The Rest of the Best

40 of the city's top restaurants.

By Kathryn Robinson

Sambar

French Sharing a kitchen—but not an aesthetic—with the French stalwart Le Gourmand, this modish six-table boîte next door serves up feisty little Parisian cocktails and a short list of just-the-thing noshes. Sara Naftaly (wife of Le Gourmand’s Bruce) brings a saucier’s understanding of flavor and a locavore’s passion to the drinks, hand-pureeing the tamarinds, putting up her own Yakima cherries, even steeping her own herbal bitters. She hires the best bartenders in town, then complements the drinks with soufflés, croques monsieurs, cheese plates, cones of perfect frites, and fabled desserts. It all adds up to a magical place for Bohemian romantics to start or not-quite-end a promising date, particularly in summer when the leafy patio goes all balmy. 425 NW Market St at Sixth Ave NW, Ballard, 206-781-4883; sambar
seattle.com. Closed Sun & Mon.

Sitka and Spruce

Northwest/Small Plate The most idiosyncratic “It” restaurant in town is Matt Dillon’s tiny Eastlake storefront, where there’s no room to wait, the wine list is recited, and you may have to eat standing up. That said, Sitka and Spruce (named for the trees beneath which Dillon and his team of foragers find the best wild mushrooms) truly inhabits the philosophy of the “food studio”—a place where the purest seasonal ingredients are extemporized nightly into flavorful small-plate innovations borrowing from Mediterranean traditions. By day, Sitka and Spruce purveys pastries, coffee, and small lunches, but it’s dinners that resemble culinary labs for foodies, as small dishes of octopus hash combining chickpeas, oranges, and Castelvetrano olives are dissected and savored; and as strangers thrust into unexpected proximity at the communal table or at the bar may find themselves earnestly discussing the finer points of braised rabbit loin or olive oil sorbet. Need we say “not for everyone”? 2238 Eastlake Ave E between E Boston and E Lynn Sts, 206-324-0662; sitkaandspruce.com. Closed Mon all day & Tue dinner. Call for schedule.

Tamarind Tree

Vietnamese It had to happen. Many local Vietnamese eateries serve good food at miraculous prices, but their decor varies from plain to shabby to lurid. Now one cooks it even better and presents it prettily in a beautiful, low-lit, exotic-deco space, complete with designer martinis, champagne cocktails, plus a burbling fountain in the bamboo-screened parking-lot patio. And at miraculous prices. Tamarind Tree does the classics right: steaming noodle soups, suitably seared half chickens and satay morsels made of chicken as well as the usual beef in fragrant la lot leaves. The rice-paper wrap-up platter trimmings are generous, the side sauces suitably pungent. And the capacious menu is seeded with novelties: In the Tamarind Tree Rolls, crispy fried cracker and tofu give an enlivening edge to the fresh, bland goi cu’on. Squid stuffed with pork and mushroom, like giant chicken hearts, deliver an overpowering earthy rush. “Yellow fish,” crispy bite-size chunks dredged in turmeric, are a beer treat looking for a tropical beach. The kumquat martini is the standout sip. With all the care lavished on food, presentation, and decor, it’s almost reassuring that the cheerful servers always seem to forget one item. Otherwise Tamarind Tree might be too perfect. 1036 S Jackson St at 12th Ave S, International District, 206-860-1404; tamarindtreerestaurant.com.

Tavolàta

Italian Belltown’s hottest spot is so coolly Italian it practically has a Vespa parked out front. Wait—that is a Vespa parked out front, owner Ethan Stowell’s, for zipping between here and Union, the restaurant that made him famous. Justly famous, for few chefs comprehend exactly what it takes to wow a palate like Stowell does. Here, he wows with fresh housemade pastas, tossed simply with elegant enhancements like veal brains and brown butter, or short ribs and parsley. Truth be told, we prefer the main dishes—richly braised meats like lamb shank with eggplant; a masterful plate of branzino—since the short-order mandate of the pastas can get the better of its bustling open kitchen when the place gets slammed. And here we should note that we’ve never seen this concrete-and-wood lofted urban hot spot with the windows that open onto the sidewalk not slammed: They don’t take reservations, and the big communal table in the center fills up fast. The energy is irresistible. 2323 Second Ave between Battery and Bell Sts, Belltown, 206-838-8008; tavolata.com.

Tilth

Northwest In a cozy Wallingford bungalow named for soil at its most fertile, chef Maria Hines reaches for the gold standard of fresh and seasonal food: organic certification. Ninety-five percent of her food comes from certified-organic sources—which means, for the diner, strong flavors that all but leap up off the plate and belt out an anthem. On plates small or large, Hines reveals a pitch-perfect instinct for compatible combinations: smoked Northwest butterfish with chilled mussels, cannellini beans, and caraway crème fraîche, for instance, or crisped pork belly with French lentils, scallion coulis, and tomato vinaigrette. With its hard chairs and unupholstered surfaces, Tilth puts on as few airs as the farmers and foragers and fisherfolk who supply it. 1411 N 45th St between Interlake and Woodlawn Aves N, Wallingford, 206-633-0801; tilthrestaurant.com.

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Published: October 2009