Altura — Restaurant in Seattle

Hands down one of the most amazing food experiences I’ve had in my life. Worth every penny, and it was a lot of pennies. Went looking for how many Michelin stars they’d had and shocked to see - 0! Won’t imagine it’ll be like that forever.

Food - 5/5! Due to Covid reductions they’re just down to the chef/owner and the other head chef. But they paid incredible attention to every detail. The first course was a fermented mashed potato over a green herb oil topped with caviar that melted on the tongue. The potato had this incredibly pleasant hint of sour and garlic. This was followed by a medley of small bites - beef crudo, local uni in a crispy wrapping, and grilled mussels with veggies in a oyster shell. All packed with flavor at every bite. We then had smoked bacon wrapped mussel with a seafood foam mouse and custard. Amazing. Followed by a squid ink risotto with herbs and geoduck which was jam packed with flavor. Some homemade bread and butter. Can’t go wrong with soft warm bread. Next was a perfectly cooked ravioli with asparagus, rich ricotta, pancetta and a runny egg inside. We then had the intermezzo which was a nice light strawberry sorbetto with garden herbs and finger like. The main was a slow roasted lamb rack with black garlic and salsa verde. My mom substituted with A5 wagyu. And I didn’t even take a picture of deserts but it was a bourbon caramel semifredo and an affogato which tasted like the best aerated hot chocolate I’d had back in Oaxaca, Mexico! Truly phenomenal all around.

Experience - 5/5! The wait staff were attentive, patient, and there when we needed them. The art of how a restaurant should be run was really fascinating to watch as you don’t get this many places. As the chef/owner, Nathan, starts to put the final touches on the final dish, all 3 wait staff make they’re way over to the line where they wait patiently for the chef to finalize and approve the dish so they can then cart it quickly and while the food is hot and as chef intends straight to our tables. We added the wine pairings to our meal and the sommelier did a fantastic job with every pairing. You could definitely get out of their with a cheaper meal if you skip this, but I wouldn’t. You’re probably going here for some type of celebration, as we were, so we splurged. Every pairing was amazing. And it let us try champagnes, whites, reds and more that we normally would never try as they’re by the bottle or were just unfamiliar with the varietal.

Ambiance - 5/5! I’d seen reviews that the place can be loud and casual. Maybe pre covid. But right now they’re allowed 5 tables including to chefs tables and it was very well spaced, the mood was calm and quiet with a controlled speed in the kitchen.

Overall, we had incredible time. We were celebrating my dads 67th birthday and they brought him out a special dessert with hand written cursive happy birthday on the plate! Every detail is planned from replacing the napkin every time someone stepped up to use the restroom to the incredible featuring of flavor on every dish. Would I go here more than once every few years? Probably not. I can’t lie when I say it was a pretty penny. But was it worth it, also 100%. There’s a lot of places that artificially charge for what is a subpar experience. These guys are the real deal. I was shocked when I looked for how many Michelin stars they’ve gotten, and saw there was none. I couldn’t recommend Altura more. Big shoutout to the chefs and...

Recently came here for my birthday dinner, which my wife booked (lucky me!).

I am not a "fine dining" type of guy, as it more often than not leaves me befuddled as to portion size to dollar ratio - i.e. pay a lot...for tiny morsels of food...which doesn't even taste that special.

BUT, Altura completely blew me away and is easily now one of my (and my wife's) favourite restaurants.

Course meal started off with an amuse-bouche of oysters and caviar. I was thinking here we go again - tiny food, big price, relying on fancy presentation. It was pretty good, but honestly I don't really remember it standing out (maybe because the rest of the meal was so incredible).

Next was the stuzzichini with eel and beef tartar. It was also pretty good (really good) and now my interest was piqued (or maybe I was just getting hungry).

Next was the tomato dish, sliced beef tongue and frozen pepper thingy. This is when Altura turned the tables and punched me in the face with a flavour explosion! I have never tasted anything like this. Even the tiny pieces of basil were incredibly fresh. 10/10 for this dish. I was now really getting into the course meal experience at Altura.

Next was the noodle pasta with anchovy flakes. Probably my wife's favourite meal of the night. Cooked and seasoned perfectly. I could have eaten a whole trough of this. 10/10.

Next was ANOTHER pasta dish (bonus points as I was starting to feel like I was getting my money's worth of food). This time with black truffles and other local ingredients. Excellent but heavy, which made me slightly prefer the preceding noodle dish.

