Dining Out 1996 -- Chefs And Meals That Matter, From A(Driatica) To Z(Eek's) Where To Eat? Pick A Letter, Any Letter
YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT, some restaurants consistently matter.
They may not be the absolute best in their culinary category or the very best in their part of town, but they count. They are significant - always under consideration when you look at each other and ask:
Where should we eat tonight?
It's not easy to organize this collection of eateries. Some are Italian, some are Northwest regional, some are "fusion," some are Asian and some defy categorization.
We gave some thought to arranging them numerically - like a Top 40. And then we contemplated the discomforts of trying to explain to No. 37 why it wasn't No. 31 - or No. 29 or No. 1.
And further, given the restrictions of time and space, we couldn't include ALL of the interesting restaurants in Seattle. So what would we call the five dozen or so that we did include?
A sample.
A representation of the Seattle area's most appealing restaurants - for whatever reasons.
Like most samplers, we decided to stitch them together alphabetically.
Unless otherwise noted, all of the restaurants accept major credit cards, provide at least a nonsmoking area and offer either a full bar or beer and wine.
Here then, is our 1996 Seattle Sampler, A to Z.
"A, ----
Adriatica, 1107 Dexter Ave. N. (285-5000).
It's cozy, it's romantic and the nighttime Lake Union-skyline view from the upper-level lounge is one of Seattle's lesser-known urbane treats. But there's more there than meets the eyes, amorous or otherwise. Adriatica has maintained a reputation for sheer quality for more than 16 years.
Jim Malevitsis (along with John Sarich, now the executive chef for the Chateau Ste. Michelle winery) keyed the restaurant around three cuisines - the home-style cooking of Italy, Greece and Yugoslavia - whose countries touch the Adriatic.
Northwest ingredients were folded in and the place became almost instantly a sophisticated but down-to-earth dinner spot.
Chef Katherine MacKenzie moved over from Ponti (also part of the empire of Malevitsis and partner Rich Malia) after longtime chef Nancy Flume left to open Paragon on Queen Anne. Quality did not suffer.
Try the Northwest Smoked Seafood Sampler ($10.95), with salmon, sturgeon and trout from Gerard and Dominique, with a slightly hot horseradish creme fraiche and slices of grilled potato bread.
Zarzuela de Marisco ($17.95) is an ongoing highlight, mixed seafood in a Romesco sauce with peperonata and aioli - assertive but not threatening the essential flavors of fish and shellfish.
Dinner ($16.50 to $26) 5 to 10 p.m. (Bar menu until 11:00 p.m.) Sunday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. (Bar menu until midnight) Friday-Saturday. No lunch. Smoking in lounge only.
Anthony's Pier 66, Fish Bar & Bell Street Diner, 2201 Alaskan Way (448-6688).
With the triple openings this summer of a street-level fish bar, an informal but more elaborate seafood diner and a major-view dining room (Anthony's Pier 66), Seattle's leading seafood chain, Anthony's HomePort, took a multimillion-dollar risk: moving into the fickle seasonal and tourist-influenced strip along the waterfront.
Within days (hours, perhaps), it became apparent that the Bell Street Pier project was no real risk. Crowds lined up from the opening minutes. From the sidewalk-dispensed, thick-cut ling cod and chips (probably the best fish and chips in the city; $3.79) to the 14-ounce rack of lamb with hazelnut crust or alder-planked salmon and halibut served in the dining room upstairs, the complex has been masterfully thought through.
Don't miss the blackened rockfish or char-grilled mahi mahi tacos ($7.95) in the Bell Street Diner. Or CEO Budd Gould's grandmother's chocolate layer cake.
Pier 66 (dinners only, $16 to $20) 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. nightly. Bell Street Diner ($5 to $15) 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Fish Bar ($2 to $4.50) 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily.
And don't overlook:
Four other Anthony's HomePort waterfront locations: Edmonds (771-4400), Kirkland (822-0225), Des Moines (824-1947) and Shilshole Bay in Seattle (783-0780).
B -----
Boca, 2516 Alki Ave. S.W., West Seattle (933-8000).
Boca is a flash of Miami's South Beach. Seaside view, rollers and Rollerbladers, with colors and a tropical mural that can warm you in the dead of winter.
The emphasis is Latin cuisine, especially Cuban, Jamaican and Puerto Rican.
Chef Francisco de Jesus serves up authentic Cuban sandwiches, spit-roasted pork with melted Swiss cheese and pickles ($7.25), from a pretty exotic menu.
You might start with the Ceviche de la Casa ($5.75), fresh bay scallops and marlin marinated in lime and orange juices with papaya, red onion and cilantro. Or Papusas ($3.95), grilled, handmade masa cakes with red beans and Spanish cheese.
Bistec con Cebolla ($9.95) is tender flank steak and sliced onions, marinated in a lime-orange vinaigrette, then grilled and served with black beans and yellow rice. Jamaican Jerked Baby Back Ribs ($13.95) arrive over a large slice of cornbread inside a moat of jerk sauce.
Desserts include a for-real Key Lime Cheesecake ($4) with coconut crust and slivers of strawberries glistening in a papaya-mango sauce.
Lunch ($3.50 to $12.50) 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Dinner ($8 to $14.95) 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Brunch ($6.50 to $7.50) 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sunday.
Bombore, 89 University St. (624-8233).
Chef Shinya Asami weaves an intriguing - and highly uncommon - tapestry of culinary threads in this cool, urbane place tucked between two high-rises on the Harbor Steps. The menu combines Italian, Japanese, regional Northwest and East Indian cooking in novel, effective ways.
For example: Masala Mixed Seafood Curry ($11.75), with prawns, calamari, bay scallops and fresh mushrooms in a silky yogurt-tomato sauce, shares menu space with Pistachio-Crusted King Salmon with Fragrant Herb Glaze and Curry Sauteed Potatoes.
The classic Italian Grilled Eggplant Salad ($8.50) finds itself in a Japanese miso-vinaigrette with mixed field greens and honey-roasted walnuts.
Vegetarians will be pleased that salads and vegetables get special attention; few plates suggest they are shadow adaptations of original meat dishes. For a special appetizer, see if the chef has marinated fresh soybeans on hand. They're eaten Japanese style, with the peas squeezed out of the pods.
Lunch ($8 to $9) 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($9 to $17) 5 to 10 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. Lunch reservations for parties of five or larger.
C ---
Cafe Lago, 2305 24th Ave. E. (329-8005).
Here is a neighborhood place where customer loyalty borders on the fanatic. The menu mainstays are a constantly shifting array of four hand-made pastas - with some splendid pizzas and a few elegant meat dishes and one seafood special thrown in for good measure.
Owners Jordi Viladas and Carla Leonardi's kitchen philosophy is to do a few things right.
The lasagna ($12.95) enjoys near-cult status and is usually sold out early. Almost as good is the hand-made ravioli ($13.25; fillings vary), recently done feather-light, with a spinach-fresh mint stuffing. A Fettuccine alla Romana ($12.95) has a hearty sauce of pancetta, garlic, Romano cheese and fresh fava beans.
Grilled Pork Medallions ($15.95) are served on a bed of linguini marinara and topped with grilled eggplant. A ribeye steak (also $15.95) is marinated in balsamic vinegar, garlic and herbs, grilled over applewood coals and served under a pat of melting gorgonzola.
