Crush

We went to Crush on Madison at 23rd in Seattle recently. The space is a remodeled old house, with an open kitchen and modernist furniture, decorated tastefully.

We both had the tasting menu. Debbie had the wine pairing, and I wished that I had also, but I was driving, so thought I should use moderation. The wine pairing pours were moderate, so I probably would have been OK.

We had:

• Salsify soup with oysters and paddlefish roe
• Kobe beef tartare on potato blini with sea urchin roe and garrotxa cheese. This dish was absolutely amazing--the best beef tartare I've had.
  
• Seared scallop in dungeness crab "chowder" with leeks and sliced black truffle. Every tasting menu seems to have a seared scallop, probably because they're so good and everybody likes them. I certainly liked this one.
  
• Foie Gras two ways: seared on braised endive, and torchon on quince brunoise. The contrast between the warm seared foie and the torchon made it an interesting dish.
  
• Saddle of venison with huckleberries, rye bread "stuffing", celeriac puree, port sauce, baby vegetables. This was a tasty dish. Venison was perfectly cooked (i.e. rare throughout). Good sauce that didn't overwhelm the dish.
  
• Warm chocolate cake with cherry sorbet paired with Quelque Chose barrel-aged cherry infused beer. I've never had beer that was intentionally heated before. It was amazing. The waitress comped me the beer even though I didn't get the pairing, just because it went so well with the dessert.
  

This was probably the best restaurant meal we've had in Seattle. I had been despairing of finding a restaurant cooking food in this style (which I guess I'd call the "Modern American Chef " style) in Seattle that did it really well. Everything was first-rate, great service. I'd go back.