Poppy

When I heard that Herbfarm ex-chef Jerry Traunfeld started his own restaurant in Seattle, that got added to my must-try-restaurants list. Then I got to know that Jerry got his inspiration for Poppy’s menu from the Indian Thali, that took Poppy right up to the top of that list! An Indian thali is a variety of dishes usually served in small bowls on a round tray. Poppy is not an Indian restaurant, they say that the menu borrows the idea of the thali to present Jerry’s own style of cooking, highlighting seasonal ingredients, fresh herbs, and spices.

With dishes like Curry Leaves Vadas and Tandoori Chicken, I thought the menu had a very Indian feel to it. But after eating there, I can say that it is definitely not an Indian restaurant, Indian-influenced is the right term. For example, yes, there is a Naan served with the Thali, but there is nothing Indian about the black Cod or the sunchoke soup. The braised lamb that came with the Thali, almost looked like an Indian saag-lamb, but with the huckleberries and wilted herbs it was very different from any Indian lamb dish I’ve ever tasted. In other words, don’t go to Poppy expecting Indian food, if you dipped a piece of naan into a braised lamb dish expecting a spicy lamb curry, then you might be disappointed. Just think of it as a modern Northwestern small plates restaurant with a prix-fix menu, then you are in for a unique experience!

Poppy is a fairly large restaurant in the middle of Capitol Hill. We called up for a table for two for Saturday night, but they had no tables available till 9:45! We could always walk in and try the bar area where they serve the full menu, they said, so we decided to try our luck. The 100+ seats restaurant was totally packed, including the bar area where plenty of people were lurking behind the seated patrons waiting for them to leave. Luckily I spotted a couple from the far end of the bar getting up to put their coats on, and we made a dash for it. With just sheer luck and quick movement, we got a table within five minutes of our arrival. We felt a little bad stealing the seats when plenty of people who came before us were waiting, but not that bad to give up the seats, as we were starving. 

Service was great, friendly bartender and knowledgeable servers. Our bartender explained the menu to us. We could start with some appetizers from the bar menu if we like, and get our individual Thalis as the entree. Thali is not really meant for sharing, even though some people have done that, each dish is really tiny. The starters looked really tempting – especially the Pork belly and the Tandoori chicken, both he said were big portions, those are almost entree sized portions. But we were there for the Thali, so we decided to get a couple of lighter fares to start with and get our individual Thalis. Our starters were Tandoor Lobster Mushrooms with thyme salt ($7) and Stuffed cherry bomb peppers ($6). The mushrooms were very lightly spiced and went nicely with the herbed yogurt dipping sauce. It was a little bit on the dry side though. The stuffed cherry peppers were my favorite. I was expecting these to be spicy, but these were quite the opposite, the roasted peppers were mildly sweet and the mixed nuts and quinoa (I think) filling had the sweetest crunch to it.

Then came our Thalis. They have the thali for $32 and a “smali” for $22. The Thali has 8 different items including a soup, salad and a chutney plus a sumac spiced naan.  Most of the dishes were vegetarian except for the black cod with savoy cabbage and matusake and the braised lamb with huckleberries and wilted herbs. They also offer an all vegetarian version of the Thali, I don’t remember what the substitutions were.

The sunchoke, celery and sage soup was very tasty, so was the farro pilaf. The five-spice fingerling potatoes were extremely salty on the crust, but pretty nice. The spicy chickpeas with fennel and oregano tasted very Indian to me. The cod was fresh and cooked very well, but I am very indifferent to cod to rave about it. The lamb was very surprising, as I mentioned before, when I saw a naan sitting on top of a braised lamb dish I expected it to be more of an Indian curry. Instead it was tangy and a bit sweet with no spices at all. The waitress told us that this has been braising all day, which was evident from the tenderness of the lamb pieces. I somehow think I might have liked this dish a lot, if I was in a different restaurant. Even though every dish was really tiny, we were quite stuffed by the end of it, there was no room for dessert!

Overall, the meal was a really nice experience, though none of the dishes were the
“knock my socks off” kind. We will go back there for sure and next time we will skip the Thali and stick to the bar menu. Cocktails were really potent, and should go nicely with the curry leaves vadas. Hope they keep the pork belly and the Tandoori chicken around in the bar menu.  The Thali is definitely a must try, but once might be enough, at least for me. 

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Category: Capitol Hill, Northwest