Poppy

In 2012, Seattle Magazine named Poppy Seattle’s best Northwest cuisine restaurant, a well-deserved accolade for this inventive dining mecca in the Capitol Hill neighborhood. Created by chef Jerry Traunfeld (formerly of the equally acclaimed Herbfarm restaurant in Woodinville), Poppy presents a fresh take on the Indian thali, a compartmentalized platter holding various dishes with many different tastes. Traunfeld uses local seasonal products to create his daily thalis. You might order one that features crisp-skin king salmon with pinot noir-fennel sauce as a main dish, complemented by carrot-lemon soup with dukkah; cucumber, black lentil and sumac salad; peppermint snap peas; and fennel and shiso kimchi. The medley of textures, herbs and spices is surprising and satisfying.