Fine Dining, Fine View At Kirkland's Fish Cafe

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XXX 1/2 The Third Floor Fish Cafe, 205 Lake St. S., Kirkland. ($$$) Lunch ($6.95 to $14) 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Monday through Friday. Dinner ($15 to $23) 5 to 9:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; until 10 p.m. Friday, Saturday. Closed Sunday. Lounge, full bar. Major credit cards. Nonsmoking area. Reservations: 822-3553. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Turning around a major restaurant can be a lot like turning around a supertanker. It may take a long, long time, and no small amount of anxiety.

The Third Floor Fish Cafe on the Kirkland waterfront has a splendid marina view (almost identical to Anthony's Homeport next door), a handsome, burnished, dark-wood interior and a 12-year history. Unfortunately, not much of that history was illustrious - and little was profitable.

It started out in 1984 as Isaac's on Moss Bay, evolved at various times into a Pantley's, a Third Floor Steakhouse and a Foghorn. Five years ago, building owner Herb Chaffey brought in Kathy Casey to begin a serious revision. Casey "lightened and brightened" both the menu and the interior. It became the Fish Cafe and the turnaround began.

But a finer point was put on the cafe when Scott Staples took over as head chef 14 months ago (after stints at Italia, the Palm Court and the Edgewater). More recently, Doug Guiberson, a front-of-the-house fixture at Canlis for 26 years, was recruited as manager - and for the first time, all of the key pieces were in place.

Lots of talent

Guiberson is a world-class host and Staples is a major young talent on the verge of stardom, who has revised most of the original Casey menu (her excellent Northwest Shellfish Stew remains) and reshaped the kitchen with Mediterranean-rim concepts.

Crisp Calamari ($5.95, and best late in the week when a shipment of large and tender East coast squid arrives fresh and unfrozen) is set off by a bracing North African charmoula sauce that suggests a marriage between a hot-pepper harissa and an aioli. The seafood and sauce pairing is irresistable.

Equally compelling are Grilled Prawns ($9.95 as a starter), served with diced, crisped pancetta over a mound of creamy-soft polenta, topped with an arugula pesto and surrounded by a silken moat of lobster nage.

Occasionally available in the same appetizer price range, and at $22 for a dinner entree, are "Diver's Scallops," hand-gathered (i.e, not bottom-trawled) scallops from Alaska, which recently were presented over mixed wild greens in a dramatic blood-orange vinaigrette, rimmed with black trumpeter mushrooms. It's the kind of dish that makes you close your eyes in wonder and wave your fork serenely back and forth like a magic wand divining its essence.

A friend was dabbing up the last of the sauce with her finger when the waiter arrived to ask how things were. "Well, since you caught me practically licking my plate . . . " she began.

Pan-Fried Sturgeon ($18.95) was possibly the single-best seafood entree I've had this year, served with a shiitake mushroom vinaigrette and arranged over a gleaming disc of Nikko rice cake (pearl grain rice, given a sushi rice-vinegar rub, then infused with coconut milk, shaped into a disc and griddle-browned on top and bottom).

The fillet was fried just enough to flake the tissues, but not enough to even begin to dry out the flesh, which was moist and tender.

Grilled Ahi Tuna ($18.95) is presented seared, but quite rare, over a savory stew of cannelinni, garbonzo and Roman beans, with a wedge of roasted fennel.

Mostly seafood, some meat

A few red meat items are on the essentially seafood menu. The best of these is probably the Braised Lamb Shank ($18.95), which is simmered in cabernet sauvignon, flanked by a heady ragout of three forest mushrooms (chanterelles, shiitakes and black trumpeters) and arranged leaning on a drift of mashed potatoes that are fluffed inside of large, framing leaves of radicchio, with sprays of fresh rosemary and marjoram nestled around the shank.

I praised my self-restraint in finishing only half of it, then caved in, around midnight, when I ate all of the take-home leftovers - standing in front of the refrigerator - cold, with a glass of red wine. Life's short.

It's not yet on the menu, but ask for the basmati-rice pudding (topped with a small scoop of carrot sorbet!), around $4.50.

A visit at lunch was pleasant, but merely adequate. A Northwest Romaine Salad ($12.95) was attractive, but a scoop of chopped kalamata olives clashed with a quite good Thousand Island dressing. The olives won, but not by much. (Copyright, 1996, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.)

John Hinterberger, who writes the weekly restaurant review in Tempo and a Sunday food column in Pacific, visits restaurants anonymously and unannounced. He pays in full for all food, wines and services. Interviews of the restaurants' management and staff are done only after meals and services have been appraised. He does not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.