Desserts (around $5) are no letdown. A flourless chocolate-almond pie and a remarkably light chocolate mousse are regular standouts.
No reservations taken for under six; expect to wait.
Dinner ($12.95 to $15.95) from 5 to 9:30 p.m. Sunday- Thursday, until 10:00 p.m. Friday-Saturday. No lunch.
Campagne, 86 Pine St. (728-2800) and Cafe Campagne, 1600 Post Alley (728-2233).
Owner/host Peter Lewis has been setting standards for style and culinary excellence since he opened his original bistro/cafe a decade ago halfway up Capitol Hill. The growing genius of chef Tamara Murphy is much in evidence. Murphy was the 1995 James Beard Award-winner for the Best Chef in the Northwest.
Try the Tuna/Striped Bass Tartares appetizer ($14) with vegetables Nicoise and Tobiko caviar, or the Roast Saddle of Rabbit with a mushroom-herb risotto and a rhubarb jus ($24).
The downstairs Cafe is less pricey and has a pleasant Parisian bistro feel. Garlic-mashed potatoes with frizzed onions are a must with anything. The Lamb Burger ($8.95), with fire-roasted red peppers and balsamic-grilled onions, is a constant favorite.
Campagne: dinner ($18-$27) 5:30 to 10 p.m. nightly (bar menu until midnight). No lunch. Cafe: breakfast (from $5) 8 to 11 a.m. Monday-Saturday; lunch ($5 to $14) 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Dinner ($9 to $14) 5 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Sunday brunch 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
Catfish Corner, 2726 E. Cherry St. (323-4330).
Word has gotten out about the house special gumbo ($7.25). Better show up before 3 p.m. on Wednesdays if you want some. It's worth the early arrival: full of crab claws, chunked shrimp, hot links, chicken and rice - all in a thick, roux-based soup. It's the real thing in a city where real Southern food is hard to find.
On Tuesdays, Rosemary and Woodrow Jackson provide a fabled Cajun Catfish ($4.75) served in a gleaming red sauce of cayenne pepper, spices and vinegar that comes close to overwhelming the fish.
For more traditional fare, stay with the restaurant's namesake catfish ($3.75 to $5.75, depending on the portion), farm-raised, cornmeal-battered and deep-fried. It's crunchy, not greasy.
You can skip the fries and have the hush-puppies option (deep-fried cornmeal nuggets) for an added $1.50. Mustard greens ($1.89) are done traditionally, with salt pork and vinegar.
Auntie's Peach Cobbler ($2.75) tastes like it sounds: something special from your aunt's oven.
Lunch and dinner (same menu: $3.75 to $9.25) 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon to 10 p.m. Saturday; noon to 7 p.m. Sunday. No alcohol. No credit cards.
D ----
Dahlia Lounge, 1904 Fourth Ave. (682-4142).
Tom Douglas' Dahlia Lounge serves an international, multi-ethnic menu inspired by the fresh harvest of the day or the season. It's an airy, urbane two-story dining room that seems to have been designed for drifting.
Menus vary, but expect imaginative treatments of fowl, seafood, pastas, great crabcakes, a red-meat entree and a Farmer's Salad of the day, along with a kaleidoscope of inventive appetizers.
And expect flavor combinations to hopscotch most known borders - sake sauce, truffle oil, a sashimi tuna served with risotto cakes, for example.
A soft-shell crab appetizer ($10) manages to be crunchy, delectable and smooth at the same time, in a mustard sauce over shoestring potatoes. A Porcini and Arugula Salad ($7.50), tender yet robustly flavored, arrives in a tangy chive and nectarine dressing.
Cilantro Squid ($8) are beautifully fire-grilled, served on skewers and drizzled with a stunning papaya-habanero chile sauce. Douglas has even done soul food of a sort: a quarter of a smoked chicken ($16.95) with a corn ragout, herb biscuit and a mound of perfectly tender red chard.
Lunch ($7.95 to $16.95) 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($14.95 to $21.95) 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday.
Dulces Latin Bistro, 1430 34th Ave. (322-5453).
Head chef and partner Julie Guerrero, formerly of the Columbia Tower Club, is the guiding genius behind this new addition to the growing Madrona restaurant row. Her partner, Carlos Kainz, and manager, Erick Koteles, are both natives of Mexico City, where Oysters Rockefeller are as easily obtained as a taco. Hence, Dulces is at once accomplished, ethnically informed and urbane. The menu is primarily Spanish, with excursions into French Provencale, American Southwest and Italian.
The signature appetizer, invented by Guerrero, is a red pepper ravioli stuffed with chorizo ($6.25) napped with a pureed red pepper sauce, as spicy as it is tender. Another favorite starter: Prawns Diablo ($6.95), seared with cayenne and lemon. The house Paella ($16.95) is remarkable: full of sausage, chicken, halibut and mussels, smooth but not soupy.
Filet Mignon ($17.95), served Italian-style in a reduction of balsamic vinegar and capers, is literally fork-tender.
All desserts are made in-house: German Chocolate Cake, French Profiterol, Coconut Cream Pie, Mixed Fruit Cobbler and assorted sorbets.
Dinner only ($13 to $18) 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 5 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.
E ----
Etta's Seafood, 2020 Western Ave. (443-6000).
Etta's was Tom Douglas' second restaurant. But he first came into local prominence a decade ago when he worked in this same kitchen as the rising star chef of the since-departed Cafe Sport. The setting near the north end of the Pike Place Market keeps the place booming, with a slight letup in the darker months.
Douglas is an imaginative (but not capricious) genius. Consider starting with the Crab Bisque ($5.95), baptized in Amontillado sherry. Or a perennial favorite, Tom's Kasu Cod ($6 as an appetizer).
The Pit-Roasted Salmon ($13 at lunch; $22 evenings) is the predominant favorite, although the species will vary with the seasons. Halibut ($13 and $19) is usually pan-seared and lately has been served with a wild succotash of mushroom, corn, fresh peas and bacon.
The present chef (Douglas now spends much of his time at the Palace) is a longtime associate, Chris Hunter.
Lunch and dinner ($8 to $28) 11:30 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday-Friday. 11:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.
And don't overlook:
Ezell's Fried Chicken, 501 23rd Ave. (324-4141). The best Southern-style fried chicken in Seattle, with sweet-potato pie for finishers.
F --
Flying Fish, 2234 First Ave. (728-8595).
Christine Keff started the Flying Fish in Belltown over a year ago, with since-departed partner Paul Mackay. The fusion-styled menu not only attracted an enthusiastic, hip, fringe-of-downtown following, but national magazine attention as well.
The reasons are apparent and abundant: imaginative, multi-ethnic (particularly Asian) approaches to menu creation and meticulous, skillful, hands-on control of her open theater-kitchen (best seen from the less fashionable tables upstairs).
The menu format is uncommon, divided into Small Plates (individual starters), Large Plates (entree-sized) and Platters (intended to be shared). Also unusual: many items are priced by weight, providing flexibility in ordering for various-size parties.
Recently popular have been Wok Spicy Lobster ($22 a pound; an order will be an appetizer for four) finished with a hoisin-chile glaze; Salt and Pepper Crab ($11 a pound); and Sister-in-Law Mussels ($7.95 a pound; a recipe developed by Keff's sister-in-law) served with a chile-lime dipping sauce.
