Pacific Northwest Restaurants
Tilth
- Critic's rating
- LAT
Tilth is an organic restaurant in a two-story Craftsman house in the Wallingford neighborhood just west of the University of Washington. The tiny woman with the yard-long dark braid down her back is chef-owner Maria Hines, formerly chef at Earth & Ocean in Seattle's W Hotel, who has returned to her roots at Tilth.
Hines has a subtle touch in dishes such as a salad of pale quartered beets with emerald arugula and blue cheese or dark, velvety, house-cured prosciutto with a salad of miner's lettuce and foraged wood violet leaves. A baked Granny Smith apple stuffed with fresh Dungeness crab meat is bound with a little crème fraîche to delicious effect. I can order normal or tasting portions, so I can try more dishes, such as the earthy beef tongue ragù with heirloom beans, horseradish and shallots.
wherever it appears.