Palisade

I didn't have a chance to try Palisade during Dine Around Seattle. Fortunately, they offered the same choices for the Seattle Restaurant Week. Palisade is situated on Elliot Bay, with a curved glass window overlooking Seattle, Bainbridge island, and Vashon island, there isn't a single table that doesn't have a spectacular view.

I think I have finally gotten the hang of dining alone. I no longer feel awkward, I can relax, bring something to read, enjoy the delicious food while taking in the view. In fact, I enjoyed my lunch at the Palisade so much, I went back a week later. This could be bad for my waist line though.

The bread bowl contained three types of freshly baked goodies, namely a multigrain bread with sunflower seed, a mini personal sized baguette loaf, and a rosemary buttery bun. They were all good, but I'm not big on hard crusts, and the multigrain's crust was just a midge too hard for me. The rosemary bun, on the other hand, was to die for. (Oh, the aroma, I'm drooling now.) And the black lava sea salt on top of the butter was heavenly. Gotta go get a jar of that stuff!

For the salad starter, I chose the Butter Lettuce with Rogue River Blue Cheese both times. The baby bibb lettuce was studded with crumbled blue cheese, smoked hazelnuts, crispy julienned pear with one guava wood smoked butter poached colossal prawn sitting on top. The refreshing lettuce, creamy yet not heavy dressing, along with the toasty hazelnuts, grape tomatoes, and sweet pear created a perfect harmony. I also noticed a more prominent smoke flavor the second time.

The first time I couldn't quite decide between the seafood sliders and the sirloin steak, in the end the sliders won since my waitress told me it was so popular that it often sold out. The three sliders were Maine lobster "BLT" with crisp pancetta, house smoked salmon with caper cream cheese, and Alaskan King crab salad with avocado, roasted pepper aioli and crisp watercress. All served on fluffy brioche buns. The accompanying butter lettuce and red cabbage salad with diced cantaloupe, honeydew, and pineapple, while refreshing, couldn't quite live up to the salad appetizer. The salmon slider had big chunks of nicely smoked salmon, and some pickled red onions. However, I found the cream cheese a bit too heavy. I couldn't taste the caper flavor in it. Some caper pieces would have been nice to cut through the cream. The crab salad was smooth, with the bitterness of the watercress, and a tint of spiciness from the aioli, it didn't disappoint. My favorite of the three, however, was the lobster BLT. The lobster perfectly tender, pancetta crisp but not dry, with just the right amount of mayonnaise. Though it wasn't a lobster roll, it was pretty close to a perfect lobster sandwich.

I LOVE chocolate. There is no doubt about THAT! So when there is a dessert called "Chocolate Lovers", no way would I let it pass. The Palisade Chocolate "Lovers" Cake is a rich, decadent chocolate mousse cake with shaved white chocolate, plated with fresh raspberries, chocolate hazelnut ice cream, and mini raspberry bittersweet chocolate truffles. This was truly a very substantial (as you can see from the picture) and divine dessert. I loved every part of it. I never quite got on the bandwagon of pairing chocolate with sea salts. So if I had to be nit-picky about this dessert, it would be that there were just a tad too much sea salt on the truffles. (Oh, and one more disappointing thing, even though I had 2 truffles during my first visit, there was only 1 the second time.)

On top of the marvelous food, the service was friendly, attentive without being overbearing. Palisade certainly hit the ball out of the park on these promotions. I had such a gratifying time that I went back a week later to satiate my immense curiosity about the Wagyu Sirloin. The "Snake River Farm" Wagyu sirloin was char grilled in the special over-under broiler, brushed with housemade steak butter, served on roasted fingerling potatoes with grilled green and white asparagus. Of course, like everything else, the potatoes and asparagus were perfect too. But they weren't the star of the dish. The steak took the lead as anticipated, flavorful and juicy, being cooked to the perfect tenderness, sat unassumingly on the potatoes, dominated the plate. I didn't think I could finish that big a piece of meat, but somehow, I couldn't stop myself, one bite after another, everything vanished. The plating, however, was a little lacking. All the food was crammed in one section, left half of the white plate startlingly bare. The server also didn't wipe that empty half clean, left some streaks of sauce residues.

One other thing I had to complain was the absence of a butter knife. The diners were expected to use the same knife for their salads and entrees as buttering their bread. Granted, it's a very small thing, but it's one of those little details that could make a great dining experience into a fantastic one. Still, I left the restaurant in a culinary bliss.

Palisade Waterfront Restaurant
2601 W Marina Pl, Seattle, WA 98199
(206) 285-1000