Last month, the New York Times Dining & Wine section began a series called "Coast to Coast: Restaurants That Count." #9 on the list is Seattle's Tilth, of which dining critic Frank Bruni writes:

Did I let in a draft? Should I take off my shoes?

As I stepped into Tilth, I felt as if I were dropping by somebody’s home, not entering a restaurant.

There’s no proper vestibule, no host stand. And the tables — for only 40 diners — are squished together in two downstairs rooms of a Craftsman-style bungalow with a humble fireplace in which squat, fat candles flicker.

That’s a big part of what distinguishes and recommends this sweet, sweet restaurant, but Tilth, whose name refers to tilled earth, also boasts an organic certification — from the exacting Oregon Tilth association.

That doesn’t mean that everything Tilth serves is organic, because wild fish and foraged mushrooms, for example, aren’t eligible for such designation. But the restaurant is consistently finicky about its suppliers, and that was abundantly clear in meaty, juicy, snowy slices of albacore tuna, pan-seared, oil-glossed and served with celery root in various forms: a purée, crisp wedges like French fries.

Above right photograph by Stuart Islett. Visit the Tilth Blog.