334 replies to this topic

[ExtraMSG]

Thought this might be worth posting. These are recs from a friend who is also a food writer in Seattle that were intended to be passed along to a friend from Portland.

I'm still getting to know Portland, so am not exactly sure what's missing from your food scene, but the best things happening in Seattle involve seafood and contemporary spins on traditional Asian cooking.

For lunch, I'd recommend Katsu Burger, the relatively new panko-burger joint from Hajime Sato, best known for opening one of the nation's first fully-sustainable sushi bars. Much to the chagrin of Japanese-born patrons (who want rice instead of hamburger buns) and American-born patrons (who don't want their burgers breaded), Sato refuses to adjust his vision of katsu burgers slathered with spicy mayo and teriyaki sauce. Don't miss the nori fries and green tea milkshake.

Katsu's probably two miles south of the stadium: If you prefer to stay closer to town, Pike Place is still a great bet for lunch (Seatown is my favorite of the Tom Douglas spots, should you want to sit and eat: The Dungeness BLT is inching toward local classic status.) Alternately, the International District nearly abuts CenturyLink. Not sure which Asian cuisine you like best, but I can highly recommend the mee katang and Cambodian sticky chicken wings at Phnom Penh; the char siu at Kau Kau; the dried oyster congee at Mike's Noodle House and the salt-and-pepper squid at Sea Garden.

For dinner, I'd suggest the tamer versions of perhaps my two favorite Seattle restaurants. I drag every out-of-town guest to The Walrus & Carpenter, Renee Erickson's ode to shellfish, but I'm not sure your daughter would approve. Fortunately, Erickson runs another eatery nearer downtown, and treats the fish there just as respectfully: Boat Street Cafe is a lovely dinner choice, although it might feel fancy on a Saturday night (as in Portland, dress is generally "anything goes," no matter where you're eating.) I love Spur, the local epicenter of scientific cooking (not counting the Modernist Cuisine lab), but I can't guarantee burgers and pastas there. But down the block at The Coterie Room, McCracken and Tough's newer restaurant, comfort food's the norm -- and the cocktail program is equally excellent.

Other dinners to consider include Marche and Matt's in the Market: Neither restaurant is especially adventurous, but the cooking is strong and the Pike Place location guarantees convenience and stupendous views of the Sound. Seattle also has great pizza, if you're not in the mood for the appetizer-entree-dessert rigamarole: Independent, Bar del Corso and Delancey are respectively about four miles east, south and north of downtown. Finally, Terra Plata is probably my favorite restaurant specializing in farmed-and-foraged Pacific Northwest cuisine. It's always a good choice for visiting parents, which means it's probably teenage daughter-appropriate. The new rooftop deck is fantastic. Seattle is an early-eating town, so probably worth checking in advance which restaurants serve after 10 p.m.

[ariel88]

I was up here recently and ate at a few new places. Had an excellent, if expensive, meal at Wild Ginger (3rd and Union) -- $100 for 2 drinks, 2 skewers, 2 small entrees (they offer small and large sizes) and 20% tip. Had very good eggs benedict at Glo's (Olive Way) - hollandaise was perfect. We also tried out the Lucky Diner for breakfast in Belltown. Ordered a couple of scrambles, which were serviceable, but not exciting.

Le Pichet is still killing it. Finally got to try the roast chicken, which was amazing but sadly too much food for 2 people. Lovely charcuterie plate. Delicious salad w/lamb tongue, cippolini onions, and italian plums. Great wine. Great atmosphere. One block away from the cheap-ass hotel we always stay at. I really love this place.

[porky pine]

Meeru Dhalwala and Oguz Istif will be opening Shanik Restaurant, a Seattle addition to the Vij's group of Indian restaurants, in early December 2012. Vij's is pretty much my favorite restaurant ever so I'm excited about this. I drive up to Vancouver just to eat there sometimes.

http://www.shanikrestaurant.com/

[ExtraMSG]

Meeru Dhalwala and Oguz Istif will be opening Shanik Restaurant, a Seattle addition to the Vij's group of Indian restaurants, in early December 2012. Vij's is pretty much my favorite restaurant ever so I'm excited about this. I drive up to Vancouver just to eat there sometimes.

http://www.shanikrestaurant.com/

That's excellent news. I know it had been rumored forever.

