Andy "milk was a bad choice" K.'s Profile

Turns out week-day breakfasts are tasty too. The menu is much more limited than weekend brunch but I really like the "build a breakfast sandwich" options. The sandwich was a touch expensive but it was very flavorful unlike many less satisfying specimens.

This place deserves 5 stars for ambiance alone. The space is amazing: dark woods, low light, grated windows with trees filling the view... it's really really nice. It's quite loud though and if there are more than two of you expect to raise your voice to be heard.

The food was all excellent. Our group of four shared the bread, sweetbreads, lasagna, gnocchi,  lamb, and curry sausage with papaya. The standouts were probably the lamb and the gnocchi, but I'd happily eat any of them again.

The price:portion ratio seemed a bit high. Nothing too far from what you'd expect and not enough to keep be from returning (but I'd come back sooner otherwise :)

Also - whatever they varnished the tables with sticks to glassware in a really weird way. It wasn't sticky but I had to sort of wrench my wine and water glasses off the table. I predict many spilled drinks

Best burger of my life. Which either says a lot about my life so far... or about Skillet... but I'm going to go with the latter. Thanks for throwing in a few pro bono fries even though I didn't order them. Not so sure I'll ever be satisfied by other burgers ever again.

Easily 4 stars and almost 5. I visited Emmer  & Rye for the Seattle Restaurant Week and was blown away by the food, service, and space.

Among the three of us we tried all three first-courses. Of these the parsnip soup was the clear winner: a silky, deeply flavorful soup with a surprising complexity considering its simplicity. The nettle pesto added a  restrained amount of grassy contrast while the hazelnuts added just the right earthiness and crunch to contrast the otherwise perfectly smooth bowl. I do think that portion was slightly to large; not because I didn't eat every drop of it, but because by the end isn't quite as special as the first half-bowl was.

Of the main courses we tried the salmon and the beef bolognese. The bolognese was astounding with a deep meaty unctuousness that clung to every shell of the substantial home-made pasta. Often I don't find pasta that interesting but here it's half of what makes this dish so good - it reminded me that pasta can be more than a quick meal when you're out of time to do anything but boil water. Again, slightly too large of a portion, but I'm more than happy to eat the leftovers.

As far as dessert - there's something to satisfy anyone who's either into chocolate, fruit, or creamy cold things. The rocky-road brownie is far more sophisticated than its name: the butterscotch sauce is just bitter enough to contrast the sweet homemade marshmallow and rich chocolate brownie. The butterscotch pote de creme follows a similar formula: sweet yet bitter and smoother than Tom Jones. The rhubarb shortcake comes on a surprisingly earthy (in a good way!) scone that tastes as much of wheat as sweet.

Emmer & Rye occupies a very attractive space with great lighting. It can be a bit noisy but the dining area is broken up into a series of smaller spaces that make the experience feel more intimate than it otherwise might. The service struck a nice balance between formal, confident, informed and the more expected Seattle-casual. The pacing was just right and made the three courses easily span two hours.

I'll be back once RW is over, but $25 is a ridiculous steal considering the quality and quantity of what you will receive.

If I lived in Belltown this would a standby for a lazy breakfast and to satisfy those acute cravings for croissant that demand to be satisfied. Living in Capitol Hil I'm glad I stopped in for lunch but probably won't make the trek down again.

A meal of leek quiche, mushroom bisque, and a marionberry croissant was very tasty, but for $15 it felt a little steep even though each item was very good.

While a few slices of baguette came with my food they didn't inspire me to take a loaf home - the crust was soft and the crumb was dense. Not at all the crackly, hole-pocked freshness that you would expect from a French bakery. Scoping out the loaves it didn't look like they would stand up to the competition of Macrina, Essential, or Tall Grass.

There's nothing out of the ordinary about Machiavelli, and that's part of why it's so good. More than once, when my brain and my stomach couldn't make up their collective mind about what I wanted to eat, Machiavelli has filled the bill. There's something comforting about a simple bowl of pasta that's steaming hot and not aspiring to be anything else.

