SEATTLE Spark Pizza

Spark Pizza is another one of the kids' favorites in Redmond. They are dog-friendly, so Blake loves them too.

Spark Pizza

Our go-to pizza is the Honey & Spice, and Everything Nice pizza, with spicy honey dripped into the pepperoni cups.

But honestly, all their pizzas are good. And their burrata appetizer is amazing too.

Recommendations: Highly recommended if you are in the mood for pizza.

SEATTLE Supreme Dumplings

Bellevue has many competitions to Din Tai Fung's xiao long bao (soup dumplings). Tiffany's parents love Supreme Dumplings so we had to try. 

Xiao long bao and Tan tan noodles

Recommendations: Highly recommended. No reservations allowed, so difficult for a large party. The Xiao long bao's were juicy, and the noodles were delicious. We can see why Tiffany's parents love this place. We would constantly go if we lived close enough.

SEATTLE Haidilao Hot Pot

Haidilao Hot Pot in Bellevue is all-you-can-eat, as most hot pot places are.

Tiffany's parents took us here, and the kids took care of ordering. Plentiful of food, very good. At the end, Amy knows of some secret sentences (had to be spoken in Mandarin) to get us some freebies.

Haidilao Hot Pot

Recommendations: High quality hot pot. Good for a large party. Will take reservations. Bring a big appetite if you go.

SEATTLE Taiki by Kashiba

Have you seen the documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi"? This documentary featured Chef Jiro Ono, the owner of Sukiyabashi Jiro, a sushi restaurant in Ginza, Tokyo. He is regarded by his contemporaries as one of the greatest living sushi craftsmen. People would book a table at his restaurant before they would purchase a flight to Japan.

Chef Jiro Ono's apprentice, Shiro Kashiba, opened Sushi Kashiba in Seattle's famed Pike Place Market. In 2022, he opened a second location in Bellevue for one of his star apprentices, chef Jun Takai.

Having enjoyed omakase a few times at Sushi Kashiba, we wanted to try Takai by Kashiba to compare during our visit this Thanksgivings. Ricci took care of making reservations for our large party, to include Tiffany's parents, sister, and Philippe.

Takai menu and sake

Famous chef Kashiba joined our group picture

Recommendations: Excellent omakase. Expensive meal, but in line with the top sushi omakase. Reservations allowed, making this more accessible than Sushi Kashiba (where we had to physically wait in line to put our name down.) However, one time we were able to sit at the counter at Sushi Kashiba, and nothing can compare to the experience of watching the chefs make your food.

SEATTLE Chez Robert and Tiffany

We spent Thanksgivings at Robert and Tiffany's this year. Robert and Tiffany put in a lot of work to host family and friends: both sides parents, Ricci, Amy, Nancy, and Philippe.

Over multiple days, Robert made several of his signature dishes. For our first dinner in Seattle, we tasted his honey crispy chicken, modeled after their favorite Thai dish (at restaurant Bai Tong). It came out delicious.  

Homemade honey crispy chicken

For Thanksgivings lunch, Robert spent a lot of time planning and running the 2023 Top Chef Competition, where we were blind folded and had to guess a homemade dish (Poke), its ingredients, and multiple category of blind tasting: fruits, chocolate, alcoholic cider and beer, dark soda, coffee.

For Thanksgivings dinner, we all helped make Nai Nai's traditional dumplings, pan fried and boiled styled. Robert made BBQ ribs and mashed potatoes. Nancy made a yummy cucumber side dish and Korean cold noodles (Bibim Naengmyun). Thanh made a bok choy and shiitake mushroom side dish. Bruce and Jenny provided dessert. 

Thanksgivings Feast

The top 3 winners of the Top Chef Blind Tasting competition were: Amy, Ricci, and Tiffany. As the Top Chef, Amy was the recipient of the Wooden Spoon Award.

2023 Top Chef Competition winner: Amy

The results of the Blind Tasting competition led into the Master Chef Pizza Cook Off: the 3 top players were told to have a handicap. Amy was not allowed to use tomato sauce, and only up to two toppings. Ricci and Tiffany were allowed to use a maximum of two toppings, one of which must be a "wacky" topping.

For the Pizza Cook off, Robert featured his new Ooni gas pizza oven. Thanh made Neopolitan-style pizza dough and homemade tomato sauce for everyone. Thanh showed everyone how to stretch the pizza dough.  Everyone came up with their own pizza toppings and put them together. Thanh launched everyone's pizza into the oven, while Phil helped rotate and cook the pizza. 

The first couple pizzas suffered, as the launcher was learning where the hot spots were in the oven (the owner of the oven was not helpful.)

2023 Master Chef Pizza Cook Off

Amy's "wacky" ingredients were pancetta and corn, her base was garlic butter.