Seafood and pastas are the restaurant's mainstays.
Dinners only ($10 to $20 and up) 5 p.m. to midnight, nightly.
Fullers, Seattle Sheraton Hotel, 1400 Sixth Ave. (447-5544).
One of the best in Seattle, intended from the start to be a national showcase for the best regional chefs the international hotel chain could obtain.
After a facelift last year, its sleek, modern lines and sophisticated tones were a little brighter, and the room - always intimate - seemed a little larger. The menu changes three times a year under the direction of Monique Barbeau, a Canadian many consider the most accomplished of the young female star chefs who have guided the restaurant since its inception (her predecessors were Caprial Pence and Kathy Casey, both outstanding).
Consider ordering from the Tasting Menu ($45). It offers small portions of many of Fullers' signature items. Meals begin with a complimentary appetizer, perhaps a halibut pastry with salsa.
You might start with a tequila-cured gravlax: flakes of cured seafood in a chickpea cone, with yogurt and chopped cucumber and a sprinkle of caviar. Or the Grilled Sweet Corn Chowder, flavored with pancetta and an herbed fritter in the center.
Salads include a Field Greens Vinaigrette, tossed with beets and shallots, possibly followed by herb-encrusted sea scallops in a curry-pesto broth, with potatoes and candied leeks. An entree of lamb chops, seasoned with saffron and sumac, is sauced with port and mango and accompanied by black-eyed peas.
Grilled Ahi ($22) is served quite rare with a tangy reduction of beet and cranberry juices, along with kim chee and pickled vegetables. Somewhere in the middle of it all, take a break for a custom sorbet.
It's a special place, not necessarily for special occasions only.
Lunch ($9 to $14) 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($18 to $45) 5:30 to 10 p.m., Monday-Saturday. Closed Sunday.
And don't overlook:
Fremont Noodle House, 3411 Fremont Ave. N. (547-1550). "Thai fast food" with an unusual appetizer plate, Mieng Kahm, consisting of Bai Chu Plu leaves and a plateful of condiments to wrap them around. Munch away.
G --
The Georgian, Four Seasons Olympic Hotel, 411 University St. (621-7889).
Elegant and dignified, and they know it. Yet Seattle's most imposing dining room, under the lead of chef Kerry Sear, has an accessible menu and avoids stuffiness with a wait staff that is at once impeccable but congenial.
The flavor profiles have become softer and more subtle recently. Start with the Dungeness Crab, Celery Leaves and Baked Melon appetizer ($9.50), for example, where the mellow sweetness of the honeydew melon, ever so slightly blackened at the edges, brings out the richness of the surprisingly plentiful crab.
Georgian Signature Dishes include a Thick Cut Smoked Salmon ($26) presented with thin-sliced Washington apples and an apple-brandy sauce. Peppercorn Dry-Aged Beef Ribeye Steak ($31) is a relatively new addition, having graduated from a popular run on the banquet menu.
To some, the ribeye is a less-esteemed cut, but the Georgian ages it for 28 days, making it both tender and keenly flavorful. Recent accompaniments were peeled asparagus and sliced potatoes stuffed with goat cheese.
Breakfast ($8.50 to $21.50) 6:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday-Friday; until noon Saturday; 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Closed for lunch. Dinner ($22 to $48) 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; until 10:30 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Cigar smoking allowed in separate bar.
Gerard's Relais de Lyon, 17121 Bothell Way N.E. (485-7600).
Gerard Parrat opened his French relais (post-house) 20 years ago in a made-over brick country home overlooking the Yakima Fruit Stand just southwest of the Bothell town center. It was intended to be the area's top classical French kitchen and there have been few challengers, despite the comings and goings of various French styles and chefs.
The menu (six-course dinners from $32.50, seven courses at $51.50 including a spectacular Souffle au Grand Marnier dessert) is sophisticated; the nouvelle cuisine made few inroads here. Or you may order a la carte ($6.50 for, say, a lime seafood consomme, to $25 for Roast Rack of Lamb with Rosemary au jus or a definitive Tournedos Rossini - beef tenderloin au crouton with foie gras and sauce Madeira.
The Bisque de Homard (lobster bisque, $7) is an absolute must, as is the lamb rack. It now gets a more Provencale emphasis, bright with fresh herbs, instead of the mustard-garlic-Dijonaisse treatment from years past.
Pan-roasted Duck Breast ($24) is delightful with its blueberry sauce, and the Chicken Breast in Potato Crust with Shallot Butter ($21) is a moist and tender culinary revelation.
Dinner only: 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
And don't overlook:
Gravity Bar, 113 Virginia St. (448-8826) and 415 Broadway E. (325-7186). Soups, veggie sandwiches, roll-ups and grain-based dishes, along with the core attraction: juice bars offering ingredients familiar and not so.
H --
The Herbfarm, 32804 Issaquah-Fall City Road, Fall City (784-2222).
About 30 miles east of Seattle is an herb garden that became a cooking school that became a restaurant. It's worth the drive for all three. But make sure you have reservations for the restaurant (and $129 a person once you get there).
The reservation may be more difficult to come by than the $129. The Herbfarm catalog posts dates for making advance reservations: failing that, call any Friday at 1 p.m. for a shot at one of the tables held open every weekend.
It took the Pacific staff, calling anonymously, seven weeks and two hours on the phone to obtain two confirmed places for an evening's dinner. But it was quite a dinner:
Nine courses, in a meal lasting from 6:45 to 11:30 p.m. The fixed price included all wines. It didn't include the tip.
Herbal Champagne Cocktail, Dungeness Crab and Columbia River Sturgeon Caviar on Squash Blossoms with fennel and a chive-opal basil vinaigrette started it off.
Some of what followed: Smoked Mediterranean Mussels, with a cucumber-mint salsa and a white corn and sage pudding; Basil Ravioli stuffed with Sally Jackson Goat Cheese and Chanterelles; Columbia Sturgeon Braised in Leeks with lemon thyme, lemon basil and runner-bean flowers; an apricot and licorice-basil sorbet; Herb-Crusted Loin of Ellensburg Lamb with coriander blossoms, basil mashed potatoes, green beans, baby carrots and beets; a small salad with a red currant vinaigrette; Cinnamon-Basil Ice Cream with Blueberries in a puff pastry; Wild Mountain Blackberry and Rose Geranium Souffle; coffee; a 1900 vintage Madiera with truffles, shortbread and macaroons.
The chef-resident genius is Jerry Traunfeld; owner and moving force is Ron Zimmerman.
The Hunt Club, Sorrento Hotel, 900 Madison St. (343-6156).
Classy but comfortable, the Hunt Club has found a laudable balance of service (prompt but not overbearing) and cuisine (adventurous but not silly). It all takes place in a dining room rich with dark, polished wood, off an elegant lobby that may be one of Seattle's toniest and most romantic meeting places, especially in front of the fire on stormy winter evenings.
The Poached Tiger Prawn Salad with Mangoes ($8) is as fine a starter as any in town, pulled together by an avocado citrus vinaigrette. Country Pate with Grilled Como Bread ($7), with cornichons, baby onion and roasted garlic, is uplifted by a spiced blueberry-onion marmalade.
