Best Reviews
#1 Hotel in Seattle, #28 hotel in the world, 2009 World’s Best Hotels
Institutional Investor, December/January
#25 North American Hotels, 2009 Readers’ Choice Awards
Conde Nast Traveler, November 2009
Recently, I’ve been taken with another of ART’s signature cocktails--The Big Dill. It’s the kind of drink that’s fashionable of late, with savory ingredients (fresh cucumber) muddled with herbs (fresh dill) and mixed with freshly squeezed lime juice and agave syrup.
Al Dente Blog, October 29, 2009
What our writers love this week: For me, none is as glorious as the 10-foot-long gourmet cheese spread with crackers, breads and other condiments at the hotel's ART Restaurant and Lounge. All-you-can-eat cheese for $12 from 5 to 10 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays. Glasses of wine start at $5.
Seattle Times, September 27, 2009
At Seattle’s year-old Art Restaurant, Ryan Witcher’s icy desserts have become instant classics.
Lexus Magazine online, September 2009
Seattle's ART Restaurant … where Wendy [Perrin] died and went to heaven just last month. She recommends the foie gras rolls.
Conde Nast Traveler’s Concierge.com, September 10, 2009
Chef Kerry Sear has improved the menu at the new Four Seasons Hotel—lowered prices, ditched the precious paintbrushes—but the real verve lives in its lounge, where high rollers gather after work for dazzling cocktails and $5 mini-burgers.
Seattle Metropolitan, September 2009
There are so many fabulous items to choose from here, including crisp duck breast, lamb steak and wild king salmon. The smoked chicken with creamy white polenta was simply amazing, complemented by a delicious side of grilled spring onions.
If there were only one place to eat dinner and money were not an issue, where should we go for dinner? I'd recommend heading for the historic Pike Place Market area for a uniquely Seattle experience. Start out with a window table overlooking Elliott Bay in the ultrachic Art Lounge at the Four Seasons Hotel.
The Seattle Times, August 23, 2009
Mark your calendars. Starting September 7th, ART Restaurant will be unveiling its —be still my cheese loving heart—all-you-can-eat cheese table, where for $12 guests can scarf up as much “domestic and imported” cheese as they want from happy hour until close.
SeattleMet.com, August 10, 2008
Another plus: the sprawling Art bar and restaurant off the lobby that runs along the bayfront side of the hotel, with a groovy bar that is lively at cocktail hour. Breakfast was pleasant, with daily juice combinations and great steel-cut oatmeal; at lunch, we liked fresh local crab salad with corn, black beans and avocado. Our relaxing dinner started with a salad of stone fruit with blue cheese, then fresh Alaskan halibut with asparagus and morels, and duck with Bing cherry sauce and spoon bread. An impressive open wine cellar offers many regional wines by the glass and bottle. Kids get cotton candy (we got some too) but the best dessert was “donuts to go,” powdered donut holes in a hand-painted white box.
The Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2009
The look is sleek and contemporary, with warm blond wood, exposed stone, and an art collection highlighting masters from the Northwest School. Savor dinner at Art, where star chef Kerry Sear, cooks up just that.
ART Restaurant and Lounge is one of the most genuinely fun places to eat in town.
AbsintheandOranges.com, July 16, 2009
Chef Sear is known for his Northwest-centric menus. That influence is in place here, but dishes have global twists. "We may have a local salmon and then add a touch of India," he explains. "We don’t want to over-complicate things. And we’re on the same block as Pike Place Market and want to focus on that seasonality with daily market menus and the TV Trays."
Seattle chef and Four Seasons veteran Kerry Sear’s kitchen incorporates the philosophy of using the freshest local ingredients in creating memorable preparations.
Chattanooga-Times, June 28, 2009
A PS for wine lovers: you can "sample" any bottle on the list (150-plus labels). They'll open it if you buy just two glasses and pay for half a bottle. The restaurant keeps the wine fresh with the Verre de Vin preservation system, so the next guy can enjoy some of "your" bottle, later on.
Food as art: mushrooms illuminated in a case at the sushi bar. In the foreground, ART at the Four Seasons' happy hour menu ($5 food & drink specials) … a water view and happy hour? What's not to love?
Seattle Tall Poppy, June 24, 2009
ART Lounge was recognized by the editors of FOOD & WINE magazine’s “Cocktails 2009” as one of the top 100 bars and lounges across America.
Food & Wine’s “Cocktails 2009”
“Latest offering is a quick way to have an elegant lunch. Served on partitioned china, the quick lunches are dubbed TV, initials for the French term Très Vite, meaning very fast. One can choose from several Très Vite offerings. That day, our TV tray, which cost $16, contained potato and spring onion soup, a lamb meatball with morels and peas, heirloom tomatoes and feta, and a strawberry panna cotta, light as cotton candy. Most of the ingredients were fresh that day from Pike Place Market.”
Puget Sound Business Journal, May 29, 2009
“Happy hour “Five After Five” runs from 5-7pm, Sunday through Thursday. Chef Kerry Sear’s “mini burgers trio” exceeds expectations and even comes in veggie form. Another famous chef is making you $5 happy hour snacks, and this one’s also offering world-class views on the side. Long summer evenings are upon us, let’s enjoy accordingly.”
