Two fantastic Seattle Dining Recs

[Dids]

1- OK Corral BBQ Pit Stop. It's on 87th and Greenwood. We showed up there last night and a black man missing a good portion of his teeth and with a strong southern drawl asked us if we'd been there before. We hadn't and so he asked us to "let me take care of you".

Eventually he brought out plates of the following, we ate family style:

Breaded and Fried Catfish and Salmon
The best hush puppies I've ever had
BBQ Ribs (country ribs I think, or the bones had been removed) with a very very good vinegar heavy bbq sauce.
Fried Chicken
BBQ Chicken
Greens
Red Beans and Rice

Everything but the beans and rice (which I'm not not a big fan of anyway) was utterly fantastic. Best BBQ I've had in Seattle by a long shot.

In the end the total for the 5 of us was 104, so around 20 a person, and we agreed we would have paid twice that.

It's not the most elegant place, and it's small, but man, so good.

You may also see me (or parts of me) in an add for the place in the Seattle Weekly, as there was a girl there taking pictures with that intent and apparently a happy fat man makes for good BBQ pictures.

2- Cafe Juanita in Kirkland Their website.

This place was voted (along with Canlis) as Seattle's two restaurants on Gorumet Mag's top 50 places in the US. It was really, really good. Fantastic service, and amazing food.

For starters we had:

Seared Foie Gras with Local Quince, Candied Ginger and Vin Santo (literally melt in your mouth fantastic, neither my mother or I had ever had Foie Gras before and we were both just blown away)

Hearts of Romaine with Parmigiano Reggiano and Anchovy Vinaigrette (this is a Caeser with whole hearts of romain, they like being difficult)

D'Anjou Pear with Pinenuts, Parmigiano Reggiano and White Truffle Oil 9. (also just utterly fantastic)

For Dinner:

I had:

Quail with Potato, Polenta, Lobster Mushrooms and Huckleberry Sauce. (very good, Quail is kinda annoying to eat, but it was very tasty. The Lobster mushrooms were amazing.)

My Mom had:

Rabbit Braised in Arneis with Ligurian Chickpea Crepe, Pancetta and Chanterell (this is their signature dish, and it's really, really good)

My dad had a fish special that was some whole bass that was pan seared. It was also very good.

For desert my father and I had:

A huckleberry (I think) bread pudding with a fennel gelato on top. This was pretty good, although the bread pudding was a little too bready and would have been better with more cream/sauce over it or someting).

My mother had:

Lemon Gelato, it was amazing, and a nice refreshing way to end a meal.

Again, really fantastic place, a bit out of the way, and you might have to park a ways away as it's got a small lot. The prices aren't cheap, but for the quality of food, I think it's a VERY good deal.

[Freakin]

Cafe Juanita is one of my most memorable meals in a while. Good choice.

Also, it's like 3 minutes from my house, so it's really convenient.

I had the best desert of my life there. It was a mint ice cream. The took real mint nibs off mint plants, candied them, coated them in chocolate, then folded them into the ice cream. It was unbelievable.

I had wagyu beef risotto as well, and it was off the hook.

Man... i gotta go back there.

[Entity]

OK Corrall is great. The name of the guy that runs it is Otis; he's awesome and the food there is amazing. Haven't tried Cafe Juanita.

[gisb0rne]

Don't great restaurants ever serve normal food? The list of what you ate reminds me of the opening scene in American Psycho. Why can't it be blueberry bread pudding or strawberry bread pudding?

[Dids]

Huckleberry is way standard for a northwest place. Also it's 500% better than blueberrys or strawberrys.

Also, I don't eat "normal" food when I go to nice places. I can make steak/chicken/whatever at home. I can't/don't do foie gras and quail.