How To Cook a Wolf

Every once in a while you are fortunate enough to stumble into a restaurant that makes you feel like you’re some special guest of honor. Even though, you’re actually a total tourist who showed up to a super hip place with your parents 55min before closing…
What an insanely welcoming vibe. All of the servers were so kind and genuine. We really loved our experience here and the food was delish! The Mixologists made a wonderful cocktail for my mom who never drinks, but was having such a great time she decided to partake. Thank you so much for adding a memorable night to the first trip I’ve ever taken my parents on.

This place was really cool. Amazing service. Incredible food. The vibe and location of this place is super rad too. Great experience. Get the bucatini.

How to Cook a Wolfe has and insanely epic vibe and super cute servers! I walk in solo to a tall bartender who gives me a funny and goofy thumbs up and a funny face, belly up to the bar for an ice cold rose’. The music, 60’s soul is on the playlist with the chef singing at the top of his lungs –all of my favorite things!
I always thought Queen Anne was cool, but it just made the extra cool list because of this restaurant.
I wish I had a contact for the owner to let him know how great the food was especially the service. Super rad place!

Food is amazing. Everything we got was perfection, especially the beef tartare.
Generous wine pours and a very good list.
Good vibes, cute space.
Con: only 1 bathroom.
Service was excellent, in fact I would say too excellent. Really nice, maybe a touch too much, but I can’t really complain for overly nice.
Definitely pricey, and we went for a special occasion. It was totally worth it.
I’ll be back, even just for the beef tartare. I just can’t stop thinking about it.

Hands down one of the best dining experiences I have ever had. For one of the nicer restaurants in Seattle, prices are very reasonable and the atmosphere is great. The small building makes it the perfect date. Make sure you make reservations as it is always full. Totally worth it.

HTCAW Rocks!
Part of the Stowell restaurant empire HTCAW is a top notch neighborhood joint serving generous small plates in an Italian mode. Our most recent trip involved ordering some cold, bracing BC oysters, Hamachi crudo, a rich and flavorful pork belly dish and two family size pasta plates. All were excellent, although the gnocchi were a bit too dense for our taste. The bar and wine options are excellent. The place is small and bustling so be prepared to rub elbows and accept the ambient noise. Usually quite busy so reservations are a good thing. A definite go to place!

DOS: 2÷19÷2016
After a week of going back and forth between 2 and 3 stars, I ultimately went with my gut.
I had made reservations for 2 for a late dinner (9:00 pm) and couldn’t wait to finally try this place out. We arrived a bit early at 8:45 pm and decided it wouldn’t hurt to see if the table was open. Checked in with the hostess and was told the table would not be ready until 9:00, which was just fine. I let her know we would be back in 15 minutes. Before leaving the restaurant, a couple came in after us and said hello to one of the cooks that was a friend. The man told the chef it was his birthday and they were «just walking around the Queen Anne area.» Remember this moment, readers, we’ll get back to it later.
Fast forward to 9:00 pm — I check back with the waitress, letting her know we’re here and ready for dinner. She apologizes and says it’ll be a few more minutes. We’re reasonable people, it’s a small space, we’re not starving (yet). We’re okay. 2 seats open up at the bar and the hostess asks if we would like to take those seats while we wait. So we’re at the bar.
9:20 pm — By this time, I’m getting hungry so we order a half bottle of white wine (ha-​ha). One of the cook’s serves us 4 oysters-​on-​a-​half-​shell on the house. That was nice.
9:40 pm — Alright, I’m a patient person but it’s almost an hour after our reservation. I flag down the waitress, who had been coming by sparingly, and ask how much longer; we might just leave because we’re pretty hungry. She apologizes again.
9:45 — Finally, we are shown to our table. The icing on the cake was seeing the couple who arrived after us without a reservation, half way through their meal. Not cool.
We ordered the porchetta dish (5 stars!), sunchoke dish (4 stars), duck gnocchi (3.5 stars), and red wine ribs & polenta (4 stars). We also ordered one half bottle of red wine. Dinner was good. Had this review been based solely on the food, I probably would’ve given this Ethan Stowell establishment 5 stars. Meg (manager) and the staff were polite and apologetic BUT, I can bet there are tons of places out there that would have comped more than 4 tiny oysters for making a customer wait almost an hour for a table reservation. Despite the delicious food, having to fork over $ 175+ for this dinner experience left a bad taste in my mouth.

