Restaurants »Phinney Market Pub & Eatery

Untitled-15918 Phinney Ave. N, Seattle

I’ve been a bit quiet on my blog lately as our lives are still in constant, slightly exhausting motion. After leaving Brooklyn we were in Colorado for a bit, now in Seattle renting a lovely home but soon to move again as we found a wonderful house to buy in a neighborhood we’ve quickly fallen in live with, Phinney Ridge.

The Phinney Market Pub and Eatery captures the spirit of the area pretty well, even if its fairly new to it. It’s family friendly, relaxed, inviting and just a shade hip – damask wallpaper, tin ceilings and old wood almost even made me feel like I was in Brooklyn.

The food is good, the service comes with a smile and a wooden train set offers fun times for your little ones. I expect this will be a place we visit often once we are finally settled in our new home.

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Posted on July 9, 2013

Restaurants »The Monkey Bridge

photo-21723 NW Market St  Seattle

Vietnamese food is rarely awful, but truly great restaurants are also hard to come by. We stumbled across The Monkey Bridge after an appointment in Ballard and were wowed by the juicy, flavorful bahn mi.

Pork and beef were equally noteworthy and indicate that their larger menu is worth another visit. We did take out but the space in inviting and casual and the staff friendly.

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Posted on June 16, 2013

Restaurants »The Crumpet Shop

Screen-Shot-2013-06-02-at-7.34.14-PMAt The Pike Place Market

Friend Shaun made one important recommendation when we announced our move to Seattle – get a crumpet at The Crumpet Shop.

The charming small bakery, prominently located in the Pike Place Market serves the British classic muffin in a variety of ways: buttered, jammed, with eggs, topped with cheese…

I decided to have my first as simple as possible with just butter and honey while Jim went for it with an impressive creation of maple butter, walnut, cream cheese.

While space is tight, crowds ebb and flow. They also serve scones and coffee.

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Posted on June 1, 2013

Restaurants »Skillet Diner

skillet1400 East Union Street, Seattle, WA

We’ve been told the closest thing to Brooklyn in Seattle is Capitol Hill. Meaning: hipsters and their hip bars and restaurants dwell there. One restaurant always associated with the neighborhood is Skillet Diner. Notorious for long lines, famous for great food in the “now” – like bacon jam bloody Mary’s (which was very good).

The simple but considered presentation and delicious chicken fried steak I had – big, tender cuts of choice meat with a salty, flavorful crust – did indeed remind me of home and made me feel better about all the great restaurants we left behind there. The entire menu was full of promising dishes with lots of pork belly, fennel and beets.

Like so many places in Seattle, Skillet diner is exceptional but there was not a promised hipster in sight. I kind of wanted to see people that dress up for brunch but at 8am, it’s families and olds. Same everywhere I suppose. At least there are no lines at that hour.

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Posted on May 28, 2013

Restaurants »I Love Sushi

love1001 Fairview Ave. N, Seattle, WA

How very lucky we are. While I thought good food delivery was a thing in our NYC past, we found that Seattle has a service called Eat24 that delivers from restaurants in the area all through an online system. Even better? We found some incredible sushi our first order out from I Love Sushi. It is the kind of sushi people always brag about on the Pacific Coast, the kind of sushi I have been aching for since we got here, the kind I want to take photos of each and every piece.

While I can’t tell you anything about the actual restaurant, I can say that I Love Sushi is excellent. Not only are the basics covered and amazing (tuna rolls? fantastic. California rolls? a step above the usual) but the specials are always impressive. Take the Sushi Train Roll (pictured): pressed sushi w/ scallop, crab, flying fish roe, topped w/ seared salmon, sprinkled w/ sea salt, squeeze of lemon or the Northwest Samplers that feature nigiri made of fresh local fish.

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Posted on May 12, 2013

Restaurants »Jack’s Fish Spot Salmon Candy

salmoncandy1514 Pike Place in Pike Place Market

The Pike Place Market, arguably Seattle’s most famous destination, is too vast with too much to offer to write one entry based on one visit, so I will just start with the most life changing.

It’s called Salmon Candy and you can find it at Jack’s Fish Spot. Located across from the one where they toss the fish featured on every travel channel show out there, it’s a friendly place that has fresh fish, a bar around back where you can chow on oysters, fish and chips, and clam chowder (to name a few), and bins of smoked fish.

Salmon Candy was recommended by the man on duty and he certainly didn’t steer me wrong. The best smoked salmon I’ve ever had. So good that I opted to send a pound to my mother in lieu of flowers for mother’s day.

