[tsquare]

I hate to be the one to start this thread, but I just didn't love it. I was very excited to get a reservation and the four of us looked forward to a great evening out.

We started out by waiting half an hour past our reservation, in the bar, standing, even having the bartender ask us to not be seated when a couple of stools opened up. Not sure who he was holding them for, as the bar wasn't full the rest of the evening. This, after we ordered a round of cocktails. Once they finally cleared open tables, we were seated and an appetizer was waiting on the table when we were seated. Nice gesture, though the server was clueless as to how it got there.

Ordered some additional appetizers and thalis (is that the plural?) all around, as well as some desserts and wine. The food was good, interesting, but the overall experience, lackluster. The room is nice, well designed, comfortable other than the lack of waiting area. The chefs are on display - you can look at them through the window into the kitchen, but no talking. Each small bowl or plate of food was well done, sufficient together to make a meal.

Trying very hard to understand what did not work for me beyond the service issues which I could accept as a factor of newness and popularity:
1. When the kitchen has this much control over what it served, each part needs to be spectacular. I did not find this to be the case.
2. In a restaurant where you can't really help but focus on the food - reputation and presentation being so much in the forefront - it's boring when everyone has the same thing on their plate. Maybe the idea is that the dinner is about your company and conversation and the food is just to be eaten?
3. I missed the "risk" of not ordering the best thing, or even the thing I wanted the most. There is no "next time, I'm ordering what you had" since everyone has the same thing.
4. I have to wonder how much different the next meal will be from the one I ate. Sure, there will be a slight difference in the preparation of the salad, or the ingredients in the soup, but there is a formula that will be followed and subtle changes may not be enough.
5. On the other hand, I can't love something and go back and expect to have it again!

If someone really wants to go (and especially if they are hosting,) I won't turn down another opportunity to eat at Poppy. On my own, I might sit at the bar and have a drink and some items from the bar menu (they serve the full menu as well.)

[tighe]

I'm so prepared to hate this place, I probably just shouldn't go....

[GourmetLight$]

I'm only slightly worried, we're going on Saturday, because I'm an unabashed Jerry fan. I'll report back as well. I'm trying not to have "over the moon" expectations, as it doesn't have anywhere near the price-point of The Herb Farm. Compared to what we normally spend for our weekly "nice" dinner, I'll probably have enough spare change to have brunch on Sunday!

Cheers,

[Eden]

Allyson & I went tonight, along with respective boys, and let's just say I was not whelmed. I wanted to be, but it just didn't cut it. The food was a mixed bag and the service was just awful.

When Bill & I walked in and gave them my name they said my reservation was for only two people not four & the hostess dashed off to consult with someone re scrambling a table together for us somehow, at which point I spotted Allyson (behind a pillar) already seated at a fourtop. Yes she gave them my name but somehow in the 3 minutes between her arrival & mine they forgot that they'd just seated someone in my party AND changed the headcount on my reservation.

Once we got that sorted out & were seated we got to meet our uber perky waitress - OMG this girl should be working at Chili's or Applebee's! She called me "m'dear" multiple times. Likewise Allyson's boy who arrived another 5 minutes after I did was dubbed "Tardy one" and she was all over the upsell. appetizers additional drinks & dessert all got pushed hard. She was just so excited cause all the dishes were "amazing" Pretty much the only "Family Restaurant" techniques she didn't try were touching one of us, and crouching down to our eyelevel...

I have to say that they shine in the cocktail department. I ordered the Turkish Delight that Malarkey had enjoyed & agree that it's very tasty, but I actually forced Bill to switch with me because I really loved his "Papi Delicious" which was tequila, curacao, red bell pepper, halapenos, & lime. It was spicy & slightly sweet & complex, just right to go with spicy foods. I could go back just for this, except I really don't want to go back for anything else.