Grilled Mahi Mahi with Crispy Rice Cakes ($20) also adds mango to its fresh fruit salsa, plus halves of macadamia nuts and a dusting of toasted coconut.
Spice Roasted Fillet of Ostrich with Wild Rice ($23) is a more exotic offering - sliced medallions served quite rare (it resembles medium-rare beef tenderloin). A port game sauce complements perfectly, with a hint of raspberry.
Chef Erik Lenard has capably taken over the helm in the kitchen.
Breakfast ($4 to $15) 7 to 10 a.m. Monday-Friday; until 2:30 p.m., Saturday-Sunday. Lunch ($8 to $15) 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. daily. Dinner ($19 to $25) 5:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
I -----
Il Bistro, 93A Pike St. (682-3049).
For nearly 20 years Il Bistro in the Pike Place Market has served one of Seattle's most dependable, skillfully prepared menus in a near-subterranean series of vaulted rooms with an ambiance suited both for candlelit romance or big-table conviviality - alongside one of the city's favorite bars.
The essential direction is Italian, with 10 pastas on the "primi" menu and nine meat, fowl and fish choices on the "secondi." Choices tend toward classics, such as the popular Caretto D'Agnello ($26 for the rack of lamb), and they tend to endure. The restaurant stopped serving lunch last year and instituted a late-night menu, adding pizza to a lineup of antipasti, salads and pastas.
Chef Sherri Serino's appetizer favorites include Antipasto Dina, tender grilled vegetables with meats, cheese and olives ($8.95) and Carpaccio of Veal ($10.50). Salads are appealing. Try the Verdura Saltata ($4.95), warm, sauteed escarole served with Romano and olives.
A recent beef special was described by its consumer as "the best piece of meat I've ever had outside the Midwest" - an inch-and-a-half thick tenderloin surrounding a nougat of melted Gorgonzola ($22.50), rich and perfectly grilled. A seafood mixed grill ($18.85) of salmon, snapper and prawns was presented over a rich, wild-mushroom risotto.
On quiet nights, Il Bistro feels like a cozy club; on a busy one it feels like you discovered the right party.
Dinner ($9.95 to $26.95) 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Late-night menu until 1 a.m.
Il Terrazzo Carmine, 411 First Ave. S. (467-7797).
Every visit to Carmine Smeraldo's "terrace," tucked off an alley south of Pioneer Square, serves as a reminder that what may be commonplace elsewhere is uncommonly fine there.
Cannelloni may be just another stuffed pasta at most places, but at Carmine's the ground veal and chopped spinach fillings sing to each other.
Sweetbreads have too small a following to be on many local menus, but you can always get them, sauteed tender and plump, at Il Terrazzo. (Dinner entrees from $17.50 to $25; pastas from $11, with half portions available.)
Ravioli di capriolo ($12.50), venison-stuffed ravioli with a wild mushroom sauce, contends for one of the best pasta dishes in the city.
And if tiramisu has indeed become ubiquitous, you remember what a gem of a dessert it is when made to a moist, slightly alcoholic perfection.
Lunch ($8 to $12.95) 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($12 to $25) 5:30 to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday; until 10:45 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. Bar menu available all day and until closing.
J ----
Jitterbug, 2114 N. 45th St. (547-6313).
Some of the ersatz New York wait staff banter is gone, the artwork is new and the cuisine is more international, but traces of the old, popular Beeliner Diner linger. Large amounts of printed wit on the menu. Small space, crowded seating. An omnipresent, too-close kitchen.
But Jeremy Hardy and Peter Levy's first link in an emerging neighborhood restaurant chain still draws them in - at least in part on the strength of new chef Gavin McMillian's creative labors.
You can still get a burger, but the place now specializes in combining appetizers (around $5) and/or a variety of Pacific Rim and regional Northwest entrees ($10 to $17) like "Squid Pro Quo" with an amazing blend of spices, or a salmon special surrounded by gnocci-like dumplings.
Breakfast, lunch and dinner ($5 to $17) 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily (but closed afternoons between 3:30 and 5 p.m.).
And don't overlook:
Jack Sprat's, 16564 Cleveland St., Redmond (883-4443). Elliot Stern is a physician whose practice happens to be this popular cafe dedicated to proving that low-fat cooking can be tasty and appealing. It can be; it is.
K ---
Kaspar's, 19 W. Harrison St. (298-0123).
Kaspar and Nancy Donier moved a few years ago from a top-floor but shop-worn perch at First and Cedar to their present lower Queen Anne salon. With the move they soared from continentally imaginative to something akin to perfection.
Donier's Swiss training is evident in his precision of execution, but his grasp and fondness for Northwest ingredients is even more prominent. One dish in particular, which was singled out in a Times four-star review, was his Sauteed Sea Scallops, presented over a bed of spinach, napped in a complex (and surprisingly light) warm bacon vinaigrette.
Sometimes imagination gets a bit unruly, like mashed potatoes primavera. But for the most part this is a superbly controlled kitchen. Donier smokes his own meats and seafood (in a recycled refrigerator near the back door) and this year added a wine bar-lounge just off the entry for waiting diners.
A heart-healthy Spa Menu was incorporated last summer; for example, miso soups, Asian vegetables, halibut cheeks over angel hair pasta, etc., without a fat molecule in sight.
Dinner ($15 to $20) 5 to 9 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday; until 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday. Closed Sunday-Monday. No lunch.
And don't overlook:
Kirkland Roaster & Alehouse, 111 Central Way, Kirkland (827-4400). The next-door alehouse actually has departed, leaving merely a wildly popular spot for first-class rotisseried meats, steaks, ribs and a multi-meat chili.
L----
Labuznik, 1924 First Ave. (441-8899).
Labuznik has been around long enough - two decades - to see its neighborhood change and change again. Owner/chef Peter Cipra started his first Seattle restaurant, Prague, 26 years ago in Pioneer Square. He moved uptown when he bought his own building on First Avenue.
The place is a central European meat-eater's paradise. Beef, lamb and pork, prepared simply, traditionally and well, are still house specialties, although in recent years seafood has made up a third of the menu.
Hearty soups - Liver Dumplings in a light broth, or Kielbasa and Cabbage - make great starters.
A Czech-American friend (who goes to Labuznik to recall vividly his grandmother's kitchen) admires the Svickova and Dumplings ($13.95; marinated beef in a vegetable broth), tender in a sour-cream gravy. Or the Bohemian Roast Duck with Sauerkraut and Dumplings (also $13.95). A favorite side dish? The sweet, rather than sour, pickled red cabbage with caraway seeds, the best of its kind in the city.
The Rack of Lamb ($29), roasted with garlic, cracked pepper and mustard, marries beautifully with a house salad, sweet carrots and creamed spinach. Also masterful: Tournedos Rossini ($23) melt-in-your mouth veal with Sauce Bernaise.
Dinner ($6.75 to $29) from 4:30 p.m., Tuesday-Saturday; closed Sunday-Monday. No lunch.
Lampreia, 2400 First Ave. (443-3301).
Perhaps nowhere else in Seattle has a chef so boldly bucked local traditions. Scott Carsberg wanted to break away from "a hundred tastes on the plate," choosing instead to present "a few ingredients cooked simply but sophisticated."
A growing and loyal clientele shows he found a niche with an a la carte menu of appetizers ($5 to $8), intermezzos ($7 to $13) and main courses ($16 to $25).
