Hello! It has been awhile! Sorry I haven’t posted for a long time, but I have been busy and/or really lazy. To make up for it, allow me to tell you my experience with one of my all time favorite restaurants: Altura.
My family and I come here usually for special occasions; so in other words, we only ever come here for birthdays. Altura is located near Capitol Hill on the tail end of Broadway with a convenient parking garage one block down. They provide a standard dining room area as well as a counter for you to sit (and dine) while watching the people work, which I highly recommend you doing. Dining is tasting menu kind of situation, each person costing a little under $160 (you can see why we only come here for special occasions). Like many restaurants that provide a tasting menu, they change monthly; so food discussed here is most likely going to be different if you decide to try, with the exception of most of their appetizers. In the end of the meal, they give you a scroll of what you ate, so that’s nice.
At the beginning of the meal, they serve a small drink, today being an apple and fennel mix, to clear your palette for the meal. Afterwards they begin the appetizers, which today there are 6. They are as follows:
Salsify sformato with smoked sturgeon and smoked Arctic Char Roe: a creamy, mash potato like dish that has a fish taste, most likely from the smoked sturgeon. Also, it was cold, or rather lukewarm.
Mustard Green Spongecake with raw albacore: This one I believe is served year round (don’t quote me). Usually, it has raw fish garnished on it, today being albacore.
Grassfed Beef Crudo in a Parmesan shell: First thing I noticed was that the beef is raw! The Parmesan worked really well with the rawness of the beef. That said, it was really salty on the outside.
Slow roasted popcorn with prawn: The popcorn just tasted like popcorn, if there was extra seasoning, I couldn’t tell. On a tiny wooden spoon, sat a bit of prawn.
Savory Cannoli with Sea urchin: This one is also served as a regular. With a hard, cracker-like tube shell, inside is a white cream and in the center is a bit of sea urchin. It tastes really creamy and sweet (from the urchin). I must say, this is actually one of my favorite thing served.
and finally, Shigoku oyster with speck. I learned today that speck, especially in this case, is pork fat. The oyster was warm, but judging from the explanation the server gave, that was suppose to be. However, I don’t know what they actually did to the oyster, but it had a really strong sea taste with the same lingering after taste. The speck tasted like nothing, kind of oily though. Not really my favorite thing that was served this evening.
For the main course, to start is a smoked mussel, which I think this is also served regularly. They serve it while it is covered in a glass dome that looks smoky. Upon lifting the dome, you can smell fresh wood smoke, apparently from Madrona bark. The mussel is wrapped in bacon and really does have a nice smoke flavor. On the side, there is another sformato-type thing with mussels and seaweed on it.
Afterwards is a mushroom risotto, which is just your average risotto with green powder sprinkled. After the risotto, we have pasta dish, which quite honestly is more of a long ravioli I later found out is called sarcpinocc. Underneath the pasta was boar ragu, which gave the dish more of a savory taste. This dish was given the option to add a layer of white truffle on top (for an extra charge). Of course we took it. In my honest opinion, the truffle didn’t really add anything to the pasta, but it was a nice experience, I guess. In addition to the pasta, they also served housemade bread. While the bread itself is not that special, it is their butter. The butter is coupled a myrtle spice. It gave the bread a nice kick.
After the mid meal palette cleanser sorbet, which was sour beyond belief, we had the main entree, which is a choice between dry-aged duck or ling cod. Knowing that I don’t like cooked fish, you know I went with the duck. The duck was ridiculously red in the middle. Very chewy with a nice crispy. Underneath the duck, is a caramelized daikon, which adds sweetness to the duck. Towards the side is a fried chicory with shredded foie gras. Despite preferring having my foie gras in a less shredded form, it did provide extra flavor to both the chicory and duck. Afterwards is dessert.
Dessert was something called a semifreddo, which is kind of like a cheese cake, only not as thick; so a softer cheesecake that doesn’t have a cream cheese taste. the semifreddo has a strong bourbon taste with a hit of caramel. It is paired with a toasted marshmallow meringue pieces and a caramelized banana slice. The two pairings add extra sweetness to the semifreddo. Usually after dessert (or before, I don’t remember) there would be a specialized cheese dish, but I was told that it is only served later in the year (even later than November). So they ended the meal with a affogato hot chocolate with a side of a cake. The cake had a VERY strong rum taste. To the point that I am pretty sure the cake itself was soaked in rum, like a sponge. I almost regret eating it whole. The hot chocolate was nice and rich. The creaminess of the ice cream, because affogatos have ice cream, supplemented the hot chocolate greatly.
I have always enjoyed eating at Altura, from when they had a standard menu, to the change to tasting menu only, to now. It is definitely an experience to come here for celebration, and I truly hope you all can try and also enjoy.
Seattle's/Taiwan's food lover 