Tapeo is a Spanish tapas joint in Central; Pisco visited last Saturday with a couple friends for a late dinner.  It’s a nice place, somewhat minimal in design, pleasantly (read: dimly) lighted, and I found my friends at the bar where they had already started eating.

I spotted a special list, on which was posted a “morcilla with duck egg” tapa… what a delight!  Rich morcilla, crumbled on a small plate, topped with a sunny-side up duck egg.  The waitron offered to break the egg; I acceded and she returned the plate a minute later with everything mixed together, kind of like an undercooked hash.  What a delight – hands down the best plate of the evening.  The accompanying baguette was a bit chewy, but sufficed as a vehicle on which to shovel morcilla and egg into one’s gullet.

The white anchovies were excellent too.

The owners of Tapeo also run Box Thai and Mrs. Jones; if they’re anything like Tapeo they’ll be good options for regular eating.

Tapeo
19 Hollywood Rd
Central, Hong Kong [map]
+852 3171 1989

Pisco has relocated to Hong Kong.  If you’ve got suggestions of great places to eat, please suggest!

Bluebird Homemade Ice Cream & Tea Room opened on Capitol Hill, just down the block from The Elysian on Pike St.

Blueberry Sorbet

Northwest Strawberry Ice Cream

Very tasty.  Go get some.  The sorbet was an experiment (special) so it may or may not be on the menu when you visit.

1205 E Pike St.
Seattle, WA 98122

Bluebird

Burrata and bresaola appetizer enjoyed tonight at La Spiga.  Go get some!

Pisco eats at Coastal Kitchen every once in a while; usually for their brunches, which are hearty and accompanied by well-crafted espresso drinks.  Dinner is often hit or miss, perhaps because every few months they throw darts at a globe and feature that region’s cuisine.  [What was it this time?  Morocco?  Tunisia?  Pisco only recalls merguez on the menu.]  This often works well but it can be a little unpredictable.  This from some who loves unpredictability…

But tonight Pisco and K dropped by for dinner; a quiet night where sitting at the bar yielded a perfect view of the kitchen crew executing orders in a jovial yet professional fashion.  We had one burger and one breakfast.  For dinner.  Yes, breakfast.

The burger was excellent.  Rare, topped with bleu cheese and slices of avocado; this was a configuration previously unknown to my tastebuds.  How could this have been?  The creamy avocado was a lovely counterpoint to the salty bleu; the grass-fed beef was spot-on rare, and appropriately sized.  (Thank you, CK, for not subscribing to the “Too Big To Fail” burger philosophy.)  The fries were nothing to write home about, and so we shan’t.

The breakfast was equally enjoyable.  Three eggs over easy, three fatty sausage links, two grilled thick-cut slices of toast, and a lightly cheesed pile of hash browns (or was it mashed potatoes?  A mystery in the bar’s low lights) was enough for two diners, and we didn’t even make a dent in the potatoes.

Professional, low-key service was just right for this tranquil Thursday night.  Well done, Coastal Kitchen.  Pisco salutes you.

Coastal Kitchen [map]

Pisco and a friend drove by what looked like a new restaurant on Friday, and decided to stop by and check it out.  Turns out it was Barrio, a nuevo latino/small plates establishment.  We asked our server how long they had been open, and she replied, “Today’s the first official day!”

With that in mind, we ordered a small spread of food as a first round, and decided to eat a bit, and then order more as we saw fit.

First impressions of the decor: large space, high ceilings, a long and curvaceous bar, visible kitchen.  There is a large grid of oil lamps on one side (maybe a couple hundred?); Pisco wonders whose gets the job to light and extinguish them each night.  The entry doors are massive, but allow large drafts into the room, so bad that we had to change tables ten minutes after sitting down.

We perused the drink menu, and the folded paper food menu.  The drink menu fits into a neat slot built into underside of the table.  Handy for you thirsty folk!  It’s arranged by primary liquor: tequila, vodka, rum, etc.  Pisco ordered a Toronto (rye, Fernet Branca); Pisco’s friend D ordered some drink with a cucumber in it.  The Toronto was a hit – dry, tasty, and the right way to end a long work week; recommended.

We ordered four items off the menu: a pumpkinseed hummus, chorizo and egg taco (2), duck confit tamale, and churros with spicy chocolate.

The pumpkinseed hummus was bright orange, and had the texture of a dry (regular) hummus.  Served with one bowl of corn chips, and another bowl of yucca chips (on request), it was a good start to the meal.  Be warned that it packs a bit of heat on a long fuse; you won’t notice the warmth until you’re almost done with the bowl.

