Seattle Restos: Pig Iron BBQ; Slims Last Chance; Westward, Din Tai Fung, Golden Beetle.

Pig Iron BBQ

The best thing about BBQ here is the cole slaw, perhaps the best cole slaw i have enjoyed at any BBQ joint! Now, I am not totally dissing the BBQ here. The turkey was reasonably moist, but not enough smoke. The Brisket was ok, but not enough smoke. The sausage was very good and comes sliced in a tomatoey/onion sauce and the ribs were overcooked and not smokey enough. The just slid off the bone. Rib meat, when you bight into it, should easily peel off the bone but not fall off. The BBQ beans were very good with a nice bight, a thick, well reduced consistency and pleasant smokiness.

Slim's Last Chance

Slim's funnily enough, has the same proprietor as Pig Iron BBQ! But this saloon mainly serves chili, and WHAT CHILI!! For me, I must say that this may have been among the very best places I have enjoyed chili anywhere. What distinguishes chili here as each different chili dish has it's protein with the perfect protein particle size best enjoyed with its dish. Also, each dish has it's own degree of heat, well appropriate for the ingredients and other spices in the dish so that the layers of flavour are slowly revealed on your palate as you enjoy each spoonful.

Brisket and bean chili: Coarsely chopped slow smoked brisket, coarsely ground beef with fire roasted tomatoes and red beans.

Chili verde: New Mexico green chilis, tomatillos and slow simmered finely ground pork. 

Texas red chili: traditional all meat chili made with coarsely ground beef and surrounded with an very pleasing, intensely flavoured sauce. 

My fave, Turkey and white bean: Coarsely ground turkey, white beans and serrano chilis bathed in a very rich turkey broth.

Side by side Pig Iron BBQ and Slim's Last Chance Saloon.

Westward

Initially the service was attentive, but quickly declined to virtual ignoring! the dime between dishes near the end of our meal was up to 35 minutes!!

The wood fired oven.....fortunately, NOT for making pizzas!! Most dishes made in this oven.

Grilled octopus, with a perfect, consistently tender texture and a very pleasing slightly smokey flavour from the wood oven, accompanied by taramasalata, chili, charred fennel bark and chili oil.

Wood fired gigantes beans, presentation.

The beans were perfectly cooked with a slightly soft, mashy texture and were in a tomato sauce with marjoram and feta and all topped with breadcrumbs. A very richly flavoured, slightly smokey dish that was truly delicious. 

Perfectly cooked clams with fire toasted bread. The sauce was richly flavoured and had a wonderful mouth feel. 

Don't waist your time ordering the potatoes. Although they were supposedly flavoured with lemon and oregano, those flavours were lost, they lacked the nice smokey flavour of the wood fired oven. Further, They lacked the rich flavour of the other dishes and were not cooked to proper doneness. 

Pan roasted black cod with smoked oyster sabayon, caramelized leeks, oyster root chips and squid ink vinaigrette. A nice dish but not a standout like the other dishes. 

This was to have been our final dish, wood oven roasted rainbow trout. This dish was supposed to be accompanied by meyer lemon segments, marcona almonds and sage brown butter. While we were ordering all our dishes, this dish was brought to a neighbour but I noticed it was floating in butter. So, when we ordered the dish, we asked for no nuts and no butter as the fish itself looked very moist when we saw our neighbour peel the skin. but, not only did it take about 35 minuted to come, but came with nuts and butter sauce and since we were told it would take at least 20 more minutes to come, and since we had already been at the resto for almost 3 hours, we cancelled the dish. This is a photo taken of the dish at another neighbours table. I am sure it would have been great and if we were here in Seattle long enough, we would have returned and enjoyed just this dish.

A very refreshing buttermilk panna cotta topped with elderflower gelee all accompanied by poached rhubarb and oatmeal streusel. 

Din Tai Fung

Din Tai Fung is a chain of restos throughout asia and north america. There is a Din Tai Fung in Markham, Ontario, that may be a branch.

 Making dough and noodles.

Cucumber salad, steamed with soy sauce, was quite delicious.

Seaweed and bean curd in a vinegar dressing.

Sweet and sour spare ribs.

Steamed kale with garlic.

Vegetarian noodle soup.

Pork and crab xiao long bao. Yes this is just one order.

Vegetarian dumplings (1 order).

Vegetable and pork won tons with spicy sauce.

Golden Beetle

Golden beetle serves organic Mediterranean inspired cuisine. The chef, Maria Hines, has won the James Beard award and has been featured on Iron Chef. The food was good for what it was, but it was not exceptional Mediterranean cuisine. I never write about restos I do not like. This resto is a good alternative to other local cuisines.

Crispy Moroccan shrimp roll, savoy cabbage brix dough, spicy red pepper puree. 

Muhammara  with walnut, pomegranate molasses and olive oil, accompanied by wood fired flat bread.

Spicy hummus with garlic, serrano pepper, tahini and olive oil, served with wood fired flat bread. 

Pide, Turkish style pizza, topped with foraged roasted mushroom puree, smoked cauliflower puree, sunflower seeds and macerated apricot.

Wood fired mussels and clams with anchovy-parsley butter, chick peas and scallions accompanied by wood fired flat bread.

Well done, very crispy, sumac spiced french fries, fried in beef fat accompanied by harissa aioli.. 

Bulgur lamb meatballs on a bed of baba ghanoush pin nuts and topped with date puree.

Herb infused felafel made from fava beans, accompanied by cabbage slaw and tahini.

