Best Restaurants 2006
Best Family Restaurants
Perché No Pasta & Vino
1319 N 49th St, Greenlake| 206-547-0222
www.perchenopastaandvino.com
It’s only been open a few months, but boasts the kind of pedigree that running starts—and solid performers—are made of. Just like at its lower Counterbalance sibling the housemade pastas are dependable and the owners, the Kongs, jolly as long–lost relatives. Parents should note that the Greenlake branch is about three times bigger and deliberately child–friendly, with a sunny multilevel interior, a pasta–heavy kids menu, and the strains of “Finiculi Finicula” bouncing through the room. Meanwhile grownups can enjoy the vast list of pastas, some admirably intriguing, and a whopping four dozen wines by the glass. (One at a time, mind you.)
Order up! Little kids: A (teensy) pasta off the kids list. Big kids: Something chewy–cheesy from the terrific selection of focaccia bruschetta. Huge kids: Let the kitchen show its stuff with the squid–ink fettucine with white beans, anchovies, and truckloads of garlic.
Prime time Winter. A good number of the summertime tables are outside, featuring glorious vistas of the exhaust clouds over the intersection of Stone Way & 50th.
Pssssst If you’re bringing kids, perch in the balcony—they’ll be less underfoot and will love looking down on the open kitchen.
But… We don’t know who started the trend of no salt on the tables, but we sure wish Perché No wouldn’t perpetuate it.
Eats Market Café
2600 SW Barton St, West Seattle| 206-933-1200
www.eatsmarket.com
It’s Grandma food, prepared just like Grandma would have done if she too had apprenticed at Zabar’s. Come mornings for brioche French toast and homemade cinnamon–raisin goo buns; evenings for braised beef brisket and Bubbie’s Bolognese. A friendly staff and accommodating booths makes bringing the kiddies here a breeze. When those kids ask what Bolognese is, think twice before answering “spaghetti.” It’ll ruin ’em for yours.
Order up! Reuben sandwich; the city’s best chicken matzoh–ball soup.
Prime time Brunch, which fans virtually forced them to start serving daily, when they roll out the applewood–smoked bacon and gravy–smothered buttermilk biscuits.
Pssssst Order dessert first: Co–owner Toby Matasar used to run the pastry program for Tom Douglas Restaurants.
But… It’s shiny enough to be the model home in a subdivision.
Pomegranate Bistro
18005 NE 68th St, Redmond| 425-556-5972
www.pomegranatebistro.com
Familiar enough for rugrats (buttered pasta, tomato soup and grilled white cheddar cheese sandwich), intriguing enough for their parents (crispy duck breast with pickled cherries and Januik merlot pressings), comforting enough to feel like home (grilled rib eye with blue cheese, onions, and veggie mashers), yet perpetually crackling with action. Pomegranate, the merry food warehouse where chef and caterer Lisa Dupar’s standards never flag, is a family treasure.
Order up! The crunchy–crusted smoky pizza they call firebread, topped with whatever they’ve got going; and anything Mexican
Prime time Weekend brunch, when they lavish the firebread with caramel–apples and the Bayou Bloody Marys flow like rain.
Pssssst For kitchen voyeurs and cooking show addicts, the dining room offers fishbowl views of Dupar’s caterers honey–glazing
tenderloins, marinating halibut, frosting tortes, and much more.
But… No bar—though word on the street says an expansion is in the works.
