cafe juanita

the wife and i just got hitched in vancouver and we headed down to seattle for a “mini-moon”. seattle has a wealth of places to eat, so naturally we tapped our foodie friends for suggestions and ended up at caféjuanitafor our first dinner. the kitchen is run by iron chef winner chef holly smith and has recently been revamped to match her vision. the menu is centred around northern italian cuisine and take a modern look at some traditional dishes.

the newjuanitais much prettier and shinier, but it will still remind you of the old one you used to love. 

we kept it simple.  i had the risotto with octopus and then the rabbit.   the risotto was well done, black, with small nibbles of octopus that weren't chewy.   the smaller portion was entree sized, and quite a deal.   the rabbit...i love the sauce but i was missing some tooth to the dish.   my friends had the scallops, which were wonderful.   really outstanding and i had a bit of food envy.

i finished with a simple panna cotta, which i adored and was one of the hits of the night. 

staff was super professional and very friendly.   great experience again.

under her stewardship, cafejuanitahas maintained the highest standards for northern italian cuisine...when she redid her menu a while back, she divided up the tri-fold page into neat categories. aperitivi (krug grande cuvé with bone-marrow bruschetta) and antipasti (veal sweetbreads) on the left; salads (smoked eggplant panzanella) and pastas (goat cheese gnocchi) down the middle; fish, meat, and fowl (the famous rabbit braised in white wine) on the right. and then she realized she still had room for five or six items. bingo, contorni! side dishes! cauliflower with cumin, organic green beans, roasted carrots, heirloom tomatoes. well done.

chef holly smith talks about her motivation and the spirit behind cafejuanitalocated in kirkland, wa. she is regarded as one of the top chefs in the pacific northwest and is a former james beard foundation award winner. read about the past, present and future of chef holly smith and cafejuanitahere.

good, but not great. my husband and i had a very nice meal at cafejuanitathis evening. the only reason that "very nice" isn't as good as it sounds is (a) it is an expensive place and (b) given all the rave reviews and getting into national top 100 lists i expected some "wow" which wasn't there.

the service was attentive and prompt and people were very friendly. the location isn't all that great looking from the outside - it looks like a converted 1950s home - but inside it's very sleek and modern.

i had the duck confit appetizer which was good - the duck is wrapped in a cabbage leaf and has a "parmigiano reggiano brodo reduction". my husband's beet salad was a little disappointing - the beets were firm but not all that flavorful or sweet, although i liked the gorgonzola bombolino that came with it a lot (more than he did, i should note).

i ordered the lamb which came with a wonderful kale and turnip mixture with some parmesan. my husband ordered the rabbit which he liked a lot - i thought it was nice, but not great. we split an order of a wonderful spicy cauliflower - that was a home run.

we didn't stay for dessert (too full!).

i think given the overall experience, we might try again in a while, but this really should have been better - i wanted to be really wowed by the food and wasn't.

a nice dining destination, but expected more. went out expecting a special dinner experience, and in many ways cafejuanitadelivered - cozy yet sophisticated ambience and decor, friendly yet professional staff. the food, however, was hit or miss, from tough and totally unspired overpriced kale salad to fine but unmemorable fish to one of the best fois gras i had ever had. i may be more forgiving of the culinary experience had it not for the expectations i had for this twice-james beard award-nominated-chef. i would expect every dish to at least impress, if not blow me away! would not mind returning for another try, but probably will not be in a hurry to return.

caféjuanitais pretty solid. the technique is impeccable, and the flavor pairings are without reproach. that having been said, the crepinette was too salty and caul-fatty for a restaurant of this caliber. and i was less than enthralled with the ricotta gnocchi. plus it’s in kirkland. still, if someone else is paying, and if the mystical skeleton hand hasn’t knocked on your door with a gift of fine liquor, i insist you go.

what a special place. cafejuanitais one of the seattle area's restaurant jems. while not over in the more gourmet-focused city of seattle, cafejuanitain kirkland is one of the best restaurants in the region, offering spectacular northwest-infused influences of northern italian cuisine. on a recent visit, we tasted their signature rabbit dish, a scallops special, a spectacular broccoli side dish and few other appetizer and salads dishes. a special treat.


