I had a wonderful time last night at Lark- a Capitol Hill hotspot, a true foodie haven. Siv had arranged a surprise early birthday party for me, since we will be away at Puerto Vallarta next week for my birthday… I did figure it out on Friday, so it wasn’t really a surprise, but nonetheless I had a great time, and got some amazing gifts from my great friends. Thanks y’all.

Lark is truly a gastronomical treat for foodies, the menu is very creative with dishes like Crispy pork belly and Roasted Veal bone marrow, the food is truly unique for the seattle culinary scene. The wine list looked amazing, but we did the mistake of ordering cocktails, each one was a bigger disaster than the one before! Next time, we will stick with wine.

I have to comment about the customer service. Our reservation was for 10 people, and we were there from 6:00 pm to 11:30 pm. For the first 30 minutes, just two of us, then the next 1 hour, 4 of us, then for next 2 hours 6 of us, then for the rest of the time 2 left and 4 more joined to make it 8 of us! Our table was never full, and there were customers waiting outside, even though they kept checking with us as to whether we were sure the rest of the party is still coming, they never really gave us grief about the fact that we were taking up the space! They even settled the bill in the middle, and started a new tab to make things easier for us, since we had dinner in two batches!Now, back to food. Even though the waitress kept emphasizing that the plates are meant for sharing, the portion sizes vary tremendously between dishes! Some were easily a single person dish, but some others definitely meant for 3 or more. And they do have some great vegetarian options, so that Maya -the only vegetarian in our group – didn’t have to stick with just salads and bread like she had to at many places. The prizes for each plate vary from $11-$20, and doesn’t really correlate with the size.The dishes that stand out in my mind are the brick wrapped Sonoma foie gras with apple, endive and Port, Crispy Pork Belly with kale, polenta and cipollinis and the Lamb with potato celery root gratin. The Pork belly was our favorite on the table, that feeling when you bite into the soft but thick layer of fat from the pork’s belly, yum….. I really liked the Roasted veal marrow bones , but everyone else hated it! The disappointments were the cured tuna and the Squab breast. Also I couldn’t stand the poached duck egg on a steamed spinach cup, the smell was just too strong for me, but Mareen seemed to enjoy it. We also got a cheese plate with three cheeses, Haystack Sunlight – a concentrated, washed rind Goat cheese , Tomme Valle Antigorio – a hay, toasty, long finish Cow cheese and La Marotte – dense, rich, nutty, cave aged Sheep cheese. I don’t know much about cheeses, these were all the waitress’s recommendation, when I asked for some lighter options, and all the three were great choices!

Brick wrapped Sonoma foie gras with apple, endive and Port Roasted veal marrow bones with cipollinis and hedgehog mushrooms

Rotisserie Anderson Ranch lamb with potato celery root gratin

Sunchoke soup with organic Argan oil Crispy Liberty Farm duck leg with grapefruit and braised endive

I didn’t taste all the desserts, I got the Rice pudding with crème fraiche and black truffle, and it was a-mazing!

All in all, it is one of the best restaurants in Seattle! If you truly love food, do check this one out. They do change their menu often, so we are definitely going back soon! I just hope they don’t take the pork belly out!

Lastly, one small note, the chairs at Lark are pretty uncomfortable, you will get used to it though, and shouldn’t be a deciding factor for choosing a restaurants, but just something I noticed, and bothered me quite a bit in the beginning!

Siv & I at Lark

The girls

More pictures from the evening at http://sigsiv.smugmug.com/gallery/2406980

Also, check out Mareen’s blog entry about Lark http://eminseattle.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!B2CED37F0C201F77!1384.entry …

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