Mistral
After I wrote about Mistral in my Fave Five Seattle Restaurants post, I’ve been craving Mistral food. So for an early wedding anniversary celebration, instead of going to Herbfarm as planned, we headed over to Mistral to check if the food is as good as we remembered. We had it right, the food was as good or even better! Haute cuisine at its best.
During dinner, we did a cost-to-value analysis of Mistral versus some of our other favorite restaurants in town. The seven course chef’s tasting menu at Mistral costs $75 per person. So that gives us just seven varieties of dishes (since both of us get the same dishes) for $150. If we go to a regular small plates restaurant like Lark or Crush or Harvest Vine, we can get about ten or so small plates for $150, which gives us more variety for the same price.
But this is really not a fair comparison. The dining experience is quite different at Mistral. You get the complete formal fine dining experience here, where all the fancy silverware is spread out, the courses arrive one by one in the right interval in perfect sizes. The whole dinner lasts for at least three hours. The perfect setting for a romantic dinner, if you are the type who like to hold hands through the dinner and whisper sweet nothings while longingly gazing into each other’s eyes. But Siv and I, we are not that kind of romantics, we like the noise, we like to watch other diners and make up stories about complete strangers from what food they order and their body language. We have more fun at a crowded place, compared to Mistral which had only four tables of customers when we were there. The settings force the romance to come out and shine though! 
But coming back to the food, it truly was as amazing as ever! Each dish has this wonderful array of flavor combinations which sounds strange but go along wonderfully. As I said before, we went for the seven course chef’s tasting menu, where we have no idea what we are going to get. It is all upto the chef. The waiter explains what the fresh seafood and meat they have for the day and ask if there is anything we don’t eat (not really). After that we just sit back and relax and the plates keep coming. Siv went for the wine pairing with his courses. Wine pairing costs $100 etc, but since the cheapest bottle of wine here is $90, it is a pretty good deal. Also, the dishes were perfectly paired, especially the foie gras! I stuck with Pinot by the glass, there is no way I could enjoy the food if I had seven glasses of wine .
Our amuse bouche was a piece of Hamachi (yellowtail) sushi with celery foam and spiced micro greens salad. Just perfect for an amuse bouche. I don’t know how this foam is made, we thought probably using a latte foam attachment. Who knew air could taste so good!
Then came our first course. A pan seared scallop in an English pea soup with basil puree and topped with carrots and tangerine foam. Yep, another dish with foam. This is an example of the different flavors coming together to make that wonderfully unique taste. The soup with the slightly spicy basil and the sweet carrot foam went just so perfect with the scallop. The wine pairing was a sauvignon blanc.
Second course was a seared black cod with cauliflower puree, with sauteed cauliflower, pinenuts and mushrooms. The cod was just so fresh with a butter like texture. I loved this with cauliflower puree, though I didn’t care much for the sauteed cauliflower pieces. Siv loved the sauteed veggies, but thought the puree was a tad too sweet. But all-in-all this was a great dish too. Went nicely with the chardonnay.
Next came the foie-gras course. Hudson Valley Foie gras seared and served on a champagne rhubarb vanilla puree, served with apple crisp. As usual, the perfect accompaniment to foie gras.
Then came the main course. Oregon lamb chop served on top of fingerling potato puree with a side of sauteed chard and mushrooms , caramelized onions , pinot noir reduction and a tamarind sauce. The young lamb chop was so tender and succulent, and all the flavors together worked magic in our mouths. 
Fifth course was a cheese plate. Five artisan cheeses with increasing strength were served. I never remember the cheese names, but thoroughly enjoyed it all. The last one was the strongest, but I normally love strong cheeses. Siv just picked on each one, and left most of it on his plate, he is not a cheese lover.
Then came the sorbet course- to cleanse the palettes. I always thought the sorbet came between the seafood and the meat courses. What is the need to cleanse before the dessert? But obviously the chef knows better, and this trio of pineapple, pear and passion fruit sorbets was as good as a dessert, and looked beautiful!
Finally the desserts. We were both pretty drunk by then and the pictures turned out kinda out of focus. These pictures do not do any justice to how these tasted! We both got a plate each of the first plate. Mixed berries served on top of almond-flour cake and vanilla ice cream. Then we had the second one in the middle to share, raspberries and vanilla. Perfect desserts for the season, and wonderfully light. We had some coffee with this course to offset all the sweetness.
The food is super creative, service is top-notch. Knowledgeable, unobtrusive staff; peaceful, romantic setting. Now I remember why Mistral is my favorite fine dining establishment in Seattle.
Technorati tags: Seattle Restaurants, Mistral
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Whoa!!! These are beyond Gourmet!!!!I don’t know what to say,that I am making a fancy lunch today.Well..now feels like I am making grandma’s dishes!!;D
Looks delicious.
Thats really good food !! want to taste some of the dishes..:D
Yep, packing..june 6th is nearing.
That is beautiful food!
wow! that’s some gourmet food!!!
happy aniv sweetie!
Wow! look at that…how I envy you…it’s been ages since me and Dinesh went out for a romantic meal…with two of the younger species in tow, that’s a dream…of course, with them, that’s another experience altogether…so make hay while…
I can totally relate, we like to watch other diners too. We also like to look into other people’s shopping carts at the grocery store. But thats a different story lol. The food looks amazing. I’m glad you had a great anniversary dinner (happy anniversary yay!). And the weather is awesome to boot!
A very happy anniversary to you and Siv babes, as per Indian time, I am on the right date to wish you both! And whoa what a spread…since I’m not a meat eater, I could not get all excited about the food on display but was very happy that you had a good time…and 7 glasses of wine- after that I’d be sleeping with my head rested on the plate of sorbet LOLLL Nothing puts me to sleep as perfectly as a few glasses of wine…
And trust you sweetie to carry the camera along to a ROMANTIC dinner such as this one! Love your restaurant posts more than anything, almost feel as though I were there too- hahahahaa
Hugs and loads of best wishes coming your way!
Asha
I’m sure whatever you are cooking up is grand…
pravs, yeah, it is getting close… weather has been so nice here for the past week… hope it stays that way…
Indo, it tasted as good as it looked
Richa, thanks for the wishes sweetie
Sunita,
I’m sure you can get someone to look after the kids for a night and have a romantic night out… it will be really romantic doing it once in a while…
Amy, lol, yeah grocery cart tells you more stories than the food they order at the restaurants… I do that all the time too
Nandita, thanks darling… Yep you are on the right time…
lol, yeah, that’s why I didn’t have the wine pairing with my courses, I will have my head resting on top of the toilet though 
… Camera is part of my outfit these days 
, and as I said we are not the type of people who actually enjoy a romantic meal 
we are just looking for a reason to go out and eat… 
Happy Anniversary!
Sounds like you all had a good time and enjoyed yourself, albeit, while on a romatic outing you manage to take food pics (lol)
Tell me something, what is your opinion of foam in dishes? I have had a variety and personally feel that they are a little overrated.
Thanks Cynthia! About the foam, I actually enjoyed it… I guess it is a bit overrated, but the visual aspect of the food is very important to me and you have to admit that the foam adds to the presentation….
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