If you are ever here, eat there #20: Olympia

The Olympic Peninsula, across Puget Sound from from Seattle, Washingon, is largely covered by the densely wooded Olympic National Park. Mount Olympus is the volacano at its heart and it is dotted with lakes and ringed by beaches and dramatic "sea stacks". It's a wonderful place for hiking, viewing wildlife and taking in the majestic scenery. We weren't too lucky with the weather (more cloud than sun), but manged to get some good views of the snow-topped mountain peaks and even spotted some deer.

The towns are generally small and not particularly interesting (especially Forks, which is depressing enough to drive any girl into the arms of a shiny vampire), and gastronomically speaking we had not had much luck in our search for good, unpretentious but tasty North Western cooking. Especially disappointing was that we arrived outside crab season and, although we passed a few kilometres from Dungeness Bay, could not sample the Dungeness crab. Our last stop on the peninsula was Olympia, state capital of Washington. It gave us a pleasant few hours amongst the historic buildings and a stroll along the waterfront in the drizzle, but the highlight was dinner at the Iron Rabbit, across the bridge from the downtown area.

The kitchen is open and takes up one side of the restaurant, separated by a wooden bar which is topped by a statue of the iron rabbit itself. The atmosphere is comfortable and informal, but it's clear that they take their food seriously here. It was not a very busy night, but there were enough tables of couples and families to give a pleasant buzz. We were seated in a booth and served promptly by a friendly and efficient waitress.

The apple cider (at home we would call it cloudy apple juice) was sweet, with a slightly tart edge - very refreshing. The menu was not too big (usually a good sign) and we settled on 2 pasta dishes, Salmon Alfredo and Pork Bolognaise, and the Chicken Cordon Who, a variation on the chicken cordon bleu theme. The salmon was wonderful: rich and creamy, a splash of Scotch whisky in the cream sauce lifting the flavour of the smoked sockeye salmon beautifully. The pasta was perfectly cooked and the bolognaise was also super. Both pasta dishes came with bread (handy for catching the last of the sauce, although probably a bit of a break from the italian tradition). There was a little more sauce than you would typically find on pasta in Italy, but it tasted so good that I'm sure even the purists would forgive this. The chicken was sensational. It's pan-seared with prosciutto and red onions, topped with a gorgonzola mustard cream sauce and served on garlic mashed potato. The flavours worked exceptionally well together and were perfectly balanced. The menu also includes the American cuisine staples of salads, sandwiches and burgers, as well as steak, some interesting sounding prawn dishes and a few veggie options. The restaurant's own description of their food  "a fresh look at old classics ... fine dining fare without the pretence" is spot on. Prices are reasonable and we would have loved to have tried everything.

The Iron Rabbit is at 2103 Harrison Avenue, NW Olympia, WA, Phone:360-956-3661