Thumbs Up for Kaisho and Le Caviste

[Photo: S. Pratt]

This week, Providence Cicero heads to downtown Bellevue to review Kaisho, the high-end izakaya spot in a former Boom Noodle location from the owners of Boom and Blue C. The Seattle Times restaurant critic says the global fusion menu that includes moo shu tacos and Thai fried chicken, "recognizes no boundaries." Cicero writes, "Two decades ago, we might have dubbed this East-West mash-up fusion. Here, it's called global cuisine." While cocktails were underwhelming, the critic pretty much loved all of Kaisho's food, calling it "fresh, seasonal, skillfully prepared and full of nuance."

She liked the carrot-ginger soup poured tableside from a Japanese teapot and topped with radish and apple. She was knocked out by the roasted cauliflower side. And she was wowed by the fried chicken and kimchi waffle: "The fried chicken's golden-brown crust and the subtle heat of savory kimchi waffles, so good on their own but even better with coconut butter and five-spice maple syrup filling their deep pockets."

Over at The Stranger, Bethany Jean Clement visits Le Caviste, the new wine bar from Campagne, Le Gourmand, and Le Pichet alum David Butler, who she describes as, "a man of excellent taste, a storyteller extraordinaire, and funny as hell, too. "The critic calls the space, "simple but stylish, urbane without self-importance. It is just great." So great that she doesn't mind the wall color--cheekily described by Butler as "insane-asylum-wall green." She found the wine list so solid that, "it would also be hard to go wrong with the dartboard method here."

The food, served with mismatched silverware and paper napkins, consists of a few across-the-board delicious small plates and a pair of hot dishes: "shockingly good" trout cooked in parchment and champignons rôtis, or "mushrooms roasted in France's best Brittany butter with bread crumbs, thyme, and salt, topped with a six-minute egg."