This is a bit long, but then our dinner lasted some three hours, so deal with it. Some years ago, Gale and I traveled to Europe and Mexico several times. We visited London, Paris, Rome, Athens, Merida, Copenhagen, Mexico City, Guadalajara, and the Greek Islands. Each trip involved sightseeing and side trips. One reason we love to travel is to meet people and experience the food and wines of the world.
Everywhere we went, we asked locals for dining recommendations. Sometimes, we’d wander down a small side street and find a mom-and-pop operation on our own, a hidden gem that wasn’t in the guidebooks. We would experience some of the best food we could ever find.
This past Monday, February 17, was Gale’s birthday. We’ve always played a game in which the other picks where we will have dinner on each birthday without the birthday boy or girl knowing where we’re going. Because it was a Monday, my choices were limited. At least one place never replied to my email, but one that I knew a little about from online reviews did respond.
Eden Hill is one of Seattle’s hidden gems. It is sandwiched between a nail salon and an empty storefront that looks to be undergoing a reincarnation. The small space resembles those we found in Paris and Rome.
They can seat about 24 people. Thanks to COVID, they have covered seating for al fresco dining outside along the curb that could seat almost as many people assuming they were larger groups or willing to share a table.
This dining approach can be expensive and may not be for everyone, but we love it, especially on special occasions. Some people ski, scuba, or pour money down a boat hole; we like fine dining.
We were seated at one of the small window tables at the front by request. It was perfect. We were out of the way and didn’t have to dine in the odorous crowd of a neighbor's cologne.
Our server, Emma, brought us water and menus right away. From my scouting, I already knew we would have a choice between a tasting menu and Ala carte items. With the tasting menu, you are not told what the course will be—it’s a surprise: five courses plus dessert. We ordered our traditional glass of bubbly, a lovely Cava, and perused the menu, telling Emma we might take a while to decide. Emma was a terrific server, attentive but not pushy or overbearing; we like that.
After some discussion and hand-ringing, we opted for the tasting menu. We did that a time or two some years ago at places in Seattle like Mistral, and to our taste, it is fun not knowing what you will be eating but knowing you are in a restaurant almost always given five stars by fellow diners.
To give you a sense of what this dining experience was like, here are a few things from the a La carte menu: Seawolf sourdough bread with black truffle chili butter and huckleberry mostarda (a traditional Italian condiment made from fruit (both fresh and dried), syrup, and spices), served with cooked meats, poultry, and charcuterie; chicken-fried quail with a macadamia nut crust; fermented bloody Mary; and blue cheese ranch.
So, as you can see, this is not Applebee’s. We told Emma we wanted the tasting menu, and off we went.
We were still sipping our bubbly, so there was no rush to get a new glass of wine. The tasting menu included a wine pairing, but we didn’t necessarily want to drink that much, and the pairing price was a little dear. Of course, in our usual fashion, we could probably have done the pairing by the time we ordered two more glasses of wine each.
Our first offering was the amuse bouche, French for "mouth amuser.” It consisted of confit pheasant croquette with kewpie mayo and fermented kohlrabi. And, yes, it did amuse our mouths.
Our glasses of bubbly are in the background.
Next came our salad, accompanied by sourdough bread from Sea Wolf Bakery in Seattle. The salad comprised caramelized sunchoke, white port, lemon lacquer, baby beet, hazelnut, opal apple, and possibly other items. It rested on a sauce or two that made every bite an experience. The star of this course, in addition to a marvelous sourdough, was the foie gras butter. It had a couple of other flavors, like black truffle, and was to die for. That may be literal, given the richness of both butter and foie gras, but it was fantastic. Gale, who typically does not care to eat fat and may have only tasted foie gras once and said no thanks after that, literally ate her leftover butter with her fork, as did I.
Onward and inward we go. Our next course consisted of an anchovy Parmesan semolina cake, oyster, seared scallop, prawns, pickled okra garlic honey puree, chanterelle mushrooms, and roasted red bell pepper. In this photo, you can see the scallop sitting next to the semolina cake and all of that sitting on a small lake of puree. This course had the least taste buds popping effect, but it was still very nice. Gale, not a big fan of sashimi, left about a third of her seared scallops for me but cleaned up all the rest of her plate.
By this time, we had ordered a glass of the Gamay Beaujolais (full name Gamay Noir à Jus Blanc) that perfectly matched the next couple of courses.
I remember our first tasting menu event at Mistral which sadly closed in 2018. Growing up in Nebraska, where servings were sized for people who had just finished ten hours behind a plow in the fields, small plates with a scallop or two had me a bit concerned about going away hungry. I was quickly disabused of that notion back then. By the time you get through four or five courses, you have had more than enough to eat unless you’re an NFL down lineman. And, in the right restaurant, the experience is unbelievable.
Our next course was a slight concern for Gale and me. It was a crispy slab of pork belly with a black tea Sichuan glaze, black garlic aioli, shaved Oregon wasabi, rapini, sesame, and oyster mushrooms. I mentioned that Gale almost detests finding a piece of fat in her mouth. Like a cardiac surgeon, I’ve seen her carve the fat off a steak until no shred of fat was left attached to lean meat. She had no problem with this offering and ate every bite, including the fat streaks. It was fried crisp like crisp bacon, and with all the other flavors on the plate, it was a delight to eat.
I have to admit to a problem. I often like to take photos of our food, especially at special events. But, sometimes, I get caught up in the excitement of dining and forget. This pork belly was one of those times. When I remembered my camera, my plate was empty, so I went to the Internet to find this photo representative of the dish, but it didn’t do it justice.
We are both starting to take deep breaths, trying to make a little more room in our tummy. Next were two lamb chops with braised greens, labneh, celery za’atar, pomegranate, mint, preserved lemon, and jalapeño shatta (hot sauce). Gale could only get through one chop and took the other home to eat a day or two later. Me, yeah, Mikey ate the whole damn thing.
We decided to have a glass of Washington Cabernet from Auclair Winery, which was wonderful—you can see that behind the plate. The Middle Eastern flavors of this dish were perfect, especially with the lamb, a favorite protein in that part of the world. The braised greens were fabulous.
No, we’re not entirely done just yet. There is still dessert. This dessert was unlike anything either of us had, and again, Eden Hill hit it out of the park. It was described as a maple brown butter pecan cookie, butterscotch bacon ice cream, cajeta (a caramel sauce), espresso, and Chantilly.
Again, I was halfway through this when I remembered to take a picture. Fortunately, I hadn’t eaten the bacon yet. Yes, it had bacon. It was a kind of ice cream cookie affair with a cream topping on a cookie that I already ate, then the bacon, ice cream, and another cooking on the bottom. Gale’s came with a candle for her birthday.
I assume this goes without saying, but I do highly recommend Eden Hill for dinner, special occasion or not. You can go there, have an appetizer, entree', and salad, and escape with your wallet intact and your stomach jumping for joy, or you can go apesh#t like we did on a special occasion and have a memory to cherish for years to come.
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