How To Cook A Wolf has easily become my favorite restaurant from Stowell. The experience and the food were both top notch and the proximity to home is the icing on the cake.
The small and romantic restaurant seats about 30 people in an upscale modern space. The bar seats about 10 and is your best bet if you don’t have a reservation.
The menu features standard Stowell fare for the mains including multiple pasta offerings, but for some reason these are better than at his other restaurants. The bucatini appears so basic, but delivers with a very rich buttery cream sauce. The gnocchi was perfectly cooked and had just enough extras to not make me feel like all I was eating was pasta. Don’t even get me started on the bread service — I would consider going in for a glass of wine and bread service alone. That roasted garlic butter and the marinated olives are amazing!
This restaurant is absolutely worth the trip to Upper Queen Anne! If you go, I highly recommend a reservation.

We didn’t get to eat a cooked wolf, but everything else we had was fantastic!
The wife and I came on a Thursday night for a 7PM reservation and had a delightful time from start to finish. How to Cook a Wolf is a *tiny* little restaurant. There’s room for a bar, immediately behind which is the kitchen, so you can watch food preparation throughout your meal. Across from the bar is a single line of tables against the opposite wall. There was a single waitress, but the hostess was performing double duty for most of the evening.
The walls and ceiling are made of planks of light stained curved wood which gives the restaurant a weighted airy atmosphere. That’s contradictory, but when you visit, you’ll see what I mean.
Food:
Polenta Fritters: Deep fried, but delicate. Could probably be served as desert if they put a bit more honey on them. Delicious.
Crispy Sunchoke: This was something totally new for us. The bits down at the roots of a sunflower. It tasted kind of like potatoes. Definitely interesting. We both enjoyed it.
Red Wine Short Ribs: Incredibly delicious and decadent. Superb! This was my wife’s dish, but I had to try some and was delighted.
Seared Scallops: My entrée. They were at least as good as the Short Ribs. I hated to trade away a scallop in exchange for my bite of short ribs. They were so good. Definitely the highlight of the evening for me.
We also had a chocolate brownie for desert which came with orange sherbet and was incredibly rich and a nice cap to our dining experience.
Service:
Fantastic. It was a team effort between our waitress, the hostess, and one of the folks who was usually behind the bar. Very attentive and friendly. Our waitress did an excellent job describing the menu, letting us know what to expect from each plate.
Price: minus our bottle of wine (a delicious Tuscany red) and our pre-​dinner cocktails (Prohibition Cider and a Mezcal-​based creation, both excellent), the bill for both of us was north of $ 100. How to Cook a Wolf is not an inexpensive restaurant, but neither is it one of the pricier places in Seattle. For the quality of the entire experience, we got fantastic value for our money.
We greatly enjoyed ourselves and both agreed we’d like to come back before long!

Hmm… Where to begin… We’ve lived in the area for quite sometime now. Around 3 – 4 years. Always have been eyeballing this «HTCAW» restaurant. One day my partner and I felt adventurous and lazy to make dinner. So we decided to try something new.
This restaurant does not open up until 5 o’clock on the dot. So, don’t show up too early. The smells… YUM! The aromas in this joint we’re delicious like you would want to just eat the air, or bottle it and bring it home.
We had the gnocchi, which was… ehhh… a little bland, and the meat sauce was also mehh. Our server was «ok» as well, I was getting a little peeved. We both had ordered a drink and yes while we had finished our food, we were just enjoying each others company and talking stories about our day. Yet it seemed like the waiter was trying to rush us out of the restaurant, he came over to talk to us every 4 – 5 minutes. So we were a little irritated with this.
Food = Ehh, Service = Ehh…
Still trying to find out which dish made the whole restaurant smell delicious.

went last week for an early b-​day dinner. place is small but wasn’t overly noisy even though almost every table was filled.
Service was a bit slow to start with but then was fine after initial greeting and drink order taken. Bottle of wine we got was very good and reasonably priced.
Everything we ate was great. Very well presented and flavorful. beef carpaccio, scallops, sashimi, pastas… all were awesome. Even got a bonus glass of white wine to pair with one dish.
anyway, if you want a nice night out with food to match then you can’t go wrong here!