Then there was an intermission of the best type - sorbet! Probably the last thing my low-brow taste would think of eating MID-MEAL, but it absolutely worked and cleansed my palate.

Next were the big guns - pork and wagyu beef, the later being an add-on at $25/oz (min 2 oz order). The wagyu was pricey, but wow, the only way to describe it was like I was eating a beef flavoured Fruit Gusher - the moment you bite into it, it explodes and melts in your mouth with savoury/fat/bbq/salt flavour.

At this point I was absolutely stuffed (maybe the first time I can ever say that at a fine dining restaurant). Desert came out which was some kind of ice cream thing. Pretty good, but honestly I was so full that I couldn't even remember what it was. At this point, I even told my wife that I was glad that it wasn't a chocolate dessert (my favourite) because I was too full.

Next came ANOTHER dessert which was affogato and chocolate. Although I just said a moment ago that I didn't have room for chocolate, I devoured this thing! Absolutely incredible way to end the meal.

If I had to nitpick (there isn't much), the red wine (by the glass) wasn't the greatest, but maybe that's just preference as I like more full-bodied reds. The restaurant decor is "interesting" (stuffed owl...really?). And this place is pricey (but you probably knew that).

To conclude, the service was impeccable, most of the dishes were truly mind-blowing and I've never tasted anything like it anywhere else. This is a special restaurant for special occasions. Without hesitation, my wife and I said we would be back in a heartbeat, which I think is the true test of how good a...

One of the better meals I've had... in life. The quality of the food is top-notch, but without that over-the-top bougie/stuffy vibe that comes with a lot of high end restaurants. We came here on a Tuesday evening (with a reservation) and opted to sit at the counter (highly recommend so you can talk to the chefs).

The menu is pre-fixe, and they change it every week. I don't drink, and I was AMAZED that they had a non-alcoholic drink pairing - I don't think I've ever seen this in a restaurant before.

We had 6 small courses to start before the main dishes: mustard green sponge cake grassfed beef crudo, arugula, parmesan, quail's egg shigoku oyser, pickled ramp granita pancetta wrapped and grilled mussel, madrona smoke with meyer lemon soda infused with calabrian chili, blood orange and bubbles parsley root cannoli, pacific red sea urchin plesant view foie gras, pumpkin seed praline, whipped campari

The main dishes were as follows: smoked sturgeon zabaglione, salsify sformato, osetra caviar pumpkin risotto, crispy guanciale, castelmagno, juniper aged balsamico darrell's bread, altura's salumi, crushed myrtle duck and porcini agnolotti, crispy sage, sweet butter, white alba truffle beet and satsuma sorbetto, beldi olive leather, finger lime matsutake brodo, charred radicchio broth with matsutake and pine dry aged duck breast or king salmon

Then the deserts: rogue river blue, apple mostardo, hazelnut, honey bourbon caramel semifreddo, toasted marshmallow, fuyu permissimon affogato - mascarpone gelato, cannoli, grappa soaked luxardo cherry, aerated hot chocolate

The mustard green sponge cake was one of my favorites, the texture was so soft and fluffy, but had a very strong onion taste to it. I'm not a huge caviar fan or oysters - this one tasted a little grimy to me. The pumpkin risotto I could eat all day, I couldn't really taste the pumpkin but the flavors were just amazing. I wasn't a big fan of the sorbetto -- I'm not big on beets. We chose to add on the duck and porcini agnolotti and although it was $83 extra, we were not disappointed. He hand shaved the truffles onto our dishes as he explained the dish and where the truffles were from. They were the most amazing (and expensive) truffles I've ever eaten. This and the risotto were probably the highlights for me.

The first desert had blue cheese inbetween two dried apple slices, the presentation was beautiful but wow.. that cheese was strong. I love blue cheese, and even that was enough for me, the taste of the cheese overpowered the taste of everything else in the dish. The last dish I was told they always have. The aerated hot chocolate was amazing, I'm usually not a fan of milk chocolate but the chocolate was extremely rich, and fluffy from the aeration. The cherry was too strong for both of us, it was covered in chocolate but had an incredibly strong liqueur taste, which overpowered the cherry past the point of enjoyment.

All in all, my friend and I were incredibly impressed, and think that this rivals the food at Canlis (if not beats). They don't have fancy valet or all the high-end amenities that you'll find there, but they make up for it with the quality of the food and the warm,...