Matia Kitchen
Restaurant · San Juan County ·
Inventive tasting menus with local ingredients, superb bread
Inventive tasting menus with local ingredients, superb bread
"For a farm-to-table tasting menu spot on a remote island, this firehall-turned-restaurant is pretty damn unpretentious. Within Matia’s sunlight-stained dining room, you’ll encounter a six- or ten-course meal that kicks off with hors d'oeuvres we’d strategically hawk at a high-end wedding—and concludes with a lavender frond-garnished boule of sourdough to bring home. There’s ingenuity behind pairing salsa macha-roasted peaches with pork coppa, or tomato custard with ikura and hazelnuts, or dehydrated corn with buttermilk sorbet and fresh blueberries. Order some wine, let it ride, and worry about the steep bill tomorrow. RESERVE A TABLE WITH RESERVE A TABLE Food Rundown Potato Mochi, Gribiche, Salted Stems It is what it sounds like—our friendly neighborhood root vegetable treated to resemble glutinous rice flour. There’s a crisp surface that gives way to tacky, potato-y gold, all smeared with gribiche and a sharp bite from raw herbs. photo credit: Aimee Rizzo Tomato Custard Tart, Marigold, Radish, Ikura, Hazelnut If you’re uninitiated to the majesty of late-summer tomatoes and hazelnuts as a pair, this tangy tart is required learning. Ikura bridges the gap with a welcome briny pop. photo credit: Aimee Rizzo Matia Sourdough, Cultured Butter, Summer Marmalade This is the only “unlimited” course during a Matia tasting, and thank goodness. Behold, everything bread should be, swiped through salt-sprinkled butter and a marmalade that tastes like a suckerpunch of stewed peach. If you do the 10-course menu, they’ll give you a whole loaf to bring home. photo credit: Aimee Rizzo Steelhead, Chamomile Braised Mushrooms, New Potatoes, XO Miso-glazed salmon gets seared to a perfect medium rare, and is served alongside yellow and purple potatoes that taste like old fashioned donuts and fried peanuts, respectively. Snippets of napa kimchi zap acidic lighting bolts through everything they touch, and a lickable butter sauce brings it all together. This is a flawless plate of food. photo credit: Aimee Rizzo Pork Coppa, Summer Squash, Stone Fruit, Salsa Macha Cured and slow-cooked to the point where it’s like eating large-format bacon, the slab is a magnificent checkerboard of rendered fat and broken-down lean parts. Supported by squash puree, zucchini cucumber ribbons, and salsa macha-kicked peaches, you can’t do much better. photo credit: Aimee Rizzo Sweet Corn, Blueberry, Buttermilk, Thyme This pile of summer stuff is at that ideal intersection of savory and sweet. You’ve got corn mousse, raw blueberries, thyme from a server’s personal garden (we love this flex), dehydrated corn crumble, and a quenelle of lush buttermilk sorbet on top. photo credit: Aimee Rizzo" - Aimee Rizzo
"Avery Adams of Matia Kitchen (Eastsound, Orcas Island), vying for Best Chef: Northwest and Pacific." - Meg van Huygen
"Located in Eastsound on Orcas Island, Matia Kitchen is a destination restaurant whose chef Avery Adams is a Best Chef nominee; Matia had been a semifinalist for Best New Restaurant in 2022, but after some drama with the owners Adams and general manager Drew Downing closed the restaurant and re-opened it in a new location." - Harry Cheadle
"After some business-related drama that led Matia to shut down and reopen in a new Eastsound location, it’s back to being one of the region’s big destination restaurants. The menu changes daily, but expect delights like tomato custard tart topped with cured salmon roe or sourdough pancakes with smoked egg yolk jam and roasted beets." - Zoe Baillargeon
"I followed Matia Kitchen and Bar's first incarnation as a brief but incredibly eventful restaurant: it opened in 2021, was widely praised by food critics, earned a mention in the New York Times, and was longlisted for a James Beard Foundation Award in 2022, only to suddenly close this January after a dispute between the restaurant's owners and chef Avery Adams and general manager Drew Downing. Now Adams and Downing are reopening Matia under new ownership in a new Eastsound location, and the new site is already accepting reservations." - Harry Cheadle