Excellent vegetables, meat and fish cooked in their applewood fueled brick oven and hearth. Pictured: grilled heritage pork, roasted carrot, snap peas, carrot pickle. It would be good if they had gluten free crackers or gluten free bread.
I had leg of duck, so tender with a wonderfully crunchy skin, also roasted carrots and peppers, wow! My kids had the halibut and Dungeness crab, both loved their food. We celebrated their birthdays, and our server was kind to put a candle in the most tasty, rich chocolate flour less tort I've ever had.
Wood fire Pacific Northwest style cuisine. They have loads of veggies and fish on the menu (as well as meat dishes I didn’t try). I wish we had got more of the amazing vegetable dishes. They were perfectly cooked, wood smoke flavor, and paired with incredible sauces and flavors. I want to return to try more of those.
The crab was great and my favorite of the seafoods dishes. The fish was good, but didn’t stand out above the other dishes we ordered.
The desserts also were very good!
Definitely worth a visit if you are looking to try something new!
This place was pretty neat! It is a great place to go for a celebration or to treat yourself!
I loved the house baked bread & fire-roasted Olive tapenade. The vegetable section was quite neat too! Our group tried everything in that section. I liked, & would recommend, the baked sunchokes, satina potato & oven charred carrots. I didn’t enjoy the salad and broccolini dishes though - that said many in the party liked the broccolini. And, I have to admit that the flavors were on point in the broccolini dish.
As for desserts - we had the carrot cake and Rhubarb gelee. I didn’t really enjoy either of the desserts. Mind you, they weren’t bad. But they just didn’t hit the mark for me! Hence the missing fifth star.
The ambience and service was very friendly and attentive. I’d definitely recommend giving this place a try!
Came to dinner with coworkers and we all loved the atmosphere, architecture and design of the place. The ambience was a casual sophistication that gave us the impression of good fine dining without the snobby attitude.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, LOVED everything that was ordered. The food was cooked perfectly and tasted beyond expectations.
One of my coworkers said he had set a high bar for the place from everything he heard about it, and it still went above and beyond it.
I know some people here say it’s a bit pricey, but if you’ve been to any other fine dining restaurant with the same quality of food, the price is actually very very reasonable.
We’re already talking about planning another work gathering here!
Wood-fired cooking so really worth writing a review. I think it may be my new favorite place in Seattle.
Wood-fired new American cuisine with locally sourced, seasonally available, sustainable ingredients. Just the way we like it in the PNW.
That’s why they served fresh fiddleheads in their salad, sunchokes — smokey with flavor from being cooked in the fire, and which I learned are the roots of sunflowers — as well as squid, salmon, and bison for proteins, as well as beautifully smashed heritage purple fingerlings. And they bake all their bread on the premises.
We lucked out and got the seats at the counter where the food being being prepped: best seats in the house. Aliyit was gracious enough to answer our questions about preparation and food sourcing.
I don’t think I do just as describing the food so I’ve added several videos. I plan to be back, and often.
Though we walked in during the early evening without a reservation, highly recommend reservations.
I had dinner here with a group of girls and loved almost everything about it! Wine selection was great, I enjoyed both my Sangiovese and Pinot blanco. Some friends had the Negroni which they mentioned was not as amazing as others that they’ve tried. In terms of food though, I like everything we had, particularly the olive tapenade, bison heart tartare, potatoes, carrots, sunchokes, squid (!!!), crab, and bison. If I had to go again I think maybe I wouldn’t get the beets again, not because they weren’t great but because they were not as unique as the other veggies. Wonderful service, ceramic dinnerware, and ambience. Such a special restaurant.
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I visited this beautiful bistro on Sunset hill with my sister and niece recently. We had the duck which turned out to be the best duck that our entire table has ever tasted (in my well over 40 years of life). Absolutely flavorful, juicy, and the little bit of fat between the skin melts in your mouth without that feeling and taste of fat like you normally get when eating duck elsewhere. The skin was perfectly crispy and delicious. Kicking myself now for not ordering another one to go.
The second dish we tried was the cod. Perfectly cooked, bursting with flavor and the sauce paired beautifully with it. There was nothing left on the plate as we made sure that everything, including sauce was happily consumed and resting comfortably in our bellies.
We decided to add some vegetables to our meal with the oven charred carrots and the applewood roasted sunchokes. The carrots were a big favorite with us. Again perfectly cooked and charred giving them a wonderfully sweet taste.
The big surprise however were the sunchokes. It was the very first time we’ve tried that type of root vegetable and WOW! It reminded me a little bit of fingerling potatoes, but so much better. The purée that surrounded the sunchokes was off the charts. The nutty flavor gave me a little bit of a peanut buttery nostalgia which I absolutely loved.
Of course we couldn’t complete dinner without an old fashion (very well mixed and balanced) and some desserts. The roasted apples with cake and ice cream was delicious and I’d definitely recommend it. However, the entire table was blown away with the freshly made chocolate chip mint ice cream. My sister took her first bite and goes “Oh my god. It tastes like fresh mint leaves. Not at all like artificial mint flavoring.” Ok yeah, now I want more of it just thinking about it…
In all this I forgot to mention that our wait person, Heather, was fabulous, attentive, and very knowledgeable about the food and menu. She was the one that recommended we try the sunchokes.
