MILL CREEK — If Zagat ratings are awarded based on looks, Calabria Ristorante deserves the mention it received in this year’s “America’s 1,000 Top Italian Restaurants” booklet by the international surveyor.
There are no bad seats in the house. Tables are arranged in a crescent around a bar designed to hide the door to the kitchen. The restaurant isn’t cavernous and space between the tables doesn’t feel gulf-like, but it’s nearly impossible to hear the conversations of other diners unless they’re shouting for someone to bring a Manhattan, pronto.
“They’re regulars,” one server explained sheepishly as he scrambled to deliver the cocktail.
Except for the demanding “regulars,” the place feels perfect. Lighting is low but adequate. The music is the standard Italian-American restaurant track, but the volume stays pleasantly muted. The staff is attentive, but isn’t compelled to query constantly about your comfort level. Steaming plates are carried two by two from the kitchen — there are no giant trays slicked with tomato muck.
It is so pleasant that even the table by the door feels warm, inviting and willing to accommodate each diner for hours into the night. It’s enough to begin believing that those piping-hot plates emerging from behind the bar will be marvelous: original while authentically Italian; comfort food with a dash of glamour.
C’ è la vita.
My first stop: bruschetta ($7.25). An Italian standard, and often a harbinger of what’s to come in the meal. It was gorgeous. Ruby-red tomatoes, evergreen-hued basil, diced with a little onion and spiked with vinegar and olive oil, on thick-sliced rustic bread. Alas, the tomatoes were mealy, the bread soggy.
Fortunately, the gem of the meal came next: sliced portobello mushrooms served in a pool of gorgonzola sauce ($10.95). The mushrooms were great, but the chef knows what his customers want: sauce, and more sauce. Gorgonzola is creamed with white wine to divine results. The sauce pops up elsewhere on the menu, over penne ($14.95, or $18.95 with chicken), and over prime rib (market price).
The Spaghetti di Mare ($24.95) looked promising, with clams, mussels, calamari and other seafood tossed in a white-wine, tomato and lobster sauce served over spaghetti. The chef isn’t stingy with the seafood, but the calamari was rubbery, the mussels slightly grainy.
A gorgeously plated braised rack of lamb ($24.97) came on a bed of marsala sauce and mushrooms. The dish is a success, built on simplicity.
Most offerings are standard Italian-American fare. There is pasta with white sauce. Pasta with red sauce. Add a slice of chicken or a few prawns for a few dollars more. Vitello Parmigiana (veal parmesan, $20.95). Pollo Parmigiana (chicken parmesan, $19.95). A nice selection of Italian desserts, including a house-made tiramisu ($6) and Strawberries alla Maria ($6.95), where strawberries are spiked with rum and served with ice cream.
Side salads carried swiftly to other tables (my server never brought one to me) appeared to be a one-note appetizer, with a sprinkling of croutons. The wine list has a limited selection of mostly Pacific Northwest choices, along with a token Chianti. No glasses are over $10, and bottles can be had for as little as $17.
That’s where the bargains end. The prices on food approach those of restaurants that offer fresh interpretations of Italian cuisine, or classics impeccably made with the best ingredients. Calabria lags on both counts.
Flaws could be attributed to the fact that the restaurant has been open in Mill Creek for a mere two months. But the place is an echo of its Kirkland sister, which first opened in 1988. There has been talk over the years of that restaurant closing its doors, but now the word is that it will hang on just until the end of the year. After that, the Mill Creek restaurant will be the only Calabria location. That’s worth keeping in mind if a craving for gorgonzola sauce strikes, or whenever there’s a desperate need for hand-made tiramisu.
Reporter Krista J. Kapralos: 425-339-3422 or kkapralos@heraldnet.com.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
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