Carsberg is a culinary artist and passionate believer in the kitchen. Dinner might start with two jeweled, rolled morsels of the chef's own smoked salmon - gratis - topped with a triangle of fern, followed by shucked fryer clams ($9.50) dusted in a light curry flour and sauteed, presented over leaves of arugula.
Next could be a sauteed foie gras ($13.50) served rare-medium rare, its essential richness balanced by fresh figs and a balsamic vinegar dressing. Then, perhaps, Halibut with Artichoke Puree ($22.50) topped with crossed green beans and finished with a gentle white truffle oil. Or Breast of Pheasant ($17.50), moist and tender, with whipped potatoes, two mushrooms and an asparagus tip.
The Cheese Plate ($8) is a civilized capper, followed by two more morsels complements of the chef, chocolate truffles with candied orange peel.
Dinner ($16 to $25) 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. Closed Sunday, Monday. No lunch.
And don't overlook:
La Buca, 102 Cherry St. (343-9517). Luigi DeNunzio, veteran of some of Seattle's best Italian kitchens, presides over a warm, subterranean retreat in Pioneer Square with an inventive menu and convivial spirit.
M -
Marco's Supperclub, 2510 First Ave. (441-7801).
In the explosion of dinner houses that has led the cultural reawakening of Belltown over the past five years, the central irony is that one of the most successful, Marco's Supperclub, was founded by a pair of migrant Chicagoans: the husband-and-wife team of Marco Rulff and Donna Moodie.
Their bistro-like, informal place fully captures the Belltown mood: mix-and-match salt and pepper shakers, sun-glinted gallon jars of preserved lemons; an easy conviviality at once laid back, yet aware and hip.
A new chef, Alex McWilliams, greets an eclectic menu both comfortable and exploratory. For example, the signature fried-sage appetizer: compelling and fascinating, but who would have known?
Try the Peppered Ahi Tuna ($14.95), fashionably seared rare and served over a soba-noodle vinaigrette. The Jamaican Jerked Chicken has been a house favorite from the start.
The Grilled Beef Tenderloin (also $14.95) is a nightly favorite, ordered as close to rare as you can tolerate, napped with a silken red-wine and bleu-cheese sauce.
Lunch ($6 to $10) 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner ($9.95 to $15) 5:30 to 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until midnight Friday-Saturday. Smoking in bar only.
Metropolitan Grill, 820 Second Ave. (624-3287).
Well-aged red meat and thick, well-marbled steaks may be declining in esteem in medical circles, but they remain in high favor here. The Met is Seattle's quintessential steakhouse, in part because of an old-time, polished-wood ambiance and a roaring adjacent lounge that looks and sounds like a cocktail lounge should, with some of the best bar food in the city - especially the grilled prawns - at near-giveaway prices.
The appeal is both old-fashioned and timeless: top-quality steaks, chops and seafood presented traditionally and generously, with painstaking attention to detail.
The lightly battered, Pankoed calamari with home-made aioli are a popular starter at $6.95. The most ordered steak is a whopping 16-ounce filet mignon ($28.95) served under a giant grilled mushroom cap and with a baked potato the size of a melon.
The full-pound New York Peppercorn Steak costs $2 more. The real platter of splendid excess is the 55-ounce Porterhouse (this is not a misprint) for $62.95 - really intended for two diners. They'll carve it at the table.
Lunch ($6 to $19) 11 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($15 to $34) 5 to 11 p.m. Monday-Friday; 4 to 11 p.m. Saturday; 4:30 to 10 p.m. Sunday. Cigar and pipe smoking allowed in bar.
N --
Nishino, 3130 E. Madison St. (322-5800).
In recent years, many American restaurants have recognized the virtues (and sales potentials) of adding Japanese touches to typical regional dishes.
At Nishino, the process was somewhat reversed. Tatsu Nishino was brought to Seattle from California last December by Seattle investors, a young, rising Asian star chef from Beverly Hills. His cuisine is pure Japanese with innovative American (mainly Californian) touches. The results are artful, often dazzling with color and juxtaposed flavors, served in a gracious Madison Valley setting near the Arboretum.
If the city weren't so well-served by many fine Japanese places, Nishino's would be a regional phenomenon. As it is, it's a joy.
Try the Albacore Tuna Sashimi over wild greens, with a piquant soy dressing, or the O-hitashi Spinach Salad, a spiral mound of intertwined greens, so deeply emerald green you can almost hear the vitamins squeak.
Nishino offers 15 "special" dishes a night, like Broiled Baby Squid Stuffed with Scallops ($10) in a pool of white wine-sea urchin sauce. The Toro Steak (tuna, $16) is broiled rare, and fan-sliced over a brilliant red-chard-and-shiitake-mushroom stir-fry with an intense, deep-red Cabernet-soy reduction.
Dinner ($6.50 to $40) 5:30 to 10 p.m., Monday-Saturday, 5:30-9:30 p.m. Sundays. Reservations strongly suggested.
And don't overlook:
Nikko, Westin Hotel, 1900 Fifth Ave. (322-4641). Visually stunning, this is the city's premier Japanese dining experience. Full dinners, Seattle's best happy-hour hors d'oeuvres, a sushi bar you can entrust yourself to.
O ---
New Jake O'Shaughnessey's, 401 Bellevue Square (455-5559).
Any mention of the "New" Jake's inevitably brings to mind memories to the old one, since demolished and now occupied by the upscale aisles of the Queen Anne Larry's Market. It also recalls the high-water mark of the since-demolished Tim Firnstahl-Mick McHugh partnership, when single-malt scotches, premium bourbons, dozens of beer taps, roast beef and sourdough on hot squares of marble took the area by formulaic storm.
New Jake's is not so new anymore, but it still fits the mold. Some 27 taps of beer, ales and microbrews, including the truly boutique, like Deschutes Black Butte Porter, Mac & Jack's African Amber Ale and Issaquah Bullfrog Hefe Weizen ($3.25 a pint; $5 a stein).
Salads are a specialty - and some of the best around. The ubiquitous Caesar is light and fine. The House Wilted: romaine tossed with hot bacon dressing and topped with chopped hard-cooked eggs, sliced black olives and toasted almonds. Offered as entrees: Salmon and Vegetable Caesar ($9.95), a rousing Curried Chicken and Peach Chutney Salad ($8.95) or Warm Wild Mushroom ($6.95).
The rest of the menu is vast (48 items), somewhat predictable, but hearty and reliable. The mashed potatoes need work.
Lunch ($6.95 to $7.45) 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday; noon to 3 p.m. Sunday. Dinner ($8 to $17.95) 5 to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday; till 10 p.m. Friday-Saturday; 4:30 to 9 p.m. Sunday. Bar menu available 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily.
P ---
The Painted Table, Alexis Hotel, 92 Madison St. (624-3646.
The dining room at the Alexis has posed an aesthetic problem for years - a room on two distinct levels that made a unified ambience difficult.
Decorators did what they could - and it helped. The concept of artistically designed, individually painted, oversized dinner plates (which are for sale) added to the artistry. Two years ago, chef J. Tim Kelley arrived and the kitchen contributed culinary arts of the first order.
