Skip to main content5:30-10 pm Monday-Thursday, 5:30-11 pm Friday-Saturday, 5-10 pm Sunday. Not wheelchair-accessible. $$$$ Very expensive.
[NORTHWEST CUISINE PERFECTED] Chef Vitaly Paley has found the fountain of youth—it's made of veal stock and local greens. How else could this 15-year-old restaurant taste just as vibrant and exciting as it did when Paley and his ebullient wife, Kimberly, opened it in a quaint Victorian house back in 1995? Take a bite of the Oregon Dungeness crab risotto, and then just go dead quiet for a second or two, trying to figure out how Paley and crew mesh those flavors so well. Savor the perfect texture of the rice, wonder at the balance between the sweet, mellow tang of crab butter and Parmesan, and vegetal punch of crunchy snap peas. That's simple perfection, people. And it's everywhere you look in this timeless bistro dining room (currently decorated with photos of the Paleys' favorite local farmers): the chubby blue mussels bathed in a light, sweet wine sauce served with a tall cone of hand-cut fries with a side of mustardy aioli. Heady rabbit ravioli in a pool of a rich, Asian-inspired sauce studded with fat hunks of house-cured bacon. Roasted bones filled with smooth marrow gold, a deep wine list and a jaw-dropping selection of local charcuterie, some produced in house and others from local vendors. Frankly, it's downright freaky how good this place is. Excellence never gets old. KELLY CLARKE.
Ideal meal: Mussels or heirloom bean and summer veggie cassoulet, crab risotto, orange-blossom cannolo with basil and summer fruit sauce.
Best deal: With generous half portions on offer from the informed yet relaxed servers, you can eat your way through much of the menu without taking out a loan.
WWeek 2015