Etta's

Price: $$$
Thoughts: ☆☆☆☆
Etta's: Menu

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This is a first in a while; an early dinner. Etta's was a missed opportunity when my friend Gilbert came to visit from New York, as I had work to do. Anyways, this place is located on the northern side of the Pike Place Market, which is home of the first Starbucks ever; expect a lot of tourists standing around.

Parking is actually really easy if you know where to look. Past dates have left a good memory of where to find them, which came in handy. I had made a reservation using Open Table as suggested by their website, so there was no waiting for our 6:15 arrival.

We were promptly served a very crusty olive bread along with two dry beverages, kumquat and vanilla bean:


Artisan bread with and without olives

The last time we had olive bread I was not fortunate to find any pieces with any in them. After inspecting and a minor discussion about all the possible baking methods, we concluded that there were just two separate breads that were served. Primarily because they were separated on the plate each time we were given more bread.


Kumquat Dry Soda


Vanilla Bean Dry Soda

We had already pored over their SRW menu and knew what we were getting. The baby spinach salad, and sake cured salmon bites; which wasn't a regular menu item:


Baby spinach salad -curried cashews, sesame dressing, crispy bacon

The dressing tasted really good, and had a subtle sweet aftertaste to it. I did not find any of the cashews with the portion I forked but with or without it, the salad still tasted great.


Sake cured salmon bites -hot mustard, cucumber

I did not realize that they had put horseradish into the mustard so I took a nice deep breath after taking in a good bit of salmon covered in the mustard. It was a simple but very flavorful meal. The salmon itself was nice and firm, although I ran into a piece that was a bit tougher than the rest. The cucumbers give the whole dish something that feels fresh, and helps with the hot mustard.

Dinner we had Etta's rub with love wild Coho salmon and Seared Washington chicken breast which was also not listed on their regular menu:


Etta’s Rub with Love wild Coho salmon -shiitake relish, cornbread pudding

The cornbread pudding had more attention than the salmon itself. Soft and had a taste that reminded me of the stuffing you eat inside a Thanksgiving turkey. The salmon was flaky and soft and easy to split apart without anything more than the fork. Apparently one of the asparagus was a little old, or possibly improperly cooked, but was your typical blanched vegetables.


Seared Washington chicken breast -sugar snap pea succotash, easter egg radish salad

Again, the main attention was not the seared chicken breast but the succotash that was underneath it. Cooking chicken breast and preventing it from being dry is something that takes a little bit of work. The breast was very juicy and had a nice crusty skin. I found the radish salad to be a little on the bland side as eating it separately or with the rest of the meal produced nothing that I could taste. The succotash on the other hand had a nice curry taste to it that left me wishing they served more of it with the dish.

Dessert was going to be an adventure. A triple coconut cream pie and the vanilla and rhubarb crisp; I have an allergy to ginger but love the taste.


Triple coconut cream pie + white chocolate

At a glance I was expecting this to be as rich as the mud pie we had from 5 Spot. But it was very light and easy to eat even on a full stomach.


Vanilla and rhubarb crisp + ginger ice cream

Luckily there wasn't enough ginger in the ice cream to warrant an allergic reaction. The rhubarb has a very strong tart taste that overtakes the Vanilla crisp part of the dessert; I could not taste any vanilla at all in-between the helpings of rhubarb and ice cream. It was still a pleasant order and very hot. I think pear or a more subtle fruit would have worked better with the ginger ice cream.

Etta's is definitely a place I recommend grabbing reservations for; the place is not very big. The tall glass windows that look across the Puget Sound is great as it faces the sunset.

Possibly due to the fact that the place is small, it ensures that the waiter or sommelier will always be checking up on you throughout the meal. At the end of the meal, if you give them your email address and your birthday, they will send you a gift certificate as an incentive. I definitely will come back again, with or without a certificate in hand.

Via Tribunali

Price: $$
Thoughts: ☆☆☆☆¾
Via Tribunali: Menu

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Lately I noticed I have been eating dinner later and later. This was the first restaurant I tried during the Seattle Restaurant Week event which I will refer to as SRW from now on. They have many locations, but we chose the Fremont location due to the higher ratings, also it was conveniently closer to our homes. Finding parking was not too difficult, but then again it was past 9:30 at night. We were the only ones there save for one other customer at the bar, the interior had a very homely feel.

My friend was told to try the Margherita D.O.C. which was also on their SRW menu as well. The event menus are broken-down into a 3-course dinner or lunch for $25 and $15, an appetizer, entrée, and a dessert. The portions given as they should, so this is quite a good deal.

For our appetizers we got the Saute Di Vongole and the Misto Salumi:


SAUTE DI VONGOLE -fresh clams with olive oil, garlic, white wine oven fired

It's hard to go wrong with clams in garlic and oil. Nothing that made it stand out from anything we've had before, but it doesn't make it bad either. I was curious and imagined how good it would taste if they used the same garlic sauce that Ocho used on their prawns.


MISTO SALUMI -coppa, prosciutto di parma, speck, olives, grana padano

Served on a wooden paddle with the meats laid across and the olives in a ramekin. It was the first time having green olives that looked like green kumquats. I tend to consume a lot of prosciutto at home (wrapped around prawns) so my bias would make this my favorite on the plate. The grana padano tasted great when wrapped around with the prosciutto and speck (which is smoked prosciutto). The small slices of coppa had enough kick of spiciness to leave a taste lingering in my mouth. I ended up just popping the olives like they were grapes and removing the flesh around the seed.

For the entrée we got the Margherita D.O.C. and the Piazza Dante:


MARGHERITA D.O.C. -pomodoro, mozzarella di bufala, basil

A very basic pizza with three ingredients. This pizza is tied together very well with the fresh basil, which sealed the deal as the best pizza between the two. Served piping hot, but because of how thin it is, it cooled down really fast.


PIAZZA DANTE -pomodoro, arugula, prosciutto crudo, smoked mozzarella, cherry tomato

Served over literally a mountain of arugula and porsciutto. I chose this one because of my last experience eating pizza with some kind of tomato as a topping rather than a sauce. Eating the cherry tomatoes provided the similar bursts of flavor that the pancheta did at Tutta Bella on a much smaller scale, but still pleasant nonetheless. I think the most difficult part of the pizza was dividing it into quarters.

And for the desserts. Their Mezza Luna di Nutella and Tartufo Affogato:


MEZZA LUNA DI NUTELLA -chocolate, hazelnut calzone

This is BIG... it's the same size as the pizzas we ate for dinner, except fold one half over and stuff it with nutella. In other words, it is best to share this dish. Putting a little of the espresso from my dessert made it an interesting, but pleasant taste as it gave it a hazelnut espresso mix.


TARTUFO AFFOGATO -vita espresso over chocolate gelato

I don't drink coffee. Ever. But I still got this because I really wanted to eat the chocolate gelato. Their espresso comes from the Caffé Vita next to the restaurant, and is quite strong. With the gelato melting alarmingly fast into the espresso masked the bitterness that deters me from coffees in the first place. I found myself enjoying the espresso and the portion is small enough to keep you from feeling like you had too much, but large enough that you will be done for the night.

We both saved a quarter of our pizzas for leftovers which was a good idea, as we were already full after dessert. The water they served us was lukewarm, it would have been nice if they provided a few ice cubes especially with the weather slowly warming up. This place knows how to make pizza well and a wide variety of it too. I too, would recommend the Magherita D.O.C. to anyone as their first pizza here. Sometimes, the simplest pizzas just cannot be beaten.