Kelley doesn't call his productions fusion cuisine, but the amalgam of his Asian heritage and Northwest ingredients certainly resembles it. For example, his Steamed Mussels and Clams ($6.50) are wed in a broth of Red Thai curry, lemongrass and coconut milk.
Chilled Steamed Tiger Prawns ($7.95) are neatly bisected and augmented with cucumber, ribbons of nori and a sesame vinaigrette whipped into Shiso oil. Kelley's Wild Mushroom Risotto is richly creamy and dotted through with mini-diced root vegetables, circled with roasted tomatoes and leaves of young spinach glistening with truffle oil.
As a conclusion, try the hazelnut-chocolate mousse.
Breakfast ($4.25 to $9.25) 6:30 to 10 a.m., Monday Friday; 7:30 a.m. to noon Saturday-Sunday. Lunch ($8.50 to $15.50) 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($12 to $20) 5:30 to 10 p.m. nightly.
The Palace Kitchen, 2030 Fifth Ave. (448-2001).
Chef Tom Douglas' career in Seattle has taken on an almost legendary character, from his adventurous beginnings at Cafe Sport, to the Dahlia Lounge, to his return to the Market area with Etta's Seafood, where Cafe Sport had waned without him.
His new restaurant, the Palace Kitchen, is no palace, but it is decidedly a Douglas kitchen - spacious, open to view, but not theatrical. It's a blue-collar working kitchen with a white-tiled, U-shaped bar and a surrounding restaurant, almost like a clubhouse for the faithful.
The faithful arrive nightly. With a preponderance of appetizers (15) and desserts (13) over entrees (seven), casual, unstructured dining is encouraged. The inclination is to have one, two or more starters, a couple of glasses of wine and call it a night.
Tuna Tartare beckons with gleaming cubes of raw tuna, peppery house-made crackers, tiny diced bits of rhubarb and a dressing of lemon juice, scallions, cayenne and olive oil.
Southwestern-styled empanadas are stuffed with a surprising combination of sweet potatoes and roasted, curried goat, under a drizzle of creamy harissa. Steamed mussels with julienned vegetables and creole spices border on mystical.
Methow Valley Ham, glazed with molasses, is warmed over an applewood fire and presented atop a mound of corn grits with a side of tart mustard greens.
Dinner ($11 to $30) 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. nightly. No lunch. Reservations for parties of six or larger.
Pirosmani, 2220 Queen Anne Ave. N. (285-3360).
If you salivate to the tastes of garlic, fresh lemon, olive oil, Calamata olives, grape leaves, roasted red peppers, pine nuts, cinnamon, coriander and chick peas, you were destined to dine at Pirosmani.
The Russian state of Georgia was the inspiration for chef Laura Dewell (formerly of Fullers). Georgia is at the same latitude as Rome, Barcelona and Istanbul, with a cuisine more Mediterranean than Slavic.
Dewell's is a dual-emphasis menu: half Georgian and half Mediterranean, with items changing seasonally. It provides for a lot of ethnic novelty.
Try the Georgian Mixed Grill ($20), a sampler of Kupati (pork sausages stuffed with pomegranate, garlic and sumac), kupdari (spicy ribeye steak) and grilled chicken breast rubbed with coriander and summer savory. The platter also includes pkhali, a spinach pate made with crushed walnuts and garlic.
The Mediterranean Vegetarian Dinner ($16) features a potato tortilla with Cabrales cheese, warm lentil salad, baked Greek olives and Catalan ancho chili with a pine nut sauce.
Flavors are big, robust and wonderfully diverse. Pirosmani, incidentally, was a 19th-century Georgian folk artist.
Dinner ($16 to $21) 5:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. No lunch. Closed Sunday, Monday.
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Queen City Grill, 2201 First Ave. (443-0975).
The velvet rope outside the front door on weekend evenings is a sign of the continuing popularity of this Belltown hub. On a typical Friday night, says GM Dave Kas, the Grill (maximum capacity: 100) turns away 200 would-be customers.
Those who get in (usually because they have reservations) also get a loud and lively social scene at the bar and a menu of grilled specialties noteworthy for seafood.
Most dishes feature a little twist on the usual: roasted bell pepper and garlic aioli complement the Dungeness Crabcakes appetizer ($13.50). The House Salad ($4) is highlighted by a mint-garlic vinaigrette.
Grilled Salmon ($17.50) employs a piquant arugula (rather than basil) pesto. And the Grilled Fresh Ahi ($18.95) is served in a Szechwan red-pepper sauce.
Lunch ($7.95 to $13.95) 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner ($8.95 to $17.50) 4:30 to 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until midnight Friday-Saturday. Smoking allowed.
R ---
Rover's, 2808 E. Madison St. (325-7442).
Few restaurants in the city are a more perfect expression of the personality of an owner. Chef Thierry Rautureau, an ebullient, charming and almost irrepressible culinary genius, rules over this small but tasteful converted home in Madison Valley with the integrity learned from a lifetime in classical kitchens.
Few menus in town are more routinely disregarded. Most regulars simply order the chef's suggested five-course dinner ($58) and let him work his magic on any given night.
As Rautureau himself once explained it: "You don't go to the doctor and tell him what you would like him to do. You do what he thinks is best."
His frequent television appearances on national cooking shows and his recent command performance at the Beard House in New York have spread his reputation. Rover's may actually be better known in Los Angeles and Chicago than it is here.
Despite his high-end cooking (and prices to match), Rautureau has a very proletarian soul. Don't be surprised if someday he opens a sawdust-on-the-floor bistro.
Dinner only ($20 to $58) 5:30 to 10 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.
And don't overlook:
Ray's Boathouse, 6049 Seaview Ave. N.W. (789-3770). Mandatory for visiting family, food celebrities and cookbook authors. Big Puget Sound view from the dining room downstairs and cafe upstairs. Outstanding seafood.
S ---
Saleh al Lago, 6804 E. Green Lake Way N. (524-4044).
If any Italian restaurant in Seattle has a coterie following, it is this one. Saleh Joudeh brought a deep appreciation for central Italian cooking, which he mastered, and a matchless sense of quality. He buys only the finest and takes care to do none of it any harm.
His risotti ingredients vary with the season, but execution is flawless - and definitive. Creamy smooth with a slight touch of texture. His filet mignon, finished with a deep and complex balsamico sauce, is a phenomenon.
All pastas are made fresh in house (from a machine Joudeh himself brought over from Italy) and all cooking is done in full view of the elevated dining room.
The tender Calamari starter ($6.25) is lightly sauteed in olive oil, garlic and lemon instead of the ubiquitous deep-fried "fritti" found elsewhere. The Spinaci alla Perugina salad ($5.25) is barely wilted in warm olive oil with lemon, pine nuts and prosciutto, with just a touch of red-pepper flakes.
Lately, the beef tenderloin (Filetto di Manzo Rosetta: $18.50) has been prepared with a reduction of Dijon mustard, Gorgonzola cheese and pink peppercorns.
For the best "casserole" in your life, try the Farfalle al Forno ($14.50): ground tenderloin (Saleh grinds it himself) and artichoke hearts are blended with bow-tie pasta and baked in a tomato-cream sauce with mozzarella cheese. It's not exactly chili-mac.
Lunch ($9 to $13) 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Tuesday-Friday. Dinner ($13.50 to $18) 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday.
Shiro's, 2401 Second Ave. (443-9844).
