Madoka restaurant

Alvin Binuya? What’s it to ya? Lemme tell ya.

restaurant homepage: www.madokaonbainbridge.com

A generation ago — in restaurant years — so-called „fusion cuisine“ was sweeping the nation and Alvin Binuya was a Vashon Island boy-done-good, standing at the forefront of that multicultural movement in Seattle. As executive chef of Ponti Seafood Grill, Binuya leaned directly into the cutting edge, stocking his pantry with Asian ingredients, his fridge with freshest seafood and his menu with memorable dishes like Thai curry penne with tomato chutney — still a best-seller 15 years after Seattle first tasted it.

Binuya eventually moved from Ponti to its sister-restaurant, Axis, where he catered to a boozy Belltown crowd for the better part of a decade before leaving last spring; Axis closed its doors soon thereafter. Tired of the big-city restaurant rat race and in need of a creative jump-start, he left town to find his bliss, and he’s found it at Madoka on Bainbridge Island.

In partnership with general manager and Bainbridge Islander Jose Gonzales — as genial a front-of-the-houseman as a diner could hope to meet — Binuya has cooked up a Pan-Pacific restaurant tucked away on a quiet street in downtown Winslow, a hearty walk from the ferry landing. Madoka, open since October, means „perfect circle“ in Japanese and it’s an apt translation for a place that embraces all that makes a restaurant great: fabulous food, a relaxed mood and a warm welcoming attitude.

 Thanks to its small bar (where signature cocktails are crafted with care), its loft lounge (offering second-story dining), serenely elegant appointments (which extend beyond the décor to the Japanese tea service) and a staff that knows exactly what to do and how to do it, Madoka has gained an Island following. But it deserves a wider audience. A Seattle audience. It would be worth buying a ferry pass just to become a regular here.

Binuya’s brief menu promotes wild seafood, naturally raised meats and poultry, and seasonal produce. Drawing from a pan-Asian palette, he features ahi poke ($10) with wasabi-cucumber granite — ruby raw tuna tossed with seaweed, playing „dip“ to housemade sesame- seeded tuille „chips.“ Penn Cove mussels are gently steamed with green curry, coconut milk and basil ($9), while crispy eggplant-stuffed wontons arrive with a mix of sake and Chinese black vinegar ($7).

Thai red curry lends voltage to a swoony seafood risotto with Gulf prawns and ivory-hued king salmon ($19). And sake adds a salty-sweetness to Oregon lamb shank, a bounteous braise sauced with a reduction of veal stock, soy and ginger, garnished with lemony daubs of scallion gremolata ($21).

While the engaging flavors of Thailand, Japan and China are often evoked at Madoka, Binuya frequently delves into the Latin larder to accentuate the positive.

Witness the chipotle-butter bathing „BBQ“ Gulf prawns. Grab some bread and swipe. And roasted tomatillos add a bit of „tart“ to the kicky salsa that accompanies folds of American Kobe beef in a quesadilla. Chipotle crème fraiche and ginger-chile pesto are a daring dippity-duo for Alaskan weathervane scallops and their accompanying parsnip fritters. And jalapeños stoke the collard greens paired with a marvelous mash of honeyed sweet potatoes: sides for a superb applewood-smoked Kurobuta pork chop that (oink, oink!) actually tastes like pork.

Jalapeños also mingle with mango to season a warm Dungeness crab salad ($12), though calling this delicious crab cake and its accompaniments (pickled beets, sweet onion, a handful of greens) a „salad“ is missing the point: that elegant crab cake itself.

If I had to choose a favorite dish here, it might be the smoky-flavored duck breast whose „jus“ takes sweet and heat from sour cherries and cracked pepper ($24).

You may beg to differ had you tried fresh Alaskan halibut, moist and memorable with its pumpkin-seed and coriander crust, vivid hit of Thai curry and bed of sautéed „ratatouille,“ the vegetables still crisp and defined.

For dessert, you can’t go wrong with a lovely Meyer lemon curd tart, or such sweet sensations as pastry-chef Catherine Lofgren’s dark- and white-chocolate toffee terrine and Callebaut chocolate roulade.

Forced to complain about something, I’d note that a trio of Kumamotos were badly shucked, with tiny bits of shell invading the vodka-crème fraiche and paddlefish caviar that topped (and obliterated the flavor of) those petite oysters ($8). That the bread should be offered without the preamble „Would you like bread and butter?“ And that the silken slabs of pork belly adobo available during happy hour deserve a star billing at dinner — or lunch. Which, by the way, made its debut just this week. Giving destination diners yet another reason to consider buying that ferry pass.

Source: seattletimes.com