We started with the "spice crispies": nuts, spices & some golden raisins cooked up with a curry powder - good basic bar snack, nothing to write home about. and the curry leaf vadas, which were tasty, and really how can you go wrong with deep fried savory doughnuts, but I've certainly had better vadas.

3 of us had the thali dinners and Allyson's boy ordered the "smalli" - a more limited meal for only $22 with a cutesy name, which I beleive was actually shrunk down to the point that he left hungry.

trying to recall what all was on my plate:

there was what should have been a fab Squash soup with black olive brittle, all the flavors were just right and the crunch of the sweet/salty olive brittle was fun, but the soup was barely warm.

there was a chicory and pickled plum salad. my first few bites had no plum and were just eh, when I finally found my one piece of plum, it was actually quite a nice combo. several smaller pices distributed thorughout would have been a much more pleasant experiance.

a boring salad of celery with asian pears?

fingerling potatoes with spices which again, were nice but would have been really good if warmer. this might have been room temp on purpose, but if so it would not be my call.

a warmish salad of savoy cabbage with something creamy, it was just OK and palled quickly.

The two fish people said the halibut with fennel was very tasty, but lukewarm again

I subbed for the chanterelle croquettes, which were served over braised(?) chanterelles & truly enjoyable.

there was a nice little green tomato chutney

an emmer pilaf, which I'm told had parmiggiano in it, but I sure couldn't taste it, was also served barely warm.

there was a naan with sumac which if I had loved my dishes would have been much too small for sopping up the saucy bits, but in this case, was sufficient to the cause.

The main dish was a braised lamb over spiced chickpeas which tasted really good, and the lamb was beautifully tender, but this too came to the table only lukewarm.

Towards the end of the meal a woman who seemed to be the "senior" waitress stopped by & asked us how everything was, so I told her that it would have been vastly improved if anything had actually been more than lukewarm. She had the gall to tell me that they were supposed to be served room temperature, implying that that was how Indian food is traditionally served & I must be ignorant to not realize that. Yeah. I will give you the salads no problem & even the potatoes & emmer maybe, but no way, no how was that lamb, that fish or that soup meant to be served anything but hot from the stove.

That was my last straw. Had she said anything useful or apologetic at all at that moment I might have beleived that I could go back in a month or two when the kinks were worked out and seen some improvement, but if that's how they handle a complaint on top of the various issues leading up to it, I'll pass. Unless you hear that Traunfeld has fired all of his front house staff, give it a miss. No matter how good the food is back in the kitchen it's not gonna get to the table in peak form, and the hassle is just not worth it.

[Bruce]

I've enjoyed both my meals there. Each time there were 2 or 3 dishes that really wowed me -- the first time the best was black cod with carrot sauce, the second it was the above-mentioned chickpea salad. Every other dish was good and interesting, and the overall combination was fun. It's also casual, easy (few decisions), not particularly heavy, and fairly priced. I've liked all my servers. And the menu seems to vary enough from day to day that I wouldn't worry about getting bored.

Like many people on this board, I normally devote a lot of energy to ordering; I enjoy putting together a meal of delicious dishes at, say, Lark. But Poppy has a rare combination of fussy food in an unfussy atmosphere, so I'm not surprised that it's been jammed.

[Lauren]

Because I'm anal, I'm adding the Poppy reviews from the Farewell and Welcome thread to this thread. They'll be a little out of order but at least this thread will be complete and I'll be happy.

[Lauren]

Very nice article in this month's Seattle about Poppy. September opening? Anyone have news?

tonight, apparently. http://www.poppyseattle.com/

The Dude & I went to Poppy last night. In a word - fabulous. For having been open to the public less than a week, there was lots to like and remarkably little to quibble over. The space is lovely - modern but still warm, and whoever designed it figured out that a room full of hard surfaces demands some acoustic accommodation. Service is attentive and the food itself shows that Jerry Traunfeld hasn't lost a step since he left the Herbfarm. A continued focus on herbs and spices coupled with spot-on execution seems like a can't-miss combination. The price point is reasonable, given the level of quality - we tallied up at about $80 per (after tax + tip), which included a cocktail, wine flight, starter, thali and dessert for each of us. Well worth it, IMO.