So long review short…would we recommend this place? 100% Yes! Will we be going back? 100% Yes! I didn’t take pictures of everything on our table, but I am sharing are the duck, cod, sunchokes, roasted apples and cake, chocolate chip mint ice cream, and the old fashion.
We came in for a birthday dinner. The service was excellent and we closed the place down without being rushed. Truly amazing food and a wonderful experience. I'd definitely recommend this place for a relaxed and atmospheric romantic experience. The pretzel bread is absolutely to die for.
Samara is an absolute gem! The atmosphere is warm and cozy. The staff are attentive and friendly. The food is always thoughtfully designed, perfectly prepared, and delicious. They consistently deliver a perfect meal and experience.
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This place feels like a best kept secret. We've driven past here many times and never thought much of it. It's so beautiful inside. The fresh flowers are a stellar touch. The staff were all super attentive. The food was delicious. The short rib bison was so tender the meat fell right off the bone clean. The mezcal negroni and the autumn leaves cocktail were strong and bold. The bread plate was scrumptious. I was over the moon with everything. But one thing did bug me and it really bugged me unfortunately. When I booked the reservation I noted it was a birthday occasion, and when I called to confirm the reservation an hour before, staff acknowledged it was a birthday. Then when we were getting our desert my partner started getting bashful while they were preparing the dessert with a candle and he whispered you shouldn't have, and then they started singing happy birthday and walked right by us to a table behind us, then just dropped our desert off like it was nothing. My partner was relieved but I can't stop thinking about how strange that was and is a really big blunder in my book because we know they do something like that for you if it is your birthday and the oversight just left me supremely disappointed. We had been excited for this birthday dinner for weeks. He didn't care at all but I did since I had organized everything. Other than that it really was over the moon wonderful and I hate that I'm focused on that one negative part but for a meal that was over 300 I kind of surprised by the oversight. Would love to try again though that being said.
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Fantastic experience for our first time at Samara. Really enjoyed the food and our waiter was great all along!
The dressing for the salad was perfect, and the salad was perfectly tossed: there wasn't any dressing left in the plate. It is very pleasant to be able to enjoy it down to last leaf without it being soaked in dressing accumulated at the bottom. Well done.
Note that they shave a few slice of Comté on the salad, don't expect the French style of Salad with Comté where you get a bunch of half-inches sized cubes ;)
Goat cheese with cracker and jelly was pretty good as well: the goat cheese was warmed up (without melting, just the right level). The cracker were supposed to have hazelnut, but it was really subtle (I wouldn't know if it wasn't spelled on the menu.
The sauce with the bison was fantastic as well, I would say I had too much meat compared to the amount of potatoes maybe.
The betties and meringue in dessert was amazing, not too sweet and the perfect touch of lemon.
There were two things that were "just good" without being amazing for us: the Halibut was nicely paired with broccoli, but the fish was slightly dry, and could have benefited from a sauce on the side (White wine and lemon buttery sauce maybe? The bison sauce placed the bar high...).
And the brandied plum and pistachio tart: the plums are really good, even though I couldn't detect any brandy (?), but the pistachio tart was a bit dry and the taste felt to subtle when paired with the stronger taste from the plums.
Next time I'll take the Chef counter to enjoy seeing them working their magic. We'll very likely be back :)
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I think Samara is off to a great start! I loved the ambiance and the noise absorbing panel; those with mild hearing loss need not strain to hear your dining companions. The decor is warm and inviting. The lighting was perfect; a discreet lamp above the table made reading the menu easy.
I like the use of wood fire for cooking. It did not overwhelm the dishes but added a nice character.
We started with two vegetable dishes - the radish and broccoli raab with goat cheese and peavines with miso butter. The first was excellent, well-balanced between tangy, salty cheese with bitter greens. My fault with the peavines was that they were roasted dry and needed heavy dunking in the miso butter to come together. I would have preferred that the peavines were seasoned either before or after roasting.
The asparagus that came with the coppa suffered the same shortcoming; seasoning the vegetable would have brought the dish together more harmoniously.
I had the magret of duck, which was truly outstanding. It was seasoned, cooked, sliced, and plated wonderfully! The sauce was a bit sweet for me. It said it came with wild rice, but that was in the form of rice puffs; they added a bit of crunch but had no discernable flavor.
We will definitely be back!
Amazing. We are so lucky to have this in our neighborhood. The details in the restaurant are top. From lighting, flowers, plates. Really enjoyable. Food very unique. They make their own chips.
We had a great time at Samara. The space is beautiful, with an open kitchen where you can see meat cooking over the wood fire. We tried the crispy chicken skin, ash baked sunchokes, grilled maro-ishi oysters, and the duck breast. Our waiter was very informative when helping us decide what to order, and everything turned out great. Kind of regretting not trying any pork though! Only down-side was our clothing smelled like a camp-fire after we left, so they might need to work on the ventilation.
Samara is a gem in Seattle—it’s so special getting to watch the chefs cook delicious food right in front of you with a wood fire oven and the flavors are creative and absolutely amazing. Such a fun and relaxing atmosphere too. Can’t wait to go again soon!
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