-----07 jul, 2008-----

among the best in seattle. simply put, cafe'juanitais one of the best restaurants in the region. not inexpensive mind you, but worth the price for that special dinner.

f**king delicious!. "pardon my french" i said to our waitress as i used the title of this review to explain my feelings about the caponet of goose confit with cabbage and sherried goose brodo that began what can only be described as one of the culinary highlights of my life!

in my opinion far too many food writers dissect what they've eaten when, oftentimes, an emotional response would be far better ... and our server seemed to appreciate the earthy language as being appropriate for this fine dining rendition of rustic northern italian fare.

the prologue to our meal had been a negroni with marcona almonds for my wife and a gin with blackberry & huckleberry jam stirred into it, and a fried rabbit's liver for me! would i think of putting gin and jam together , let alone accompanying it with fried rabbit offal? heck no ... but holly smith and her team must have a palate just like mine and i thank them all the more for that!

alongside my caponet of goose confit my wife had the spot prawns with lardo bruschetta. she loved it but was kind enough to share the paper thin lardo with me ... a deliciously sweet 'condiment' when melted atop the caponet.

the appetizers were followed by a salad that we shared, and which was thoughtfully served on two plates. the roasted beets on marcona almond butter with gorgonzola bombolino were sumptuous, every element working perfectly together. two plates were returned to the kitchen scraped clean of every last trace of food ... i think we both considered licking our plates but thought better of it as the entrees were still to come.

we had asked the wine steward ( so much less snobby a title than 'sommelier') to recommend an italian wine that would not taste too "pinot-y" to us,having drunk a lot of oregon's finest recently. after a taste of one wine established our benchmark for the flavors we were looking for, she suggested a wonderful 2004 brunello di montalcino that just improved as the evening wore on and was nicely within the budget we gave her.

then came the entrees. my wife had the goats cheese gnocchi, beautiful pillows of potato with sweet heirloom cherry tomatoes ... she liked it but had a hard time keeping her bread out of the jus that accompanied my braised rabbit!

ah, the braised rabbit ... chef smith's signature dish and oh what a graceful but strong signature it is! as one blogger review put it "i've eaten a fair few rabbit dishes ... we brits do that" ... yes indeed, but never have i eaten such deliciously good rabbit.

the loin the belly and the thighs each received their own treatment, the latter being stuffed with porcini and wrapped in proscuitto. what made the dish was the perfect jus that accompanied it ... thick enough to cling to the food and flavorful without being overpowering. our server's description of the kitchen staff dipping bread into the leftover jus at each night's end was all too believable ... and who could blame them!

desserts were a panna cotta with cardoon honey and vanilla sea salt and a chocolate truffle tortino with mint gelato and sour cherry balsamic reduction. both were beautifully prepared, with the panna cotta edging the tortino in the voting for "best dessert".

a complimentary glass of moscato d'asti was another thoughtful gesture in an evening made even more enjoyable by the friendly attention of really good staff.

it had been three years since our last visit to cafejuanita... i don't think we'll wait anything like as long before our next!

i didnt know this but my date and then the waiter told me that rabbit has negative calories. it apparently takes as many or more calories to digest as it does to eat. so this only adds to the deep rich flavors of the cafejuanitaversion. wonderful

elegant. cafejuanitais a little bungalow house in kirkland that has beautiful service. its food is top-quality, interesting, and seasonal. fine candlelit dining, perfect for a special occasion or any day extravagance.