Ricci's "wacky" ingredients were bulgogi and kimchi, on tomato sauce base.

Tiffany's "wacky" ingredients were panko and herbs from her own garden, her base was the lobster pasta sauce.

It was a super fun group activity. At the end, we all voted for the best tasting pizza category, the best looking pizza category, and the most original pizza category.

Blake and Zoe voted that every single pizza was excellent.

Pizza Night

Chef Robert ended his weekend cooking spree with his signature surf and turf, a seafood pasta dish with jumbo shrimps, jumbo scallops, lobster chunks in lobster sauce, and steak.

Surf and Turf

Leftover from lobster pasta and pizza topping ingredients (kale and sausage) led to another amazing meal. 

Leftover pasta dish

Robert fed us way too much. Luckily, we got a few games of Pickleball in at Bruce and Jenny's.

SEATTLE Seattle Fish Guys

Seattle Fish Guy is another favorite of the kids. They serve very fresh poke. We forgot how big the portions were and over-ordered. We could not finish.

Seattle Fish Guy

Recommendations: Highly recommended. Go if you like poke. Large portion, very share-able.

NYC Nubiani

Nubiani is a upscale Korean BBQ restaurant in NYC.

We went there twice this year, once with Ricci and Amy, and a second time with Robert and Tiffany.

The meat is high quality, and there is someone taking care of grilling so it is done just right, and you can enjoy the meal and the company.

Nubiani in June and November 2023

Nubiani

Recommendations: Highly recommended for their excellent Korean BBQ and the ease of making reservations. You don't have to make reservations very far in advance to get a table.

NYC Dominique Ansel Bakery

We took a detour to Dominique Ansel bakery for their amazing James Beard award-winning pastries.

They are located in SoHo so it was a bit out of our way from midtown.

We wanted to try out their croissants, which were excellent, but we were most impressed with their house specialty, the DKA (Dominique's Kouign Amann), which is the signature caramelized croissant.

Dominique Ansel bakery

Recommendations: Highly recommended. We will come back again for their DKA and croissants.

NYC Angelina

We have recently discovered that the Angelina Paris that we went to for delicious hot cocoa is also in NYC.

The hot cocoa is just as delicious and expensive as the ones we had in Paris.

Angelina hot cocoa

Recommendations: It is nice to know that we can get the famous Angelina hot cocoa near home without going to Paris. But now that it is so close, we might not go that often. You should check out their pastries.

NYC Eleven Madison Park

Robert and Tiffany celebrated their one-year wedding anniversary that coincided with Tiffany's work trip to NYC with Etsy. They invited us to join them at Eleven Madison Park, a Three-Michelin-star restaurant, for their special occasion, and this was to be our Christmas gift from them.

Happy 1st anniversary to Rob and Tiff

We were also very interested in comparing with Geranium, another Three-Michelin-star restaurant in Copenhagen that we went to in September. Geranium was the 2022 Best Restaurant in the World, and Eleven Madison Park held the 2017 Best Restaurant in the World. 

In 2021, Eleven Madison Park stopped serving meat and became a vegan restaurant. Similarly, Geranium has stopped serving meat but is not completely vegan, as it still has fish and seafood on its menu.

We ordered the non-alcoholic pairing (one order shared per couple) for a full comparison with Geranium.

RADISH

November 2023 Menu at Eleven Madison Park

CARROT TARTARE with rye, mustard, and horseradish

SQUASH smoked with thai chili and lemon grass

SHIITAKE MUSHROOM with short grain rice and Yuzu Kosho

The non-alcoholic pairing at Eleven Madison Park uses the same wine grapes so that it tastes more like white and red wine than juice. This was different from Geranium's non-alcoholic pairing, as theirs was a vegetable and juice pairing. This was nice, as it makes mom feel very sophisticated.

The food was excellent, and the carrot tartare that was put through the grinder at the table was an interesting activity. However, because we have to add the seasoning to the carrot ourselves, it was hard to figure out if we achieved the chef's vision for this dish.

The dessert, specifically the grape in variation, was really amazing, and the Name that Milk game to conclude the meal was really fun. It was to note that Tiffany was the only one at our table to have guessed all the chocolate flavors perfectly. 

Comparison with Geranium:

Both restaurants were excellent and deserving of their Three-Michelin stars.

However we feel that Geranium had a better edge in the artful display of the food, and the service was slightly better.

The taste of the appetizers and main courses was more creative at Geranium, but the dessert at Eleven Madison Park was more exceptional.

In the end, we are grateful to have experienced two Three-Michelin star restaurants in one single year.

Many thanks to Rob and Tiff for including us in their anniversary celebration at Eleven Madison Park.