Clearly plenty of people agree - it can be tough to get in on weekend nights, but it is worth a moderate wait, especially if you're jonesing for Italian. Service is prompt and the food arrives fairly quickly considering how busy it can be. The dining area is warm and inviting and perfect for watching pedestrians as they climb up Pine.

I hate Krispy Kreme, I really do. Unsatisfying pieces of sickly sweet sugared air. I once asked a friend "friend, how can one of these satisfy you?" to which he responded "you eat six of them"... wrong wrong wrong.

I like my doughnuts to satisfy in the single serving form - heavy in that way that only a fresh old fashioned can be. Top Pot delivers exactly the kind of doughnuts I crave.

Sitting in one of the window seat with a doughnut, coffee, and book is my idea of a perfect fall day. The space is big enough to accommodate the traffic and those who want to camp out for a while and soak in the ambiance.

With all the recent media hype about Spring Hill and chef Mark Fuller it took me a little while to digest my experience there and decide that it didn't meet the bar that has been established.

Reservations for 6 through Open Table worked without a hitch and the service was fine, though nothing remarkable. The space itself is attractive in a modern sort of way and I was glad to find that it was warmer inside that it looked.

An order of the bread was surprisingly ordinary, though the accompanying butter and sea salt was delicious. There are certainly better breads out there, however, even if you are featuring the fatty component.

Further appetizers of a trio of rillettes (tuna, port, duck) and seared scallops were probably the stars of the night. The rillettes were delicious, particularly the duck, and were enjoyed by all. The scallops were perfectly cooked, but they did not pair at all well with the salmon roe that was used on the plate. There briny saltiness of the eggs distracted from and overwhelmed the delicate sweetness of the star ingredient.

Entrees were hit or miss. Three orders of the tagliatelle with pork belly and hen-of-the-woods mushrooms were all enjoyed. The portion size may have been a bit too large and the noodles themselves not all that remarkable, but the fatty pork and expertly cooked mushrooms were ample and delicious. Orders of the halibut and the burger were both received mostly without remark while the duck was found to be disappointing.

Desserts were also a mixed bag. The trio of icecreams (popcorn, ovaltine, and cinnamon-toast-crunch) were all delicious. The bread pudding was extremely boozy but nothing about it made it superior to any other bread pudding out there. The coconut-bar had good flavor but was very difficult to cut through and made it a chore to manage.

Spring Hill's food certainly is good, but the price is high and for that the offerings should be more remarkable. At the same (or lower) price point Seattle already has a slew of restaurants that offer a more exciting experience.

I only wish the guy selling at the Ballard farmers market seemed happier. This is really excellent bread and should make everyone happy!

I love the fougasse; it tasks like the tastiest pizza crust in the world but studded with olives.
I love the hominy bread warmed and covered and butter with soup or chowder.
I love their baguette with butter or cheese.
I love the sourdough for sandwiches.

Like everyone else I wish it was less $$ but you get what you pay for and this bread is clearly superior.

Why not 5 stars? I'm not exactly sure... but I like to leave something to aspire to. Any place that can smoothly handle a group of 14, complete with baby, gets 3 stars automatically. If they add bacon to their pancakes they get at least 4.

TOPH had no problem with given an advance reservation for 14 at 11am Saturday morning. The table was ready on time and, in fact, we kept them waiting as the last stragglers showed up a few minutes late. There was ample room for all of us and through the rest of the morning service was fast and attentive.

There's a lot on that menu but this is The Original House of something and it isn't eggs benedict, so I had to go the direction of pancakes. Pancakes always feel a little lonely by themselves so I had to go the route of the "1 by three" (about $9): 1 egg, two sausage links, and three pancakes. They were happy to substitute bacon pancakes for the advertised buttermilk.

Normally I avoid diner pancakes; they're dense and I leave feeling like I'd been sucker punched when I was sleepy and vulnerable. Not so here! The pancakes were light with a very tasty batter that encased the bacon pieces. I wouldn't say the bacon-pancake is a transcendental experience, but it is a delicious alternative from sweeter fare. A coating of  butter and syrup over said bacon is a great breakfast 2.0 mashup. The sausage was also very good despite looking like it had been burned.

I also enjoyed drawing on my napkin with the crayons.