Dinner at Le Pichet
Birthday dinner for my sister’s 17th. She should feel lucky to have a sister with such a love of food.
If you call ahead to make a reservation (which I highly recommend you do because this phenomenal restaurant is also extremely small), they write “réservée” on the blackboard painted tables.
Niçoise olives in some kind of a tomato sauce. I usually hate olives, but I loved this. And it was free!
The never ending crusty, chewy, hand sliced bread
Une assiette de fromages. aka. the most amazing cheese plate I’ve ever tasted in my life. What made it amazing apart from the sheer brilliancy of the cheeses themselves was the wide selection of cheeses made of goat, cow, and sheep’s milk and the differences in flavors and textures between all of them. Creamy, salty, sweet, buttery, smooth, dense, crumbly. The Bleu d’Auvergne and the triple cream cow’s milk that looks like brie were out of this world.
Une petite assiette de charcuterie. Even though I’m a vegetarian, I had to try some of their house charcuterie because Le Pichet does that to vegetarians apparently. The rillettes de porc (braised pork) had been cooked so long, it was almost creamy, yet there was still the chewiness of meat that I love. To the right is saucisse lyonnais, something resembling salami but much more mild in flavor with pistachios. At the top is their pâté albigeois or pork pâté. This was my first time having pâté, and I am glad it was at Le Pichet. Overall the plate was good, but the selection lacked the variety that made the cheese plate so phenomenal. It was difficult to eat because everything was so creamy and rich. Granted, everything was good in their own respects, but it would have been nice to have a hard saucisson.
Bouillabaisse de légumes.
I usually don’t like dishes where chopped up vegetables are cooked in a broth. I find that the veggies turn into mushy tasteless squares and the dish as a whole lack substance. Not this. I still cannot explain why it was so good; it just was. The tempura fried cauliflower on top was unexpected but delicious.
Some slices of toasted bread came with my bouillabaisse with some kind of a sauce. I tasted sun dried tomato but didn’t eat it. I was too busy dipping my bread in the delicious broth!
*Caille grillée et sa salade à la scarole et aux courgettes à l’anchoïde
My sister doesn’t like her food resembling what it looked like when alive, so I was very nervous when I saw the presentation of the dish. I was afraid that the whole grilled quail on top of her salad would make every bite disgusting to her. She took one bit of the quail, something she’s never had before, and exclaimed, “Oh my god this is good!” Enough said.
Crépinettes au porc, à l’agneau, aux cerises noires et aux pignons de pin
My best friend came back a month and a half ago from a year in Sweden, and he has definitely picked up on their eating habits. If you ask him to pick a food that represents Sweden, he will say potatoes. They eat them with almost every meal apparently. One of their habits is to take a slice of everything on the plate, pile it on their fork, and it it in one bite. When I asked him how his dish was he said, “I’ve finally found good potatoes since coming back from Sweden.” The meatballs weren’t the typical ground up balls that are lumpy. They were wrapped in some kind of natural casing I suspect to give them their smooth appeal and charred outer goodness.
House made caramels came with our check. I don’t like caramel because it’s so sickly sweet and sticky, but this was buttery and smooth and I wish all caramel was like this.
Le Pichet in Belltown next to Pike Place Market. Give yourself at least 2 hours to enjoy this place with a couple friends, and you will have an incredible experience.
