09/13/09

Amazing food, decent ambiance

by ptcrpsnt

In terms of top notch Seattle restaurants, Crush is one of the finest. Crush has a very inspired and memorable menu, diverse cuisines, superb service, and a great wine list. At the same time, its modish seats are not perfectly comfortable and the location doesn't offer the most phenomenal view. Great place for a special date but not the best location / ambiance for a *real* special date (aka Anniversaries, Valentine's, etc.)

• Pros: Creative menu, great service, delicious
• Cons: Seating / view is slightly uncomfortable distracting

06/20/09

great handmade pasta

by tbellevue

We were here for dinner last month and the food was great for the most part. My seabass was on the salty side. The best dish was the pasta (very small portion-3 bites), hand made and delightful touch with the caviar. The samples that were brought out were nice. Staff could work on being more classy (hostess had extremely low-breast out summer dress) for this high end dining experience.

• Pros: creative combination of courses, beautiful arrangement
• Cons: overpriced

06/15/09

Lukewarm Overpriced Mediocrity

by ironlotus

It seems that when a restaurant has a mandatory 20% gratuity for a party of 5 or more and you have 5 or more people in your party you are asking for trouble.

I will preface what I am saying by sharing that I have been to Crush before and we had a great experience and that is why we went back, however, based on this last experience I think we will find other places to patronize.

I found the wine markup very high especially knowing that there would be an automatic 20% gratuity added on top of the markup.

Our waitress didn’t seem to have a lot of patience or time for us and we all felt a little rushed to place our order and get through the meal.

Our first course was brought out and we were eager to dig in. While many of the dishes tasted good none of them were hot, most were barely lukewarm. We had the Foie Gras and Sweetbreads on our last visit and had them again this visit, however they were prepared differently and not nearly as good. As I mentioned before they brought us an amuse bouche which was creative, beautiful and delicious. Our main courses were brought out and as we dug in many of us were sadly disappointed. My $30 sous vide fish that looked like a piece of processed fish tasted a lot like processed fish cake and was only served with a few sea beans. It was very disappointing. Some of our other party did enjoy their food but were not a fan of the food not being hot and not being served with a starch and in some of the cases the serving size itself.

My dessert was the best part of the meal and the most generous portion. Although the desserts are not inexpensive it was very good.

We have continued to talk about our meal since dining at crush but none of the comments have been good ones.

• Pros: The place is cute and we had some good cocktails, lovely amu
• Cons: Very high wine markup and corkage,overpriced, not that good

02/18/09

Very Pleasing in every way

by back933

My wife of 20+ years and I had a wonderful time here. From the friendly service and good wine list to the superb food and pleasing presentation. We could have been in Paris.

• Pros: Intimate dining
• Cons: Not a place to bring young ones

02/15/09

Simply the best

by randy2300

The minute we walked in the door, we were treated like honored guests. We even created our own tasting menu and the waiter checked with us before pairing an "expensive" wine with one of our courses. The food is simply the best in Seattle. And when we got the bill, we were surprised at how reasonable it all was. There is simply not a better restaurant in Seattle.

• Pros: perfect food, warm and friendly service, incredible ambiance
• Cons: none

01/29/09

Heavenly, but don't come hungry

by wernerknepper

January 29, 2009 - The atmosphere and food are absolutely outstanding, however, the portions are (insultingly) small. Order the Lamb and you'll find three pieces the size of your pinky, along with sausage the size of the tip of our pinky?all for a mere $36.00. Unless something changes I don't think we will be back.

