Canlis, in Review

Steve and I went to Canlis, a fancy restaurant in Seattle, for dinner last night. We probably would have never gone except that we had a gift certificate. Upon arriving, I immediately felt out of place. There were two identical Lexus vehicles in front of us and we pull up in our Subaru. However, the types of cars people were driving was not going to ruin my evening of what I hoped was going to be some of the best food I had ever had.

When we sat down at our table, we had an amazing view of Lake Union and the Ship Canal Bridge. It was breathtaking. I wanted to go back on the 4th of July just to see the fireworks. Another time, perhaps.

We were given a menu of cocktails and a dictionary of wines. Since neither Steve or I drink, these menus meant nothing to us. I did order a non-alcoholic beverage that was very delicious. When they brought it out they made sure to tell us that even though it looks alcoholic, it isn't and parents always have a look of apprehension in their eyes when they see their 12-year old daughters drinking something like this. I always love being compared to a 12-year old girl.

After ordering water, we were given our dinner menus. I ordered the crab cake, arugula salad, and King Salmon. Steve got the crab cake, Canlis salad, and lamb chops. I cannot vouch for Steve's food as I did not try it, but I found that my favorite part of each dish was not the center piece of the dish. For the crabcake, my favorite was the cooked carrots shaped into little balls around the crabcake. I felt like Ivar's does a much better crabcake. As for Steve's crabcake, he found a hair in his and sent it back immediately. They brought him another one that was piping hot and he said it was much better than the first. My salad was delicious. Probably the best part of the entire meal. I thoroughly enjoyed the grilled melon and I loved that the goat cheese was melted on to the plate so that you sort of slid your salad through it to enjoy it. Then the salmon came. Again, it was delicious and I did eat the entire thing, but was it spectacular? I don't think so. I did, however, love the presentation which included pickeled lemon strings and fried garlic slices. Those parts were fantastically delicious.

When it came time for dessert, Steve and I chose to share the doughnuts. They came with molten chocolate for dipping and a peanut butter icecream. It was good, but agian, I've had better doughnuts and I have definitely had much better desserts. My all time favorite dessert would probably have to be a rosemary chocolate cake and black pepper icecream that we ate in New York City.

Other odds and ends that were weird was that it seemed like there were a lot of trophy wives dining that night, the servers were dressed in an asianesque outfit that was disconcerting considering the food was not asian, they iron the linens on the tables with an iron that has been painted black, the music was pop songs done in piano (Silent Lucidity as an example), and after we paid our bill we left which apparently was not the thing to do because the valets were scrambling to get our car out to us.

Good things about the evening, we really liked our server. We listened to other servers near us and they seemed very pompous but ours seemed very likeable and cared about our experience. Also, they brought out several amouse bouches that were deeply satisfying.

In summation, I'd have to say that I felt the restaurant was playing it to safe. I wanted to see and try something new that I have never seen paired together before and I did not get that opportunity.