You could state with confidence that Madison Valley is Seattle’s best neighborhood for restaurants. Oh, sure, they may not be as trendy as some of the newer spots on Capitol Hill, as flashy as Belltown’s bistros or as elegant as the latest downtown creations by chefs with famous names. But just look at the record: There are three Madison Valley restaurants that have won local and even national acclaim within the last month.
First is Harvest Vine, the Spanish “tapas bar” at 2701 E. Madison St. When it opened, 15 years ago, hardly anyone even knew what tapas were. (“Small plates” was the answer — very small plates.) Now, it’s been named one of the top tapas bars in America by Travel & Leisure magazine and tops in Seattle by CBS News.
Now comes Nishino (a little farther east, at 3130 E. Madison St. in the Arboretum Court). Zagat (which is kind of like Yelp, but sober and grown-up) has ranked its 20 top-rated restaurants across the country, and the No. 1 restaurant in the Seattle area is none other than Nishino. It won a rating of 29 (out of 30) for food, 27 for service and 23 for décor.
The write-up: “Kyoto-born Tatsu Nishino conceives delicate, inventive and altogether-amazing sushi for deep-pocketed fans at his low-key Madison Park Japanese.”
What to order? The omakase (chef’s choice) menu, but call ahead.
And, as you read here last month, Bar Cantinetta (2811 E. Madison St.) has been named to the list of top 10 new restaurants in Seattle.
Welcome tastes
I sometimes think Cactus (4220 E. Madison St.) doesn’t get enough respect. The place was launched by Marco Casas-Breaux, who went on to open the Buenos Aires Grill, Ipanema and now the Grill from Ipanema (notice the subtle name change).
Along the way, he sold Cactus to the current owners, who expanded to five stores (South Lake Union, Alki, Bellevue Square and Kirkland) and tweaked the concept a bit (more American Southwest than South American).
I had an excellent lunch one cold but sunny day in early December: chile-braised brisket tacos garnished with cascabel salsa, red onion escabeche and Jack cheese, accompanied by fragrant, cumin-scented black beans. The kitchen didn’t need to add the roasted pumpkin seeds, but they added some welcome crunch.
Jason Wilson, the talented chef at Crush (2317 E. Madison St.) has now opened Miller’s Guild, his new meat emporium in the Hotel Max (622 Stewart St.). The centerpiece, is a fire-breathing, wood-burning rotisserie oven called Infierno.
And, finally, a sigh of relief that the job is done and a nod of thanks to the folks at the Sheraton Hotel for having persuaded Thierry Rautureau to own up downtown.
On the corner of Sixth Avenue and Union Street (formerly occupied by Alvin Goldfarb’s jewelry store), there’s now Loulay Kitchen & Bar. Yes, we’ve been anticipating for months, ever since Rautureau (“The Chef in the Hat!”) closed Rover’s in Madison Valley.
He still has Luc, of course, at the corner of East Madison Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way East, and, truth be told, the very approachable menu at Loulay owes more to Luc than to the multi-course haute cuisine of Rover’s.
Still, my first dish at Loulay was memorable: profiteroles filled with duck confit. Normally, profiterolles are stuffed with pastry cream and stuck together with spun sugar to make those dessert towers called pièces montées. But, here, they were filled with savory bits of duck — mini-sliders, if you will — and they were superb.
RONALD HOLDEN is a restaurant writer and consultant who blogs at Cornichon.org and Crosscut.com. To comment on this column, write to MPTimes@nwlink.com.
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