Pair

The other night we were looking for a new place to try. For us, living in Maltby, the eastside is very convenient, so I googled "Eastside Restaurants."  We've been to Lucia (Kirkland, delicious), Lynn's Bistro is very nice too (Kirkland). We weren't looking to spend as much as Cafe Juanita though. A place came up on the search that I hadn't heard of before, and I'm not sure why it came up when I searched "eastside" since it is north of University Village, but we are REALLY glad we tried it.

Pair opens at 5:00, and I had called earlier in the day to see if we'd need reservations. They don't take reservations (unless for a party of 6 or more), and she suggested coming early as it fills up quickly.

This place is just a couple of doors east of the Queen Mary Tea Room, which is also a great place (but another story). We got there just before 5:00, and admired the very large headstones in the cemetery across the street until the doors opened.

(Side note: if you want to read a great blog post about cemeteries, click here. My sister was in Italy for a year, and posted great photos and stories of her trip. She's back there now for two months.)

Back to Pair... College Girl was with us, so we had a table for three.  The place really reminded us of Paris and Italy, small European-style, quaint, cute. There are about a dozen tables or so, and sure enough --- pretty soon the place was filled up.

With our wine came a little bowl of some interesting nuts, and we also asked for a small bowl of olives (Gaeta & Castelvetrano Olives with coriander, orange zest and chili). They were served warm. That's the second place we've been to recently that has served warm olives... a trend?)

The thyme and gruyere cheese puffs called "Gougères" were warm out of the oven and cheesy. They are about the size of a ping pong ball, and come 5 or 6 in a little bowl.

One of College Girl's faves is fondue. She found a place in Siena that served it (when we were there almost 3 years ago now), and ever since, she's been on the lookout for it. Chat Noir in "College Town" is frequented often with girlfriends for their fondue.

When I had searched for this restaurant and saw they had fondue on the menu, I knew this was the place to be. College Girl gave this Cambozola Fondue (with pear, apple and crostini) a thumbs up. (Keep in mind all the menu items are "small plate" size.)

Continuing our search for wonderful beet salads, and noticing there was one on this menu, it was ordered. I especially like golden beets, although they are sometimes hard to find at the usual grocery stop in Woodinville. We can usually find them at Central Market (Mill Creek). This salad was made with watercress, pickled fennel & pine nuts. The pickled fennel was great. I'll be trying that myself sometime!

 

The dessert tray just went by our noses. We better order something green! The broccolini was delicious with the roasted garlic vinaigrette, chili butter, and almonds.

Have we made it to the entrees yet?  Here they come: Mushroom Risotto with parmesan, fried shallot, and herbs; Potato Gnocchi with kabocha squash purée & fried sage leaves; and Steak Frites with blue cheese chive butter & red wine jus.

I made a big mistake at the beginning of this post -- there were 17 of us at our table... not just 3!

 

 

The gnocchi were pillow soft, the risotto was delicious and the steak frites was tender and flavorful.

We better walk home!

"Would you like to see the dessert tray?"

"We just saw it... when it went by before the broccolini... but you better bring it back because there were definitely some things we need to move from the tray to our table!"

Coffee is good anytime of day, right? And look at the cute little sugar cubes!

 

And to wrap it all up, ricotta cheesecake with caramel...

 Banana Bread bread pudding...

 Chocolate torte with cherries...

All "17" of us were stuffed by the time we left, but it was a wonderful dinner, a great place, and we will definitely return... You should go sometime soon!