nasty. i've wanted to dine at cafejuanitafor many years and finally had the opportunity to do so. i was sorely diappointed in the menu (limited) and what i ordered (beet salad/fingerling potatoes). the beets were perfectly roasted but the blob of melted cheese inside of a hushpuppy on top was cold and greasy. the peanut sauce upon which the beets rested was like watery jif peanut butter. the potatoes were underdone and flavorless. the ricotta gelato was unplatable and left a nasty taste in my mouth. i've eaten a lot of northern italian cuisine and this food did not resemble anything i have ever eaten before. i wish i had spent the money on groceries instead. worst birthday dinner i have ever had in my life.
the wait staff was professional but not attentive. the water girl kept filling my water glass even after i asked her not to three times.
i will not go back there ever and will not recommend this restaurant unless it is to someone i do not like.

amazing. i have been to cafejuanitathree times and each time has been a wonderful experience. this is one of the top restaurants in the seattle area. the cooking, presentation, and ambiance are amazing. most recently i came for their valentine's day set menu, which blew me away. the chef even prepared a special course for me to accommodate my dietary restrictions.

if you are looking for fine dining and something to remember, you can't go wrong here.

i feel disappointed...... i have been wanting to dine at cafejuanitafor many years, but some new seattle hot spot always seems to win out! i finally booked a reservation for four this last weekend and we ventured out to the depths of kirkland. we ordered two appetizers to start, the prosciutto with pears and pomegranate seeds (i believe it was suppose to have watercress too, but it was missing) and a shaved pork tenderloin with anchovy sauce. the presentation and taste of both were a major disappointment. my husband described the pork tenderloin as lunch meat with a few drops of caesar dressing. the prosciutto was pieces of prosciutto laid on a plate with a piece of unripe pear and dotted with pomegranate seeds. both were small quantities and we didn't finish either. we then had salads and the only one worth mentioning was the beet salad with marcona almond butter - really delicious! my main course dish was the wagyu beef flat iron steak with a potato gratin - the beef was superb (i mean amazing!) and cooked perfectly, however the gratin was so salty it was almost inedible. others at the table had a pasta dish with lamb that they felt was overly salted and disappointing (described as ground beef with egg noodles...) and one ordered the saddle of lamb which was enjoyed. coffee and desserts were quite good. there were items that shined but for a bill that was somewhere around $400. i expect the entire meal to shine! don't think i'll go back. if you go, order the flat iron steak and the beet salad and you'll leave satisfied!

not too salty. notwithstanding holly smith's resume, i had reservations about dining here because it seemed a bit too pretentious and potentially too stuffy for my liking. plus, what great dining establishment these days exists outside the 206? caféjuanitais not even in downtown kirkland!

nevertheless, it's a restaurant i've been wanting to go to for a long time, so my wife and i ventured across the bridge on a recent saturday evening to see whether the long-standing hype was real. short answer - the press is well-deserved.

the dining room is shockingly intimate, and the open kitchen where the one-time iron chef candidate was cooking furiously can be viewed from pretty much every seat, save for the downstairs area which i'm told is usually reserved for larger parties. and the food is outstanding, and extremely inventive. a truly unique bite not to be missed is the king crab w/ green apple sorbetto along with crab butter powder. the savory and sweet and chilled flavors combined to make what was unquestionably one of the greatest dishes i've had in recent memory. the incredibly simple pear salad was also very elegant - thinly sliced pairs paired w/ pin nuts, freshly shaved parmigiano reggiano, and an incredibly fragrant white truffle vinaigrette. and of course the freshly made homemade pastas and entrees were also outstanding. we opted for the maltagliati with lamb and ricotta and the braised rabbit. the former was such a delicate dish despite its normally heavy ingredients, and the latter was coupled w/ a chickpea crepe that came w/ thinly cut strips of pancetta and porcinis that really blew me away.

add housemade bread and crackers, an incredibly attentive wait-staff, and an extensive wine list (about 95% italian), and i guess there's no surprise that this restaurant racks up the awards on an annual basis. if there's ever an excuse to go over the eastside, this is it.