Any Seattle Foodies want to recommend a fine place to eat?

Evil Chris Priestly

I'm a food snob. Sure, I likes me some bacon waffles same as the next person, but if I get the chance, I want the good stuff. And, since BioWare is covering my costs for PAX (have I mentioned how cool it is to work for BioWare?), I'm looking for a fine dining experience during my stay in Seattle.

I'm thinking of visiting at least one of the Tom Douglas restaurants (Dahlai 's, Etta's Lola's and Serious Pie) , but I'm open to any suggestions. I'd rather keep it in the downtown area, but if anyone has anyplace they'd recommend, let me know. Ethnic food is excellent (all of them), Seafood is a must for a prairie boy like me, or just any strongly recommended place. Thanks all.



:evil:

TrainwreckX

Agua Verde in North Seattle is an absolute must if you have any desire for Mexican food. There is good sushi and thai all over too. I haven't heard any of my Indian food snob friends ever compliment an Indian place in the area, so you may want to avoid that. I don't know man, it's Seattle. We are famous for food... and coffee

Doc

Go down to Ivar's Acres of Clams. It's at the Puget Sound end of Madison street. That's some really good seafood, and they have lots of stuff other than clams. If you are in a hurry you can buy from their fast-food-ish shack thing, but for really good eats, go to the sit-down restaurant.

Doc

TrainwreckX wrote: »

Agua Verde in North Seattle is an absolute must if you have any desire for Mexican food. There is good sushi and thai all over too. I haven't heard any of my Indian food snob friends ever compliment an Indian place in the area, so you may want to avoid that. I don't know man, it's Seattle. We are famous for food... and coffee

Ceder's is good, but it's in the U District, a fair distance North of downtown.

Royale Wih Cheese

I highly recommend Ipanema's . . . fantastic Brazilian place. They give you a card with a red side and a green side . . . the green side causes servers to continually walk up to you and offer cuts of kickass steaks, shrimp, etc. Very tasty and not too unreasonable on the price; I got out of there under $50 with a few drinks.

Oh, stay away from their liquor, though. There's better places to go for the boozes, and I was distinctly underwhelmed with Brazilian liquor. Strong enough, but . . . not really satisfying. You can take your pick of martini bars within a block and make out better, IMO. My personal favorite is Marcus' Martini Heaven, for the atmosphere.

We have the usual high-end chains, like Ruth's Chris and Morton's, and they're very good. Expensive as fook, though.

I heard there's a very good seafood shack over by the Pike market, but I can't say from experience. Been meaning to get over there and try it out myself.

Heard bad things about the restaurant at the top of the Space Needle; a few of my buddies went in unprepared on dates and got burned. Mediocre food, great view (which is gratis), and astronomical price, from what they say.

Hope this helps! :-)

atray

Theres a few food threads floating around. I recommend this thread it has some pretty useful info in it if your looking for some local favorites.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=25288

TrainwreckX

Doc wrote: »

Go down to Ivar's Acres of Clams. It's at the Puget Sound end of Madison street. That's some really good seafood, and they have lots of stuff other than clams. If you are in a hurry you can buy from their fast-food-ish shack thing, but for really good eats, go to the sit-down restaurant.

Oh yeah, I'll second this as well.

Doc

Royale Wih Cheese wrote: »

I highly recommend Ipanema's . . . fantastic Brazilian place. They give you a card with a red side and a green side . . . the green side causes servers to continually walk up to you and offer cuts of kickass steaks, shrimp, etc. Very tasty and not too unreasonable on the price; I got out of there under $50 with a few drinks.

Yeah, there are rodizio places in lots of cities. To give you an idea of how awesome it usually is, I'd give the Ipanema Grill a 6 or 7 out of 10 compared to other places. If you've never been to a rodizio place, it's definitely worth it, though.

leaf

I'd rather know a good coffee shop rather than the usual starbucks fare.

TrainwreckX

leaf wrote: »

I'd rather know a good coffee shop rather than the usual starbucks fare.

There are tons of local coffee shops with a great vibe that AREN'T Starbucks (though that is Seattle coffee). Anyway, you'll have to ask somebody else about those, as I don't drink coffee all that often.

atray

Cherry Street Coffee Shop http://cherrystreetcoffeehouse.com/
Maes Phinney Ridge (awesome breakfast too!!) http://www.maescafe.com/
Pegasus Coffee Bar

Those are just a few places.

