Doof Out
Hitchcock restaurant was on the main street of Bainbridge Island, just right off the ferry terminal.
The restaurant has been around for almost 4 years, and the deli was added about 2 years ago.
The little place was romantic and lively at the same time.
Chef Brendan McGill was voted as one of the best new chefs in 2013, and his food most definitely live up to the reputation.
All the ingredients used in the restaurant were locally grown and harvested, and I could taste that freshness in our food.
For the two of us, we received different plates for 4 out of our 6 courses, and that was just plain fun!
We got to try so many more dishes and they were amazing!
We started with locally farmed oysters as our first course.
L: duck parfait, R top: cured pork belly, R bottom: oysters
They were super fresh.
We each had one garnished with hot sauce, onion vinaigrette and most creative of the bunch, sweet pickled water melon rind.
Both the hot sauce and vinaigrette tasted great, strong and aromatic, but they were overpowering the oysters for our taste.
The water melon rind was fantastic.
It was very refreshing; the rinds lifted the oyster flavors and gave a different twist to the texture.
Then, we had our different second course: duck parfait and cured pork belly.
The duck parfait was out of this world!
It was smooth and flavorful.
Little shaved truffle and sea salt on top, it made the duck parfait even more decadent.
The toast for the duck was toasted perfectly with crisp on the crust and chewy inside.
This was the first time I ever had any food resembling a savory ice cream!
The pork belly flavor was great; we did prefer more meaty pork belly, and this one had too much fat in our opinion.
I could see pork belly connoisseur would really enjoy this.
The tartness and bitterness of the radicchio salad that accompanied the pork belly helped cut the fattiness away.
Our third course was clams.
They were once again amazingly fresh.
Came with a cream sauce with smoked bacon bits, celery and potatoes, the clams were flavorful.
The celery gave a surprising texture to the dish, and helped cut through the creamy sauce, giving the dish another flavor dimension that was unexpected.
The fourth course was a squash soup with leek oil and creme fraiche.
The soup was smooth, sweet, a little on the salty side; however, the leek oil was delicious.
We then were treated with a grapefruit palate cleanser: sweet, bitter, slight tartness, creamy and refreshing.
A little bit of salt was added onto the palate cleanser–made us experienced all tastes on our tongue!
DH and I had different fifth course, a duck breast and a pork chop.
They were some of the most superbly done meats I had.
The duck breast was cooked perfectly rare with a lovely crisp skin.
It was lightly flavor to taste the freshness of the duck meat.
Accompanied by well cooked rutabaga and farro on the side, and little extra duck mousse, it was excellent.
The pork was cooked perfectly pink and moist.
Normally, I refused to order pork in Western restaurants because they were most often too tough and dry.
I would have this pork every meal if I could!
The meat was lightly flavored again, showcasing the quality pork, crisp on the skin and just melted in the mouth.
There were sweet apples on the side with spicy kimchi relish; all the flavors played so well together, this dish was another step ahead of the duck!
Then, we had cheese and desserts.
L: chocolate terrine, R top: sheep hard cheese and soft goat cheese, R bottom: caramel crème brulee with ginger cookie
If we counted them separately, we technically had seven courses.
A wonderful hard sheep cheese which was nutty and smoky, and a soft fermented goat cheese, it was perfect for DH and me.
I generally liked the mild hard cheeses, and DH enjoyed the stinkier soft cheeses — we did not have to fight.
Desserts were yummy.
I am a chocoholic, and would always be partial to chocolate dessert.
I loved the chocolate terrine with saffron cream and white chocolate pistachio brittle.
It was smooth and very much strong dark chocolate; it was roasty, creamy and not very sweet at all.
The crunchy white chocolate pistachio brittle was wonderful with contrasting texture to the smoothness of the terrine, and hint of saltiness.
The addition of saffron was beautiful and exotic.
Normally I was not crazy about crème brulee, but this caramel crème brulee was very good.
It was creamy and smooth as expected but without the heaviness of cream; instead it was eggy, and I dared use the word “light” on a crème brulee.
It was fantastically done with a delicious piece of ginger cookie.
I will most definitely go back to eat at Hitchcock again even it means the extra money and time for the ferry ride!
doofniks 