Seattle Micro-Holiday

Which is to say I took a day trip recently. Lunch at Le Pichet, then a late dinner at Delancey. Both were good to excellent, but the real revelation was the location of second lunch, (or first dinner depending how you want to look at it.) We went to Basque pintxos bar Txori around five, theoretically for a snack and drink, in reality we pretty much consumed the whole menu and had many drinks. What an exciting restaurant. Every single dish without fail was executed to a level you’d expect from West or Lumiere, but using honest simple technique and fast food dollar menu pricing. The cooking was at a level we are not used to here. Gone were pretense and showmanship all too evident in Vancouver, replaced by a real sense of wanting to please.

This place is all about substance, leaving style to those that need to rely on the later in lieu of the former and magically transforming into an abundance of both. I am so smitten with this place that I would get in the car right now and head straight back given half a chance.

Oil poached mackerel was fresh and lacking fishy overtones, replaced by satisfying meatiness. Served on a slice of toast with a Spanish ratatouille underneath it, pure genius. A potato salad that was exciting (making it the first potato/mayo combo in the history of cuisine to be interesting),  a veal meatball speared into toast, perfectly grilled sardines, a piquillo pepper stuffed with blood sausage and fried, a mini paella, smoky with paprika. The food is amazing in that every tiny dish speaks of what it is, and not a flavour is duplicated across the menu. I was certain halfway through our snack that we should get into the car, march into the kitchen of Mis Trucos, take the kitchen staff back with us, feed them and then say “See? This is what you are trying to do.” A more astute friend observed Txori seems to occupy the middle ground between La Bodega (boisterous, but touch and go on the food) and Mis Trucos (attention to detail – but the restaurant space and the precise presentation drains the dining experience of the expected warmth and sheer fun of Spanish cuisine?)  I think alot of places in Vancouver fall prey to the whole Wallpaper influenced food aesthetic.  Neat little piles,  over designed plates and cutlery, stripped down sterile rooms.

My only complaint was that the toast underneath the tapas tended towards “supermarket baguette” in texture and flavour, but with cuisine this brilliant that seems a little like bitching about Megan Fox’s toe thumbs.

Go. Soon. It’s brilliant.

~KT