3/21/2010 Lark

last night was a lovely meal at Lark with a couple friends. we followed the directions from the James St exit on i5 and drove through an area of town neither of us had been in. i have to admit i was a little surprised at the environment. there are a few buildings that could very well be derelict within a block of the restaurant, and Lark is housed in a building that from the outside looks a bit rundown, too.

but don't judge a book by it's cover i've been told. and rightly so. inside it's packed with tables along both walls, and a 3rd row down the middle. like many of the small foodie places in seattle it's quite loud, the owners trying to maximize floor space and cram as many tables as possible into the available space. service

Wild nettle soup with basil fed snails, garlic and butter. note the bits of steam against the black bowl.

we've all had escargot. which we agree is a great device to eat garlic and butter. and matt and i have had nettle soup a few times and have always enjoyed it. this preparation the snails must've been minced because there were no 'lumps' in the soup. it was quite tasty.

Carpaccio of Yellowtail (Hamachi) with preserved lemons and green olives. and there was some shaved fenel on top.

Roasted eel with saba and new potato salad.

ok, i tried it, i didn't like it. i had eel soup in china years ago on tour and wasn't impressed then either, although my palette has matured quite a bit since then.

Yellowstone River paddlefish caviar with rosti potatoes and clabber cream

clabber cream = sour cream

and yes, that's only a wee bit o' caviar you see piled on top.

i must say i wouldn't mind these hash browns served to me breakfast in bed anyday of the week!

Halibut Cheek with peas, fava beans and risotto

this was a special and we almost didn't get it. they had already sold out of the oysters, and after letting our server know we wanted this he came back out and said we got the last one. yay! then he comes back after we had eaten a few dishes, apologizing, that apparently we had just missed the last one. he said he'd bring out the linguini on the house for us. well, as it turned out, we got the last one after all. in fact, as he was putting in on the table he said 'someone in the kitchen can't count tonight'. and we all cheered. we really wanted to try this and yes it was fantastic

Linguini with Manila clams, tender herbs and XO sauce.

i wasn't too impressed with this one. it tasted very fishy to me - but i wholly admit i really don't like clams.







at this point in our meal i caught our server's attention and requested a new service for the table. maybe i got spoiled at HTCAW - they'll give us 2 or 3 plate depending on the dishes chosen and the qty of dishes, but it makes sense to have a fresh service 1/2 way through the meal. our server of course agreed to bring us the new dishes. we had already had a slight bit of a pause, which was fine, and i was really hoping we could get our plates before the next course was served. (in case you hadn't thought of it smaller portions means they cool/warm quicker than full-plate servings), and i didn't want our next course getting cold. they almost made it. they came out together. so i'm not sure if a change of service is common there, but if it's not i hope they start to initiate it.

Crispy pork belly with aged balsamic, check peas, black olive and Piquillo pepper.

Yum. nothin' but bacon. ok, not quite bacon. it's from the same part of the pig as bacon, but a different cut. very tasty indeed. just be prepared for a lot of fat.

Mashima Ranch steak tartare with raw quail egg and onion crackers

i was telling matt while uploading the pics for this post that i really enjoyed this. i think i liked holly's a little better - probably the cracker pairing, maybe a bit of the seasoning. but either way, even just a couple years ago i still didn't really care for this dish. matt said a couple years ago i probably wouldn't have even tried this dish. he may be right.

Ricotta gnudi with caramelized parsnip, marjoram, red onion and golden raisin.

gnudi is a type of gnocchi. it was very nice, but not my favorite dish.

Natural veal sweetbreads with Bloomsdale spinach, lemon and morels.

matt says these were early morels and fantastic.  if i hadn't been pacing (we had just eaten for 4+ hours the night before) i would've had a larger portion.

Poached organic egg with chorizo, peas, morels and garlic emulsion.

the sauce was very thick, which totally helped once the yolk of the egg had been compromised. it was quite yummy.

Pineapple tarte tatin with rum caramel and vanilla bean ice cream

we split this but even as full as i was (i don't think i could've eaten another course) i would've gladly eaten every bit of this myself.

i spoke with the sous chef and he said it was quite easy to make. sometimes it catches me off-guard, how the easy things are sometimes the most grand. it was absolutely divine. i want to learn how to make this.