Hungrygrrl

Cobe is away in Minnesota on business so I am left alone with the dog and the rain. He keeps calling saying his plane is delayed more and more, first in Minneapolis, then in Chicago. I nod. Okay. I’ll see you when you get home.

I worked all weekend, 40 hours in 3 days and now I am spent. But I have promised myself I will review Txori tonight, the new tapas restaurant from Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez of the Harvest Vine, so I manage to pull myself up off the couch and drive to Belltown.

I don’t particularly like going to restaurants solo, but a certain kind of restaurant can make you feel it is almost better to be alone. You can eat what you like, drink what you like, without having to cater to someone else’s tastes.

Txori is one of those places. Each dish is so small (pintxos) that you can still try 10 different things. Especially if all you ate for lunch was an omelette.

I started with the chocolate chorizo toast and the cold duck confit. The chorizo was rich and smoky but I struggled with the long slices, flinging chocolate everywhere like a mad donut eater. And I remembered after the first bite of duck confit that I don’t really like confit. It always feels like survival food.

But then the octopus arrived.

One bite and I was in a whole different world. It wasn’t just tender, it was juicy, like a piece of pork. And flavored with smoky paprika and spicy olive oil. Cobe and I were in New York a few weeks ago and had octopus at this wonderful new greek restaurant in the upper east side, but this just blew that away.

After that came the grilled pear with valdeon and walnuts, a nice blend of flavors.

Then one of the specials of the night, lamb with beets. The lamb was a bit salty for my taste, but it went well with the beets, and the presentation was beautiful.

The waitress had steered me right with the octopus, so I polled her for more suggestions.

“The pork” she said, “or the oxtail. Those are my favorites.”

I went with the pork and the carmelized onion tart. The pork was wonderful, amazingly juicy. I swear it sprayed the table when I bit into it. It was offset by a roasted pepper and smoky paprika drenched oil.

The caramelized onion tart was also carefully prepared, with thin pastry and a topping of frisee.

Finally I was spent. So many pintxos, such a small stomach. I decided I could squeeze in some flan. I neglected to photograph it, but it was beautiful, perhaps my second favorite dish of the night (nothing could top the octopus). It was gently flavored with coffee, layered on a thin bit of chocolate and topped with gran marnier. I nearly licked the plate.

It is tempting to compare Txori to Ocho, if only because they opened within a few months of eachother and both feature tapas. But really they are so different. Ocho is at its heart american, like a neighborhood bistro. Txori transports you to spain. They both serve wonderful food.

Sitting in Txori, listening to the music, I almost felt I could step outside into the Barcelona market place. Did you see those red doors in the picture above? They open into a small courtyard, where someone has hung a string of lights.

I can’t wait till summer.

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Txori
http://www.txoribar.com
2207 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA
206.204.9771

Note:
This review is part of “Seattle Restaurant Review 360,” the brainchild of Michael Natkin of Herbivoracious. He asked a whole slew of bloggers to review the same restaurant and all post reviews on the same day. You can link to the other reviews here.