Cafe Juanita

Superb - the simple name belies their innovative exquisite cuisine. Choose between omnivore, pesceterian, or vegan prix fixe menu (someone called it "prefix" on here - had to laugh) of 8 courses with optional wine pairings. Every course knocked it out of the park - taste, textures, and presentation. We were all very satisfied after 8 courses, big smiles on our faces. An incredible meal.

They offer a prefix menu, but they give you choices to accommodate diet restrictions. I am a meat eater, so the choice along those lines was geared to that preference. As such, every dish was delicious, presented well, and wonderfully flavorful. I can't wait to go back and see what the next prefix menu offers! I also appreciate that they have a reasonable corkage fee ($35), given the class of restaurant they are. It allows me to share my wonderful wine cellar with my friends even when we're out at dinner.

Exceptional restaurant in Kirkland! You are able to choose from 3 different tasting menus: omnivore, pescatarian, and vegan/vegetarian. I decided to go with pescatarian and the seafood was delightful. Fresh and flavorful. We also opted into a supplementary dish with freshly shaven white truffle. It is worth the price to get that truffle! The wines are from local wineries in the area and did not disappoint. If you get the chance please make a reservation and try Cafe Juanita out!

As a fine dining experience our meal was very good indeed, but not mind-blowing. We had the Omnivore tasting menu plus the "supplemental" A5 Miyazaki Wagyu steak shared with the table. We did not have the wine pairings, but shared a bottle of champagne and a bottle of a decent super-Tuscan red. The menu included some very innovative ingredients and creative dishes, beautifully plated, but with occasionally inconsistent or clumsy preparation. Service was very good, as would be expected at this level of dining. The amuse bouche Pappa al Pomodoro stood out for delivering a great punch of flavor, but the accompanying summer melon with Parmigiano-Reggiano was surprisingly bland. The Cruda Misti was very good, but again not amazing, consisting of three components. I liked the sea urchin best. Hokkaido Sea Urchin, chili fermented butter, pumpernickel, Hokkaido Sea scallop, toasted horseradish Yellowtail cruda, avocado, passionfruit, brown butter citronette Sweet corn sformato, chanterelles, cipollini, huckleberries showed great elegance and sophistication, very nice indeed. The Risotto Verde, with basil-fed escargot was well made but the flavor surprisingly bland and underseasoned, with the snails not really adding much except a different texture. The Iberico de Bellota with cipollini crema, pickled cherries, broccolini etc. The pork itself had very good flavor, but the cook was extremely inconsistent across the four servings. One plate was cooked to medium, one to medium rare, and two others to rare with barely warm red center. This issue was addressed with our server, but it was a disappointment. The star of the show was the 5.5 ounce A5 Miyazaki Wagyu New York steak with Jade beans and chanterelles. It was cooked perfectly to medium-rare, and very flavorful. Our dessert choice was the Bittersweet chocolate tortino, Reishi- milk chocolate mousse, Black truffle, olive oil chiffon, Laudemio, smoked Maldon sea salt (see photo). Both the dense chocolate tort and the chocolate mousse were very good, and the chocolate brittle with smoked sea salt was excellent. But the beautiful perfume that I was expecting from the shaved black truffle resting on top of the mousse was surprisingly absent; it was almost odorless -- another disappointment. Clearly Cafe Juanita is in the top echelon of fine dining establishments in this area. Judged against this very high standard, I would rate our dining experience as a solid "B" overall.