The food here was way below the expectations set from these reviews. I don’t know if there is a new chef, or just a new menu, but at this price point it was one of the least satisfying meals I’ve had in Seattle. It almost felt like a farce when I paid the bill.
Of 4 dishes, I only enjoyed one (the sunchokes). The duck fat potato tastes like a McDonalds hashbrown covered with tartar sauce… Adding salmon roe does not compensate for that. The only flavor in the pasta dish came from it swimming in butter and brown sugar… And the desert was nearly inedible. I’m not sure I’ve ever discovered such a thing before. A pudding covered in broken candy pieces… it was like something a 5 year old would make in the kitchen.
Beautiful space, and I’m sure some dishes are great, but at this price you should expect customers to actually enjoy the majority of their food.

Great food, great service. One of the top 4or 5 restaurants in town … Lark, Tilikum Café, Matts. Manolin …
Sit at the bar. great view of the prep area.

My husband and I went for the first time yesterday for my Birthday. The food is incredible and every plate was delicious perfection! Our server was Phoebe and she was friendly and professional. The food is slightly on the expensive side but worth every penny. I highly recommend and will definitely be back!

My husband and I went here for Valentine’s Day and had their set menu. It was so. frickin. good.
They had oysters for an amuse bouche with lemon crushed ice — from that I could tell the meal was going to be stellar. Light and refreshing.
For apps I had the scallop crudo — first time I’d ever had it (I usually avoid raw seafood because of texture) and it was one of the best things I have ever eaten. So buttery. Get this if it’s on their menu. Seriously. You won’t regret it. My husband had beef carpaccio and we shared some pâté — both were delicious as well.
The only thing on the menu that I wasn’t in love with was the Dungeness crab pasta — a little bland, just so so.
But the rest of our meal was unreal — the hubs especially loved the braised beef cheek, and my halibut was cooked perfectly.
I’m looking forward to visiting again and giving their regular menu a try.

I would want to give it a 3.5 but I gave it a 3 because it wasn’t necessarily a 4. For how excited and how long I was anticipating checking out this place, I was pretty disappointed. Don’t get me wrong, it was still good. I mean it’s Ethan Stowell. BUT, I think I just had too high of expectations.
The interior was trendy, intimate, dimly lit and cozy. Pretty small space. I did love the wooden walls.
We ordered some bread and the garlic oil was really flavorful and tasty. I wasn’t too hungry but my friends ordered the beef Carpaccio and they said it was good.
Now for the mains — we were disappointed to find there are only 4 main dishes. Just 4 pasta dishes. I think this place is more of a tapas and drinks place because we didn’t have too many entrée choices. My friends bf wanted something with meat but they had no meat entrée options so he went with the spicy sausage pasta (which I already forgot the name to it starts with a P) which is also what I ordered.
It was good, with a good amount of spicy kick but nothing I would rave to my mother about. I’ve definitely had better pasta in Seattle. Also, the sausages were completely grounded like IN the sauce so don’t expect full sausage meat chunks.
My other 2 friends ordered the anchovy spaghetti and gnocchi. Omgness do not get the anchovy pasta. It was so dry and … anchovy-​ey haha! I know it’s anchovy spaghetti so obviously it’ll taste like anchovy but we thought it would still taste like SPAGHETTI with hints of anchovy flavor… NO. If I could best give it a comparison, it honestly tasted like sand sprinkled on top of some dry spaghetti noodles. The texture of the anchovy (powder I think?) was like sand, and then of course it was like sand because well– seafood/​ocean-​ness lol. My friend got a stomach ache after that night and we think its bc she doused her spaghetti in red pepper flakes to mask the flavor. We are Korean, so we know anchovy. We eat a lot of anchovy but this was literally just… anchovies grinded up and thrown on some noodles. It wasn’t disappointing just because «omg ew anchovies gross!» — no, it was disappointing because there was absolutely no creative yumminess to it.
the only really great thing was the gnocchi. We all wished we ordered that.
Service was good.
I may give it one more try, and I may not. Haven’t decided yet. But if I do give it one more chance, I dont think it’ll be for full on dinner. Maybe just for some drinks and appetizers.

