Spring Hill thrills with attentive service and delicious dishes

When my sweetie and I arrived at new West Seattle restaurant Spring Hill, we were seated at a table set with gleaming forks on lemongrass-green placemats, and we felt a little like we were playing house in an IKEA showroom.

Then one of the owners came over to graciously welcome us and get acquainted, and we felt a little like celebrities. (I profile local restaurants anonymously, so I'm not normally showered with special treatment.)

Then our meals arrived, looking like a food photographer's dream. If dinner was served in IKEA showrooms, it might aspire to look something like this.

I began eating, probing with great fascination into the filling of my duck-egg-yolk raviolo, and it wasn't until half of it was gone that I finally remembered what I'd been talking about before it came.

Spring Hill is the newest addition to West Seattle's strip of increasingly hip boutiques and restaurants on California Avenue. Owned by former Dahlia Lounge chef Mark Fuller and his wife Marjorie, it's a modern, welcoming space with a menu that bows down to your inner foodie, challenges your know-it-all palate and appeases your social conscience to boot.

Most of Spring Hill's ingredients are sourced from the Northwest, and all wines on the list come from either Washington or Oregon. In the current climate of high fuel costs, heavy pollution and food crises, the Fullers want you to feel good about the producers you're supporting.

They also want you to feel good about the water you're drinking, going so far as to sell "house-purified still water," poured through an internal filtration system and sold for $3 a glass ($5 for a large). Those wasteful plastic bottles have no place in this showroom.

The menu is divided into three sections: small dishes, shellfish and main courses. The smaller plates ($3-$12) include the aforementioned raviolo, containing a startling filling of rich yellow duck-egg yolk and ricotta cheese garnished with a prosciutto-like "duck ham."

The small cioppino has Dungeness crab, shrimp, mussels and halibut and is served cold rather than hot. There are crispy veal sweetbreads with a trio of dipping sauces, and a duo of both grilled and raw beef steak with potato chips.

Shellfish are offered nearly a dozen different ways, from wood grilled prawns with creamy grits and shrimp gravy ($14) to an entire Alaskan crab for $28. You can choose oysters on the half shell from three different locales, all served with a Cascade hops mignonette.

The main courses might easily tempt you away from the smalls. Rainbow trout from Idaho's Snake River Canyon is done in brown butter, accompanied by artichokes with green garlic and herbed spaztle ($22).

Handmade tagliatelle dances in a bowl with fava beans, morels, cherry tomatoes, spring onion and Parmesan ($19). The burger's half-pound beef patty is topped with housemade bacon, creamy Teleme cheese and special sauce. It's a thing to behold, and quite a feat to eat. No matter how special I felt in the beginning, I'm nothing next to this food.

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