S is for sushi, and in Seattle for many, many years, sushi has been epitomized by Shiro Kashiba. There are other great sushi parlors in the city, but Shiro's newish place in Belltown is unmistakably the real experience: small, intimate yet - especially at the sushi bar - intensely convivial.
If you are new to sushi, don't hang back. Go directly to the white pine and granite-topped bar and place yourself in the hands of a master. You won't encounter any unpleasant surprises. Stick with the milder forms at first: Sake (salmon), Toro (fatty tuna), Hamachi (yellow tail) and Maguro (tuna) and Ebi (shrimp). Then branch out to Aji (Spanish mackerel), Unagi (eel) and Uni (sea urchin). Costs: around $2.50 a portion.
Traditional Japanese dinners (better enjoyed at one of the white-linened tables) range from around $15 to $19 for tempura, sukiyaki and teriyaki. Teriyaki, incidentally, is a rich and complex, not overly sweet preparation here, quite unlike what passes for teriyaki at dozens of other local outlets.
Lunch ($7 to $15) 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($15 to $20) 5:30 to 10:15 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Closed Sunday. Smoking in back room only. No reservations taken for the Sushi Bar.
Szmania's, 3321 W. McGraw St., Magnolia. (284-7305).
Julie and Ludger Szmania opened their jewel of a neighborhood restaurant six years ago in the center of Magnolia. This autumn they remodeled, adding a 700-square-foot bar, fireplace and reception area where a deck had been.
"We used to send customers over to Palisade for drinks," Julie said, "and that was crazy."
Ludger is a world-class chef. He is continentally trained, and his last position was executive chef of the Four Seasons Olympic. The completely open kitchen (worth taking a seat at the counter for) serves dinners in two portion sizes ("full-size" and "German"), including such standouts as Herb-crusted Halibut in Pinot Noir Sauce with Lobster Mashed Potatoes ($10.50 and $18.75), Pan-Seared Ahi Tuna on Linguini Cake with Capers and Goat Cheese (same prices) and Pepper Ling Cod with Mediterranean Couscous and Rock Prawn-Basil Nage ($9 and $16.75).
Lunch ($7 to $9) 11:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. Tuesday-Friday Dinner ($9 to $19) 5 to 10 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday. Closed Monday.
And don't forget:
Saigon Bistro, 1032 S. Jackson St. (329-4939). Maybe the best, certainly the busiest Vietnamese restaurant in Seattle. Try the coconut chicken, the big bowls of soup with your choice of ingredients, the stuffed-rice crepes.
Salvatore Ristorante Italiano, 6100 Roosevelt Way N.E. (527-9301). Fine pizzas, exemplary pastas and high standards all around at this busy, popular neighborhood place just north of the University District.
Sawatdy Thai Cuisine, 8770 Fletcher Bay Road, Bainbridge Island (780-2429). Islanders fill this place for Lang Nguyen's recipes emphasizing fresh seafood and produce. After four years, mainlanders are getting the word, too.
Shamiana, 10724 N.E. 68th St., Kirkland. (827-4902). The cuisines of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kenya, prepared by a brother-sister team, Eric and Tracy Larson, who grew up among them. Good vegetarian selections.
Shanghai Garden II, 524 Sixth Ave. S. (625-1689). This may be the most original Chinese dining room around. Informal, intimate, serving ostrich, hand-shaved noodles and unique versions of nearly everything.
T --
Tulio Ristorante, Hotel Vintage Park, 1100 Fifth Ave. (624-5500).
In the four years and a few months since Tulio opened in the Vintage Park, it has steadily improved in quality and appeal under the guidance of chef Walter Pisano (who once worked with Gerard Parrat at Gerard's, and for Dorene Centioli-McTigue at Bravo Pagliacci).
It's relatively small (72 seats) and often too crowded, but it fairly swims in congeniality and good will.
Tulio is famous for its departure from typical hotel breakfasts. They no longer offer the French toast with baked apples, but the Waffles with Fruit Compote and Maple Syrup ($6.95) is a comforting replacement.
Popular dinner entrees include a formidable Grilled Veal Chop ($19.95), stuffed with prosciutto and mozzarella cheese; a terrific, creamy Risotto loaded with rock shrimp and leeks ($11.50) and a longtime favorite, the Smoked Salmon Ravioli ($10.50), served in a light cream sauce with asparagus tips.
Breakfast ($3 to $9) 7 to 10 a.m. Monday-Friday; 8 to 11 a.m. Saturday- Sunday. Lunch ($7.95 to $12) 11:30 a.m.to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; noon to 3 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. Dinner ($9 to $20) 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday.
And don't overlook:
The Thai Restaurant, 101 John St. (285-9000). A fine, consistent place with a large, loyal following and, available to the adventurous, five-star spicing that will leave you weeping with happiness. Really.
Toyoda Sushi, 12543 Lake City Way N.E. (367-7972). Serving some of Seattle's best, freshest seafood. Dinners are OK; the sushi is why it's worth waiting out the Lake City traffic and Toyoda's limited seating.
U -
Union Bay Cafe, 3515 N.E. 45th St. (527-8364).
After a dozen years of illustrious labors in a cramped but cozy Laurelhurst storefront, owner-chef Mark Manley began moving his Union Bay Cafe a couple of doors down the street to bigger but still intimate digs. The key words here are elegant, open and bright, with new etched-glass windows and Italian slate floors.
Done up handsomely in dark greens and Tuscan yellows by architect George Suyama, the interiors incorporate work by artists Nancy Mee and Dennis Evans.
The menu changes often, but the execution is steady and rock-solid. A recent addition is Loin of Ostrich ($18.75), grilled and then paired with roasted sweet onions, port wine sauce and topped with Gorgonzola.
A great starter: Calamari Saltati ($5.50). Lots of places serve squid, but few have it breaded with ground almonds. It comes with a roasted garlic aioli. Another winner is the Breast of Chicken ($12.75), simply prepared, but the free-range bird is always perfectly grilled, then presented with a lively cucumber salsa.
Increasingly popular are the Taylor Cove "Mediterranean" mussels ($6.75) steamed with lemon grass, ginger, red bell pepper chunks, garlic and white wine.
Dinner only ($12.75 to $18.75) 5 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 4 to 9 p.m. Sunday.
V ---
Vietnam's Pearl, 708 Rainier Ave. S. (726-1581).
One of Seattle's most reliable Vietnamese restaurants, Vietnam's Pearl also offers Thai and Chinese items and others that are a fusion of Asian cooking.
A refreshing appetizer, Goi Cuon ($2.95), is a pair of rice paper-wrapped shrimp and vegetable salad rolls served with a crunchy (and runny) peanut sauce.
Lau Hai Vi ($13.95) is a traditional seafood firepot. Unlike its Chinese and Thai cousins (also available here), the Vietnamese firepot features a sweet and sour broth kept bubbling at the table over a portable burner. The accompanying plate of raw seafood includes fish, mussels, shrimp and plentiful strips of calamari. You add a little at a time, intensifying the final broth. Great dish for a couple or a group.
Lunch and dinner ($6 to $20) 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sunday-Thursday; from 10 a.m. to midnight Friday-Saturday. Smoking section, but smoke-free from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Virazon, 1329 First Ave. (233-0123).
