Spur Gastropub

A gastropub is a pub that also serves gourmet fare, a few notches above your regular pub grub. Recently two new gastropubs opened in the Seattle area, I hope it is the start of a new fad. Great drinks and gourmet food served in a cool hip space is just my kind of fun!

Spur is in Belltown at the same location where Mistral used to be. They have completely revamped the space. The decor is very urban, it’s got that cool New York city bar vibe. Cocktails at Spur are very well made, West Coast Pimm’s is my favorite. Food for the most part is great, some dishes are incredible, with a few items that failed to impress. But overall, it is a great place to hang out with friends and drink and eat and be merry. I’ve been there thrice in the past three months, which was more for the drinks and ambience than the food.

Don’t get me wrong, food is not bad at all, some dishes are even lip-smacking delicious. Especially these Pork Belly Sliders ($12) with smoked orange marmalade are out of this world! Fatty pork belly pieces were fried crispy and served with bitter greens and a light mustard sauce and sweet orange marmalade, we ordered seconds.

This Free Range Chicken Confit ($12) with blue cheese, creme fraiche and burbon glaze is Spur’s version of the ever favorite pub grub- buffalo wings. Chicken is cooked till it is fall off the bones tender, and is served with a shaved celery salad. The texture and the form of the chicken was unexpected from a dish that looked exactly like buffalo wings, but we quickly warmed up to it.

These Seared Sea Scallops with a corn and sweet pepper salsa ($16) was also pretty good, scallops were seared perfect and the accompaniments were nicely done.

One big disappointment was the Slow Cooked Butterfish ($24) with chanterelle mushrooms, kale and heirloom beans. The fish was seriously lacking in flavor and the sides didn’t make up for it. At $24 for a tiny piece of fish we expected more. The foam and the whole molecular gastronomy is interesting, but it sure can’t compensate for taste.

This Baby Chiogga Beet Salad ($9) with arugula and pistacchio served over chevre was a refreshing salad.

These Smoked Salmon Crostinis ($9) with mascarpone, caper and pickled shallots were interesting but not too impressive bites.

Steamed Mussels ($12) with torn chile in wine is also not a dish I’d recommend.

Another dish I loved on a later visit without the camera was a no meat version of pasta Carbonara where bacon was substituted with oyster mushrooms. This dish was served with a semi cooked duck egg on top that we tossed with the pasta to create the tastiest Carbonara sauce I’ve ever tasted!

Service was pretty good for the most part, except for the fact that they refused to serve us fries! Fries are not listed in the menu but the bison burger is served with a side of fries. We saw the most amazing looking shoestring fries at the table next to us and we had to have some. By then we had ordered and devoured way too many items from the menu, so there was no way we could order the bison burger. But the waitress refused the bring us some fries as a side, saying that the chef only kept enough fries to serve with the burger, which has to be the lamest excuse ever! Given the number of drinks and the amount of food we consumed by then, most restaurants would’ve given us a complementary side of fries, but not this one. We offered to pay for it, but she insisted that we order a burger if we wanted the fries, which we thought was pretty rude. But since we don’t let a tiny incident to stand in the way of us having a good time, we let it go, and went back a couple of times after. I still haven’t had the fries or the bison burger though!

http://www.spurseattle.com/

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Category: American, Bar, Belltown, Gastropub