[ExtraMSG]

btw, I went up to Seattle this week. Won't bother with pictures right now, maybe later, but we hit these places:

Inchin's Bamboo Garden in Redmond: Indian Chinese food, which basically means Chinese food with an emphasis on vegetarian, paneer replacing tofu, cauliflower replacing broccoli, and spicing for an Indian palate. On the one hand, it's not unlike eating at your typical Chinese-American place. On the other, some dishes, like the lat mai paneer (crispy fried paneer in a spicy chile sauce) are addictive. We had this same dish at Mayuri (below) and it was awful by comparison.

http://www.bamboo-gardens.com/

Mayuri Chaat & Sweets in Redmond: We went here partially because they specialize in chaat, partially because they have a big variety of sweets, and partially because they had some Indian Chinese. The latter was pretty bad. The chaat wasn't all that great either. The sweets were better, brought in from New Jersey, but the drier sweets suffered in shipping. The moister sweets were pretty solid. I really enjoy Indian sweets and outside of Chicago, I've never had consistently good ones. I would say that while the sweets are better than at India Sweet & Spices in Beaverton, the food was a big step down.

http://mayurifamily.com/chat.php

Canam Pizza in Bellevue: Supposedly there's an Indian pizza joint on the way out in Hillsboro. I've never had it, so we decided to try this mini chain. The "Can" is for Canadian. The "Am" is for American. Most of the menu is your typical West coast style pizza -- lots of toppings, things like BBQ chicken, etc. But they had a menu at the counter that was all Indian -- stuff like tandoor chicken pizza and butter paneer pizza. We got the butter paneer and a special, which I can't remember the name of right now (and don't have my pictures with me) -- but it was heavier on the masala, chiles, and onions. The crust is Pizza Hut pan pizza all the way: oily, soft, fluffy, and flavorless, though inoffensive. The toppings were actually damn tasty. The butter paneer was the winner. It was wet, like they had drizzled some of the curry over the top at the end, which helped balance out the thick bread. The paneer was fine and there was lots of flavor. The special wasn't as good as pizza, but frankly, I enjoyed it a lot more when I stripped it from the crust and ate it as a cheesy mass of Indian flavor. I think the real lesson here is that Indian curries taste damn good with melted cheese on them. Indian lasagna would probably be fantastic. Indian queso fundido would probably blow your mind. I think the answer is that I need to do an Indian-flavored Tex-Mex meal at MMM some time in the future. Or I need to talk the Spanglers into letting me do an Indian pizza on their menu some day.

http://www.canampizza.com

Masala Monday at Poppy in Seattle: Poppy does thali style meals every day, but more NW cuisine than Indian cuisine most of the time. On Mondays, though, they go full on Indian. We got the veg thali along with some apps, including the eggplant fries with masala and honey, a fig tart with onions and peanuts, and potato fritters. The apps were inconsistent. The eggplant fries were pretty nice, creamy inside, moderately crisp outside, nicely flavored with the honey and spices. The tart didn't work. The subtle figs were overpowered by the onion and peanuts. The potato fritters were tasty, like the masala dosa filling in fried-ball form with a really nice lime-cilantro dipping sauce. But the vegi thali we split was almost uniformly excellent, including very nice naan, and some of the best seasoned/balanced Indian dishes I've had outside of Vij's. It's what Vindalho should have been.

http://poppyseattle....u/masala-monday

Samurai Noodle in Seattle: After Poppy we walked around Capitol Hill a bit. Samurai Noodle now makes mochi in-house. I'm not a huge fan of the stuff, but Pablo (manager at MMM) is, so I picked up what they had (red bean/strawberry and green tea). He said the shell was more tender than what he's used to and prefers them chewier, but that the green tea mochi was phenomenal and the best he's had.