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Posted on May 8, 2013

Restaurants »Pinky’s Kitchen

pinkys210 NE 45th St, Seattle, WA

We are excited for Seattle’s food and Pinky’s Kitchen was one of the first places we wanted to try even if BBQ isn’t the first thing you might associate with the Pacific Northwest.

A truck set up in a gas station parking garage, it dishes out comfort food of all kinds: brisket, beans, fried chicken, pork and ribs. We tried the pulled pork sandwiches – one with original sauce and one with the vinegar sauce we’ve grown to love thanks to “The Pitmaster” Ed Mitchell. Both were great, but I lean a little toward their sauce. Other options include a tamarin and spicy – for another visit (when I will also indulge in some pecan pie).

It was a brisk day to wait outside for sandwiches and, honestly, I was a little worried it wouldn’t be worth it when I spied the ciabatta. Inappropriate bread can ruin good BBQ like nothing else and it looked a little too sturdy and bulky. My fears were abated at the first bite, though. It was a perfect buttery vehicle for tender, sloppy pulled pork.

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Posted on May 2, 2013

Restaurants »Portage Bay

portage4130 Roosevelt Way NE, Seattle

We arrived in Seattle a couple weeks ago (we are still settling, hence the lack of posts). We stayed at the comfortable and friendly Watertown Hotel until our things arrived. A few blocks away we found Portage Bay, an most appetizing welcome to our new home city.

Everything we tried on the menu (yes, there were return visits) was delicious. They had Swedish pancakes, made with fresh, real ingredients that I didn’t have to embarrass myself with a trip to IHOP for! They had a vegetable hash that had Jim, yes Jim, shoveling vegetables into his mouth! There’s a fruit and toppings bar, a number of omelett options, and Benedicts of all kinds that will impress (I had to try the salmon, a food I’ll always associate with the Northwest since a visit here years ago) but the dungeness crab was remarkable too.

The space is huge and child friendly (though admittedly I am coming from Brooklyn, where spaces tend to be pint sized and hating children is a new pastime) but I’ve read it can get very crowded with long waits on peak brunch hours.

I imagine this will be a favorite of our family in the years to come as we settle into our new town. It’s service with a smile and incredible food with a conscious: ingredients are local and organic.

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Posted on April 17, 2013

Restaurants »Edelweiss

edel34 East Ramona Ave. Colorado Springs, CO

Edelweiss is everything an authentic German restaurant should be. There’s traditional costumes, accordion playing entertainment, deer heads and cuckoo clocks lining the walls, pitchers of crisp dark Dunkle, black forest torte, and huge, heaping plates of heavy meats and potatoes.

It’s been the spot for brat in my hometown of Colorado Springs since before I was born and after a family friendly dinner last night, I can tell you it’s still the same. And that’s a good thing!

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Posted on March 17, 2013

Restaurants »Qi Thai Grill

qi176 N. 9th

After just dipping our toe the rental world (good god) its naive to pretend the neighborhoods of Williamsburg and Greenpoint, where I’ve lived over a decade, haven’t changed. It’s also, I have to remember, grumpy to resent it. After all, I was part of the beginning of these changes and I sure didn’t like being resented for it, but all that knowledge doesn’t make a mammoth, hologram-bedazzled, meat packing restaurant with a kama sutra bathroom (that surely made the copywriters of Thrillest faint with the innuendo opportunities), any less unnerving… After all, the conversion of this part of Brooklyn to an extension of pricey Manhattan has actually driven us out of the city (we move West in three weeks).

Fortunately for you all we leave behind, Qi Thai Grill also has good food. It reminds me a lot of the late Planet Thai: A place for new Brooklynites to take their parents (who are helping with the astronomical rents) to show off what a cool place they are moving to. Yet, it’s also a place that locals can get a decent meal (good Thai in the area is a rarity) including some cheap lunch deals.

One big positive about the menu, which is already drawing crowds because of the chefs who hail from Pong and (the ever awesome and considerably less glamorous) Sripraphai, is that it’s not afraid to go spicy and as much as possible features traditional, even challenging ingredients: beef tendon, pork trotters and jaws sit next to Pad Thai (for the less adventurous). Even with that dish, though, you’re encouraged to try the traditional way – with dried shrimp (which does sound great).

I opted for a very filling Chicken Chiang Mai Noodle that had a flavorful curry broth and was perfect for the chilly weather. Of all our appetizers, the spicy wings were the biggest hit but the papaya salad and curry puffs are also worth a taste.