TNTrooper

Any good burger place near the center?

Note-My previous experience with Dicks after seeing a ton of people swear by it has me convinced you guys in Seattle don't know much about burgers. Fix that.

atray

http://www.owlnthistle.com/owlhome.html
Owl n Thistle only .8 miles away.

Royale Wih Cheese

Doc wrote: »

Royale Wih Cheese wrote: »

I highly recommend Ipanema's . . . fantastic Brazilian place. They give you a card with a red side and a green side . . . the green side causes servers to continually walk up to you and offer cuts of kickass steaks, shrimp, etc. Very tasty and not too unreasonable on the price; I got out of there under $50 with a few drinks.

Yeah, there are rodizio places in lots of cities. To give you an idea of how awesome it usually is, I'd give the Ipanema Grill a 6 or 7 out of 10 compared to other places. If you've never been to a rodizio place, it's definitely worth it, though.

Jebus, really? Is there a 9 or 10 around here, then? Must just be because I'm not used to that style of dining, I guess, but I was quite impressed. Suppose some good liquor would have brought it up a few notches; there was that, but I can't imagine bringing the quality of the meats up much further. Though it would be quite delicious to see it come to pass :-P

That place came the closest to my very favorite dining experience of all time, which was the Bellagio champagne brunch. <salivates> That and the Spice Market made Las Vegas for me :-) There's just something about having unlimited, high quality eats at the beck and call that makes me . . . happy!

Moe Fwacky

Seeing people use "Jebus" never ceases to make me smile.

skwisgaar Skwigelf

Down in the University District is this awesome Mongolian grill. It's called Ruzhen. Try it, LOVE IT.

Aerothorn

Schultzy's on The Ave (University Ave.). They make these killer sausage-burgers - I'm a vegetarian these days but I remember them fondly.

badrew

I was watching the food network the other day and they had a segment on a place called Salumi. Its owned by the dad of iron chef batali, and apparently has some pretty great cured meats and homemade gnocchi. It looks about 8-10 blocks from PAX, just short enough to walk and just far enough to get out of the PAX crowd for lunch I would imagine (and into another crowd)

http://salumicuredmeats.com/

Druhim

Doc wrote: »

Go down to Ivar's Acres of Clams. It's at the Puget Sound end of Madison street. That's some really good seafood, and they have lots of stuff other than clams. If you are in a hurry you can buy from their fast-food-ish shack thing, but for really good eats, go to the sit-down restaurant.

I actually just ate there a couple of night ago. I highly recommend the grilled Alaskan halibut served on top of mashed yukon golds and portabellos sauteed in olive oil and garlic, then drizzled with truffle oil. The other thing I'd add about the location is that although the food is quite good, the ambiance can be lacking as you get a lot of families in their with kids so it can be rather annoying if you're right next to a family with four kids.

Druhim

Oh, I also highly recommend you stop in at Salumi if you can manage it. It's down by Pioneer Square so pretty easy to get to, but they're only open Tues-Fri 11-4. However if you can make it for lunch, it's well worth it. They cure most of the meats in house (one exception is the lamb prosciutto-but I feel the lamb was far too gamy for prosciutto) and it's a small store with few tables so you just sit where you can, which may be at a table with eight or nine total strangers which is half the fun. Expect a fairly long line up until 1:30-2:00. I heartily recommend you at least try their finocchiona.

edit: duh, I missed badrew's post but still I can speak from personal experience instead of just word of mouth

spydey

badrew wrote: »

I was watching the food network the other day and they had a segment on a place called Salumi. Its owned by the dad of iron chef batali, and apparently has some pretty great cured meats and homemade gnocchi. It looks about 8-10 blocks from PAX, just short enough to walk and just far enough to get out of the PAX crowd for lunch I would imagine (and into another crowd)

http://salumicuredmeats.com/

I saw that a few months ago, and have been wanting to check that place out this year. I also want to check out Apizza. http://www.apizzascholls.com/

Druhim

spydey wrote: »

badrew wrote: »

I was watching the food network the other day and they had a segment on a place called Salumi. Its owned by the dad of iron chef batali, and apparently has some pretty great cured meats and homemade gnocchi. It looks about 8-10 blocks from PAX, just short enough to walk and just far enough to get out of the PAX crowd for lunch I would imagine (and into another crowd)

http://salumicuredmeats.com/

I saw that a few months ago, and have been wanting to check that place out this year. I also want to check out Apizza. http://www.apizzascholls.com/

As I mentioned above, note that Salumi is only open Tues-Fri from 11-4 and expect long lines up till 1:30 or 2:00.

