cafe juanita

hmmm.... i've never been to arestaurantfor a birthday dinner in an upscale place that doesn't have alot of what's on the menu- server said they're changing their menu so they ran out of a lot of food. (manager didn't have a clue what the server was talking about) it was sooo bad we asked them to cork our wine before we even had an order placed. manager comped out wine- nice gesture but really i just wanted a happy birthday edible dining experience.

wonderful, quiet dining room. impeccable service, including the wine service. fresh nw ingredients, fresh pasta as well. servings were generous and pricing was reasonable. although thisrestauranthas been around for decades, it felt fresh. definitely going again.

café juanita is 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 arestaurantof 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. cafe juanita is one of the seattle area'srestaurantjems. while not over in the more gourmet-focused city of seattle, cafe juanita in 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' juanita is one of the best restaurants in the region. not inexpensive mind you, but worth the price for that special dinner.

this place is simple average for all of the hype that it has for being an expensive italian restaurant. i ordered the braised rabbit which was nothing to cheer about. the wine which it was braised it was completely overpowering over the vegetables and rabbit, which left me feeling hungary for dessert. what saved me from hating thisrestaurantwas the ricotta gelatto. it was magnificent. i ate mine and half of my husband. i also enjoyed their selection of wine. over all, i would have to give my experience a 7.

nasty. i've wanted to dine at cafe juanita for 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 thisrestaurantunless it is to someone i do not like.

it's complicated. this is definitely a very nice high end restaurant. parking is a problem as we had to park a block over and walk which is not what you expect from a fancy place like this although personally it did not bother me much. the ambiance is nice, somewhat dark with candles. the place appears to be an old house that was converted to arestaurantbut it works fine. the food was all very good although nothing stuck out in my mind as spectacular. so why am, i not more enthusiastic about this place? i think it is because the food is too complicated. they just try too hard. that is not to say they don't do a good job but the flavor combinations seem false. it's like they just have to add one more ingredient and because there is so much going on it does not work as well. you may really like it but i prefer more simply executed dishes. i may go back and give it another try sometime and will let you know if i do get wowed. it just seemed expensive, a little pretentious, and overly complicated.

2+ sneezes

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? café juanita is not even in downtown kirkland!

nevertheless, it's arestauranti'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 thisrestaurantracks up the awards on an annual basis. if there's ever an excuse to go over the eastside, this is it.

anniversary dinner! ooooppppss!. the plan was simple enough have a nice, romantic anniversary dinner at arestaurantwith a good reputation for turning out some of the best food on the eastside.
when we arrived the place was packed (naturally i was thinking, ahhhh we made the right chose!) so packed there was no parking. i actually had to call therestaurantto ask where we should park as there were "you will be towed" signs everywhere! after finding a place to park, we walked up to the front doors and there was barely enough room to squeeze the two of in, and i am thinking even though we have reservations there is no way we will be seated for at least 20 minutes. much to my surprise, after notifying the maitre d of our arrival we were seated right away!
so far so good, i'm loving the candle light room and the coziness of the restaurant. so we order our appetizers, i ordered the foie gras and my husband ordered the veal and chanterelle stuffed cipollini onions. the apps arrived they are both delicious and with the accompaniment of the wine and the lovely sampler of bread that was on the table, i am thinking that we are in for a big treat.
now to the main course, my husband ordered the braised rabbit, which has been the house specialty for the last 10 years according to our waiter, and i ordered the ordered the tagliatelle bolognese. i ordered a seemingly ordinary dish thinking that in an upscale allegedly italianrestaurantthat it would be spectacular, boy was i wrong! i appreciated the homemade pasta even though it was over cooked but the bolongese was over salted and tasted like hamburger helper. if you are trying to "highlight" the flavor of the meat in the dish then you add components to accentuate the tastes, not just fry it up and through it on top of some pasta and call it a sauce! this dish really killed it for me!
and the rabbit was really good at first but then as you worked your way up the leg it got dryer and dryer.
skip the espresso, it was unpalatable. this is a great place for wine and appetizers, but i would not recommend it for dinner, unless you don't care about food and are only going there try and catch a glimpse of chef holly!

i have been wanting to write about my favorite seattlerestaurantfor awhile, just never sat down to do it, but i was here last week again and thought it was about time. this place i am talking about, this place that ever time i go to i say, “wow that was

thoughtful northern italian. helmed by recent james beard best chef northwest winner holly smith, cafe juanita offers up lovingly prepared, artful food. neither too small nor too big, too pretentious nor too laid-back, therestaurantsetting is warm and inviting (yet still elegant) with an open kitchen through which you can watch the magic happen at a comfortable distance.
the food here is excellent and beautifully prepared and presented and we did manage to at least try several starters, including the rabbit livers and kidneys with caramelized onion, toasted anchovy, and currants, the veal sweetbreads with fried capers and parsley, and the carne cruda of wagyu beef. of these, the carne cruda really shone. it was prepared very simply with high quality olive oil, lemon, sea salt, a mince of chives and raw shallot, and shaved parmigiano reggiano. it was topped with a poached quail's egg and arrived looking every-so-slightly unappetizing (minced and in a mound on the plate) next to thin slivers of crostini. but, one bite dissolved any squeamishness the presentation might have inspired. the sweetbreads were also great - crispy on the outside and creamy on the inside - and abundant. indeed, all the portion sizes at cafe juanita are big (maybe a hair on the side of too big?).
for our entree course (as i mentioned above), most of us went for the rabbit braised in arneis. this dish is rich, hearty, and delicious. i had one of the specials, which was a seared skate wing served with brown butter sauce and olives. it was...just okay. the skate wing was a little mushy and not so very flavorful on its own. it was served with an avocado puree that paired very well with the fish and ultimately saved the dish. for dessert we all indulged in a flourless chocolate cake (described very aptly by our server as being like "the inside of a truffle") topped with a malted chocolate ice cream. it was very good, but not transcendent. for wine we moved through several bottles of barbera d'alba.

lovely food. lovely dinner! went here with 5 girlfriends... we enjoyed 5 courses ... we started with aperitivis which was a very unique and classy presentation ... prob the onlyrestaurantin seattle that does a great opening presentation... thereafter the delicious courses kept coming .. the wine list is great & overall we were very happy with the food & service. definitely would go back again.

from anthony bourdain's blog: if you've been performing very well as a novice sous-chef at daniel boulud'srestaurantdaniel, and then, suddenly, make a horrible botch of even one saturday night, you're probably not going to be around next saturday. resta