The chorizo and egg tacos arrived next, and they were the high point of the meal.  The chorizo is house made: succulent, spicy, and not overly oily; it was the best chorizo I’ve had in ages.  Accompanied by a gently fried egg, it was platonic ideal of  a breakfast sandwich.  Highly recommended.

The duck confit tamale came next, slathered in a dark, pasty sauce that looked like a mole.  Mole it was not!  The chef had charred a bunch of peppers, and then pureed the whole lot; it worked well with the duck, which was tender.  Pisco has recently eaten an awful lot of good duck (in Beijing), so it cannot be said that this duck was off the charts, but the dish worked well.

Surprisingly full after just these three dishes, we ordered churros with hot chocolate sauce to end the meal.  The chocolate was warm, rich, slightly spicy, and perfect.  The churros, unfortunately, had been taken out of the fryer 45 seconds too early and they were a soggy mess inside.  This did not stop us from devouring all 5 churros, mind you, but you could have dipped churro-shaped sawdust cakes into that chocolate and you’d still be delighted.

Service on the whole was quite good, considering it was their first day.  Our server was earnest and attentive and intent on ensuring we had a good experience.  We mentioned that the churros were a little undercooked (because I’d rather they find out from me than some more-widely-read reviewer), and they were taken off the bill.  Classy.

Overall it’s a very good experience.  We didn’t try too many of the dishes, so a trip back to sit at the long bar is definitely in the future.

Food: B+
Ambiance: B
Service: B+
Value: B+
Overall: B+

Pumpkinseed hummus

Chorizo and egg tacos

Duck confit tamale

Churros and chocolate

Barrio
1420 12th Avenue
Seattle, WA

Pisco dropped by Ethan Stowell’s newest venture, How To Cook A Wolf (awesomely useless site) for a late dinner and walked away with a good vibe. The venue is small (30 seats, perhaps?) and high-end cozy: perfectly dim lighting, ample use of warm tones in the copper wall accents and cork-lined bar, and a marvelous installation of light-toned bent-wood panels from mid-height to the ceiling, which immediately gave me the sense of sitting underneath a mutant Eames lounger. It felt rather thrilling.

The room was full when we arrived just before 10pm, but the hostess graciously offered to call us when a couple seats became available. We gave a mobile number, and then strolled over to Sorrentino, where Fabio poured a great Campari aperitivo at the bar. We chatted briefly about La Spiga, where he used to work, and commiserated about its decline into incredible snobbery popularity after its move to ritzy, high-ceilinged digs on 12th Ave. C’est la vie.

We return to Wolf after the call came that seats were available, and sat down at the bar, just a few feet from Ethan as he calmly threw some greens into a bowl. He has an air of comfort and competence around him; Pisco wishes that more people were that good at what they do. Competence is a truly beautiful trait to behold; it’s a shame that this world provides so few opportunities to see it.

The menu is midsize – perhaps twelve appetizers, six mains, and five desserts. We were informed that they had run out of the soft-boiled eggs with anchovy, which ruined my plan to get the eggs and another appetizer; nothing else sounded appealing at that hour. Luckily there was a tagliatelle bolognese on the mains list; my friend A opted for the frisée salad.

The pasta was a simple, lovely dish, not overly large, but certainly filling enough for most guests. The tagliatelle ribbons tasted fresh, were light on the palate, and perfectly al dente. The ragù was rich, moist, and much better than the last sample Pisco ordered (appropriately enough at La Spiga).

Pisco only had one taste of the salad, but it was remarkably flavorful – a tart, rich bite from just a couple leaves that will remind him to order it next time.

The bread that accompanied our entrées was fresh, having a crunchy crust and light, elastic crumb (center). The olive oil was refreshingly light; both were refilled as we practically inhaled the first plate.

The crowd was reasonably diverse, with upscale patrons ranging from older couples, young women at the bar, and an assortment of Upper Queen Anne hipsters passing through.

Overall, it’s a great new place – Pisco would return solely on the fact that they nailed the lighting, but the experience is overall quite pleasant. It’s appropriately priced too, with appetizers from $5-15, and mains from $12-20. Go there with your friends, lovers, family, or when jonesing for a fresh late-night pasta.