Seattle Again: Altura, Toulouse Petit, Bar Sejor and Ma'ono Fried chicken and Whisky.

Altura

I don't normally share a restaurant experience when revisiting after a short time before, but, Altura is a regional standout, certainly one of the very best restaurant experiences one could expect to find, in the northwest, and I include Canada here, but, almost anywhere in the USA. When in Seattle, it is the first resto that I think of to visit. I could say "wonderful" after each dish below, but I will summarize here.

From the chef, pumpkin panna cotta with popcorn snow and truffles, and the second ameuse was parsley root canoli with fresh sea urchin and smoked steelhead roe. The second ameuse was a remarkable dish contrasting the smokey roe and the briny, rich tasting sea urchin. NO PHOTOS.

Maine lobster, cooked to perfect doneness, with fennel, persimmon, sun choke, blood orange and dill, ingredients that contrast and enhance the richness of the lobster.

 Bigoli nero: sepia ink, cuttlefish, octopus and bottarga di Muggine.

Gnocchi with Abruzze style ragu of lamb and Magnolia beef. Pillow soft gnocchi and a lovely intense sauce. 

Chioggia squash ravioli with brown butter, roasted hazelnut, crispy sage and fresh shave Alba truffles. Loved the dish, but, the truffles were disappointing, not as fragrant as others I tried this season in Europe, and a bit wet in texture. Interestingly, I had a similar experience with the Alba truffles I tried when in Vancouver.

"Tails and trotters pork shank" wrapped in speck with braised greens, a quail egg and crispy artichokes.

Green rhubarb with sour cherries, spicy almonds, wheat berries and yogurt.

Toulouse Petit

This packed restaurant was the web site, Trip Advisor's "Traveler's Choice" winning restaurant for 2012, ranking #10 of world wide restaurants (believe it or not!!). It was also chosen as the 5th favourite resto in the USA!.

Crispy fried chicken gumbo. A thick, rich, dark, spicy roux made from proper long reduced stock, was the base of this soup which had chunks of fried chicken that still had a crunchy skin and the chicken was perfectly cooked (I hate overcooked chicken) and chunks of the resto's home made andouille sausage. The deeply rich, complex flavours of this soup were addictive. 

Oysters "Venezia" were topped with a sauce of fried rosemary, chopped parsley, garlic, finely chopped fennel and olive oil. Personally, I never like my oysters sauced in any way, but I was strongly encouraged to try this dish and the flavours were terrific and I had no regrets whatsoever.

Crispy, fried green tomatoes were coated with cornmeal and served over creole remoulade sauce. The sauce was good, the crispy coating was a bit too hard/tough and might have been better with breading or a mix of flour and the cornmeal??

House made wild boar garlic sausage with tomato basil jam and crescenza cheese bruschetta. As many of you know, I do not enjoy cheese and meat together, but here, the light cheese worked well. The sausage had a very pleasant garlic flavour and a very good texture with a grind that was neither too coarse or too fine.

The house made, nicely smokey and moderately spicy andouille sausage.

Buttermilk fried chicken, was cooked to the right point but the chicken breading, although ok, just was not crispy enough. Further, the mashed potatoes were not light enough and were a bit gooey. Better to have boiled the potatoes and pushed them through a ricer to get a lighter texture and consistency. This was the only truly disappointing dish of the night because this was the one of the dishes I came here to try. The chicken was served with a delicious, rich and complex black pepper tasso gravy.

Shallot tasso sauce, that I ordered just to try as all of the sauces are carefully made from scratch, was perfectly thick and rich tasting, with wonderfully complex favours.

Creole crawfish sauce with real, little crawfish bodies and tasso sauce. Terrific and the sauce well made, complex, creamy and a bit spicy.

Buttermilk beignets were tasty but a bit dense and were accompanied by a very flavourful, thick, chicory creme anglais.

The other disappointment of the night, the "traditional Louisiana" pecan pie. The filler was too dense and caramelized to the point of faint bitterness. It is truly hard to beat my gold standard, the pecan pie at Montreal's Pied de Cochon....and, that is a "Northern" resto!

But, the sauces alone, are worth the journey!

Bar Sejor

To begin, their naturally leavened bread is presented with cultured butter and Maldon salt.

Smoked whole milk yogurt and dark rye crisps with peppers preserved in cider vinegar, caraway seed and dill fronds. I highly recommend this dish, the smokiness of the yogurt goes so well with the peppers.

Gently cooked jerusalem artichokes with saffron milk caps, preserved Puget Sound silver smelts, garlic and parsley.

Freshly caught giant octopus with a salad of braised purple cabbage, marinated apples and matsutake mushrooms.

One half of a brined chicken, cooked in the wood burning oven, with roasted root veg, coriander and smokey red chili dipping sauce.

Caramelized butter ice cream and chocolate chip cookies. the ice cream was also drizzled with the caramelized butter sauce....delicious and the choc chip were terrific shortbread cookies.

The wood burning grill.

The wood burning oven.

Ma'ono

Marinated, grilled kalbi beef short ribs, with chillies, braised daikon and grilled scallions. Tasty.

Caramelized broccoli with chili threads, garlic and smoked oyster sauce.

This is why I came: one half of a fried chicken from a special farm, with kimchi, rice and a dynamite chili sauce that was not too spicy at all, slightly sweet but possessing layers of flavour. The chicken was perfectly cooked and very crispy. Worth the journey from downtown.