Seattle Metropolitan, May 15, 2009
“… I was most impressed by the fancy--but delicious--desserts by pastry chef Ryan Witcher. He's worked at some pretty fancy places and his skill is apparent, but he is completely friendly and accessible. His personality shows through in the desserts, which are pinkies-out fancy but with tongue in cheek touches like a Parisian-style macaron flavored like a snickers bar, or truffle "pops" fancied up with strawberry and basil.”
“There are so many wonderful places to rest and relax, most of them with incredible views of Puget Sound, we can’t agree on where to spend our time. We end our day with a sunset dinner at ART, where prominent local chef Kerry Sear uses top quality ingredients in globally influenced dishes, both in the kitchen and at the sushi/small plates counter.”
Alaska Airlines Magazine, May 2009
“Seattle Art Museum–goers have a new place to stay nearby: the Four Seasons, decorated with works from Northwest artists. At ART, its restaurant, chef Kerry Sear sends out kampachi (yellowtail) with … a palette of 15 sauces so diners can channel their inner Impressionist.”
“The best new restaurant in the neighborhood is back at the [Four Seasons]. ART, with star chef Kerry Sear, lives up to the name.”
Sunset Magazine, May 2009
“Mini-burger paradise at ART Lounge. ART Lounge, inside the Four Seasons Hotel, has happy hour 5-7 p.m. Sundays-Thursdays, when the "mini-burgers trio" and other bar food, beer, selected wine and cocktails all cost $5.”
The Seattle Times, April 22, 2009
“If you’re looking for a business lunch place to impress, Art could be your spot. And right away we find something to like on the menu — a bento-like idea called “TV Tray.” It’s a four-course lunch served on a small platter. The portions are small, but together offer a rare opportunity to try four different things at a price sure to pass expense-account muster. And it’s plenty for a midday meal.”
Puget Sound Business Journal, April 20, 2009
“At ART, the restaurant at the new Four Seasons Hotel and Private Residences Seattle, the concept of dining around beauty extends from the setting to the menu. Further reflecting the surroundings, chef Kerry Sear’s menu puts a global twist on Northwest fare.”
Robb Report Vacation Homes, April/May 2009
“Diners who dig into pastry chef Ryan Witcher’s Vanilla Dusted Donuts for Two at the new Seattle Four Seasons' ART restaurant are likely to say the same thing. There’s nothing better than these yeasty poufs of dough that are served with fromage blanc sorbet and a pomegranate compote (sometimes Oregon rhubarb is used instead). I found the combo irresistible as I dipped the hot, delicate donuts into, first, the sweet-tangy sorbet and then into the tart, richly textured compote.”
MaureenClancy.com, February 25, 2009
“I was particularly taken by a new wine-tasting program offered in ART ... Besides offering terrific versions of hard-to-find seafood like Alaskan Black Cod and Italian Branzino, Sear has introduced something I’ve never seen at wine bars or restaurants during my travels. For a guarantee of purchasing at least two glasses of wine, the restaurant will open any bottle on its voluminous wine list, and serve it to you on a per-glass basis … it provides those of us on a budget (or a limited corporate expense account) to sample wines that we otherwise might never have a chance to try. And I’d rather pay that much for a really good glass of wine than a whole bottle of something harsh and acidic. For me, it spoke of the overall richness of staying at a place like the Four Seasons.”
February 6, 2009, CBSNews.com, February, 6, 2009
"The wood finishes and the photographs underscore the restaurant's Pacific Northwest roots, while the contemporary American menu reminds me why I've long enjoyed chef Kerry Sear's cooking. Competing for your attention is the view: Art's floor-to-ceiling windows capture Elliott Bay and the Olympic Mountains."
Washington Post, February 8, 2009
"Pastry chef Ryan Witcher is doing great things in his new post at ART Restaurant and Lounge in the Four Seasons Seattle Hotel and Residences. We’ve enjoyed his Chocolate, Chocolate, Chocolate–chocolate mousse cake, white chocolate espresso foam, and coffee butterscotch sauce; Meyer Lemon Panna Cotta with Sauternes Ice and White Chocolate Crisp; and his ART Cheesecake with Citrus Sauce and Mascarpone Cream. But for sheer naughtiness and comfort food, his Donuts in a Box win the prize."
Northwest Whining and Dining, December 15, 2008
"With it’s location Downtown and near the Seattle Art Museum, the ambiance and feel of ART is, well, designed. Kerry Sear is returning to the Four Seasons fold, which is where he first got his start; now he is able to fully put his imprint on ART, one of the more anticipated in the Downtown core."
Going for Seconds, November 24, 2008
"When I sat down at ART, the restaurant at Seattle’s new Four Seasons Hotel, I was a little shocked to find chicken noodle soup on the menu [for lunch]. But the soup – fine filaments of spiced vegetables, twisted up with soba noodles and black silkie chicken in a deeply flavorful broth, and topped with a poached egg – was anything but plain. But I couldn’t ignore the way the egg yolk glided into the broth, infusing it with a richness that makes chicken soup feel even more healing than usual."
"Beloved chef Kerry Sear’s dining room is whimsical and serene: LED lights shift colors. More than 160 Northwest wines are offered by the glass. And the view of Elliott Bay is as stunning as the regional oil paintings. It’s not so much eating as fashioning an edible opus."
