Tango

[nightscotsman]

Sunday night I took myself out for what turned out to be a wonderful dinner at Tango, an upscale Seattle "tapas restaurant and cocktail lounge". Being situated at the corner of Pike and Boren, the view out the windows is nothing to get excited about, but the interior is warm, romantic and slightly funky with high ceilings and and a wide-open kitchen. Even though it got quite busy by the time I left, The music was soft and it never got noticeably noisy at all.

As you would expect at a tapas restaurant, most dishes are smallish (though quite generous) and designed to be shared, ranging from $6.50 for a salad to $17 for grilled lamb.

As usual, I started out with a cocktail - in this case it was called a "Sevillana" and consisted of vodka, sweet vermouth and fresh Seville orange juice. It reminded me a bit of the Flaming Orange Gully with it's fresh orange flavor, but without the spice flavors and a slight bitter edge from the sour oranges. Very good. They also make a great, not too sweet mojito that I had a little later in the meal.

First course: Hongoes y Jamón - sautéed mixed wild mushrooms with red Russian kale, Serrano ham, & Xerés reduction. Sweet, salty, earthy and rich, but not heavy. This was a great dish and perfect with the house-made bread, which is kind of halfway between a baguette and cornbread - tender and fine grained with a crunchy crust.

Next: Gambas Picantes - chipotle tiger prawns with tamarind roasted bananas and pumpkin seed-cilantro pipien. Wow, this was just an amazing combination of flavors and textures. The prawns were perfectly cooked and just a little charred around the edges giving a slightly smoky flavor, the bananas were creamy, but sparked up by the fruity acidity of the tamarind, and the cilantro pipien (essentially a pesto) added depth and richness with some crunch from the pumpkin seeds. My only minor quibble was the mound of banana slices were served cold (as the waiter assured my they were supposed to be), and I think the dish would have been better had they been warm.

There were several other dishes on the menu I was dying to try, but I was actually getting quite full, so I moved on to dessert. When I called to make my reservation I mentioned that it was to be my birthday dinner and that I had heard great things about their desserts, so I asked if the pastry chef would be willing to prepare tasting portions of several of her signature dishes. They indicated they would pass on the request and it should not be a problem at all. I really have to thank Fat Guy and many of the other posters on the "Going Off Menu" thread for encouraging this kind of thing, because not only did they grant my request, they actually comped me the entire dessert service because it was my birthday!

So here's what I had: El Diablo - a bittersweet cube of rich dark chocolate with a touch of cayenne pepper, burnt meringue, spiced almonds & cocoa nibs, finished with tequila-caramel sauce. The chocolate cube was light and soft like a mousse, but dense and fine textured like a flourless cake and just barely sweet. One of the best chocolate desserts I've ever had.

Flan Azafran - saffron scented Spanish custard served with honey vanilla bean-poached apricots. The flan was very creamy and smooth and the apricots complex and buttery.

A generous scoop of mango sorbet with light and crisp Mexican wedding cookies.

Torta del Cielo - sponge cake filled with sweet milk, white rum & coconut cream, served with ruby rhubarb hibiscus flower sauce. The cake was very moist and light with nice coconut flavor, and though the sauce was OK, though the flavors didn't really come through as much as I would have liked.

Overall an excellent dining experience and I will certainly be back. By the way, they have a nice, cozy looking private dining room with a long table just calling out for an eGullet gathering...

[nightscotsman]

Oh, almost forgot: the web site.

[Schielke]

Damn, now I have to go have dessert there.

[tsquare]

they actually comped me the entire dessert service because it was my birthday!

So here's what I had:  El Diablo - a bittersweet cube of rich dark chocolate with a touch of cayenne pepper, burnt meringue, spiced almonds & cocoa nibs, finished with tequila-caramel sauce. The chocolate cube was light and soft like a mousse, but dense and fine textured like a flourless cake and just barely sweet. One of the best chocolate desserts I've ever had.

Happy Birthday Pastry Boy!

I loved that El Diablo too.

[MsRamsey]

It sounds great. I am sold!

Did you get to meet with the pastry chef, or have any plans to do so?

[nightscotsman]

It sounds great.  I am sold!

Did you get to meet with the pastry chef, or have any plans to do so?

I was told the pastry chef is only there in the morning prepping all the desserts (to be plated later by the garde manger). I plan on calling later this week to see if I can meet her.

[mamster]

That's great, nightscotsman. I've never been to Tango, partly because it gets mixed reviews, and mostly because it's in exactly the wrong place for me: too far to be an impulse buy, too close to be a special trip. Now I'll definitely go.

[malarkey]

you know I would be really into going here again. I've only been once and I feel like I didn't get to give it a fair shake. I liked what I had, but I was at a table full of whiners... :-/ I'd love to go back and do just tapas.

[col klink]

Very nice report NSM, and a happy belated birthday!

[thelastsupper]

I am glad that you enjoyed yourself at Tango NSM. Aside from being annoyed at spelling errors on the menu (ie "Hongoes") I could only describe the place as wildly uneven. I have been several times in the past month to take advantage of the 1/2 price wine list on Monday nights. The first time I was surprised at how much the food had improved since the last time I'd been. The Lamb dish was tasty: seared loin, a venison sausage (somewhat dry) and a heap of black-eyed peas. The same dish one week later was completely uninteresting, dry and bland. I like their "Blanco y Rojo" however, just arugula, white anchovies, tomato and onion. But then I like white anchovies in most forms.

I still think the food has nothing to do with Spanish food except the names on the menu. I would give it that mysterious term, "New American."

They do have a great little wine list. And I will eat just about anything with a nice Rioja.

[nightscotsman]

I met MsRamsey and Ye-Ye Girl at Tango for dinner last week for on the Dine Out for Life night. Once again, everything was exellent.

We had the chipotle tiger prawns with tamarind roasted bananas and pumpkin seed-cilantro pipien that I ordered the last time I was here. I just love this dish and could eat it many times without getting tired of it.

Fallen Valdéon blue cheese soufflé served with dried plum compota & a port wine syrup. This turned out to be four little savory cheesecakes with a fairly mild blue cheese flavor. Perfect with the plum compote and wine reduction. Nice sweet (but not too sweet) and savory ballance.

The Madrid Platter - a selection of Serrano ham, paté, wild boar sausage, bacon wrapped dates, port mustard, roasted peppers, & olives. Everything on this plate was really good, but the pate (with the port mustard) and bacon wrapped dates were the stars. The dates in particular were like candy. I seem to remember that the olives mentioned were actually caper berries, and there might have also been a tapenade but we didn't mind.

We shared all of these dishes and were getting kind of full, so we moved on to dessert. MsRamsey and Ye-Ye Girl both had the El Diablo that I described above. It really is a bit much for one person, but damn if it ain't good! I had the Torta del Cielo: sponge cake filled with sweet milk, white rum & coconut cream, served ruby rhubarb hibiscus flower sauce. Light and creamy and not very sweet at all with some floral notes from the sauce.

Oh, and the cocktails were great, too. I had a house specialty that included sherry, grand marnier and cava sparkling wine.

I'll be back.

[MsRamsey]

The bacon-wrapped dates are like crack.

[tighe]

Scrat and I went to Tango the night after nightscotsman et. al. were there and had a really good meal. It was our first time, not sure why it took us so long. We also had the blue cheese souffles which we both thought would have been a great dessert. Our other items were sauteed mushrooms with serrano ham and kale, braised beef shortribs and the pan-seared calamari. All were excellent. The texture of the shortribs was absolutely divine, it must have been braised for days. A very interesting part of the calamari dish were the crispy chickpeas scattered over the plate.