Samara

Wood-fired cooking so really worth writing a review. I think it may be my new favorite place in Seattle. Wood-fired new American cuisine with locally sourced, seasonally available, sustainable ingredients. Just the way we like it in the PNW. That’s why they served fresh fiddleheads in their salad, sunchokes — smokey with flavor from being cooked in the fire, and which I learned are the roots of sunflowers — as well as squid, salmon, and bison for proteins, as well as beautifully smashed heritage purple fingerlings. And they bake all their bread on the premises. We lucked out and got the seats at the counter where the food being being prepped: best seats in the house. Aliyit was gracious enough to answer our questions about preparation and food sourcing. I don’t think I do just as describing the food so I’ve added several videos. I plan to be back, and often. Though we walked in during the early evening without a reservation, highly recommend reservations.

Fantastic experience for our first time at Samara. Really enjoyed the food and our waiter was great all along! The dressing for the salad was perfect, and the salad was perfectly tossed: there wasn't any dressing left in the plate. It is very pleasant to be able to enjoy it down to last leaf without it being soaked in dressing accumulated at the bottom. Well done. Note that they shave a few slice of Comté on the salad, don't expect the French style of Salad with Comté where you get a bunch of half-inches sized cubes ;) Goat cheese with cracker and jelly was pretty good as well: the goat cheese was warmed up (without melting, just the right level). The cracker were supposed to have hazelnut, but it was really subtle (I wouldn't know if it wasn't spelled on the menu. The sauce with the bison was fantastic as well, I would say I had too much meat compared to the amount of potatoes maybe. The betties and meringue in dessert was amazing, not too sweet and the perfect touch of lemon. There were two things that were "just good" without being amazing for us: the Halibut was nicely paired with broccoli, but the fish was slightly dry, and could have benefited from a sauce on the side (White wine and lemon buttery sauce maybe? The bison sauce placed the bar high...). And the brandied plum and pistachio tart: the plums are really good, even though I couldn't detect any brandy (?), but the pistachio tart was a bit dry and the taste felt to subtle when paired with the stronger taste from the plums. Next time I'll take the Chef counter to enjoy seeing them working their magic. We'll very likely be back :)

I had leg of duck, so tender with a wonderfully crunchy skin, also roasted carrots and peppers, wow! My kids had the halibut and Dungeness crab, both loved their food. We celebrated their birthdays, and our server was kind to put a candle in the most tasty, rich chocolate flour less tort I've ever had.

This place was pretty neat! It is a great place to go for a celebration or to treat yourself! I loved the house baked bread & fire-roasted Olive tapenade. The vegetable section was quite neat too! Our group tried everything in that section. I liked, & would recommend, the baked sunchokes, satina potato & oven charred carrots. I didn’t enjoy the salad and broccolini dishes though - that said many in the party liked the broccolini. And, I have to admit that the flavors were on point in the broccolini dish. As for desserts - we had the carrot cake and Rhubarb gelee. I didn’t really enjoy either of the desserts. Mind you, they weren’t bad. But they just didn’t hit the mark for me! Hence the missing fifth star. The ambience and service was very friendly and attentive. I’d definitely recommend giving this place a try!

This place feels like a best kept secret. We've driven past here many times and never thought much of it. It's so beautiful inside. The fresh flowers are a stellar touch. The staff were all super attentive. The food was delicious. The short rib bison was so tender the meat fell right off the bone clean. The mezcal negroni and the autumn leaves cocktail were strong and bold. The bread plate was scrumptious. I was over the moon with everything. But one thing did bug me and it really bugged me unfortunately. When I booked the reservation I noted it was a birthday occasion, and when I called to confirm the reservation an hour before, staff acknowledged it was a birthday. Then when we were getting our desert my partner started getting bashful while they were preparing the dessert with a candle and he whispered you shouldn't have, and then they started singing happy birthday and walked right by us to a table behind us, then just dropped our desert off like it was nothing. My partner was relieved but I can't stop thinking about how strange that was and is a really big blunder in my book because we know they do something like that for you if it is your birthday and the oversight just left me supremely disappointed. We had been excited for this birthday dinner for weeks. He didn't care at all but I did since I had organized everything. Other than that it really was over the moon wonderful and I hate that I'm focused on that one negative part but for a meal that was over 300 I kind of surprised by the oversight. Would love to try again though that being said.

I had dinner here with a group of girls and loved almost everything about it! Wine selection was great, I enjoyed both my Sangiovese and Pinot blanco. Some friends had the Negroni which they mentioned was not as amazing as others that they’ve tried. In terms of food though, I like everything we had, particularly the olive tapenade, bison heart tartare, potatoes, carrots, sunchokes, squid (!!!), crab, and bison. If I had to go again I think maybe I wouldn’t get the beets again, not because they weren’t great but because they were not as unique as the other veggies. Wonderful service, ceramic dinnerware, and ambience. Such a special restaurant.

Wood fire Pacific Northwest style cuisine. They have loads of veggies and fish on the menu (as well as meat dishes I didn’t try). I wish we had got more of the amazing vegetable dishes. They were perfectly cooked, wood smoke flavor, and paired with incredible sauces and flavors. I want to return to try more of those. The crab was great and my favorite of the seafoods dishes. The fish was good, but didn’t stand out above the other dishes we ordered. The desserts also were very good! Definitely worth a visit if you are looking to try something new!