Chicory — Restaurant in Olympia

Chicory might be the best restaurant in Olympia. It's unexpected and unpretentious which lend to its appeal but result in a low profile that I'm always hoping doesn't diminish their success. Love the bar styling and bathroom wallpaper heavy with gold accents, and they have what feels like an excellent secret record collection. I appreciate the servers state aloud the 20% gratuity. Since the gratuity addition is standard, I'd love to see them tack it on the menu pricing and brag about paying their employees and refusing tips.

The menu rotates seasonally, ingredients are fresh, dishes are unique and flavorful, all making it fun to stop by and try something new. A long time ago I used to grab an oatmeal cream pie to nibble while walking downtown errends-yum!

Overall I recommend dinner over brunch, in large part because the brunch menu is bread heavy - personal preference.

Today's brunch we tried the shrimp and grits, parsnip fritters with chili yogurt, beignets with cranberry-pistachio-persimmon(?) compote, sunchoke salad, coleslaw, and the gin-absinthe cocktail.

Grits were super fluffy and filling and the shrimp and leek topping was delicious. Parsnip fritters had an excellent texture, smooth, soft and creamy on the inside, perfectly crisp on the outside. The chili yogurt was good with it. Overall not terribly flavorful, but the texture kept us grabbing more. Beignets were dense rather than airy, well cooked, good flavor, and the fruit spread was fresh fall and wonderful, my favorite part, but mostly because I only like a bit of bread. I passed on the cookie crumbles. The sunchoke salad was the least exciting but was beautiful and felt like eating sunflowers in an assortment of textures, which was fun. I love coleslaw so was curious about theirs. It was good, creamy but not overdressed. Not terribly unique. Cocktail was good with flavors of licorice and lime and nicely formed egg white, beautiful presentation.

Historical favorites: On the current menu, delicious egg bake with very good bread, nice spice from the harissa, and wonderful squash, paired with roasted carrots which are excellent, nice smoke, sauce, and I LOVE the crunchy buckwheat. Had my first ever negroni here last summer and have been chasing the flavor since. Had dinner with friends recently and shared family style. The three of us loved each of the 5 dishes we split and the consensus on which was the favorite was "yes". Roasted cauliflower heavy on the beets, rye pasta with braised beef, ahi tartare, beef carpaccio, and chocolate pavlova. The carpaccio was sliced a little thick which I sympathize with cuz that's tricky, but it was so good. And eat the pasta attentively or the thinly sliced beef gets lost. The squash mousse served with the pavlova is wonderful with excellent texture, not too sweet, and not too rich. The sablefish is oily, by nature not preparation, and it might be the only dish I wouldn't recommend. The greens it was served with cut the oiliness pretty well. The smoked potatoes are great. The addition of crisp celery and horseradish are very nice. Finally, they make a...

Chicory is a hidden gem of Cajun cuisine found in Olympia. It has a very homey and charming atmosphere the moment you step in. It’s a perfect place to go to with friends or family to grab some appetizers or some great soul food! The servers give some of the politest and friendliest service that I’ve ever had. They give great recommendations and have lots of knowledge about the dishes and drinks, ready to answer any questions that you may have. The food here is some of the best that you’ll ever have outside of New Orleans. I got the bone-in pork chop which is ultra tender and juicy, which is paired with this sour and sweet succotash and this jezebel sauce with fruity hints of mango and apple along with a horseradish wasabi-like kick. The dish combines lots of great flavors that stand out on their own and blend together very well. The other members of our group got the shrimp and grits and the blackened rock fish which were also very good. They were made with fresh seafood and ingredients like collard green, hush puppies, and etc. that felt like bits of New Orleans but with some unique additional flavors that help elevate it. One major highlight was the deep-fried halibut stuffed squash blossoms with a rich pumpkin sauce which we had as one of our appetizers and they had just cooked it up in the kitchen. Even though it was deep fried, it felt very light and it felt like you could eat a hundred of them and the fish inside was still soft and tender inside. And around the end of the meal, the chef came out to talk to us about our food since we had some questions about the incredible ingredients and where they were located. She was really friendly and gave us lots of great tips about where she got the ingredients and on some of her New Orleans background. Overall, eating at Chicory is a true joy and like being transported to New Orleans. You meet some great new people and eat some...

An absolutely wonderful experience - so much attention to detail, and a clear dedication to not only that cajun/creole cuisine that the name "Chicory" evokes, but also to creative use of fresh, local ingredients.

On the cajun/creole end, the smoked boudin, for example, was spot-on. I'm more familiar with the massive, greasy version you'd pick up at a gas station in rural Louisiana, but Chicory took all of the savory, smoky flavor and packed it into a much more high-end package.

But, to me, the more exciting part was the local western Washington flavors that I've never experienced before.

For example, the smoked mussels toast with sea vegetables and lemon. Mussels are, of course, something you can find in excess on basically any one of our rocky PNW coastlines, but the "sea vegetables" were really the icing on the cake. I think the chef used Salicornia, aka "pickleweed", a plant I remember plucking and tasting as a kid, hiking on beaches on the peninsula. I always knew it was edible, but I've never seen it used. That was a fantastic surprise that really elevated the dish for me.

Similarly, the Black Sheep Creamery cheese with salal chutney and palmiers - of course the palmiers were perfect and the cheese was incredible, but the salal chutney is really what made me order this dish. I've grown up surrounded by salal, it's EVERYWHERE in our western Washington forests. Again, I know the berries are edible but, when unprepared, they're not the most pleasant berry. The salal chutney in this dish gave me a new perspective on something that I've been familiar with for decades. To me, that's a really positive experience, one that goes beyond the food itself.

I couldn't be happier with my experience, and I can't wait to see what creations the chef comes...