Ponti is still a shining spot on the culinary radar screen
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Instead I went to Ponti.
There, in a handsome dining room overlooking the Fremont Bridge, I found solace in a delightful meal well-served. One of my favorite Seattle chefs once complained, "People here don't care about what's good, they only care about what's new." A rationalization that explains, in part, why such reputable restaurants as Ponti fall off our culinary radar. It's not that they've gone south, it's just that we've gone elsewhere.
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After a years-long absence from its table, I found that little had changed — despite the fact that the owners, who later opened Belltown's Axis, recently underwent a business divorce. Today, Malia is sole owner of Ponti, Axis belongs to Malevitsis, and Binuya — who had long overseen the kitchen at both venues — has ceded his position as Ponti's chef-exec to a kid named Tom Hollywood.
At 23, Hollywood is a veritable starlet, "discovered" after working his way through culinary school and later Ponti's kitchen, moving, in the course of four years, from a pantry position to top toque. His menus, tweaked weekly, offer well-tuned Northwest classics including Binuya's signature sensation, Thai curry penne ($12.95 lunch/$18.95 dinner). Curry and coconut milk unite to form a sauce enhanced with Dungeness crabmeat. Crowning the pasta are gently grilled sea scallops, fresh basil and tomato-ginger chutney as potent as it is pretty.
Grilled ahi tuna is omnipresent on local menus. So much so that lately I've just said "no" each time someone suggests ordering it. Fortunately, I'd brought along a new friend — one I didn't know well enough to offend. Otherwise I'd never have had the opportunity to tell you about the definitive version of this Japanese-inspired dish, nor recall why it has become a local favorite. Sliced and arrayed on a swoony coconut rice cake, the seared-rare sashimi-grade tuna ($13.95/$26.95) was superb in its naked state — and even better after a skinny dip in wasabi cucumber aioli.
Every bit as impressive was pan-seared Alaskan halibut with smoky tomato coulis ($21.95). The star of that show, however, was the festive sidekick: a seafood tamale. Crab and scallops inform this magnificent mound of masa deserving a place of its own among the seafood starters. These include boozy, peppery, Cajun barbecued prawns ($10.95) whose cream-based sauce had me reaching for the bread basket. Grilled calamari ($6.95) is tossed with herbs, tomatoes and briny picholine olives. Dungeness crab spring rolls, sliced lengthwise, form crisp canoes meant to be moistened with chili-lime sauce, folded into the accompanying lettuce leaves, and merrily munched.
These and other notable snacks are available on Ponti's bar menu, which offers a great main-course selection as well as happy-hour specials and is available throughout the day. Memo to Hollywood: Patrons hoping to enjoy several courses would be better served if you'd halve the hefty spring roll portion, as well as its price ($11.95). Especially if they expect to finish the whole-leaf Caesar salad ($5.95) — another exalted example of ubiquity at its finest.
"Seafood" is Ponti's middle name, but such palate-pleasers as the grilled chicken breast with shoestring fries enjoyed at lunch ($12.95) and the succulent lamb chops devoured at dinner ($24.95) — each with a delectable, plate-swiping demi-glace — offer carnivores reason to rejoice.
Ponti is far from perfect. The wine list wears Wine Spectator's 2001 Award of Excellence but is devoid of half-bottles and shy on wines under $35. And the warm chocolate torte ($7) wins no awards from me: It was dry, twice. But who's looking for perfection? I'll settle for quality and consistency. And this time I won't forget where to find it.
Nancy Leson: 206-464-8838 or nleson@seattletimes.com.