Two recent dinners at Spring

We went to Spring once a couple years ago, and thought it was just alright. We tend to classify dining experiences at the high end as "bad", "competent/good", "let's go back", and "wow". The first time, Spring was right in the middle of the second category.

We went back a couple weeks ago craving seafood, as at most places we end up doing more game and drinking red wine. We're glad we returned--both recent meals were excellent. My wife had hamachi poke and seared Maine scallops both times. The hamachi is excellent quality, translucent and sweet, and the poke is a great accompaniment, adding flavors of bread grain and greens. The scallops are outstanding, thick, sweet, and perfectly cooked. I had halibut both times (I normally don't repeat orders, but this time I really wanted halibut with the Fichet Meursault I was drinking), and the fish was moist, flaky, and rich, and paired well with salsify and (I think) squash gnocchi. I had scallops and potato raviolis the first time as a starter, which was good. Last night I had kampachi with pickled orange and it was excellent.

Service is not the restaurant's forte; it's fine, but the servers aren't going to blow you away with knowledge. The room can get annoyingly loud. The wine list is good, but not broad enough for my tastes; too heavy in France, and very lean on Oregon/Washington. Overall, it's now solidly in our "let's go back" category.