And the Whiskey bar for, you know, whiskey.
Whoa!!
Double Whoa!!!
Ok, everyone, I am hoping to devote my Tuesday workday to reading up on all these suggestions!
I love Naked City Brewing. Excellent beers and great food.
Trip report! Warning: long!
I just got back from my trip on Friday and finally had enough time to post a thorough trip report. We had a great time there and found ourselves wishing that we had more time to spend in Seattle. It did get a little dreary after the third day of constant rain, but we had a nice and sunny send-off on our last day.
The Great:
Brouwer’s Cafe was terrific. Lots of seating area in a charming place, and just across the street from Theo Chocolate Factory where we took a tour. Their draft beer selection was a good mix of solid standard beers from the West Coast and some very eclectic ones like the Japanese Hitachino Classic in Schneider Barrel that my boyfriend ordered. That was smooth and had a bready, caramel flavor to it. I had Epic’s Holiday Sour, which was fruity and refreshing, and my boyfriend also had the Two Beer’s Beer Church Pale which was good as well. The service was terrific and they didn’t rush us out despite the fact that we only ordered a few beers and stayed forever.
Sitka and Spruce and Cascina Spinasse were the two high-end restaurants we ended up going to. Both of these places had a nice wine list, but since we don’t drink much wine, I can’t really say if they’re any good. We had a multi-layered vegetable puree dish with some braised collards on top at Sitka that was amazingly complex and subtle in flavor. The sliced leg of lamb dish was great as well. One major plus for me was that they also brew fresh tea and pour it into a glass with ice to make iced tea. Spinasse is a Northern Italian restaurant that hand-makes their own noodles. We had the tajarin with butter and sage and the rabbit meatballs, both of which were incredibly savory and different from the usual Italian fare that you find in restaurants. They also make their own Italian sodas which paired well enough with the food.
Seattle being a coffee town, we also ended up going to Victrola Cafe and Roastery. We went to two locations on two different days thanks to a Google Maps mix-up on our part. Both were charming, and I enjoyed people watching at both while drinking my latte. We also had an americano and a coffee. They were some of the best coffee we’ve had, on par with Blue Bottle in SF.
We almost missed out on Elliott’s Oyster House since we spent a much longer time at the Museum of Flight than I anticipated. It’s a touristy place in a touristy part of town, but with great raw oysters. We arrived at 3:15pm for their happy hour only to find that the place was packed and we would have to fight our way to a seat at the bar or wait for a table on a really long wait list. Elliott’s has an unusual graduated happy hour with a rate of .75/oyster at 3pm which goes up by .50/oyster every hour. We waited for about half an hour before we gave up and wandered off to Pike Place for some really late lunch. We did go back two days later at 2:40pm and what a different half an hour makes! The place was busy, but not overly crowded and we were seated immediately. We ordered two beers and our waitress told us she’ll be back for our happy hour order. You don’t get a choice of oyster for happy hour, but they’re all local Washington or PNW oysters and they’re all very fresh. We ended up with Oliver Grays (? - it was new so it wasn’t written on the board and I couldn’t hear the waiter very well) for our first dozen and Hammerslee Inlet for the second batch. We probably lucked out on two very decent picks, but you really can’t beat the price/quality ratio. I would avoid the hot seafood specials on their happy hour menu though, they were uniformly greasy and overly salty.
The Good:
Revel in the Fremont district was also quite good. It’s a Korean fusion tapas place with a hip vibe in Fremont. The dungeoness crab fettuccine noodle soup was tasty and had nice lumps of crab in it.
Walrus and Carpenter had the long wait that zombywoof warned about, and some great dishes, but some of the dishes were a little uneven. The brussel sprouts were overly salty and the smoked trout a little bland. Lamb carpaccio was melt-in-your-mouth good. Oysters were good, but I actually liked Elliott’s a little better which surprised me. Good mixed drinks though. The industrial setting was a nice touch.
Quinn’s was fun and reminded me a lot of Clyde Common in Portland. Good draft beer selection. Good gastropub fare. The buffalo sloppy joe had a nice kick to it and the burger (medium rare) had a very mellow charcoal flavor that I liked. Good solid pub food.
The Sad:
We went during a holiday week, so many of our destinations were closed (Cafe Besalu, Salumi, Fuji Bakery) and we had to scramble to find alternatives. It wasn’t too bad though, we did end up at Macrina Bakery instead of Besalu and had a sweet and fluffy orange maple bun.
We also didn’t have nearly enough time to visit all of the great suggestions from the dopers such as Serious Pie, Rogue Brewery, and Whiskey Bar. We’re already planning a return trip back, though, so we’ll get around to them eventually!
Thanks again to everyone for their suggestions, and also to Motorgirl for starting this thread.
Correction: The oysters from Elliott’s was not Oliver Gray, but Otter Cove from Hood Canal. I’m not sure where the gray came from, but it was a noisy room and my hearing’s not great. We also had them at the Walrus and the Carpenter. We liked the ones at Elliott’s a little better since they tasted fresher, but the ones at Walrus were prepared a little more carefully, which makes sense since they’re being shucked at a much faster pace at Elliott’s.
Glad you had a good time. Now I’m really hungry.
My trip isn’t for another month, so expect a bump in mid February after I get back!
It’s cliche but you need to hit up Pikes Place Market. See the flying fish etc. As far as bars go:
Magnolia Village Pub
Dante’s Steak & Grog
Elliott Bay Brewpub
Stay away from Ivars unless you want to look like a tourist. It’s okay but feels like a chain. Go to Salty’s Seafood Grill on Alki Beach instead.
My $0.02 anyway.
ETA: didn’t realize this was a two month old bump. All well, my advice still stands for someone else perhaps.