Last Sunday, a few of my old co-workers and I headed over to Capitol Hill in Seattle to try out Coastal Kitchen for 'Blunch'!
I have never been here before and have always driven by it or hear people talk about it, so when we got together, we thought, why not? The cool thing about this place is that each month or so (not sure how often, it is probably on their website) they feature and tour a new area showcasing the flavors and some dishes of that region and when we went, they were featuring the Amalfi Coast which is located in Southern Italy.
They don't feature a whole ton of dishes from the region, the whole menu only has 3 dishes for each side with foods from that region and the rest of the menu is a regular blunch/lunch menu.
I didn't get anything from the regular lunch menu but I did choose 2 items from the blunch side.
First thing I tried was the Sfogiatelle and not gonna lie, it was a little disappointing. The description made it sound really good and as if the ricotta inside would be nice and creamy. The flaky outside was a bit chewy and took some work before you could swallow it. The inside was more moist than the outside makes it seem, but it wasn't exactly the creamy type of cheese (like a danish perhaps) I was expecting. I did enjoy the flavor of it though--the lemon flavor was refreshing and it wasn't overly sweet. I had expected these to be a bit more fresh, but in honesty I feel like it was a bit stale. Not that good for a first impression...however, my main course made up for it!
I choose an item from the blunch side again and this time it was the Risotto Hash con Polpo. The risotto had pancetta, octopous, and argula while topped with two eggs over easy served with grilled foccacia bread.
The presentation on this was excellent and immediately made me giddy with excitement to dig in! It was almost too good to eat..almost. haha. It came with its own little wok and the colors of the fresh herbs and other ingredients were so inviting.
I love octopus but hate when it is overcooked and I was very pleased by the way the octopus was prepared in this dish. It wasn't too chewy, but rather nice and tender. I loved breaking the egg yolks up and mixing everything in together with the rice. The pancetta bits added a nice salty layer of flavor to the dish as well. The grilled foccacia was nice and crispy too and was perfect for dishing up the risotto on top of it.
My only gripe about the dish was that it was a bit greasy. You could see a lot of oil at the bottom of the pan--but it did help in making the rice sticking to the pan crunch up--it was just the leftover oil that was a bit much.
Overall, I was satisfied with my dish and am definitely wanting to come again, either for a happy hour or dinner, or even when they change touring location. The place is always busy and you should make RSVPs for dinner time (I don't think you can reserve space in the morning/lunch time). We had about a 30 minute wait, but since it wasn't raining and the fact that there were many little stores to check out, it wasn't too bad. The price was very reasonable and the portions are quite generous as well.
Have you ever tried a dish like this? What's your favorite Italian food??
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