wild ginger, artisanal table

This weekend, with all the moving, we ended up just walking to the Bravern twice for dinner for a close meal.

First night, we went to Wild Ginger, which I had been to in Seattle a few years back and remember thinking it was overpriced Asian food. Well we went to their new location in Bellevue, and it being a Fri night, they told us there was an hour and a half wait, but luckily 2 seats @ the bar opened up when we got there so we got seated right away. Well, I have to admit I was much more impressed this time and will definitely go back. We had a few diff satays - lamb, scallops, zucchini, mushrooms (all delicious) and then we got the 5 oz portions of roast duck and green curry chicken. Everything was so good and I think the 5 oz portions were a great idea so we could try more of different dishes b/t the 2 of us.

Sat night, we had originally wanted to go to John Howie Steak and we thought we'd arrive late enough to get a table, but I guess it was another busy night @ the Bravern and they told us it'd be something like an hour wait. So we headed next door to Artisanal Table, an Italian pizza/pasta place. We got cold grilled vegetables and olives for starters, and LB ordered the lamb papardelle bolognese while I ordered a Salumi pizza w/ coppa. The bolognese was delicious but really small for the price. The veggies were good though soaked in oil, and the pizza was just way too oily. There was a slight mixup when my order came I guess they thought I got the plain salumi (no pizza) so they came back a bit later w/ the pizza. And after that they apologized a million times, took the pizza off, and took 20% off our bill! Well I have to say that is great service, I didn't even care that they had the order wrong in the first place, the food still came out pretty fast. It is one of the few times I would come back just b/c I felt the service was top notch, and even though the pizza was too oily, I did enjoy everything else and since we were sitting in front of the cold antipasti bar, I will have to try the rest the next time we come :)