Food: A
Service: B
Ambiance: A
Value: B
Overall: B+

How To Cook A Wolf
2208 Queen Anne Ave. N. [map]
+1 206 838-8090

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/

There are many places on the “to visit” list, and given the limited opportunities to dine out, it’s always a toss-up between exploring new places and returning to old favorites. Pisco has known about Seven Stars Pepper for quite some time, but never had the chance to experience it. What a mistake to wait so long!

Four of us made our way to the second floor of the commercial center on 12th and Jackson – a nondescript building save for the ramp that descends sharply to an underground parking garage. The restaurant was busy, but service was swift – a scallion pancake was on the table almost instantly, as were three bottles of Tsingtao. Overcome by the delicious smells in the air, we promptly overordered: hand-shaven noodles, Szechuan crab, deep-fried chicken, pea sprouts, and yes, even a whole deep-fried tilapia. For those keeping score, that’s five entrees and one appetizer for four peckish friends.

The noodles were delicious, though Pisco is not an expert on this dish. They were markedly better than the hand-shaven noodles at Shanghai Cafe in Factoria, which are supposedly quite good.

The Szechuan crab is said to be their best dish, and it’s a winner. Hot, covered in spice, and extremely large, we could not help ripping off the legs and sucking off every last bit of meat. It was messy, and copious amounts of beer were consumed as we reveled in the spice. This is a must-order dish.

The fried chicken was competent; slightly reminiscent of karaage chicken but spicier. The pea sprouts were crisp and brightly colored; they tasted much as they looked.

The whole fried fish was nearly perfect; had it not been just barely overcooked it would have been heavenly. But with fried fish, those last 10 seconds make all the difference.

Total bill was around $120 including tip and tax for 4.

Pisco can’t wait to go back again soon.

Service: A (friendly and fast)
Food: A
Value: B

Seven Stars Pepper

1207 S Jackson St
Seattle, WA 98144

Get Directions(206) 568-6446
[map]

Pisco has visited Palace Kitchen numerous times, and it’s a reliable, solid experience. It’s especially good late at night, when the bar is packed with people and you can feel the energy buzzing in the air. Say what you want about the food, but there are precious few places in the Emerald City where you can find a broad range of folks eating and drinking with gusto past midnight.

Today was a friend’s birthday so three of us headed out for an early dinner after roaming around downtown. Pisco can’t remember the last time he ate before dark (last spring?) but given the menacing cloud cover, wind, and intermittent rain, it might as well have been night.

The menu looked good and we ordered a few small plates to start. The goat cheese fondue was a winner, though it’s hard to imagine anything that would not taste insanely delicious after being dredged though melted goat cheese. The cheese plate was excellent too, with the schloss cheese going quite well with the accompanying oatmeal crackers.

I remember seeing the description for the Carbonara dish – something about fresh homemade noodles, chanterelle mushrooms, Parmesan cheese, and an olive oil-based sauce. I asked our server if there was any pancetta in it, and he said no – it was essentially a vegetarian version. “You could, of course, order some bacon on the side, and many of our customers do that,” he added. Pisco makes a quite decent carbonara at home, so in the interest of exploring another version, he took leave of his senses and ordered the dish.

Let’s review the essential components of a carbonara dish: pasta, eggs, cheese, cured meat (guanciale or pancetta), and black pepper. Its likely origin (rather, the story I like best) is that it was eaten by the “carbonari” (coal miners) in Italy who could only take long-lasting supplies with them to the mines. It’s a hearty dish, and when its powerful flavors come together in the right combination, it is heavenly. Unfortunately, what came out was so far from what I expected that I immediately disliked it. Vegetarian carbonara? An oxymoron. There were no cured meats on the plate, and if they had used black pepper it could not be detected. Instead, there were a handful of chanterelles scattered around the plate, and leaves of escarole mixed with the fresh pasta. In retrospect I can’t imagine a more effete version of this classic. Escarole? Please.

It was not completely without merit – the house-made noodles were delicious. Light and fresh, cooked al dente, they were the only redeeming feature.

I think if this dish was marketed as something other than pasta carbonara, it would be quite good. I can imagine quite a large number of people who would like something similar to this. But for the love of all things Italian, please don’t call it carbonara! Somewhere in Emilia-Romagna, an old cook named Luigi is turning over in his grave.

And while I’m ranting about authenticity – please serve the limoncello ice cold. It’s quite good, a bit less potent than other versions I’ve had lately, but it needs to be chilled to get the right effect.

I love the Palace Kitchen, and I’ll be back soon, but I won’t be ordering the carbonara.