lark

i am from san antonio, texas and i visited seattle last week with my husband. i had the best ceviche plate ever! the freshness of the shrimp ceviche with the red onions, avocado and the perfect amount of lemon juice are unforgettable. the plate was also accompanied by a corona beer. i personally don’t favor the corona but i was able to substitute with a modelo beer. the plates were reasonably priced. the wait staff was very attentive, and had our order ready in no time! the restaurant was busy and clean, next time i visit seattle i will definitely stop bye again.

overrated, underfooded. before i get a lot of haters for this comment, let me first say the food at lark is actually quite good. my issue is with the quantity to price ratio. i expect a restaurant like this to be expensive. however, the portions are so small, it just doesn't work. they encourage you to order multiple items and share, but we've been there with 4 people, and you don't just have to order multiple items, you have to order multiple multiple items. the cheese plate for instance is barely enough for 1, we had to order 2. similarlly with just about everything else. they don't give you a good sense for how much to order, so we'd order one round, realize it wasn't enough, and then order more, but by then people were kind of tired of eating, noone got enough of what they wanted etc.

so while it is good food, there are lots of other choices in this class - union, lampreia, campagne, madison park cafe to name a few - that offer better value with as good, if not better food.

still good but not great. we dined early on a friday evening and, while our service was very good, with only one exception the food was just okay. we had a salad of our own concoction (we combined various ingredients on the menu to make a true salad instead of cheese with beans). the ingredients were fresh and simply prepared but not anything remarkable. we then ordered the cuttlefish in ink - not very good at all. the softshell crab for two was again okay but not great. the last item we ate was the special pork belly dish - this was very good despite the heavy layer of fat covering the pork as it was served. (i typically remove some or all of the fat once the meat is cooked through.) our bottle of french white wine as decently priced but their wine list contained nothing extraordinary. i enjoy lark and consider it one of the "tried and true" restaurants in town ... let's hope that it is not becoming "tired and boring."

yum. this is a place for foodies: people who appreciate the art of fine cooking. it's all "little plates" and the fun is trying a variety of things and sharing. get ready to splurge; you will enjoy the rewards of thoughtful ingredients perfectly prepared in layers of flavor and texture. paired with a perfect wine, it's an evening of delight. not a place for people who like to tuck into their own big plate of chow. this is a plate for thoughtful, even patient, diners. service is fine, casual and attentive. we loved it.

when my dad comes to town it's our tradition to have a nice dinner out and shoot some pool. i chose dinner at lark, since i was craving their pork rillettes and i wanted to see if it would be just as good as the first time i ate there . there were three o

ahh.... lark . this "rustic neighborhood" restaurant was on my list of places to visit since it opened. with mixed reviews under its belt, it was time for me to make my visit for dinner. i had a short visit a few months ago for a nice glass of wine and so

fava fava hey!. fava beans were amazing - especially paired with the rabbit. sadly by the time we arrived the pork belly was sold out for the night and we made do with the pork tongue unfortunately it was finished in a vinegar sauce which masked the flavor of the meat.
the meyer lemon dessert was incredible and led to a short tussle over the last bite.
wine list was interesting but the glass list was sufficient to keep me happy.

pretty weak. as a "foodie", based on lark's reputation, this place has been on my list for a long time. unfortunately, the whole experience, from ingredients to preparation to service, ranged from disappointing to outright "bad".

i'm as fond of locally sourced, fresh, and unusual ingredients as any "foodie" or "locavore". but just having those ingredients present isn't enough. you need to use them creatively, and prepare them well.

we had six dishes that evening. with only one exception, they were all either completely haphazard in the ingredient combination or outright poorly prepared. all lacked attention to detail, and all were poorly presented/arranged. the biggest problem child of the evening was the pork belly. it literally made me sick. i could only finish half of it, and almost "lost it" once. look, in general, i **love** pork belly.. i adore it. but this... it was the worst i have ever had. the taste/feel of this dish still haunts me, to the point that i am not sure i can eat a pork belly, anywhere, again. i'm dead serious.

even the desert was... dumb. i mean, it tasted "ok", but so does a piece of white toast. the things simply didn't work together. rather than being artfully, creatively combined, it was just a bunch of randomness slapped together without thought about one thing enhancing or complementing another.

the wine list was... well... "whatever". the service was lame too. the server was pleasant, but she forgot our orders constantly and, beyond that, was rather inattentive.

i've actually heard folks suggest this place is "fine dining". it is not. lark needs to kick it up several notches in every area to compete at a "fine dining" level.

the restaurant is in a modern setting just on the edge of seattle university's campus. even though it was busy, each table is far enough apart to make it feel very intimate and to allow for easy conversation. the wait staff were quiet and unobtrusive, appearing at the right moment and leaving us to ourselves for the privacy of our meal.

lark’s décor and lighting give you the illusion of being in a cavernous warehouse with its high ceilings and cool lighting yet still makes you feel like you are the only person in the restaurant. our dining brought three courses of intensely flavorful fare from hamachi crudo to seared albacore with haricot verts and grilled kurobuta pork chop to a finale of amazing chocolate madeleines with theo dark chocolate sauce.

just perfection. attentive service, amazing food, excellent wine pairings and beautiful setting. great team at this restaurant. nice to have the ownership team so present.

it was not a super busy night at lark, the popular capital hills eatery. william and i were seated at end of the long and narrow dining room by the window. the high ceiling was illuminated with hundreds of lights, as if we were under a starry summer sky, which i could gaze and lost into for an eternity. 

and the food was just as much as a winner. the chef's genius and passion were showcased on every single plate on our table , where the ingredients of impeccable quality, were treated with such astonishing techniques. each arrangement was sophisticated but not complicated.

there were definitely some bold flavours found in the hamachi crudo ($17) from fennel, preserved lemon, and olive. on top of those ingredients visible on the plate, i could also taste something like celery salt, which complemented hamachi perfectly. it was just bloody brilliant that we could still taste how fresh and delicate the fish was.

on a night, when a group of friends gathered to enjoy a fine meal, partake in revelry, lark made the night special. while our group of friends joked about pythons and waxed about politics, there were moments where conversation died and we were lost in our bites of food. there were questions about who would be brave enough to take the last bite of a dish we knew that everyone would gladly eat. somehow, there were no fork or spoon duels, though there might have been some talk of table flipping. there are so few restaurants that have the entire table collectively cooing and yumming over plates for over three hours, and leave wanting to come back to try next season’s menu....

wow. just - wow. the most perfect dining experience! absolutely all the food was to die for here. between the raw bar menu items, the selection of charcuterie and cheeses, to the amaaaaazing starters and mains. and the wine! i simply cannot rave enough about how perfectly spiced and cooked everything was. the desserts here are also incredible and the staff are extremely knowledgable and friendly. our server was so helpful and gave us some very good recommendations as well. for anyone looking for a nice dinner or date spot i would definitely recommend this place above all else!!!

upscale expensive restaurant with good classy ambience but small portions of overpriced mediocre food. we had been looking forward to eating here but found it a bit disappointing.