tighe

My voluminous ramblings on Porta can be found here. I'm now convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that the fried octopus is laced with crack. Other than what I mention in my initial review, the lamb chops are excellent. Except dessert (skip it), I've never had anything there that I wasn't thrilled with. Generally no reservations are needed, but for Greek holidays and some weekend nights, it can get very busy.

To the 'ethnic' list, I'd definitely add Porta, a Greek restaurant on Eastlake. Certainly the best Greek food I've had...anywhere...

I went to dinner at Union last week and made two reservations on the spot. Now I'm even more glad I did. That menu sounds most excellent.

I've listed some of my favorites along with brief descriptions. If you do a search on any of the names, you can find a lot of info here about any of them. Union - a new contemporary Northwest restaurant. Everything I've had there has been outstanding. Lark - another newcomer from Chef Johnathan Sundstrom, a little more rustic and casual that Union. Focuses on small plates. Brasserie Margaux - Nortwest influenced French. Always my nominee for most underrated restaurant in town. Salumi - Mario Batali's Dad makes some painfully good cured meats and sausages as well as other specialties for lunch. Show up early! Harvest Vine - Spanish tapas of supreme quality. Can get pricey if you're hungry. Maximilien - Classic French in the Pike Place Market with one of the best views in town. If you have any more specific interests, that always help in knowing what direction to guide you in.

The most astonishing part of this story for me, gc, is that it didn't end with you busting out a can of whup-ass on Jeff....

I'm so glad to hear that there are other Melting Pot haters out there!.... The true travesty of it, to me, is that its so easy to make excellent fondue at home for a mere fraction of the price. I know a few people that consider it one of their favorite 'special occaision' places, it boggles my mind.

I've never been myself, but some friends have gone a few times. They ate there on their first visit, but subsequently have always gone elsewhere.

Neil, Congrats on the job. Looks like we'll have to find a time to get to Vegas. We can meet you for lunch after you get off work, if we're up by then....

I think this would help them greatly. Most new wine drinkers don't have any ideal what a Chateauneuf-du-Pape is, but if they could see its a blend of syrah and grenache, they might have some reference. Knowing the French, they'll just subsidize the whole thing and a lot of crappy wine will get produced.

I've never done the kaiseki at Mashiko, but now I must. Thanks for the report and welcome to the dark side....

"When are we not going" might be a shorter list of dates.... Doesn't this seem like a big FU! to the official 25 for 25? I'm not critisizing, just saying....

NOW, THAT'S WHAT I'M TALKIN' ABOUT!!!

I spoke to Pietro, the owner, and confirmed that they do use lard in the piadina. He also said they stress this with their service staff. I suggested that they consider putting a note at the bottom of the menu. Fish, I certainly understand your outrage rising to the level of not wanting to ever go to La Spiga again (I said this on another thread in fact), but it seems to go far beyond that..... Other breads to be aware of: Indian fry bread, biscuits, Irish soda bread, French boules, potato bread....

Gleaned from the web site who's name shall not be spoken... Noodle Boat has a slick new (?) web site with pics of all their dishes.

Hey thanks, I can definitely understand how my less-cogent remarks wouldn't be as enjoyable. There seem to be a number of plasce that have some ongoing prix fixe offers, including Brasserie Margaux which has 3 courses for $25 all the time.

I don't "blithely" anything. Every time you've brought it up, you've stated it as a "vegetarian" issue, including this most recent occasion. Many traditional breads contain lard, including tortillas, not that it excuses the restaurant's failure to tell you that. Yes, yes & yes. My question is: how did you ultimately find out, if no one in the restaurant ever told you?...or are you just taking someone else's word for it?

I really wish they could manage to bring some new restaurants into the fold for this. Maybe I'm just getting jaded, but I'm not nearly as excited about it this time around.

If you're interested in doing something higher end, Yaxche in Play del Carmen is really excellent. Expensive by local standards, but an good value by US standards.

Great pics pim. Did you get any funny looks taking pictures of your food in a *** restaurant? I only ask because I was tempted to try to snap a few during some of my meals in Paris, but was afraid of the reaction I'd get.

My point wasn't that I would expect the mussels themselves to be bad, I just wouldn't order something with curry sauce there or any ethnically inspired preparation for that matter.

Bottled and widely available, like most of the Deschutes beers.

Well, since my post I've been informed by others that Alaska Amber sucks, so it must be me..... Have you tried Mirror Pond by Deschutes? I imagine you'll find it to be a 'hop bomb', but to me its pretty mild.

No excuse for a crappy Ceasar salad. Maybe it the corporate nature of the Metropolitan restaurants rearing its head. I guess I'm not surprised that something like 'saffron curry mussles' wouldn't be good at Elliott's. Serving very straight forward oysters, fish, etc. is really their forte and venturing into anything vaguely fushion-ish could be perilous for them (and you). Eau de bleach with lunch...yum.....

In my more open-minde moments I consider Alaska to be part of the PNW, so... Wilson, do you like Alaska Amber? To me it is one of the best non-hoppy (18 IBU) beers available in a bottle.

Surprising that the bread is bland, since it's made with pork fat. Yup, if you're vegetarian or otherwise opposed to eating pork, don't go near the bread at La Spiga. We asked them many times if an apparently vegetarian crescione contained any meat, and were always assured that it did not. I'm not sure about you, but to me, pork fat is meat. Since we discovered this, we haven't been back to the place - this is one restaurant whose closing I'm looking forward to. - S Please see initial statement in my last post on this thread.... The good thing Fish is, at least you're not bitter and haven't carried the angst around with you ever since the experience. You bring up this experience every time La Spiga is even mentioned in passing. I would be willing to bet my life savings that if they gave you the wrong information it was due to ignorance on the part of your server or a simple oversight, not due to any malicious intent to corrupt your vegetarian soul. I understand that this isn't an excuse, but it is an explanation. Restaurants do this kind of thing and worse (my wife was served water with bleach in it on one occaision) all the time, its the real downside of having fallible humans involved in the process. As far as dancing on their grave, I wouldn't hold your breath. They're full pretty much every time I go there, lunch or dinner. There are plenty of restaurants around that you'd be doing us all a favor by crusading for their demise, La Spiga doesn't happen to be one of them.