Not only have I been slacking on posting to this blog about my journey to Seattle, I’ve just been slacking about posting to this blog in general. Being in a new city is fun for exploration, and food is always the way that I tend to connect with new places, whether it be while traveling or living. Since my friends seem to enjoy doing 365 games, my current goal is to visit 365 different restaurants by the time that I’ve been in Seattle for a year(plus this will give me a reason to post about them more often). And being part of the twitter generation, I’ll do mini-reviews with each restaurant which hopefully clock in under 160 characters.
Day 0(2010-04-10)
Week 1:
Deli Shez – little deli underneath my temporary housing. Unremarkable
Serious Pie – my first Tom Douglas(the Seattle celebrity chef) restaurant experience. The toppings and the sauce for my pizza were a bit subtle for my tastes, but the crust was an amazing thin, crisp, and light concoction. I get the feeling that the rest of the pizza was just an excuse for slightly different variety so people would have more excuses to eat the crust.
Sages – quaint Italian place in Redmond, fabulous gnocchi.
Thai Place in Uwajimaya – food court Thai food. Overly sugared and sauced, but quick. About what you’d expect.
List – came for happy hour. Well prepared food, and a good bargain at half price. Happy hour wine wasn’t good.
Piroshki, Piroshki – Ze Russian breakfast food of champions. Had a couple of their piroshkis throughout the weeks on my way to work, and each was a different breed of tasty.
King Street Bar & Oven – Good calzone, but it seems to be more of a noisy bar at night than a lunch spot.
Grand Central Bakery and Cafe – Good lunch spot, good sandwiches that come out quick.
Umi – Came for happy hour sushi. Wasn’t remarkable(or cheap for happy hour).
Thaiku – Not a great thai place. They overcooked the chicken dish that I had ordered. Only thing they had going for them is the punny name.
MiMi Gelato – tasty gelato, and cutesy cat logo
Mee Sum Pastry – Chinese bakery. Awesome baozi. It’s a never ending battle between this place and Piroshki Piroshki in the market every morning for my breakfast as I walk through.
Noodle Zen in Uwajimaya – Blech. Two strikes against Uwajimaya’s food court options.
Two Bells Bar and Grill – Dive bar that does a tasty burger on french bread. Can’t say that the bun choice worked as I tend to prefer a less crisp bum.
Piroshki on 3rd Ave – Another major Piroshki place in downtown. I think I prefer the one in the market better, but the owner always is willing to suggest what just came out of the oven and is thus at its most delicious state.
Shilla in Uwajimaya – finally a palatable place in Uwajimaya’s food court. Not that I expect fine dining in what amounts to a food court, but there’s a certain minimum level to reach.
Hana Sushi – relatively inexpensive sushi restaurant in Capital Hill. Good value for the money.
Belltown Pizza – Ok thin crust pizza. Seattle doesn’t seem to be much of a pizza town.
Tally: 18 places 7 days – hopefully this is a decent head start as I’m eating out a lot with my kitchen being in a truck. Highlights were probably Sages(great italian dishes), Serious Pie(interesting interpretation on pizza), Piroshki Piroshki and Mee Sum(for being excellent breakfast pastry places.
Week 2:
The Yellow Leaf Cupcake Company – stopped by this place which is also under my temporary housing. So so quiche, but the staff was pleasant.
Seastar – awesome seafood restaurant I wussed gimped out and got a sushi main entree, but it was a nice set of rolls, and the appetizers and desserts were good
Il Bistro – lovely romantic italian bistro
Salumi – the charcuterie of Mario Batali’s parents. Tasty sandwiches, and some options for the more adventurous.
Sazerac – finally bad restaurant week choice. The flavors were really unbalanced and generally had one overpowering(in a bad way) element.
Jimmy Johns – felt like an extremely chainy sandwich shop. A step above subway, but that’s not saying much.
Madison Park Cafe – French bistro, where I had a lovely steak frittes which had a pre-sliced cut of onglet(which to me is the sign of any place that is serious about their steak).
Specialty’s Cafe & Bakery – awesome bakery with sandwiches and occupying the bottom floor of the building next door to work. Ironic how the spot closer than Uwajimaya’s food court(across the street) is tastier.
Mondello(they have a web site, but I think it tries to install a rootkit) – Nice little Italian bistro in Magnolia. Carpaccio was overly lemony, but had a tasty canneloni.
Pizza Professional – Quick slices of pizza, nothing spectacular.
Elisian Fields – Came for a work happy hour. They had good beers brewed inhouse. Tried the crab cake appetizer, which was a disappointment(which really any non Maryland crab cake is). This was actually where I ate for my lunch interview, and it was a tasty place.
Citizen Coffee – Cute little coffee shop with an upstairs area. Had a savory breakfast crepe that I had mixed feelings about.
5 Point Cafe – Their tagline is alcoholics serving alcoholics. The food was about what you’d expect for a 24 hour diner. It really reminded me of D for some reason.
Nana’s Soup House – Came here to sober up a bit after the Hop Scotch Tasting. Soup seemed ok, but in my slightly inebriated state, I’m probably not the best judge. Clearly I should’ve gone to Nana’s before the tasting, and 5 Point afterwards.
Tally: 14 places this week(Total 32 places in 13 days still need to update tomorrow when i finish out the second week’s explorations). Definite highlights were Seastar(good seafood restaurant), Il Bistro(italian food with a romantic atmosphere), Madison Park Cafe(french bistro)
With this massive set of restaurants that I shall be visiting in the next year, I think I’ll need to develop some kind of rating system for the good ones. Not quite the Michelin guide(where even one star is an amazing restaurant). I’m thinking something like the following:
0 – not worth bothering with
1 – a place to get tasty food. This is the kind of place that has tasty offerings, but it’s just about getting the food to eat either in impromptu tables or elsewhere.
2 – place to eat good food with nice ambiance
3 – dining experience where you go for celebratory occasions.
4 – fine dining experience from start to finish, but mainly memorable because it’s the kind of place that you go for those once in a lifetime occasions. Many of my experiences at Ruth’s Chris seem to fall into this category(graduations).
5 – amazing dining event that will be remembered simply for itself. Strange how memorable some meals are for me, but this level of meal is a huge experience for me where I remember each dish as well as who I was there with.
Need to put a bit more thought into it. Some clever cube icons would work out well for the 6 possible states(to go along with the sides), and the max rating of 5 (FIVE!). Combining the best number(5) and the best shape(5) is obviously the recipe for success!