Such a quaint little place! Charming ambiance, rustic décor, and so much deliciousness. We arrived on a Wednesday night and they were quite busy! We waited around 20 minutes before some seating became available at the bar, which was perfect because we got the front row view of their open kitchen!
It was hard to choose from the menu cause everything seemed so unique and tasty. We ended up ordering several plates to share. The bartender was very friendly and helpful. Great experience overall!

Ahh, I’ve been dying to try How To Cook A Wolf for the longest time but I wanted to save it for a special occasion. The opportunity finally presented itself so when I went there on a date by surprise, I squealed like a little girl w/​excitement & the experience was nothing short of amazing! I obsess every time when I see an open kitchen because I love being memorized by the cooks & their craft. The place is so quaint and rustic with a very homey feel. We got lucky coming in w/​o reservations and were seated at the bar w/​a front row view of the food prep. We ordered the geoduck, gnocchi, and bolognese ravioli. The geoduck was something to remember. It has such great flavors in the sauce and had little pearls of citrus atop that added a refreshing bite. Everything else was rich and super satisfying with unique flavors that I could live and die in. The only thing I was a little disappointed with was the portion size in comparison with the prices. All in all, the food was awesome & I’m super happy I got to check this off my list!

When I arrived, I was way too hungry and arrived to our reservations far too early. The small restaurant could not accommodate us any earlier. Please, any bread or nuts???
It was a bad start to the meal; however, the food was able to change my mood by the end of the evening. Nothing was too remarkable, that it stands out in my mind a month later, but I plan to go back with my husband, ON TIME and not early.

This restaurant is tiny so it would behoove you to make reservations. If you have to wait, the restaurant is situated in a neighborhood that you can take a stroll around. Once you’re in, the interior is modern and dimly lit. Ooh la la. The food is delectable and considered family style hence sharing is encouraged. It’s a date night spot for sure.

Omg one of the best eateries I have been to in a while! Amazing food! Amazing service! We had Robert who was so attentive, caring, and funny! He knew we were vegetarians and made sure to leave meat off our order, we ordered the Brussels sprouts special, squash appetizer and bruschetta which were divine! For the main course we had the angolotti which was literally orgasmic! The drinks were awesome. Loved every cocktail especially the florentine and vulletproof tiger. One of the best fall meals I’ve had this season. Highly recommend this place!!!

We finally made it! Service was great and ambiance was awesome!
I only wish the food was a little better. Beef carpaccio was missing some acid & salt, pork tenderloin was dry & cold… But the charcuterie meat was really good, especially the prosciutto and we really enjoyed the bucatini.
Perhaps we’ll give it another try in the future

The place was packed within 30 minutes of opening on a Friday evening. Sitting at the bar gives you the benefit of watching the chefs plate meals and watching the bartender make delicious drinks. The beet salad was definitely a favorite. The spaghetti had great texture and a nice twist of not being saucy. The seared scallop was delicious, although the paired salad was lacking in taste. For all the rave surrounding the beef carpaccio, I wasn’t too impressed with it. Overall, the food was great, the service was superb, and the atmosphere was welcoming. Will definitely be back.

We really enjoyed our dinner at How to Cook a Wolf. Very nice ambiance and great service. We ordered:
— olives and peppers– Both good, difficult to mess up
— pear bruschetta– delicious
— bucatini– This was the one item we weren’t thrilled with. It would have been good but ours had WAY too much pepper on it. Seemed like a simple mistake that could have been avoided.
— chocolate tartine-​Amazing. I’m not even a dessert person and this blew my mind.