[Lauren]

On a wild hair, I went to Poppy tonight.

Started with a Turkish Delight, a cocktail consisting of Finlandia vodka, curacao, maraschino, lime and pomegranate. It was great, nice balance, not overly sweet, loved it.

Ordered a glass of french rosé to start the Thali:

Cauliflower, clove & bay soup:
A bit too sweet for me, plus I wasn't wild about the combo of flavors.

Bulgar, melon and cucumber salad:
Nice, refreshing, but ordinary.

Beet, fennel, lemon thyme salad
Nice, good flavors, but also ordinary.

Black cod with carrot sauce and burdock
Wow, really outstanding, lovely melding of flavors, carrot sauce worthy of sopping up with the naan.

Duck leg meat with lavender & huckleberry & mashed parsnips
The lavender and huckleberry stand as separate, distinct flavors~ this is nice but the lavender was a touch too strong, it overwhelmed the duck meat flavor, and I want that flavor on TOP. And I like lavender with duck, I always use it in my confit, it just has to be very subtle.

Romano beans with spicy peppers and marjoram
whoa~ really heavy on the marjoram.

Fingerling potatoes with ajwain
Potatoes buried in cumin salt and roasted. Wowie, really great, could have had a whole dish of these. Great substitute for french fries. Not overly cumin-y. Great flavor all through the potato, not just on the outside. Perfectly cooked.

Watermelon lime pickle
Nice, very refreshing, good palate cleanser between bites

Matsutake haiga rice
Where's the matsutake? No discernible mushroom flavor in the rice.

nigella naan (naan with black sesame seeds)
good, but not outstanding

Dessert:

Peach shortcake with anise hyssop whipped cream
Interesting dessert, this grew on me the more bites I took. perfect balance of sweetness and richness. Shortcake was excellent.

They are keeping their dinner counts low in order to "perfect" the process and get things right. Overall, not a fabulous dinner and I expect fabulous from this chef. $32 for the thali plate, and with cocktail, 2 glasses of wine + dessert the grand total came to $65.

I'm thinking they need some more time to get into the groove. I'll go back for sure, because I like the concept and I know Traunfeld can pull rabbits out of his hat.

[Lauren]

So, I was speaking to someone who had also gone to Poppy with a large group and was really happy with everything they had. She anxiously asked me about my experience and I told her basically what I wrote above.

She said to me "Well, it's not a $200 dinner, it's a $32 dinner." I'm assuming the reference was to JT cooking at the Herbfarm vs cooking at Poppy.

Hmm. This made me think. Granted, there were no luxury ingredients (unless someone counts duck confit as a luxury ingredient, I don't) but that's not what it takes to make me happy as a diner. It's really about execution and the flavor combinations. It could be just lettuce on a plate (great example is Renee's butter lettuce salad at Boat St, or a simple, stellar spring greens combo I had at the Herbfarm once, where the balance was perfect and each individual leaf tasted slightly different). These are not expensive ingredients, they are ingredients at the peak of their flavor treated thoughtfully. Another reason the comparison isn't a fair one is that the Herbfarm prices include wines with every course.

I have a lot of confidence in JT and I'm sure he's going to be making some jaw-dropping food there. And I really don't think he has any intention of "dumbing down" the food at Poppy simply because he's doing a $32 tasting plate. And it doesn't have to have caviar/foie gras/truffle oil in order to be fabulous.

[tsquare]

Because I'm anal, I'm adding the Poppy reviews from the Farewell and Welcome thread to this thread. They'll be a little out of order but at least this thread will be complete and I'll be happy.

Thanks - I was wondering about how to do that.

[tsquare]

oops, double post - hate that!