ElectricTurtle

atray wrote: »

Theres a few food threads floating around. I recommend this thread it has some pretty useful info in it if your looking for some local favorites.

http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=25288

My restaurant related posts are in that thread too, so it should be checked out like a library book.

causabon

leaf wrote: »

I'd rather know a good coffee shop rather than the usual starbucks fare.

Are you going to be up on Capitol Hill?

Espresso Vivace, Denny Way just east of Broadway - fantastically good coffee
Victrola, 15th Ave. at Harrison - also excellent

Both are pretty convenient to the convention center, especially if you catch a bus right outside the front door: 10 (Victrola) / 43 (both) / 49 (Vivace).

BlackDragon480

Does anyone from the area know if there is a sushi place that can serve fugu. I know of Shiki, but it only offers it during the winter months, the traditional season. While some would call me barbaric for wanting a delicacy out of season, I don't get to either coast much, and pretty much all the licensed chefs in the US work in either New York or California. So I was wanting to try it while I'm in Seattle.

Slickriptide

Since you've requested fine dining and money is apparently no object, I'd suggest Mistral. It'd be a short cab ride from the convention center. If you want something within walking distance, I'd recommend Thirteen Coins and Uwajimaya. Every city has a couple of restaurants that have been a part of the city for as long as anyone can remember. Thirteen Coins is one of those. It's worth dropping in if you're looking for a late meal and you dont' want to travel far. Uwajimaya is the prototypical Japanese grill where they chop things up and cook them at your table. Mistral is a very pricy but very good fancy dining restaurant.

If you end up at the waterfront, check out the alder smoked salmon walkup restaurant.

Druhim

Slickriptide wrote: »

Since you've requested fine dining and money is apparently no object, I'd suggest Mistral. It'd be a short cab ride from the convention center. If you want something within walking distance, I'd recommend Thirteen Coins and Uwajimaya. Every city has a couple of restaurants that have been a part of the city for as long as anyone can remember. Thirteen Coins is one of those. It's worth dropping in if you're looking for a late meal and you dont' want to travel far. Uwajimaya is the prototypical Japanese grill where they chop things up and cook them at your table. Mistral is a very pricy but very good fancy dining restaurant.

If you end up at the waterfront, check out the alder smoked salmon walkup restaurant.

Uwajimaya is an asian market, not a grill (though they have a food court but it's all borderline fast food). As far as 13 Coins, I've lived here for 28 years and I don't get the fascination with this place aside from the history. The food I've had there has usually just been ok but nothing to brag about and they make just about the lamest eggs benedict I've ever had.

There are much better places to go if you're from out of town.

AceRimmer

You said Uwajimaya, but you meant Beni Hana.

Druhim

Yeah, that's probably what he meant but it's still an odd suggestion because it's not really local. It's a global chain and we should really be recommending places that people can only experience in Seattle imo.

atray

although I would highly recommend checking out Uwajimaya it is an awesome japanese grocery store/restaurants/book store

Druhim

Also, if you happen to hit up Uwajimaya for some shopping for asian candy/sodas/etc and you happen to like good ramen (nothing like the instant crap), check out Samurai Noodle on the west side of the block. Not saying it's the best ramen but it is pretty good and I particularly like their version of tsukemen although if you really like pork the tonkotsu has been referred to as liquid pig. Very rich and very popular.

Royale Wih Cheese

And check out the bubble tea stand. Smokin hot girls, let me show you them.

Oh, and the tea's good, too. :-)

Misterioso

Salumi's is very good for lunch. FYI for you foodies, it is run by Mario Batali's father & family.

I'll only bring up Dick's Drive In since somebody slammed it. It's a Seattle favorite for a quick burger, fries and shake. If you want something that is not fast-foodish, then Red Mill is probably one of our best.

Druhim

Red Mill is another one of those "legendary" places that I think is overrated. They do have the best onion rings I've ever tasted, but the burgers themselves are just good, not fantastic by any stretch of the imagination. And I mean the burger itself. Yeah, the sauce is good and you can get the anaheim burger with a roasted anaheim chili on it but that's all dressing up the core which is in the end rather bland beef compared to some places.

spidweb

I'm a longtime local foodie, and I can make some very solid recommendations in the actual area of PAX. Some of the recommendations in this thread are, I'm afraid, pretty bone-chillingly bad. While 13 Coins, Benihana, Mae's Phinny Ridge and Ivar's are fine, sort of, I suppose, if you really care about your food, you can do much better, much closer.