A really cute restaurant in what appeared to be a quiet/​charming residential neighborhood. After four straight nights of sushi, I was ready for a change, and particularly excited to try this place for our last night in Seattle. I decided on a three-​star rating because I wanted to «grade» the restaurants during our trip on a curve, and this place was one of the less exceptional ones. To be completely transparent, we just spent the whole day wolfing down treats at the Pike Market, also we had to leave early because the bf started to get an allergic reaction to something in the restaurant. See below for the dishes we tried:
Beef Carpaccio — the best dish of the night, loved the sweetness of the apple, which complemented the spiciness of the serrano, while the cheese provided the saltiness this dish needed. Just be careful of the chili as it could get quiet hot. I gulped down a glass of water after accidentally eating a whole slice with seeds in one bite
Chicken Liver Mousse — the mousse was a bit dry, and I am not crazy about the large chunks of nuts that coasted the mousse, but the peaches that accompanied the dish was fantastic, so sweet and juicy
Spaghetti — we ended up getting this dish to go because of the aforementioned allergies. Unfortunately this dish did not travel well, but to be fair, it is not meant to be taken out, but to be eaten fresh. I personally love anchovies, but it did not work well in this dish, and it overpowered all other components of the dish.
The service was fantastic, our waiter recommended a really good wine to pair with the food, and he was extremely prompt when I informed him that we had to leave early. If I am ever in Seattle again, I think I will give this place another try and perhaps it will be better under a different circumstance.

Good Job, How to Cook a Wolf! You dashed and surpassed my expectations expertly!
One can tell a lot about a place by how they treat their vegetables (aka «the basics») and this place passes that particular litmus test with flying colors. I truly loved their beet and peach salad with a hint of yogurt: The beets were earthy, full bodied, and firm, but soft… The yogurt was subtle and not-​too-​tangy… The peaches were ripe to perfection. Frankly, in an unfair twist, the whole concoction left me wanting more… the likes of which I have not been able to find since. That kind of attention to detail, while seemingly easy, is actually quite difficult, so imitators beware! :)
Not that I’m an Ethan Stowell groupie or anything, but How to Cook a Wolf has been on my list of «Must Tries» for a while… and, finally, we made it in (with a reservation of course). Having no shortage of patrons or regulars, this place is clearly a neighborhood/​Seattle darling. But, that doesn’t mean they sacrifice service… not at all. The service was, in fact, impeccable, and you are sent away at the end of the night with a full belly and a charming little bag of hand made pasta noodles.
Speaking of pasta, I tried one of their pasta dishes: the Bucatini. It definitely left me satisfied (but, simultaneously wanting more… perhaps a theme of this place). The dish had that sort-​of earthy umami flavor about it, stemming from the poached tuna and pine nuts. However, these flavors were not overdone due to the abrupt acidity brought by the sultanas. Very nice!
Not that How to Cook a Wolf needs more selling, but the ambience was quite pleasant and intimate. Being made entirely of wood, a look up at the ceiling gives one the feeling of enclosure (but not claustrophobically so), possibly a feeling that they’re in a houseboat. A look to the side reveals a limited amount of tables, some of which spilled out of the restaurant’s open front and onto the sidewalk. Breezes waft through, the sky changes colors… it’s lovely.
Overall, I recommend this place. If not for the food and cocktails, come for the intimate ambiance and feeling that you’re on a houseboat :)

Service was excellent.
I try to not adulterate food so as to savor the meal as the chef intended it to be enjoyed.
That being said I would pass on the spaghetti here. I was so excited about this dish and the subtle flavor play between the briny anchovy, the garlic, and the fresh mint. HOWEVER it was so fishy. SO overwhelmingly fishy that I could not taste any other flavors and it became monotonous and gross.
The star of the visit was the heirloom tomato salad — perfection. The olives were delicious, the marinade was fantastic — high quality olive oil, fresh lemon zest, black peppercorns — I loved the flavors but the olives themselves had very little flesh and large pits so it became a lot of work with little payout. If there was just more olive to the olives these would be a win!