• Pros: excellent food and atmosphere
• Cons: very small portions

01/04/09

Best restaurant in Seattle

by patrickbateman79

I had always heard that getting into Crush could be quite a difficult task, but much to my surprise I called on a Friday afternoon and was able to get a party of 6 in that same evening with no problems whatsoever. The host said he could definitely fit us in and we had a beautiful table overlooking the open kitchen. We opted for the chef's tasting menu and boy am I glad we did. We were continuously amazed with 9 courses of the most beautiful and exquisite food I have ever seen. We started with what our server called "Bacon & Eggs(!)" which was a parsnip flan with salmon caviar, bacon & black pepper creme fraiche, and a maple syrup that had been aged in bourbon barrels! Oh my goodness! It was to die for. We also had a beautiful Japanese hamachi crudo with pickled carrot & ginger and spiced Asian pear. Soooo good. Even the bread was amazing, made in house and topped with black Alaskan sea salt. Other highlights included the sturgeon which was sourced fresh directly from the Quinault Indian tribe right here in Washington, amazing foie gras with quince, endive, and cinnamon brioche, and of course those legendary short ribs that Chef Jason Wilson has become known for, which are cooked sous vide for 24 hours. No detail was left out during the course of our dinner. Our server was really seemed to enjoy talking about all the amazing food. Cocktails were delicious as well, I really liked the Northwest Sidecar which was had a Douglas Fir syrup that we were told was made with fir needles from the back yard of the house. Our server also brought us out an extra dessert and a plate of hand made chocolates. All in all a very memorable night, best dinner I have had in ages and well worth the money. Highly recommended.

• Pros: Food, Service, Decor
• Cons: none that I can think of

11/04/08

Is it a Crush or is it true Love

by betweencourses

Five best reasons to visit Crush in November!

1. Jason Wilson - James Beard 2008 Best Chef NW finalist for 2008

2 .Crush is fun, young, loud, trendy

3. Crush has THE BEST NW Cuisine available!

4. Crush is in Dining Around Seattle $30 3 course dinner Sun-Thurs.

5. You will never get a better deal one of the best Restaurants in the NW

Go to urbanspoon to see more profession reviews, blogs, user reviews and other useful links on Crush.

P.S. no I don't work there - just a huge fan.

• Pros: The food and the experience
• Cons: parking can be challenging

10/09/08

Close your eyes and savor the flavor!

by troq

This was a special romantic evening that was perfect in every way! We were greeted warmly at the door and seated quickly. The service was impeccable! The decor is modern as is the food (it's New American). The dark wood floor and off white furniture and white orchids serve as the backdrop and canvas so that all you see (focus on) is the food. Pleasing music plays in the background, but softly enough that when we cut into the sweetbreads, all we heard was "crunch" . We started with the Foie steak (absolutely amazing) and the sweetbreads, moved on to the lamb (lovely) and braised short rib (a MUST). Even if you don't save room for dessert, it is worth forcing yourself to experience it. We had the peach "pie" which was more like a cake but had the best damn peaches and crust I've ever had. Not your traditional dessert, but oh so much better! I would skip the chocolates as they sound better than they actually tasted, and we just did not like the bacon chocolate at all. Open your mind and mouth to experience all CRUSH has to offer and you will enjoy a meal you will never forget!

• Pros: service, experience, incredible food, impressive wine list
• Cons: extremely hard to find parking

07/19/08

The Best

by dineoutguy

My wife and I went to Crush the other night and had the best dining experience we have ever had in Seattle.

First off, the wine list is amazing. A great combinations of both old world and new world wines. We picked a great bottle of Chapoutier Cornas 2001 to go with our meal. it was incredible and a very difficult vintage to find theses days. The only thing better than the wine was our food and service. We began with seared foie gras served on a cormeal waffle with a fantastic huckleberry sauce, and sweetbreads that were described as "chicken fried". Our waiter explained they were first poached then wrapped in chicken skin and fried. They were out of this world and served with a cabbage slaw and a bourbon and mustard sauce. For entrees I had the short ribs which were mind blowing. The meat just fell apart it was so tender. My wife had the sea scallops served on a pecarino risotto topped with apricots and as our waiter described it proscuitto dust!!!!! He explained how the Chef renderes the fat and adds tapioca starch to it and it truly becomes dust like. it coated your mouth with a ham flavor which enhanced the sccallops and the apricot, outrageous. We finished with an amazing bacon chocolate cake. Our server really new his stuff. All in all a memorable experience. Can't wait to get back soon

• Pros: You name it
• Cons: Tough to find parking