http://www.samurainoodle.com/

COA: Went here because they made Hanna Raskin's top 10 for Mexican list, specialize in tequila, and because we were already in the neighborhood. Unfortunately their bar was closed for renovation, so we sat in the dining room. Tried some tequilas I hadn't had before, plus their margarita. Margarita sucked. Huge, but tasted like mediocre lemonade. Way too Tex-Mex for a place supposedly making itself a tequila destination. The food was even worse. We just tried a couple appetizers, the tostones and the "triple dip". First, the tostones weren't as described. They were ripe plantains, not green plantains. Worse, though, is that they weren't fully cooked. Ours were slightly brown on the outside, but uncooked inside. Another table's looked less cooked than ours. They were smothered in sour cream and queso fresco to make one -- if even one -- plantain stretch an entire 14 inch plate. They also had a garlicky sour cream and green chile sauce underneath that might have gone with actual tostones but didn't work at all with the ripe plantains. We ate maybe half of it. And this was the good dish. The triple dips was pretty damn awful. It was supposed to be a mango pico de gallo, a nopalitos dip, and guac. The guac obviously had some sort of filler, such as mayo or sour cream. Either that, or they're lying about it being handmade and it's coming from a bag. The nopalitos dip as far as I could tell didn't exist. We just got a normal pico, heavy on the pink and mushy tomatoes. The mango pico had maybe one little piece of mango for every 20 or more pieces of pink and mushy tomatoes. We barely broke the surface of any of these. Based on this we decided not to waste space on entrees. It may not be surprising that in a place that puts out such shit that the server never even asked us about our barely-touched food. Maybe we chose poorly or the entrees are a lot better, but I don't plan on finding out anytime soon.

http://www.coatequileria.com/

Mescaleria in Seattle: On the other hand, this place rocked. It's in Queene Anne and owned by the La Carta de Oaxaca people (which I've still never been to, but now want to visit soon). They have a very good selection of mescal of course, but the place has a good vibe and an open kitchen. They're using fresh masa they grind themselves. It's lily white, like Tienda San Francisco's, and almost tastes like wheat flour it's so mild. I tend to like that, but some prefer a stronger corn profile. (At Mi Mero Mole, we disagree amongst ourselves; Pablo being from Texas of course loves it very strong and yellowish; the Mexicanos are split.) But all the tortillas and other masas snacks are made fresh to order. I got their pork in mole negro, which was nice. It's a little on the sweet and pruney side but still had a lot of depth. The rice on the side was really good, though enriched with chicken fat and stock. We also got some memelitas, little elongated fat tortillas topped with beans, cheese, and salsas (we got them without the meat). They were quite good as well. (I've been considering adding memelas or tlacoyos to the menu at MMM and this may cinch it. Memelas are just easier since they're topped with the beans instead of stuffed with them pupusa style. I liked how they did theirs were it was almost like a small huarache and pinched up around the edges like a sope.) Got some enfrijoladas, too, basically tortillas coasted in black bean puree with salsa, cheese, etc. I like them a little less wet, but this was a nice version. It's worth noting that the normal menu has only one vegetarian item. But they worked with us since my dining partner was vegetarian.

http://mezcaleriaoaxaca.com/

I just want to note that this was one day's worth of food touring and we drove up and back the same day. I don't think I forgot anything.

[Flynn]

La Carta de Oaxaca people (which I've still never been to, but now want to visit soon).

You should. It's worth the detour.

[Adam]

I thought you tweeted about hitting Stopsky's as well?

[ExtraMSG]

I thought you tweeted about hitting Stopsky's as well?

I did. We just stopped briefly and I got a challastrami -- pastrami and cheese wrapped danish style in thin challah. It was excellent.

[dagrassroots]

I thought you tweeted about hitting Stopsky's as well?

I did. We just stopped briefly and I got a challastrami -- pastrami and cheese wrapped danish style in thin challah. It was excellent.

How was the pastrami? I have had very bad experiences with their pastrami. Good bagels though.

[Adam]

I moved back to Portland just after Stopsky's opened a couple years ago, so I've only been there twice, but on both visits the pastrami was on par with K&Z's. Which is to say very, very good.

[ExtraMSG]

It's not as smoky as K&Z, but its definitely good pastrami.

