restaurant week.

my roommates and i decided to take advantage of the 3 course for $25 menu for seattle restaurant week at avila restaurant in wallingford. avila is a perfect example of how front of the house and service really have an effect on how the eater perceives their food. unfortunately, avila's service left a bad taste in all of our mouths, even after 3 delicious courses.
we arrived with 1 minute to spare before our 7:30 reservation, and were told that our table wasn't ready. we were flexible, and the friendly bartender kept us happy with free champagne (and refills!) at the bar. normally, free champagne would cajole me, and it did for the first part of the meal. the waitress took our order and the wine, bread, and appetizers came out without a hitch. the appetizers were by far the strongest course of the meal. roomie a had the mussels (yuck!) and i was even brave enough to try one. as a fishlover, however, she said they were awesome and dipped some of the left over bread into the housemade vermouth and green garlic at the bottom of the dish. roomie m had the pan fried asparagus, which were tender but still crisp and super flavorful. my appetizer was a really yummy goat cheese souffle with greens. i was really pleased with my choice.
after that, however, the service really went downhill. our entrees took almost 40 minutes to come out. as we watched people who had ordered after us get their entrees, we wondered if we had been forgotten. i'm an avid top chef fan, i know that sometimes a course gets messed up in the kitchen, and i'm totally ok with it. however, the lateness of our entrees was never acknowledged or appologized for by our server. in fact, she never even came over the refill our water! luckily i was in good company with good wine, or this situation could have been really miserable.
i had an artichoke and endive crostada that had an amazingly flaky and sweet crust. it was a well-rounded and hearty vegetarian dish, that i was completely satisfied with. the girls both had the halibut, which i'm told was well-cooked but poorly dressed. the menu explanations were brief, and with no guidance from our waitress the girls found their plates with two mystery balls (which turned out to be breaded and fried manilla clam meatballs) and a foreign green liquid (still not entirely sure of contents). now, i'm all about trying new foods. however, i would definitely like to know that those foods are before trying them. the girls were great sports, but i could tell they were both disappointed in the cohesiveness of their halibut dish.
we finished with a dessert that definitely made up for the silly halibut. we had one of each offering and rotated a warm malted chocolate souffle, spiced bread pudding, and chilled rhubarb soup. in my opinion, the soup was the star. tart rhubarb is a personal favorite of my pallatte, and this one was paired with a angel-food-like puffy cake in the middle and topped with white chocolate creme. the souffle would be best described as "one-note." it was tasty, but nothing i've never tasted before and portioned substantially larger than it needed to be. the bread pudding was really flavorful and came with a tart yogurt gelato (yet another meal component we had to ask about) from fainting goat gelato right down the street. this definitely spiked an interest in me to blog some local gelato in the very near future!
all in all, avila is a place of good food and innovative ingredients. however, something as simple as lack of water and spotty service really overshadowed the food. i think i'll venture out and try a lot more restaurants before i return to avila.
photo cred to www.avilaseattle.com.

fishless in bellingham!

this lovely saturday i decided to take a 24hour trip to bellingham to visit the fabulous k and sample some cuisine and lower priced drinks. now, i have become quite the creature of habit when it comes to visiting bellingham and tend to do pretty much the same thing every time i go up there. this time we did try a new spot for dinner though.
we took a walk in the beautiful sunshine (!) down to the chuckanut brewery and kitchen with our good friend gl. the place was adorable, there was live banjo music, and new beers for me to sample on tap. while the beer was good, the food wasn't nearly as delectable as i would have hoped. i had a goat cheese tart which was pretty good, but my cup of veggie soup tasted like luke warm pace picante sauce. mild pace picante sauce. not a good look. gl ordered some yam fries to share, which were not to the standard of my favorite yam fries in seattle at smith. while the aoli was really good and smokey, an aoli doesn't save a burnt soggy fry, good sir.
the night continued with tours through entirely too many bars to name or judge. one i did enjoy and would like to visit again on my next trip is uisce (pronounced ISH-KAH). it's a traditional irish (gaelic) pub with a killer atmosphere and a ridiculously comfy couch by the fire.
in the morning we nursed our hangovers with an old bellingham standby, the bagelry. this place has the best sourdough bagels EVER and is pretty much always packed. i always stick with the veggie sandwich with regular cream cheese on sourdough, which comes with tomato, onion, and a mountain of sprouts. there are millions of both schmear and bagel flavors, so the combinations are endless.
to round the day out, this ice cream conniseaur HAD to stop in at mallard ice cream. this place seriously rivals molly moon's and has WAY more flavors to choose from. i had a tough time deciding but had to eventually go with the earl grey, which was absolutely perfect! another favorite is the rose, which tastes like sweet rosewater and is super refreshing. mallard is so good, it is worth driving all the way to bellingham just to have some.

holy benedict, batman.

as much as a HATE seafood i LOVE breakfast. if i had to pick one meal to eat for the rest of my life i would absolutely choose breakfast or brunch. now, with this morning meal obsession comes some majorly discerning tastebuds for eggs benedict.

before i even go out to breakfast with someone, i check the online menu to see if they have a decent benedict selection. by far, my favorite comes from glo's on capitol hill.

the classic eggs benedict comes with a roasted tomato, a perfectly poached egg, and a savory, lemon-y, hollandaise. glo's also deviates from the classic with an eggs californian (avacado and tomato), eggs blackstone (bacon, tomato, and spinach), and a salmon benedict (need not apply to this blog, mister!) each one is absolutely impeccable (i'm pretty sure you fish-lovers will love the salmon).

for those of you who cringe at a butter-based sauce and a runny egg yolk there are many other options for you at glo's. my morning companion, the amazing gb, had another personal favorite in the vegetarian biscuits and gravy. the biscuits are huge and flaky and the gravy is unbelievably flavorful. meat-maniacs won't miss the traditional sausage chunks at all.

service is personal and friendly, and the coffee flows very favorably. on a weekend, you will definitely have to wait, but it will most certainly be worth it! take it from me, order a piece of the ridiculously delicious sour cream coffee cake, chill out, and wait for the best benedict of your life.