Review: Joule

A friend of Pisco’s recently went to Joule. Here’s her review:

Salut Pisco, yes we did visit Joule and enjoyed it enormously. It has more of a casual vibe (one big room with kitchen on a raised platform in the middle — weird but seems to work), but the food was exquisitely prepared and served. We special-requested a tasting menu ($75 for seven courses, $35 for wine pairing) which consisted of the following:

1. Savory egg custard served in an eggshell with a tiny sliver of shitake mushroom and dollop of caviar — most of us liked this one but C didn’t because he thought it was too “egg-y”. Served with a Cremant

2. grilled prawn salad with watermelon radish and sweet chili vinaigrette — awesome, the dressing was slightly spicy and complemented the giant poached prawn perfectly. Served with a (Oregon?) chardonnay

3. baby ravioli with ricotta in a light cream sauce (can’t recall the fancy name now) — this one was delightful and all of us scrapped the plate clean. We couldn’t really discern the “asian” element in this dish but they certainly do pasta very well! Served with an unfiltered sake

4. grilled octopus with braised fennel — this was the one dish three out of four of us did not like because the octopus was too chewy. The slice of braised ennel bulb though was delicious… Served with a funky green fennel cocktail — we had mixed reviews of this particular pairing.

5. Kobe beef with kalbi-styled sauce and pureed kambocha squash — all of our eyes rolled backwards in ecstasy over this one… served with a (Chilean?) Cab

6. Blue cheese “creme brulee” with quince jam — a very interesting and flavorful take on the cheese course, imagine something that looks like creme brulee with the burnt sugar topping but underneath a savory creamy Stilton-type of “creme”. Served with a Sautern-like sweet white Bordeaux

7. Espresso chocolate mouse with “ice cream”made with condensed milk — pleasant but not terribly special IMHO, served with a port.

I’m going by memory right now (we’d saved the menu but I’m at my parents’…) but I hope this helps! The neighboring table ordered some sort of potsticker thing that looked good, also a whole grilled fish that i’d get when I go again.

Sounds like a great experience – Pisco looks forward to a Joule visit soon.

Joule [map]
1913 N 45th St, Seattle, WA
(206) 632-1913
www.joulerestaurant.com/