Eat Here. Bill Gates Does.

The Seattle restaurant scene continues to impress me. Two weeks ago, I was looking for a nice spot to have dinner with my work team from Dalberg. It needed to be laid back enough to facilitate bonding, but cool enough to match my colleagues' sophisticated east coast tastes. . . .

As luck would have it (and with a lot of help from Yelp), we found a gem of a place in the heart of Belltown, Restaurant Zoe. It's been around for a while, and it has all the understated charm of a restaurant known among locals as a delicious secret. Time to share the news.

Two dishes in particular stood out here:

One, the ricotta gnudi. They're light and fluffy and served with this tart and tangy red onion puree. It's like eating a cheese cloud sprinkled with truffles. Make sure you order them.

Second, the banana macadamia cake (see photo!). The cake itself is fine, an upscale take on banana nut bread. But the sides on this one really shine. It's served with this macadamia toffee, which is crunchy and salty. Also, a milk chocolate semifreddo, which is amazing. I could have easily eaten an entire pint of that on it's own.

By the way, the dessert was so delicious it prompted me to learn what a semifreddo actually is. The secret? Heavy whipping cream is added to ice cream and turned into a semi frozen delight. Not the healthiest thing in the world, but the smallish serving size makes it ok, right?

Anyway, Zoe was a fantastic find and made for a great dinner. I'm not alone in that assessment, either. Just ask other usual diners, like Bill and Melinda Gates, who were eating here that evening too.

Restaurant Zoe
2137 2nd Avenue
Seattle, WA
206.256.2060