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Posted on January 20, 2013

Restaurants »Ramen Yebisu

126 N 6th, Brooklyn

Finally, finally, finally..

After the false hope brought to us by this mysterious and never opened Ichiran, ramen has come to the Williamsburg/Greenpoint area.

I’ve enjoyed Yebisu at the smorgasburg events, but am thrilled to have a brick a mortar location – albeit a tiny, stools only one – to warm chilled bones with (quite possibly) the worlds greatest dish.

Is it perfect? No. Most notably the pork is a bit dry and tough where it should but tender. The noodles, though were perfectly toothsome. I tried the shoyu and while it was good the one that will have me running back as soon as I can book a sitter, is the miso ramen. Its broth had flavor and depth and even though I only had a few sips of my friends – its taste lingers in my mind.

The staff is friendly, the house sake above average, and the price is right. While it may not be Ippudo (but that’s an unfair comparison) I am very happy to welcome the long awaited Yebisu to the neighborhood.

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Posted on December 28, 2012

Restaurants »Sips and Bites

178 N.10th Street, Brooklyn

Sips and Bites may be a wee sliver of a shop (I’d passed by it a few times without noticing) but it’s big on charm and boasts a great menu of sandwiches. While I look forward to trying most once I am no longer pregnant (darn that no deli meat rule!), the tuna sandwich I’ve had is excellent. It doesn’t try too hard, but the flavors and mix of ingredients (black olive tapanade, anchovies and haricot vert to name a few) is far from boring.

The baked goods are rotating and always great (we all enjoyed the homemade lemon curd pop tarts) and the tea and lemonades have been ideal thirst quenchers more than once during all this crazy heat.

The staff is exceptionally nice – which is always a welcome and happy thing and there’s a great deal of charm and style to the interior.

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Posted on July 28, 2012

Restaurants »Shuck’s

At Smorgasburg

Shucks, the new fried clam stand at Smorgasburg was so delicious, I’m basing this glowing review off of a single bite snatched from mike’s dish.

Never have I had fried clams so light and tender. Usually even good clams can be rubbery and taste heart-stoppingly fried.

This will be a must on my next Smorgasburg visit.

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Posted on July 19, 2012

Restaurants »Yebisu Ramen

at Smorgasburg

The brick and mortar ramen shop Yebisu has been eagerly awaited and delayed but if their cold ramen dish at Smorgasburg is any indication, it will be worth it.

Toothsome noodles, with a delicate and refreshing splash of sauce, a perfectly semi cooked egg, and flavorful pork.

This is a dynamite dish. I could eat it everyday.

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Posted on July 10, 2012

Restaurants »Bar Suzette

At The Chelsea Market

You just can’t resist the scent of truffles. And once you’ve caught the scent you can’t duplicate with anything else. Sorry, was that all too yuppie to say? Well, regardless it’s true.

And when an after doctor appointment stroll took me to Chelsea market, Bar Suzette drew me in with truffle mozzarella crepes and I couldn’t say no. Luckily I’m so pregnant and sore and tired and hungry all the time that I didnt have to say no. Or explain the fact that it was merely a pre lunch snack.

You normals out there can partake in this as a light meal. The stand is open earlier than many of the market restaurants too, in case you need a bite on the early side.

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Posted on June 30, 2012

Restaurants »Red Hook Lobster Pound

at Smorgasburg and 284 Van Brunt Street

The Red Hook Lobster Pound lobster roll is gauaranteed to be one of the best bites at smorgasburg but it’s also one of, if not the priciest at $16. Makes it hard to accept if you want to sample lots of goodies.

So here’s a tip. For a mere (ha!) $10 you can enjoy their tarragon tinged shrimp roll which is arguably as good as their name sake sandwich.

It’s a refreshing summer bite on these record breaking hot days.

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Posted on June 28, 2012

Restaurants »Yuji Ramen

at Smorgasburg and Kinfolk Studios

I felt like I was stalking Yuji Ramen waiting for them to open for business at Smorgasburg.

A recent addition to my favorite food fair, they offered a truly unique summer ramen dish: Cold noodles,tomato sauces, strips of marinated clam and other toppings.

It was unlike any ramen I’d had and perfectly refreshing on such a muggy day.

Yuji can also be found evenings Thursday-Saturday at Kinfolk Studios. Can’t wait to drop by next week to see what they’re serving.

Delicious !!

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Posted on June 10, 2012