I loved our dining experience here! Was a huge fan of Chef Stowell already and our dinner here only reinforced my love of his vision, his food, and the vibe in his establishments.
Pros:
— Staff are fantastic! Wandered in without a reservation and host let us know who at the bar were close to leaving and encouraged us to stay and have a drink while waiting.
— Fantastic custom cocktails, bubbles, wine, bartender, waitstaff, hosts, chefs
— Love that you can watch chefs plating… I find it mesmerizing
— FOOD! Small plates and larger pasta plates (all designed to be shared) are divine! We shared the beef cheek bolognese, asparagus with duck egg, and burrata (heaven in my mouth). Staff will help you order a balanced meal if you’re struggling to decide.
Tips:
— Make a reservation
— Budget a little extra time so that you can find street parking in this upper Queen Anne location

Knocked another ES restaurant off the list last night. How to Cook a Wolf is teeny tiny, with a smattering of tables and a bar. No wonder it’s impossible to get a reservation here! We arrived around 9pm on a Tuesday and the only availability was at the bar. Since we were starving, we sat down and ordered in record time.
They were out of the bottle of wine we wanted, but one of the servers suggested a suitable replacement. We started with the beef carpaccio and baby octopus salad, which were both winners, then moved on to the spaghetti with anchovy, garlic, and chills, and the rigatoni with lamb sugo. The spaghetti flavors were savory and delicious, but the lamb sugo left a lot to be desired. Definitely not the best sugo I’ve ever had, plus it had rather large pieces of onion that sort of threw us off a bit. We capped off dinner with the cannolis, which were pretty good as well.
Overall, wolf just didn’t meet our expectations. It was good, but not THAT good. I think I prefer Anchovies & Olives or Rione XII, as far as ES establishments go.

Came here with a friend before our Book of Mormon show and I truly enjoyed it! Walking inside I noticed that it wasn’t a big restaurant, there were only about 10 – 12 tables at the most. With the open kitchen beautifully wood lined walls, I was excited to dine at one of Ethan Stowell’s most popular restaurants.
We ordered an appetizer and two entrée pastas. The server was really kind and informed about the special they had that night. The bread served before the meal was delicious, quality oil and vinegar as well.
–Bruschetta: came with 4 pieces of bread topped with ricotta cheese, steam kale and balsamic vinegar glaze. Delicious!
–Potato Gnocchi $ 17: Chanterelle, Heirloom Tomato, Sugar Snap Pea. This was so good! The gnocchi was slightly larger than what I was used to, but the ingredients were extremely fresh, definitely recommend this.
–Pappardelle $ 17:Bolognese Bianco, Rosemary, Grana Padano. Probably my favorite of the night. This pasta is so delicious, meaty flavorful sauce, fresh pasta, the shredded cheese on top was so delicious.
TL;DR: Get the Pappardelle, good for dates, delicious food, kinda pricy, small plates, but worth it. whoo!

How to cook a wolf
We went on Tuesday evening during restaurant week. The décor was great, service excellent but the food was boring. If the purpose of restaurant week is to give a sample of what the restaurant does, than i know i won’t have to return. The butternut soup was ok but i can do the same at home. The smoked mackerel bruschetta was nice but a touch of acidity (lemon, vinegar) would have helped reduce the salt flavour. The porkchop was a very generous portion, well cooked (still pink) but was very dull. The pear sauce was not enough to give any sparks to the dish. The salad accompanying the meat was very good but there was not enough. The parsley pesto pasta with tomatoes was probably the most boring pasta ever. I can say though that the pasta was well cooked — other than this, my 8 year old can do just as well if not better. The desserts were very good. The maple pana cotta was refreshing. The taste of maple was not very strong; we could taste the craneberries more. The dark chocolate gelato was very creamy and the chocolate very good. 2 scoops instead of 3 would have been sufficient. Trade the third scoop for raspberry coulis to creat a contrast with the intensity of the chocolate.
It was also very noisy and in light of the accoustics, the staff should be careful when transferring the forks and knives from the dishwasher to the drawers.
Overall, a disaapointing experience. Certainly not worth hiring a sitter for those rare nights out.