Cascina Spinasse

My first visit to Cascina Spinasse last friday was one of the best dining experiences of my life - and I have dined out a lot. No amount of words will be able to do justice to the quality of food, the personal interaction with staff and the coziness of the restaurant that evening. All I can say is WOW (with big bold capital letters), chef Jason Stratton has left me wanting for more of his cooking even after already having finished ten courses of seafood, pasta and meat.

Last Friday, B and I dined at the chef's counter at Cascina Spinasse, a small Italian restaurant in Capitol Hill. At the chef's counter, you will be able to converse with the chef face to face, be served 10 courses that the chef has personally designed for you based on fresh ingredients picked from the market that morning, and you will have a good view of the kitchen where you can clearly see the preparation of a dish from start to finish. Because we had ten courses that evening, this blog post will never end if I did my usual semi-long commentary of one dish after another. So instead of my usual style, this blog post will be mostly pictures accompanied by captions and possibly a short commentary on the side. So here goes...

Chef Jason Stratton working on a dish in the kitchen

A view of the interior of the restaurant, which is usually packed, so make a reservation in advance.

Our meal came with this sparkling wine, which was good, but because of my low tolerance for alcohol, I didn't get to finish it.

Before the 10 courses, we were served this amuse bouche of buttered crostini topped with an anchovy. As soon as I heard anchovy, I nearly jumped for joy as anchovies are one of my favorite ingredients. I could snack on millions of these appetizers forever.

Almond crusted sardine on a bed of marinated beets and fat poached potatoes. I can never eat sardines from a jar or a can anymore after this.

Asian pear salad with celery and dungeness crab.  This is one of those dishes you can eat a ton of and never feel guilty. Very simple, yet extremely enjoyable.

Chef Jason Stratton pretending to pour sea urchin cream because I forgot to take a picture of him pouring it and only remembered at the very last minute.

Roasted leek flan with sea urchin cream. When the chef told us he got sea urchin from the market that morning, I  was dying of anticipation for what he had in store for us. I have loved sea urchin ever since my friend Q introduced me to it in one of the Japanese restaurants in Manila. Though this was a wonderful dish, and my eyes still light up at the thought of it, I still prefer having a big chunk of sea urchin sashimi from a japanese restaurant to sea urchin cream.

Chef Jason Stratton shaving white truffle onto the scrambled eggs.

They don't look much on picture, but I assure you, this was the BEST dish of the evening. The eggs were so perfectly creamy and the white truffle was served generously that you can really taste and savor its flavor

One of Spinasse's signature dishes: Tajarin al burro e salvia, which translates to fine hand cut egg pasta with butter and sage. This is a must-have before you die. The pasta is so finely cut and melts in your mouth. The blend of flavors of butter, sage and freshly grated parmesan cheese truly makes this dish very memorable.

Maitake mushroom ravioli with pine nuts. This restaurant really knows how to make their pasta, which isn't surprising considering it is voted one of the top ten best places for pasta in the US.

Venison stew over buckwheat polenta. Not my favorite dish of the evening, but B seems to really enjoy it. I just don't like stew. :)

Young chicken with brussel sprouts and pine nut sauce. Delicious. I can have this instead of a huge turkey for Thanksgiving.

Oh gosh, B will be really upset when he realizes what is missing from my pictures. We were also served a Rabbit meatball with what seemed like sweet potato paste and topped with horseradish. This is also B's favorite dish of the evening. I could have sworn I took a picture of it, but really can't find it in my camera and I'm laughing out loud now as I imagine B's reaction to this missing picture and to how I've totally wrecked its commentary. 

Finally, my favorite part of any meal: dessert! Unfortunately, I don't see any of these on the menu, so I will have to try my best to describe them. By the time we had dessert, B and I had little energy to remember whatever the chef was telling us. We would listen to him one second and nod as we recognize the words, but we'd completely blank out the next. This is a date cake with caramel on the side, brioche on top (yum!) and cardamom gelato. I am extremely impressed with this, mostly because of the gelato and the brioche. 

Apple pie - I have really forgotten what was on it or how it was prepared, but B said he preferred this over the date cake.  Nevertheless, these two desserts are definitely better than the desserts we had in Cafe Juanita and Tilth.

Warm cheese with honey

That concludes the 10+ course meal. Now that I've looked back on these photos, I am itching to put another dent on my wallet by dragging a friend to Spinasse and order all the pasta dishes on the menu while insisting that the chef cooks me his amazing scrambled eggs along with my order. I normally do not visit high end restaurants more than once, but I think I will have to make an exception for Cascina Spinasse.

Cascina Spinasse
1531 14th Ave. E.
Seattle, WA
206-251-7673