Seattle Restaurant Week Starts Sunday

We'd be remiss to not mention that Seattle Restaurant Week starts Sunday. Okay, so it actually runs more than a week (April 18-29), but if you take out the exempted Friday and Saturday, that leaves ten days (eight for restaurants closed on Mondays) of good deals.

$25 gets you three courses at over 100 restaurants, with some offering three-course lunches for $15. The list of participants is quite impressive, including some of our favorites: Crush, Matt's in the Market, Joule, and Kisaku - to name but a few.

We were part of the mob at Seattle Weekly's Voracious Tasting and Food Awards earlier this week (where Spur gastropub, another favorite and whose chefs Brian McCracken and Dana Tough were winners of this year's Innovation Award, served up our favorite bite of the night: foie gras torchon with rhubarb, brioche tuille and shiso) and ran into the classy folks from Canlis (yes, another favorite), who were serving up some spirits. Chef Jason Franey told us that he was looking forward to Seattle Restaurant Week, even after we joked that people were going to experience three courses at Canlis for less than the cost of one entree on the regular menu. "It's for the community," Franey said, "And we're going to impress some new customers with a great menu that includes some amazing homemade pasta." Classy indeed for Canlis to participate.

(Note: Canlis is sold out, with a full waiting list, but there are lots of other great choices available.)