Amaro Bistro: A suburban offshoot of venerable IL Bistro
The cioppino at Amaro Bistro features a zesty tomato broth stocked with clams, mussels, bits of salmon and squid, and a Dungeness crab quarter. (Greg Gilbert/The Seattle Times)
The sister restaurant of Seattle stalwart Il Bistro brings polished service and familiar Italian fare to the Eastside.
By Providence Cicero
Special to The Seattle Times
“Chances are good that many who proposed decades ago over rack of lamb at 40-year-old Pike Place Market mainstay Il Bistro, or assuaged a broken heart at the bar of that amber-lit grotto, are now raising kids in the suburbs, maybe even welcoming grandkids. Amaro Bistro, the Eastside sister spot, is for them.
You’ll find this lively Italian restaurant and bar anchoring a corner of Six Oaks, a new residential/retail complex in Bothell, where a building boom is under way. Amaro’s owner is Bothell resident Nick Wiltz, who 10 years ago bought Il Bistro.
Amaro’s atmosphere couldn’t be more different from its Seattle sibling. It’s bright and boisterous with windows in both bar and dining room that can fold open to connect with planned sidewalk seating. The waiters wear neckties and vests (about half are from Il Bistro; most are as professional as they look), but the atmosphere is informal. A small chef’s counter abuts the open kitchen. No cloths cover the dark-stained oak tables. Brand logos of the namesake Italian spirit decorate the walls; prominent among them is Amaro Montenegro, a component of the excellent house negroni.
Amaro’s dinner menu mimics Il Bistro’s almost exactly. Executive chef Nathan Luoma cooked for nearly a decade at Il Bistro, time enough to have mastered the signature dishes: cioppino, lasagna, gnocchi and, of course, rack of lamb. With a few cavils, I enjoyed them all.
Carving the six-rib rack of lamb, presented in two pieces, was awkward work with a dull knife. One side was a little more medium, the other a little more rare; together they averaged out to the medium-rare I would have requested, had I been asked. If $42 for the dish strikes you as downtown pricing, consider that it’s a princely portion, adequate for two, accompanied by haricots verts and carrots (severely undercooked) and savory wedges of polenta with a golden brown Parmesan cheese crust that make ideal sponges for the sauce — marinara thinned with a red wine reduction.
Gorgeous grilled king salmon was also generously sized and divided in two, one piece rare, the other rarer. My advice: Make sure you specify the degree of doneness you prefer. A touch of lemon on the fish balanced the luxuriousness of its companions: thyme-flecked melted leeks and a potato gratin.
A mirror positioned above the kitchen pass through, cooking-school-style, reflects plates waiting for pickup. Cioppino grabs attention. A Dungeness crab quarter rises from a zesty tomato broth stocked with clams, mussels, bits of salmon, and rings and tiny tentacles of squid.
Lasagna is another head-turner, a stately stack of noodles layered with herbed ricotta and mozzarella, under a tsunami of lusty red sauce thick with ground veal and lamb. Light, lovely gnocchi were also flooded with tomato-basil sauce…”