Yup, looks like I'm back to being the roaming consultant with a trip pretty much every month this year through August. This month takes me to Seattle, and wow I can't believe it's been like two years since the last time I was here! The freeway exiting the airport has really changed a lot and there is so much construction going on all over the place, the city really feels quite different.
The great thing about this trip is that I have an old college friend here so it's always nice coming to Seattle because we get to catch up and wile away the night "talking story" (pidgin for spending time talking about old times and random events/people). Plus I always stay with her when I'm here, so it's a very comfortable trip for me having a familiar face to hang out with and familiar room/house to stay in.
Tonight we got to have dinner at Lola (www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola), a Tom Douglas restaurant, in downtown Seattle. Finding parking was a bit of a challenge since there was lot of street work being done so a lot of the normal street parking wasn't available, but after going around a couple of times, we managed to find a parking only a couple of blocks away.
I don't think there's ever been a restaurant that I've said was a MUST EAT if you visit a city, but Lola is definitely going to be the one that makes me start this list for Seattle. Everything we had was outstanding--and as many of you know, I'm a very hard eater to totally please.
Michelle (my college bud), her husband Ray, and I pretty much shared the entire meal. We started off with the Lola Sampler ($21): prawn kebabs (3 medium sized ones), marinated olives (a handfull), deep fried chick peas, dolmades (2 cut in halves), tzatziki, red pepper spread, in-house made pita. Dolmades are definitely one of my favorite Greek appetizers and these dolmades were really good--nicely balanced (not sour, but enough lemon that you could taste it), the rice wasn't over-cooked, and this one also had pine nuts in it, which added a nice airy crunch that was a nice textural touch.
The prawn kebabs weren't anything special, but the deep fried chick peas were surprisingly yummy (very similiar in taste to roasted soy nuts) for something so simple. Both spreads had a slight bite (in a good way) to them, but the pita bread was a little heavy to me, but still very good and lightly toasted was a nice compliment to both the tzatziki and the red pepper spread. We asked for more pita to be able to finish all of the spreads--a half order of pita was $1.75.
Michelle and Ray ordered the "I Heart Lamb" family style dinner ($30 per person) which had lamb served four different ways.
The first was the leg, which was served carpaccio style with olives, mint, and graviera cheese. This was actually the only dish that I wasn't impressed by: the carpaccio was extremely thin, so thin that we couldn't actually taste the lamb, especially when it was competing with the marinated olives, mint, and graviera cheese--all very strong flavorful tastes.
The second dish was lamb shoulder, served as Turkish kofte (meatballs), covered with toasted pine nuts, yogurt, aleppo, and accented with slivers of toasted pita. The meatballs were tasty with a light lamb taste (I think even non-lamb lovers could have eaten this). The richness of the lamb and sauce was contrasted with the cool taste of the yogurt and the crisp toasty pine nuts, a great medley of tastes and textures. We all agreed that this was one of our favorite dishes of the night.
Ray also added a dish from the "I REALLY heart lamb" selections ($5): lamb heart, skewered and grilled and flavored with ouzo and fennel pollen. Ray and I loved this, but Michelle wouldn't touch it. It was definitely the best heart I ever had. I know the thought of organ meat turns a lot of people off (Michelle included), but the way this was prepared, you wouldn't have even known it was heart. It had a nice texture, not too chewy, without any of the "organ taste". The fennel pollen and ouzo was surprising delicious and not overwhelming (and I don't even like fennel or licorace). At first I had only took a couple of pieces, but it was so good, I ended up taking an entire skewer!
For our entrees, Michelle and Ray had the lamb shank, which was stewed with a whole artichoke, and baby carrots. It was served with fried (not deep) dill garlic smashed potatoes (think small half potatoes scored and crushed slightly) and Swiss Chard--I'm not sure how this was prepared but it was really really tasty and soft. I was expecting something along the lines of the sides of bok choy that every other chef seems to be serving, but the Swiss chard was really soft (but not soggy) and very flavorful (I couldn't place the flavor).
I had the coffee braised young goat tagine (stew) that was cooked with ouzo, fennel, cocoa nib, and dates. Our server described the dish as half way between pot roast and lamb shank, but once I tasted it, I would instead describe it as a very rich tasting braised short rib. It was very tender, and while I could tell it wasn't beef, there wasn't a strong gamey taste or anything else that would have told me that it wasn't beef. The dates made the stew gravy nicely sweet, and at the same time it was very rich from the goat, by the time I finished with it I was so satisfied, I didn't even want dessert.
The last lamb dish in Michelle and Ray's "I Heart Lamb" coursing was "Milk": a manouri rhubarb phyllo pie, served with three different sauces: rhubarb, yogurt, and tangerine marmalade. The pie filling was also pretty rich--I kind of assume that the "milk" means that part of the filling was lamb's milk cheese (there was some white stuff that tasted somewhat like goat cheese) which was contrasted with the tanginess of the rhubarb. The yogurt and marmalade sauces weren't anything special, and Ray and I both thought the rhubarb sauce matched the pie the best. Lastly, the pastry chef is probably going to hate me for saying this, but when the pie was served it looked like a McDonald's apple pie and the crust actually tasted like the McDonald's pie crust to me too. That isn't necessarily a bad thing in my book, but Michelle and I both thought it was an appropriate analogy to describe the appearance and taste of the crust. I defnitely think this dessert would have been better served as small bite size mini-pies that you could just take the pie and dip it in the sauce and eat.
By this time, we were all totally stuffed, but I wish I could have eaten more of the desserts since they all sounded really good. You can check out their entire menu here: www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola/menu--everything sounded good and I definitely want to find time to try everything on the menu!