[tsquare]

Update here. I finally returned for Happy Hour and loved it!
Sat at the almost empty bar on a warm summer evening, a Thursday night, I think. There were a few people in the restaurant and in the back garden - 3 tables amidst the wonderful herb and vegetable garden.
For much better images, check out this flicker set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tdiamond/sets...57621974244821/

Drinks - specials are $5-$7, inventive, strong, and full of herbal deliciousness.
Happy thali - $5 gets you a fresh made naan, and 4 other small dishes. We received two lightly fried mussels, plated on the half shell. These were topped with a little fresh lovage. A small cup of cold garbanzo salad, and a slice of perfectly rip cantaloupe wrapped in serrano ham, with a bit of lime marmalade. Also a round of herbal risotto in a fried ball form. We were also gifted with a couple of pretty gougeres stuffed with cheese and nasturtium blossoms.

Dessert - we split a dessert thali - splurge for $15 for two? Choose one from the ice cream section (this includes the rocky rose sundae and other fanciful interpretations), one from the desserts (tend towards twists on cobblers, tarts and often include ice cream as well - an "oh my" reaction to the black and blue cobbler with cinnamon basil ice cream) and 4 small dishes - apricot gelee, spicy cashews, lemon verbena cream filled puffs, and "crack" peanut butter caramel squares.

The bartender was great, the manager (?) was friendly and conversational at the appropriate time, and we had the pleasure of meeting a few on-line acquaintances for the first time as well - they just happened to be sitting at the bar too!

We had so many "OMG" mouthfuls. Pay attention to days and time for happy hour. It's a great experience.

[little ms foodie]

I finally went to Poppy this week with some girlfriends and had a great time.

I started with a cocktail called the Bayked Apple- gin, eau de pomme, fresh bay, - it was really nice

We then shared some snacks- eggplant fries with salt & honey (I do not eat eggplant but loved these! we ended up ordering a second plate), blue, bacon and onion tart- delish, crab springrolls, also delish

four of us shared two of the thali's. I'm trying to remember all that was on the plate:

spot prawns in saffron sabyon and salsify
potato corriandor soup
asian pear, celery & hazlenut salad
persimmon, fennel and huckleberry salad
lamb osso bucco
roasted cauliflower and sunchokes
shredded beet with pomogrante
swiss chard and oregano gratin
burdock ginger pickle
zaatar nann

splitting worked perfect for us! there is a lot of food on those plates!

We also split the dessert thali between the four of us, Dana's desserts were awesome. We had a hot date cake with banana ice cream and butterscotch, Pyrat booty icecream with rum and pecans and then the set assortment of peanut butter crunch squares, gorgeous pate de fruit, gingersnap cookies, carmel chocolate squares and something else I'm forgetting.

I am looking forward to getting back there!

[christy]

We finally went tonight and were blown away. The waitress told us we each needed our own thail but we got three starters and a thali instead (and then the dessert thali) and it was plenty. Next time we will skip the starters and order both the veg and regular thali--the thali was just so so good. I practically licked the plate after eating the spot prawns with pumpkin seed sauce and sunchoke chips. My husband made sure every last drop of the celery root and chestnut soup was drained. I've never had anything like the satsuma/mustard seed pickle, and I was in love. The cocktails were great, the mr. got a Manhattan type drink that he loved and I got the papi delicious--red pepper, jalapeno, tequila, lime, mint--it was fantastic. Everything on the thali blew us away. The only dud of the meal was the fried mussels with dill aoili starter--the mussels were VERY mussel-y (not in a good way--bad like when fish is too fishy). The dessert thali had apricot crepes with honey ice cream, a chocolate malt sundae, little nutter butters (YUM), salted caramels, passion fruit gelees...We will absolutely be back. I expected it to be a bit fancier but it's quite casual--the decor reminds me of IKEA a bit and the servers are all in jeans.

A party next to us asked Jerry to sign their menu!

[SeaGal]

Ok, after the last 2 reviews, I've got to put this on my go to list again.