Well Fed On the Town

While vacationing in Seattle, we stayed right across the street from a sleek looking restaurant called Qube. I must have passed the place a dozen times on my way to Pike Place market or the little Mexican joint that served the best corn tortillas I’ve ever eaten (I’m guessing they use high quality fresh masa). But A and I are wary of dining at trendy looking restaurants we’ve heard nothing about. Too often, a restaurant that looks too sleek, too polished, charges too much money for moderately interesting, fairly executed food to people who are too status-obsessed to notice. The rest of us plebians leave feeling cheated and poor, knowing that the food we paid for so dearly was intentionally below par.

Alternatively, this trendy-looking restaurant is the pet project of an enthusiastic chef who has just opened her own place. Eating here can be painful, like watching the first faltering steps of a newborn doe. So much effort and overarching ambition is placed in the execution of the food, that some dishes utterly fail.

Ultimately, I was drawn into the restaurant by a reference to the chef boldly printed on the front window. Executive Chef Lisa Nakamura had worked for Thomas Keller at the French Laundry. A agreed, more out of a sense of adventure than anything else.

Our dinner at Qube was refreshing and deliciously pleasurable. The service was attentive and friendly, the decor was an unusually sensual balance of steel and gossamer curtains, wood, and flowers. Nakamura’s menu is ambitious. Some dishes delighted the palate and excited the imagination with their creative combination of ingredients and clever play with flavors and textures. Other dishes were less interesting, but carefully executed nonetheless. At $91 (plus tip) for a cocktail, shared prix fixe set meal, entrée, and a bottomless bread basket, our dinner at Qube was reasonable while honoring the palettes of its clientele. I found myself smiling with pleasure at each new bite of the tasting menu, happily enjoying the surprising juxtapositions while excitedly discussing them with my companion. Each bite is a distillation of the chef’s rich Japanese heritage and French culinary experience. Nakamura’s menu is the medium through which she expresses herself and by so doing, engages the diner. I would gladly return for another serving of Nakamura’s creative play with the Japanese culinary landscape and French savoir faire.

Here are my tasting notes for our dinner:

• Bread with sesame seed spread and sweet/sour/hot spread–tasty and unusual. A respite from the typical butter and olive oil.

Sonoma Foie Gras Trio ~ Course One

• Crème Brulee de Foie Gras–Creamy foie gras with a sweet crust of burnt sugar. Unusual and interesting, but only for a couple of bites.
• Torchon paired with Mango Compote–Delightfully creamy liver with sweet mango compote (sweet, but not too sweet). Perfect on little buttery toast points.
• Sautéed Foie Pickled Lychee & Balsamic Cinnamon Gastrique–Brilliant. I could have eaten an entire plate of this. The lychees are cool and refreshing, the balsamic cinnamon gastrique both sweet and tart, while the sautéed foie is touched by the mildly bitter, nutty flavor of toasted sesame oil. Salty, sweet, sour, bitter flavors, all balanced.

Snake River Kobe Style Beef Trio ~ Course Two

• Flat Iron Steak with Ume Truffle Butter–Another stroke of brilliance. Perfectly rare, thinly sliced beef topped with pink dabs of umeboshi butter. The sour freshness of the umeboshi contrasted with the butter and juicy steak. Like cornichons with charcuterie, this combination was a natural–Unusual, yet so irresistibly tasty, as though people have been eating steak and umeboshi for generations.
• Top Round Korean Bulgogi Style–Pleasant. Succulent meat in a salty, sour, spicy marinade with sautéed sprouts reminiscent of homemade noodles.
• Shortrib Ravioli with Wasabi Demi Glace–Fascinating! Perfectly al dente ravioli stuffed with morsels of shortribs that fall apart in your mouth when you bite into them. Enrobed in a silky, creamy wasabi gravy, this is a beautiful balance of textures.

Watsonville Strawberries Trio ~ Course Three

• Ginger Bavarois–Brilliance! Strawberry coulis–tiny, minced bits of strawberry that look like caviar–spooned atop a little square of gelatin-reinforced Bavarian cream topped with thin strips of candied ginger, a slice of strawberry, and surrounded by coulis. Drizzled with a balsamic reduction that tasted of chocolate (I could only tell that it wasn’t by tasting a bit of the sauce on its own!). A fantastic symphony of flavors and textures.
• Coconut Shortbread–Delightfully salty cookies crumbly and sweet with bits of coconut and rich with butter.
• Caramel-Coated Strawberry–A tasty twist on the typical chocolate dipped berries, but a bit too simple and flat compared to the other desserts.

Qube
1901 Second Ave.
Seattle, WA
(206) 770-5888
Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Saturday; dinner 5-10 p.m. daily; late-night menu 10 p.m.-midnight daily.