Favorite Restaurants: A Serious Splurge

Brasa 

If you're the type who'd put a pig in a blender and drink it, you'll be building a shrine to Tamara Murphy, whose treatment of all things porcine borders on the transcendent. Start with a melting braised guanciale (cured jowl), served slumped over black lentils and crowned with a poached quail egg. Order a half-portion of the paprika-spiked Portuguese pig—a brothy mix of chorizo, pulled pork, clams, and potato—and you might be able to arrange a few spoonfuls of pillowy goat-cheese gnocchi in between. Brasa may not be new, but with an ever-changing menu, inventive takes on local grub (creamed nettles, anyone?), and a palate peppered with smoky Iberian flavors, the experience is always fresh. And who doesn't like a restaurant where half the servers look like Sinead O'Connor? JESS THOMSON

Serves: dinner. 2107 Third Ave., 728-4220. BELLTOWNbrasa.com

Crush 

I never fully understood Crush's reputation as the place to challenge your credit card to a game of chicken—until a few weeks ago. It was shortly after my most recent meal at the renovated Victorian pad on Madison. Our feast had included ethereal hand-rolled potato gnocchi with gruyère cream, chanterelles, poached egg, and truffle oil; grilled Portuguese baby octopus served over medallions of Yukon potatoes and chorizo; and a Thanksgiving-inspired jidori chicken and truffle-mushroom stuffing with cognac sauce. I returned solo the following week, sat at the bar, and told myself I would only order a glass of wine and an app. The next thing I knew, the kitchen staff sent out complimentary tastings of parsnip flan with smoked salmon caviar and fresh fettuccine topped with lobster and bacon. After caving on another glass of vino, the menu delicately urged me to take another romp as well. The Crush experience swallowed me whole hog. I didn't want to leave. So this is how its patrons end up dropping so much dough! It all makes sense now. Credit card: you lose. JULIEN PERRY

Serves: dinner. 2319 E. Madison St., 302-7874. CAPITOL HILLchefjasonwilson.com

Restaurant Zoë

When a talented young chef starts up a second restaurant, his or her original, overshadowed by the buzz and attention lavished on the newcomer, risks becoming as enjoyable as a three-year-old with a baby sister. Quality often slips. Scott Staples' Zoë went through a bumpy patch after he opened Quinn's Pub last year, but it's back to its former brilliance. That's because chef-owner Staples has the touch with meat—the man can roast an octopus tentacle as surely as he can braise a short rib—as well as a gift for ideas that look improbable on paper but come to life on the palate. Celery-root risotto? Gently grassy, the root vegetable emerges as a creamy presence amid the grains of rice. Ricotta gnudi with orange marmalade and red-beet emulsion? Cotton-dense dumplings arranged on a magenta sauce, earthy sweetness and citrus in perfect balance. The wine list is stellar, the service composed to an un-Seattle-like degree, and the room is Belltown at its best, wide open and urbane, styley without being overdone. JONATHAN KAUFFMAN

Serves: dinner. 2137 Second Ave., 256-2060. BELLTOWNrestaurantzoe.com

Harvest Vine 

Sure, whippersnappers dealing in small plates dot the Seattle landscape like chicken pox now; but Señor Joseba Jimenez de Jimenez, a native of Spain's Basque country, has been at it his entire culinary life. His restaurant offers more than the mere word "tapas" can describe, but stops short of intimidation. Dishes like the confit-stuffed squid with apple and black rice defy a point of reference while echoing the inventiveness of the chef's home turf: The addition of a smoked sheep cheese would be the flourish of death for most chefs, but acts as a tangy foil for the differing sweet flavors of the dish. You'll never look at calamari the same way again. The artistic simplicity of the thin sliced-beet arrangement in Harvest Vine's popular ensalada de remolachas has been the topic of too many of my food conversations to count. Spanish staples act as touchstones in many dishes, as simple as braised chorizo and egg or as distinctive as brandade-stuffed piquillo peppers. The cellar bar boasts a sherry selection nonpareil in the city of Seattle, the better for drinking with such bold, layered flavors. MAGGIE SAVARINO DUTTON

Serves: dinner. 2701 E. Madison St., 320-9771. MADISON PARKharvestvine.com

Lark

This spendy hot spot is not so crowded as it once was, lucky for you. No wait in the vestibule; no fuss when you arrive sans reservations. If your budget-minded superego is cringing already, consider treating Lark like a bar, with infinitely better food. Your id will be grateful. Chef Johnathan Sundstrom's artful small plates offer riches tempered with earthy comfort. Especially after the recent hubbub, the foie gras terrine begs for a taste. A fat slice arrives, way too generous for one, its richness offset by tart, vanilla-seed-dotted kumquat marmalade. The wine list is stellar, the pours generous. Golden beet soup provides a lesson in flavor balancing, with the tuber's mineral flavor enhanced by a float of garlic butter. Heavy utensils and solid plates offer substantial tactile pleasure, as does the barn-like atmosphere and buttery lighting. The staff will be unobtrusive, gliding by as you feast. ADRIANA GRANT