[goodbyeohio]

Went up to Seattle recently as well and had a noteworthy brunch at Fonda La Catrina, located right across the street from the old Seattle Brewing Company (5905 Airport Way S). Very bright airy space, lots of brick and stone. Dia de los Muertos artwork all over. Bar area and sit down area, big open kitchen. Had a very rich and meaty large bowl of frijoles charros for around $7 which came with excellent tortillas. I have been dreaming about this dish since that day. Also ordered chips and they were thick and crisp but not overdone, salsa was a bit watery but had a pleasant freshness and heat. Guac was simple but satisfying. Jalapeno margarita was reminiscent of MMM quality and technique. Fresh flavors, no excessive sweetness. She had the huevos revueltos with salsa verde. Not the most exciting, but the presentation was memorable. A third in our party had the posole which I didn't try but looked equally as warming and filling as my frijole stew. If anyone wants to check out the menus, they're here:

http://www.fondalaca....com/index.html

..although this seems only partial- half the items on the menu we saw were specials and not listed on the site.

[vj]

Went up to Seattle recently as well and had a noteworthy brunch at Fonda La Catrina, located right across the street from the old Seattle Brewing Company (5905 Airport Way S).

Just looked at the lunch menu and am swooning with hunger -- I have to go there!

[goodbyeohio]

returned to seattle and fonda la catrina for lunch, this time i took pictures!

 

started again with chips and salsa/guacamole. be careful, they ask you if you want them and arent quite forthcoming with the fact that they are charging you. still, worth it and recommended.

 

 

i went with the pozole as it was a cold ass day and i didnt want something too heavy, but still satisfying and flavorful. they use carlton farms pork (shoulder?) and there was at least a pound of meat in this soup. very porky essence in the broth, slightly smoky as well. hominy was springy and i liked that it was served with a bowl of mexican oregano and dried chile. fresh tortillas on the side soaked up the broth nicely. radish provided a textural crunch.

 

 

here's a pork chunk photo!

 

 

the missus got an order of gorditas with pork butt. the beans were perfectly cooked, cheese nice and salty, and the corn sopes-type crumpety things were delicious as well.

 

 

lastly, here's a shot of the open kitchen as seen from the counter where we were eating:

 

 

still highly recommended!

[joburn]

During a recent trip to Seattle I had the opportunity to dine at Shanik, an Indian restaurant related to Vij's in Vancouver BC.  It has been much-anticipated in Seattle.   

 

Really outstanding food and service overall.  The decor is overall pretty modern, as is the setting in South Lake Union, but very nice and comfortable.  Everyone is served a good pakora and chai to open things up.  First ordered dish was a spicy "pura" crepe with bacon, onion and tomatoes.  it was very, very hot, which I love.  An oustanding dish. 

 

Second was an appetizer (although the portion was quite large) of marinated, seared pork medallions with ricotta, garlic and fenugreek.  The sauce was, at the time and still, one of the top 5  things I have eaten all year (the rest were in Indian restaurants in Glasgow's West End).  I could not stop eating it.  It basically did not need the pork, although that was tasty as well.  It was better than any single dish I have eaten at Vij's, and that's saying a lot. 

 

Third were spice-encrusted lamb popsicles with a split pea and spinach mash and coconut curry.  Really fine; the lamb was perfectly cooked and the spice mix and mash were both very good.  The sole drawback was that the lamb was served while the pork was still in play (as well as a free order of naan and dipping sauces), and since I was unwilling to allow any fenugreek sauce to leave the table, it became a bit crowded.  Service was otherwise prompt, knowledgable, and friendly but unobtrusive.  This was all far too much food, but I wanted to try a number of things.  Total food cost was $52 and could have fed two people nicely, and very well by adding one more small appetizer, given the pakora/chai combo and the naan, which I barely touched. 

 

No reservations apart from the private dining room, and it was full by 6:15. There was never a huge line; they managed to seat most people after a short wait, but this was a Tuesday night and I've heard it can get much busier.  There is a large screened bar area for overflow.   Very good and reasonable wine and drinks list.  I cannot wait to return, and this time perhaps go for an all-vegetarian meal.  If I can keep from ordering the pork that is... 

 

500 Terry Ave. N

Seattle, WA

206-486-6884