12/30/2010 Crush, Seattle WA

after talking about all the dinners we were having we realized we hadn't taken ma to any place she hadn't been before, and we just can't have that. so off to crush we went.

when we were at crush the last (and first) time we had the grand tasting menu, and this was on it.

it's a parsnip infused flan with chives and smoked salmon caviar. it was a corn flan we had that 1st time, but that's ok. and a little bit of mapley flavor sauce on top.

the pic on the right is the presentation of the dish.

the bread plate:
pretzel, cheese puffs and herb bread

 wine with dinner

 yup, a high end restaurant with plastic seats. notice i didn't say "cheap plastic seats". i'm sure they weren't cheap, but they aren't too comfortable either. last time we sat downstairs and had a bench along the wall so i didn't notice the chairs.

seared hudson valley foie gras "steak". wild huckleberries, buttermilk belgian waffle, endive.

yes that solid thing near the bottom of the plae is a waffle. i liked it on it's own but thought it overpowered the foie gras.

i didn't like the huckleberries (big surprise) and by the time we got to it it was on the cool side. we only had 2 but it would've been better to stagger the appys to prevent this.

hand rolled potato gnocchi and dungeness crab. brown butter, honey crisp apples wild mushrooms and arugula.

this was a sweet and not savory dish which surprised me. it kind of threw me off due to that but it was good.

 douglass fir sorbet with cranberry dusting for pallette cleanser

meyer lemon and pecorino risotto with sauteed sea scallops. tangerine, pickled fennel, vadouvan and watercress

the scallops were perfectly prepared. sadly the risotto was cold when it arrived to the table. it had been plated too early, and of course the risotto was the reason i ordered this, not the scallops. oh well. i let our server know and he was appropriately shocked and let the kitchen know. but they did a good turn and comped the plate for me.

one day i'll order this again and try it.

ma ordered the roasted mad hatcher pheasant with thyme and sage. sweetbread mushroom stuffing, cranberry preserve, pancetta and buttered kale.

it was quite tasty. it was on my top list trying to decide what to order.

matt ordered the 48 hour braised painted hills beef short ribs. yukon potato puree, bacon and sage scented baby carrots.

this was also something i was debating ordering. these are really good! we had them on the tasting menu the 1st time we were here and i was sad because they were late enough in the meal i could only eat 2 bites with all the food.

and dessert from the bottom left:
salted chocolate caramel
peanut butter cup - only reeses never made it this good
chocolate covered cranberry
chocolate crisp
green tea truffle - this was my least favorite
sour cherry in kirsch with chocolate truffle.






we were seated upstairs this visit. after we had been seated a few minutes 1 of the servers picked up a little footstool from the mass of curtains and put it beside ma for her purse. yay!

a lot of restaurants in the seattle area are in re-purposed houses. this is one of them. and we were there on 1 of the coldest days of the year. we were sitting by a window and it was cold. drafty and cold. we weren't the only ones, the table next to us asked for their coats. i asked for mine and put it over my legs to help keep me warm. i do not know if it was that cold downstairs but i think the heat from the open kitchen probably balances things out. if you dine here in the winter try to get a table downstairs if the cold/drafts bother you.