around the corner) Kitamura opened a snug kappo—which adds grilled, steamed, and deep-fried foods to its omakase (chef’s choice) menu. At $100 per person (by reservation only, Tuesdays through Saturdays) Kappo is no casual experience, but placing yourself in the hands of a chef like this is a dream. Chiso: 3520 Fremont Ave N at 36th St, Fremont, 206-632-3430. Kappo: 701 N 36th St at Fremont Ave N, Fremont, 206-547-0937; chisoseattle.com.
The Corson Building
Northwest It’s an anomaly all right: A 1910 Italian stonemason’s cottage in industrial Georgetown—wedged hard between a railroad track and an I-5 exit, with planes roaring overhead from Boeing Field—that struck wunderkind chef (the Herbfarm, Sitka and Spruce) Matthew Dillon as just the place to contain his restless new vision: a community center for foodies. So there are picnics and chef demos and fundraisers—but mostly, there are dinners, stunning ones, served four or five times a week (see website for schedule) and served family style around plank tables in seven courses, with or without matching wines. All in a room that imparts an Old World dreaminess (an unupholstered—thus loud—Old World dreaminess), arched windows to stucco walls. Dillon’s sources are as impeccable as his culinary imagination, so everything from his shellfish salad to his black cod with treviso greens is microseasonally fresh and innovatively conceived. All in all, it’s much more dinner party than restaurant, and if it’s a little odd for a regular joe, it’s every food snob’s dream. 5609 Corson Ave S near Airport Way S, Georgetown, 206-762-3330; thecorsonbuilding.com.
Published: October 2009
Will you please email me the name of the seattle Dr that was voted best in the Oct 09 edition. Thanks