Kricket Club - Review - Ravenna/Roosevelt - Seattle - The Infatuation

"Kricket Club is one of the few upscale Indian restaurants in Seattle. With takes on Mumbai street food, steamy goat biryani sliced open tableside, and a dark dining room with palpable night-out potential, all signs point to greatness with a side of roti. But ultimately, this isn't somewhere you should go out of your way for. There are better Indian restaurants in town at a lower price tag, more worthwhile spots for an exciting dinner, and overall tastier meals elsewhere in Ravenna. The entire menu is said to be “family-style,” but we’ve only found that to be reasonable if you’re a family of one or two. In fact, Kricket Club’s portions are so delicate that it makes the concept of sharing difficult for the first time since preschool, and this is especially the case for the appetizers. Vada pao sliders come in pairs, three miniature bao are stuffed with just a few pieces of masala-spiced potatoes, and madras coffee-soaked tuna tartare yields only a couple of spoonfuls of fish. It prompts you to order more food for the table, but that’s when your meal starts to add up quickly—a solitary order of four small tandoori-rubbed chicken wingettes will run you $21. photo credit: Amber Fouts We understand that this is a fine-dining restaurant. Not to mention that Meesha, Kricket Club’s sister spot in Fremont, has similar pricing. But multiple plates seem to prioritize heat over flavor, some bread items are stale, and the cocktails can be unpleasant (like a cumin-heavy mocktail, or a Jameson drink packed with bitter ginger and a lack of sweetness). For a meal that could easily cost $100 per person, there shouldn’t be so many misses. There are actually some hits on this menu, though, but they’re few and far between. We thoroughly enjoy the chicken ruby, a pot of smoky stewed tomatoes that you can spoon on ghee-glistened basmati rice. When the homemade buns on the vada pao are fresh, they hold in beetroot patty sliders we’d snack on once a week. And the curried soup shooter you receive at the beginning of the meal is soothing, coconutty, and by far the best thing here. Even if you’re looking for the hyper-specific scenario where you need a date night spot in Ravenna and spending money is the least of your concerns, we’d still send you to Frank’s or Ebb & Co. At least at those two places, a single drumette won’t set you back a fiver. Food Rundown Soup Before the meal begins, you’re handed a complimentary amuse bouche involving a small shooter of thick soup. We’ve slurped a pumpkin-based one in the autumn and split pea in the spring, and they’re consistently fantastic. If Kricket Club offered these silky, coconutty soups in a big bowl, we’d happily pay for them. We just don’t love the goat cheese-topped pani puri that comes on the side since it’s extremely soggy. Vada Pao When both the beetroot patty and slider bun are fresh, the vada pao with a green chutney and ghati masala is a good way to kick things off. Masala Bao Stuffing split bao with potatoes and a sticky tamarind sauce is a very good idea, and we commend the tang, spice, and softness of it all. We just wish that there was more stuffed inside the bread, and that the “kohlrabi slaw” wasn’t just a pile of raw vegetable strips. Chicken Angara This is a platter of delicious chicken wings that get coated in a sweet-spicy tandoori rub, topped with pickled red onion, and sit in a modest swipe of sriracha mayo. They’re good, but you only get four of them for $21. If you’re seated in a group of seven, are you going to spend $42 on two orders so that every person can sample a wing and then fight over the last one? The answer is no. Chura Tartare The small, $20 portion of fish is diced very finely, then gets tossed in a creamy madras coffee froth with crisp taro slices. There isn’t enough acidity to keep us wanting more. Gosht Dum Biryani There’s more heat than flavor in this miniature Dutch oven of saffron basmati rice and spicy stewed goat topped with a shell of wheat dough. However, the meat has terrific tenderness, and we’re fans of the rice on the bottom soaked in braising liquid. Use the accompanying raita to cool it all down. photo credit: Amber Fouts Chicken Ruby The chicken ruby is our favorite entree here. There’s this buttery, smoky tomato sauce that keeps each chunk of chicken juicy while simultaneously jazzing up each spoonful of ghee rice on your plate. If you can only choose one large plate, this is it. Kerala Macchi This $26 filet of salmon is fine but forgettable. The fish comes rubbed with a spice mixture and sits next to a coconut curry sauce and exactly two brussels sprouts. Missi Roti Note that everything from Kricket Club’s “Bread Bar” is priced per piece, and each piece is really small. While it’s tasty swiped in sauce from the chicken ruby, this roti made from chickpea flour is pretty tough. Cheese Kulcha We’re not impressed with this fermented bread, filled with room-temperature yellow cheddar that perhaps once had a melty heyday, but is too congealed and oily by the time it hits the table. The bright tomato chutney that comes with it is good, but doesn't do much to help. photo credit: Amber Fouts" - Aimee Rizzo