canlis

last wednesday, i had the pleasure of dining at CANLIS!!! we went with a publisher because this is definitely one meal that i cannot afford to pay for. well, i could but it would be like half a month of rent. canlis, for those of you who don't know, is an extremely nice restaurant located right on highway 99 in seattle with a BEAUTIFUL view of gasworks park and lake union. the restaurant has been around for over 50 years and is known for it's impeccable service, delicious food, and exorbitant prices.

to give you an idea of the service--we pulled up and they only have valet service so in we went and were greeted by people immediately who took our coats. then when i had to use the bathroom, i left, came back and my napkin was folded and placed back on the table. all of our food was brought out at the same time which was great. and then when we left, they had several people waiting with all of our coats (which they helped me put on) and then stepped outside to find all of our cars on and ready for us to get in and drive away. oh, and not once did we get a ticket or give them our name to claim anything!

ok--back to the food. i think that it is a little overrated. the food was good--some dishes were great but i think you're really paying for the view and service there. i wouldn't say that the dishes i had were the best i've ever tasted in my life. i'm starting to notice that with a lot of nice restaurants, salt is their best friend.

you'll have to excuse my blurry pictures. the camera phone could only do so much in the dim lighting!!

the meal started out with this amuse bouche which was a butternut squash soup/shot thing. dear god i am pretty sure they just poured a few tablespoons of salt into it. some people enjoyed it but i took it down like i would a shot of alcohol because it was just way too salty.

for an appetizer, i split the canlis salad which consists of romaine lettuce, bacon, mint oregano, romano cheese and a dressing of olive oil, lemon and a coddled egg. it was WAY good. the egg part was a little scary, but you didn't notice it at all and the mint really helped make the salad refreshing.

for my main entree i had the lobster and gnocchi. the lobster was cooked pretty well but the gnocchi is really what i enjoyed. the gnocchi was so soft and the sauce that they had was delicious.



for desert, we had a cheese tray which had this great nutty cheese that i don't remember the name of and then a few bites of erika's chocolate covered chocolate desert because i was so stuffed by that point. part of the desert included salted caramel ice cream covered with chocolate on a stick and it was really good. i've never had salted caramel ice cream before!

some items that i didn't get pictures of included their twice baked potato which was so good. there is no other way to describe it. the top was a little crusty with cheese which was amazing. then we also tried their truffle fries which were tasty but, again, a little heavy on the salt. i would say boka's fries are better.

now that i can cross canlis off my list, all i have left is el gaucho ;)