Formerly called Un Deux Trois, it was tabbed Seattle's best French restaurant last year by Travel & Leisure magazine (which is a matter of fair debate as far as a couple of local French chefs are concerned), and has grown - in capacity as well as sophistication - in recent months as the restaurant acquired a new partner and then its new name.
Astolfo Rueda - a French chef by way of Argentina, who cooked locally with Gerard's in Bothell and Rover's on Madison - joined with founding chef Judy Schocken. They took out, appropriately, the take-out counter, added tables and almost doubled the dining room capacity to 65.
More than half the menu is seafood; vegetarian entrees are always available. Pan-roasted Sea Scallops ($7) arrive atop purple basil oil and a palm-size tart filled with chopped, dried cherries. Grilled Wild Virginia (this is east of West Virginia) Striped Bass ($17) presents barely blackened fillets nestled over shredded leeks, balanced with a creamy star-anise sauce.
Grilled Duck Breast ($18) is set off with dark, slightly sweet kumquat sauce, with a shiitake, portobello and cepe mushroom ragout.
Lunch ($8 to $12) 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Dinner ($16 to $25) 5:30 to 9:30 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday. Free parking with dinner.
W ----
Wild Ginger, 1400 Western Ave. (623-4450).
A modest-looking, drab-facaded converted storefront of a place tucked under the brow of the Pike Place Market and the backside of First Avenue, the Wild Ginger has accumulated so much praise in recent years that it seems almost a journalistic cliche to mention it again.
But it is too good to overlook (even intentionally). Besides, it begins with a "W."
Rick and Ann Yoder were inspired to open their multi-ethnic, mostly Southeast Asian restaurant seven years ago, following an extended visit to Australia, New Zealand and Southeast Asia. They assembled a crew of talented chefs (Cambodian, at first; later Chinese-Vietnamese), wrought the city's first satay bar, and prospered - like crazy.
The Wild Ginger Crispy Duck is still definitive (it's a two-day dry-pepper spice-marinade process preceding steaming, then air-drying for another day, and then deep-frying as ordered). So many have been ordered, chopped and sold, that the huge chopping block in the kitchen is seriously depleted.
A fine appetizer is Wild Ginger's crabcakes ($9.95), shaped around rice Panko for a binder, with white pepper and shallots. They're pan-fried and served with slightly sweet and noticeably tart Vietnamese dipping sauce.
Hanoi Tuna ($12.95 at lunch/ $19.95 evenings) is marinated in tumeric, shallots and garlic, then pan-seared and presented quite rare with a sauce of almond, dill and scallion oil.
Lunch ($3.45 to $12.95) 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday-Saturday. Dinner ($9 to $23) 5 to 11 p.m. Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday; until midnight Monday and Friday; 4:30 p.m. to midnight Saturday; 4:30 to 11 p.m. Sunday.
And don't overlook:
Winners, 17401 Southcenter Parkway, Tukwila (575-8800). An eclectic American menu of big salads, good ribs, steaks and upscale sandwiches, served to a happy, hungry clientele that comes to recover from mall-shopping exhaustion.
X ----
F.X. McRory's Steak, Chop & Oyster House, 419 Occidental Ave. S. (623-4800).
, The middle initial of F.X. McRory's is enough to qualify in this extended region of the alphabet.
And why not? McRory's is a thoroughly traditional Northwest American steak and chop house with some New York Irish inspiration.
The bar scene, across the street from the Kingdome, gets most of the passing attention, but McRory's has always had a highly professional kitchen. You can dine well (and in reasonable quiet) in the rear dining room - or snack at the oyster bar near the entry.
Order simply and expect grand opulent salads, fine steaks, prime rib and capably prepared seafood. It's not cutting-edge culinary art, but we've never had a bad meal or a disappointing portion. The much-ordered 18-ounce prime rib goes for $19.95, a more civilized chunk (9 ounces) for $13.95. The most expensive steak in the place is a $20.95 New York Peppercorn.
The array of microbrews and boutique bourbons is relentless.
Lunch ($7 to $12) 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday. Dinner ($8.95 to $21) 5 to 10 p.m. nightly.
And don't overlook:
Last Triple XXX Root Beer Old Time Drive-In, 98 N.E. Gilman Blvd., Issaquah, (392-1266). Shades of the '50s, with big, juicy hamburgers, thick shakes and malts, root beer floats, and classic-car collectors on the weekends.
Y ---
Yarrow Bay Grill and Beach Cafe, 1270 Carillon Point, Kirkland (889-9052, Grill and 889-0303, Cafe).
This is an upstairs-downstairs, upscale-downscale, two-level enterprise on the east shore of Lake Washington at the tony Carillon Point complex. It was put together a half-dozen years ago by several of the original investors of Ray's Boathouse - and originally intended to be a kind of two-toned Ray's East.
Gradually, both places found their own strides - and maybe different drummers. The Cafe, downstairs, is informal, brassy, usually crowded (especially on weekend nights) and often just plain loud - particularly at tables and booths near the bar, where normal conversation can be close to impossible.
But it's fun; the bill of fare includes an ever-changing international cafe menu - Provencale one month; North African the next; Israeli after that. Prices are a few bucks lower than what you'll pay upstairs, where you don't have to yell to get an order taken. The Grill does fine work with local seafood and augments with some Pacific Rim accents.
Grill: Lunch ($6 to $13) 11:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday-Friday; until 2:20 p.m. Saturday. Dinner ($8 to $25) 5:30 to 9 p.m. Monday-Saturday; 5 to 10 p.m. Sunday. Brunch 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sunday. Beach Cafe: Lunch and dinner ($7 to $16) 11 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday-Tuesday; until 10 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday. From 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday.
And don't overlook:
Yanni's Lakeside Cafe, 7419 Greenwood Ave. N. (783-6945). Big portions, good value and a homey atmosphere have kept this neighborhood Greek restaurant popular. Extensive selection of Greek wines, too.
Z ----
Zesto's Burger & Fish House, 6416 15th Ave. N.W. (783-3350).
As the vintage Chevy on the roof suggests, Zesto's dates back to the '50s (1952, to be exact). Charlie Pattok built it as a lunchtime service to students from nearby Ballard High and grew it into a neighborhood landmark.
The joint is still nonstop busy, and full of the spirit of the high school across the street. Pictures on the wall attest to decades of community involvement, including a sign that proclaims Zesto as the oldest continual sponsor of the Ballard Little League.
Little of that would matter much if the food weren't downright appealing. Burgers are available in single, double or triple deckers (a triple with bacon and the works is $5.75). The fish and chips are even better.
Zesto's uses only Alaska pollock - and has for years, from one processor, the Northern Glacier. It's delicately battered, served with cross-ribbed "snowshoe" fries and modestly priced: $4.25 for a three-piece order; $4.65 for four pieces.
Open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays; 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday-Sunday. No liquor.
And don't overlook:
Zeek's Pizza, 41 Dravis St. (285-6046) and 6000 Phinney Ave. N. (789-0089). The names and flavors are novel ("Frog Belly Green" translates to a pesto-based pie) and the ingredients uncommonly fresh at these imaginative pizza places.
(Copyright 1996, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.)
John Hinterberger's restaurant and food columns appear in The Seattle Times in Sunday's Pacific Magazine and Thursday's Tempo. Gary Settle is a Times photographer.