Salumi was mentioned repeatedly. Salumi is a treasure, unique and nationally reknowned. It's also seriously busy and only open weekday afternoons. A prime foodie destination, however.

The convention center is surrounded by the super-touristy downtown shopping area. There are a bunch of expensive, middlebrow places to eat, especially in the nearby Pacific Place mall. To get the good food, however, walk five blocks west (i.e. toward the water) to the Pike Place Market.

There, the restaurants Cafe Campagne, Le Pichet, Matts in the Market, and Etta's are all superb. Reservations recommended. Get calling. Haven't you heard there's a convention in town?

But if you really want to hit the foodie mother lode, from the Pike Place, walk five blocks north. You will be in Belltown, home of smack addicts, condo-dwelling yuppies, and the highest concentration of truly good restaurants in this fishing village.

Place of note, off the top of my head, include Flying Fish (amazing fish place), Lampreia (very pricey, recommendations required, famous, world class), Restaurant Zoe, and El Gaucho (steak!).

Other good places nearby are the Tom Douglas places: Palace Kitchen (a personal fave), Dahlia Lounge, and Lola. Read of them here.

http://tomdouglas.com/

If you're a burger and a beer type, just keep moving. Nothing to see here. If you want to drop some money to see how vibrant and innovative the Seattle food scene has become (and want to stay within walking distance of PAX), here you are.

- Jeff Vogel
Spiderweb Software, Award-winning Fantasy role-playing games
for Mac and Windows. Huge, free Demos!
http://www.spiderwebsoftware.com

TrainwreckX

BlackDragon480 wrote: »

Does anyone from the area know if there is a sushi place that can serve fugu. I know of Shiki, but it only offers it during the winter months, the traditional season. While some would call me barbaric for wanting a delicacy out of season, I don't get to either coast much, and pretty much all the licensed chefs in the US work in either New York or California. So I was wanting to try it while I'm in Seattle.

I've actually heard fugu isn't very good. That's just what my sushi-enthusiast friends say.

KaitouAyashi

If you've ever wanted to try fondue, I really enjoyed the Melting Pot. You can drive or cab there from downtown.

Icithis

Misterioso wrote: »

Salumi's is very good for lunch. FYI for you foodies, it is run by Mario Batali's father & family.

Seconded, thirded and fourthed. If you want to spend money to impress someone, by all means eat at a 5 star restaurant which ends up having 3 of those stars in atmosphere, and 2 in food. If you want something delicious, regardless of the price (meaning both ways) then definitely eat there while you're here.

Edit: Heavily agree with everything Spidweb said.

JCRooks

Yes, Salumi's is awesome. It's usually quite busy and crowded though, so make sure you have some time. Also, it's closed on the weekends, and lunch-only, so sadly, if you're only in for the weekend, you're out of luck.

If you find yourself on the Eastside (otherwise known as "Microsoft country"), you might want to check out the Barking Frog. There are also plenty of good Indian restaurants around the MS campus, as well as sushi places.

For other food information, check out Seattle CitySearch: http://seattle.citysearch.com/

Icithis

For Indian Food, Taj Palace in Bellevue is great. 8$ all you can eat buffet for lunch. For sushi on the east side, I prefer http://www.ilovesushi.com/ (Bellevue Main is the only one I've eaten at) after trying just about every sushi place I've seen in the greater seattle area.

katherine_84f

Any suggestions for quick-ish lunch, within walking distance? I'd hate to eat at the food-court-like places at the actual convention center, however we ARE here for the convention, so a 1 hour lunch is really out of the question. Here in Chicago we have some really nice bistros, cafes, and bakeries that can get a quick, decent lunch for $10 or so - that's kind of what I'm looking for. Unfortunately I'm the only foodie in my group so that's about all I can convince them to spend on lunch Oh, and a burger joint would be great too (got anything similar to In And Out?)

On a similar note, we're going to breakfast at Cafe Nola on Friday morning, probably around 8-9 am. They apparently have some of the best french toast in the city, and have been featured on the food network as such. You even get to take a ferry ride to get there! Message me if you're interested in checking it out with us.