Well that was a lot of food and definitely a lot of writing, so I'll end it here. Hope you're all eating well too!
The great thing about this trip is that I have an old college friend here so it's always nice coming to Seattle because we get to catch up and wile away the night "talking story" (pidgin for spending time talking about old times and random events/people). Plus I always stay with her when I'm here, so it's a very comfortable trip for me having a familiar face to hang out with and familiar room/house to stay in.
Tonight we got to have dinner at Lola (www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola), a Tom Douglas restaurant, in downtown Seattle. Finding parking was a bit of a challenge since there was lot of street work being done so a lot of the normal street parking wasn't available, but after going around a couple of times, we managed to find a parking only a couple of blocks away.
I don't think there's ever been a restaurant that I've said was a MUST EAT if you visit a city, but Lola is definitely going to be the one that makes me start this list for Seattle. Everything we had was outstanding--and as many of you know, I'm a very hard eater to totally please.
Michelle (my college bud), her husband Ray, and I pretty much shared the entire meal. We started off with the Lola Sampler ($21): prawn kebabs (3 medium sized ones), marinated olives (a handfull), deep fried chick peas, dolmades (2 cut in halves), tzatziki, red pepper spread, in-house made pita. Dolmades are definitely one of my favorite Greek appetizers and these dolmades were really good--nicely balanced (not sour, but enough lemon that you could taste it), the rice wasn't over-cooked, and this one also had pine nuts in it, which added a nice airy crunch that was a nice textural touch.
The prawn kebabs weren't anything special, but the deep fried chick peas were surprisingly yummy (very similiar in taste to roasted soy nuts) for something so simple. Both spreads had a slight bite (in a good way) to them, but the pita bread was a little heavy to me, but still very good and lightly toasted was a nice compliment to both the tzatziki and the red pepper spread. We asked for more pita to be able to finish all of the spreads--a half order of pita was $1.75.
Michelle and Ray ordered the "I Heart Lamb" family style dinner ($30 per person) which had lamb served four different ways.
The first was the leg, which was served carpaccio style with olives, mint, and graviera cheese. This was actually the only dish that I wasn't impressed by: the carpaccio was extremely thin, so thin that we couldn't actually taste the lamb, especially when it was competing with the marinated olives, mint, and graviera cheese--all very strong flavorful tastes.
The second dish was lamb shoulder, served as Turkish kofte (meatballs), covered with toasted pine nuts, yogurt, aleppo, and accented with slivers of toasted pita. The meatballs were tasty with a light lamb taste (I think even non-lamb lovers could have eaten this). The richness of the lamb and sauce was contrasted with the cool taste of the yogurt and the crisp toasty pine nuts, a great medley of tastes and textures. We all agreed that this was one of our favorite dishes of the night.
Ray also added a dish from the "I REALLY heart lamb" selections ($5): lamb heart, skewered and grilled and flavored with ouzo and fennel pollen. Ray and I loved this, but Michelle wouldn't touch it. It was definitely the best heart I ever had. I know the thought of organ meat turns a lot of people off (Michelle included), but the way this was prepared, you wouldn't have even known it was heart. It had a nice texture, not too chewy, without any of the "organ taste". The fennel pollen and ouzo was surprising delicious and not overwhelming (and I don't even like fennel or licorace). At first I had only took a couple of pieces, but it was so good, I ended up taking an entire skewer!
For our entrees, Michelle and Ray had the lamb shank, which was stewed with a whole artichoke, and baby carrots. It was served with fried (not deep) dill garlic smashed potatoes (think small half potatoes scored and crushed slightly) and Swiss Chard--I'm not sure how this was prepared but it was really really tasty and soft. I was expecting something along the lines of the sides of bok choy that every other chef seems to be serving, but the Swiss chard was really soft (but not soggy) and very flavorful (I couldn't place the flavor).
I had the coffee braised young goat tagine (stew) that was cooked with ouzo, fennel, cocoa nib, and dates. Our server described the dish as half way between pot roast and lamb shank, but once I tasted it, I would instead describe it as a very rich tasting braised short rib. It was very tender, and while I could tell it wasn't beef, there wasn't a strong gamey taste or anything else that would have told me that it wasn't beef. The dates made the stew gravy nicely sweet, and at the same time it was very rich from the goat, by the time I finished with it I was so satisfied, I didn't even want dessert.
The last lamb dish in Michelle and Ray's "I Heart Lamb" coursing was "Milk": a manouri rhubarb phyllo pie, served with three different sauces: rhubarb, yogurt, and tangerine marmalade. The pie filling was also pretty rich--I kind of assume that the "milk" means that part of the filling was lamb's milk cheese (there was some white stuff that tasted somewhat like goat cheese) which was contrasted with the tanginess of the rhubarb. The yogurt and marmalade sauces weren't anything special, and Ray and I both thought the rhubarb sauce matched the pie the best. Lastly, the pastry chef is probably going to hate me for saying this, but when the pie was served it looked like a McDonald's apple pie and the crust actually tasted like the McDonald's pie crust to me too. That isn't necessarily a bad thing in my book, but Michelle and I both thought it was an appropriate analogy to describe the appearance and taste of the crust. I defnitely think this dessert would have been better served as small bite size mini-pies that you could just take the pie and dip it in the sauce and eat.
By this time, we were all totally stuffed, but I wish I could have eaten more of the desserts since they all sounded really good. You can check out their entire menu here: www.tomdouglas.com/restaurants/lola/menu--everything sounded good and I definitely want to find time to try everything on the menu!
Well that was a lot of food and definitely a lot of writing, so I'll end it here. Hope you're all eating well too!
