Eden Hill is a tiny, unassuming restaurant that seats 24 at the top of Queen Anne that has been receiving rave reviews for their avant garde dishes. The “Lick the Bowl” foie gras cake batter dessert caught my eye, so t0e and I decided to give it a try.
As the restaurant is tiny, and t0e was running really late due to some horrendous traffic (1 hour to cross the 520 bridge – I’m sure Seattle folks can sympathize), the restaurant let us know that we had to be done by 7:30 for the next reservation on the table. We would have only had an hour and fifteen minutes to enjoy our meal and they would be unable to offer us the tasting menu as that needed the full two hours. They offered to move us to the bar where we could take our sweet time and make some hard decisions.
Order from the standard menu to try the much lauded pig head candy bar OR try the five-course blind tasting menu? They wouldn’t tell us what was on the tasting menu, taking into account only dietary restrictions and strong preferences, and telling us that it had none of the dishes from the standard menu. We weren’t sure if we wanted to trust the chef just yet at place we had never been, without knowing what we were getting into, but we figured that we could order the items on the menu that we really wanted, if we still had any room left. So in the chef we trusted, knowing that this chef, Maximillian Petty, had concocted a way to serve foie gras for dessert…
sweet pea soup with prosciutto – the amuse bouche, a chilled soup with a hint of mint to chase a succulent house-smoked prosciutto; thick sliced and cured to bring out the flavor of the meat – this bite set the tone for the rest of our dinner.
shrimp torta – a torta fried crisp topped with fresh shrimp, lime gelee, fresh rosemary, pickled radishes, crema, and some sort of cheese. I honestly don’t know exactly what’s in this torta, but the garden blends so well with the fried torta and sweet shrimp. A little chili powder to add some oomph, a little lime to make you think margarita, and fresh microgreens to tell you it’s spring.
quail and risotto – with morels, mint and goat cheese. This was dish was rich and richer, with the addition of mint to brighten up the dish. It was delicious and I love my food rich, so I didn’t mind. The portions aren’t large enough to make you feel overwhelmed, so having that much richness in a single dish, isn’t a huge problem. The quail was superb as was the risotto.
goat chops -with sous vide sunchokes and pickled blue berries; for a goat, you hardly tasted the fact that it was a goat, which is pretty impressive on its own. One would think they would have sous vided the goat, but they chose to sous vide the sunchoke.
foie gras – with apple gelee, olive caramel, and savory meringues. I don’t remember what the meringues were made from, but I remember thinking that the texture was an improvement over waffle or crostini. Foie gras is delicate and it needs a delicate starch to go with it. The apple gelee added the requisite tartness, but the olive caramel is what blew us away. It was a very sticky caramel, sweet, but had a hint of olive that complimented the savory items on the dish. I spent most of my time trying lick the caramel off the plate, long after I had devoured the foie. While I wish the foie was thicker, any tasting menu that is only $75 with 5 dishes that includes a foie gras, is definitely a great value.
berry crisp with sorbet – the sorbet flavor eludes me at the time of writing, but this was a refreshing dessert that was light enough to be finished after a tasting menu.
Lick the Bowl – foie gras cake batter served with berries and seared pound cake. We ordered an extra dessert because I couldn’t leave without seeing what foie gras would taste like for dessert. It’s a fluffy pate, infused with sprinkles, vanilla, and liquor to give it some sweetness. It definitely taste like a foie gras pate, make no mistake about it, but if you think about the composition of a foie dish, you’ll remember that you need sweet and tarte and bitter to balance it out. That’s why works so well – the sweetness is built into the batter in a sublime fashion, though the sprinkles do add a festive pop. It is a little odd at first, but if you love foie or you love sweet and savory combinations, you will want to try this dish!
The chef said that story behind this dish is that when he was a personal chef for a family, a little girl loved foie, but brother did not. He created this concept so that the brother would eat the foie. Genius!
t03 and I were both in agreement that the right choice was to do the tasting menu. All the dishes amazed us, left us wanting more bites of each, but if we had, we never would have made it through all the courses without feeling stuffed. If you’re a big eater, you might leave a little hungry, but we were happily satiated after the tasting menu. The Lick the Bowl dessert did us in. For $75 for five courses that included, quail, goat, risotto, and foie gras – I think this is probably one of the best values in Seattle. It’s certainly one of the most creative and delicious ones, where they are mixing a variety of flavors together, but nothing is overwhelming or lost.
Dining out can be an exercise in trust. Much in the same way Seattle trusts Canlis to deliver memorable service for special occasions, we have to trust that we’re in good hands with a chef that does blind tasting menus. Take the chance – trust Maximillian Petty. You’ll be impressed by the dishes and glad you took a leap of faith. He’s definitely earned our trust and I’m looking forward to see what exciting dishes he serves next time. Eden Hill is going on my list of favorite restaurants in Seattle.
SUMMARY
Overall: happily ever after
Highlights: quail with risotto, seared foie gras, Lick the Bowl
Footnotes: the restaurant seats 24, so be mindful of how long you occupy the table; show up on time for your reservation so you can try the tasting menu; make a reservation; the tasting menu is highly recommended!