72 Hours in Seattle/Bellevue Part 2, Visited 8/9-8/12/2018 3.5-4 Forks

Mamnoon  1508 Melrose Ave., Seattle, WA 98122                                                                     4 Forks

I was able to stay a bit longer in Seattle to see some other friends over the weekend, which was great.  My friend Anthony suggested a delicious Middle Eastern place in a fairly cool looking part of the city (no idea what it was called) on a Friday night.  Definitely make a reservation in advance, especially if it's the weekend because this place was jam packed.

It's been a while since I was there so I apologize if my review/memory is a bit hazy but I know we got the triple dips which came with incredibly addictive soft pita, kefi, fried cauliflower, a large mixed grill plate and a fish stew that came with salmon.  It was all fantastic and super flavorful.  I remember the mixed grill having a lot of different kinds of meats to it and the stew being quite unique (who has stew with salmon - I probably wouldn't have it again but it was worth trying)?   But the star of the show was the famous fried cauliflower - it was covered in a tzatziki-like sauce and really played with the flavors in your mouth.

As I've said before in the past, Middle Eastern food is often an overlooked ethnic cuisine but it's really quite satisfying and with the exception of the pita, pretty healthy for you too!  $73/pp with tax, tip and drinks

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Duke's Seafood and Chowder 500 Bellevue Way NE, Ste 212, Bellevue, WA 98004              3.5 Forks

When you get to my age, most of your friends are not only married but they have kids (often times several), and they don't really live in the city anymore.  Which is totally fine - sometimes being in a more suburban pace is nice.  I was staying with my good friend Neera and she lives about 20 mins outside of Seattle in a very picturesque suburb called Issaquah.  It's actually much closer to Bellevue than it is to downtown Seattle, so with the two girls, it was easier to grab food near there instead. 

We went to Duke's which is standard family restaurant found inside a shopping mall.  As you can tell from it's name, it's focused primarily on seafood and chowder which was great.  They have tons of different chowders to choose from:  traditional clam chowder, Northwest seafood chowder, lobster chowder, chicken and corn chowder, or a veggie one if you really don't eat seafood.  It almost makes you feel like you're in Boston.  I couldn't decide so I got the chowder sampler (triple dinghy - $10) and opted for the clam, seafood and lobster options.  They were pretty small in size but it was a nice concept so that you can try all 3 options.  I was feeling like I needed to be healthy again, so I opted for the seafood salad here as well ($20).  This one was also huge and came with scallops, prawns, avocado, feta, bail, lemon, and olive oil and it was super finely chopped.  It definitely wasn't as good as the one at Elliott's and it was way too heavily dressed.  It also didn't have quite the variety of seafood that I would have liked.  I don't remember even finishing it but it was probably more because of the amount of food than anything else.  

I did want to highlight that the waitress was super sweet and really great with the kids (again this is what happens when you go to a restaurant in the suburbs).  It was a great place to take a family because of the booths and they have a kid friendly menu.  The rest of the adult menu is also huge and frankly super overwhelming because there's literally every kind of seafood you can think of and then they put it all together in various combo dishes too.  If you love seafood, you'll definitely find something good here and even if you don't, they tons of other options too (even for vegetarians).  Total bill:  $242 for 3 adults, 2 kids with tip and tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

72 Hours in Seattle/Bellevue Part 1, Visited 8/9-8/12/2018 3.5-4 Forks

Sushi Kudasai  10900 NE 4th St., Ste 270, Bellevue, WA 98004                                             3.5 Forks

I was excited to spend some time in the Pacific Northwest - I was in the Seattle/Bellevue area for work to visit the West team and then I tacked on a few extra days to hang out with Neera.  Shockingly, I had never been to Seattle before and I had heard the food scene it pretty good there, so I was excited to see what it was all about. 

I took the first flight out and needed some lunch before heading to the office.  I figured the fish and hence sushi should be pretty good, I looked for a place that was near the office/hotel I was staying at.  This place popped up as a 5 min walk from my hotel and it looked to be a popular lunch time spot for the Bellevue crowd.  It's a walk-up counter sushi place, so it's very informal and casual.  You order and pick up your food and then take it to a table.  They got a a pretty extensive line up of rolls and poke bowls.  I decided to try out the ichi roll  ($7) and a creamy poke bowl ($14).  The ichi roll was a tuna, spicy tuna, avocado and cucumber roll.  It was huge and way to big to eat in one bite.  The tuna was also too mashed up so I kind of left like I was eating bad tuna - even though it tasted totally fine.  The poke bowl was pretty tasty and had all of my favorite things to put in a poke bowl - tuna, salmon, crabmeat, seaweed salad, cucumber, avocado, scallion, ginger and masago.  The "creamy" sauce was ponzu sauce, spicy mayo and sesame oil, but it was a bit too heavy on the mayo part for my taste.  It was on a bed of salad and rice.  

Looking back, I would have been fine without the roll for lunch but I felt like I had to try it out.  It was definitely full by lunch time - there were people from Expedia, Microsoft and other tech companies in the area.  It definitely felt like a mini-SF scene with everyone looking like they walked off the set of "Silicon Valley".   Total bill:  $21 with tip and tax

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Elliott's Oyster House 1201 Alaskan Way Ste 100, Seattle, WA 98101                                       4 Forks

Everyone has been asking me how I like my new job so far and the answer is that I like it!  One of the reasons is because of the great people there.  It's always fun to be surrounded by like-minded folks who share your interests and luckily the one thing we all love is food!  The West team took me out to the Pier in Seattle and we all gorged on pretty delicious seafood (I mean, when in Rome right?).  

We started with a bunch of fantastic West Coast oysters and the celebration platter (chilled dungeness crab, more oysters, snow crab claws, and a variety of sauce - $90) while I got the white clam chowder ($5)  to start as well.  I got suckered into also getting the crab cakes because it was made with dungeness crab ($18) but to be honest, it wasn't that great as it had too much filler (when will I learn?!?!).  For my main, I had the seafood salad ($26) which I know is a bit unusual for me but I remember last time I was at a team dinner in NYC and I really wanted the seafood salad but got a lame steak sandwich instead and I really regretted that decision.  I figured if I was going to get seafood salad anywhere, it should be Seattle.  And you know what?  It was pretty damn good.  It was a huge portion, so I definitely felt full and it was full of shrimp, scallop, crab corn relish, avocado, heirloom tomatoes, cucumber, mixed greens and a dijon-shallot vinaigrette sauce.  Not only did I enjoy it but it was pretty healthy too. 

The one negative to our meal was that the service was beyond painful.  It was so slow and we had to wave people down constantly.  I know it's a busy restaurant in a pretty touristy spot, but it really was ridiculous.  Someone else picked up the bill so I'm not sure how much the total bill was but I thought the prices were fairly reasonable for the quality and amount of seafood.  

Photo Credit:  Yelp

Din Tai Fung 700 Bellevue Way NE #280, Bellevue, WA 98004                                                4 Forks

Din Tai Fung has a pretty huge cult following and I know that in the past I kind of poo-poo'd it when I was in Taiwan but the truth is that it's pretty damn good.  I'm not sure it deserves the insane devotion that most people give it but if you're looking for a consistently solid, tasty Chinese food place, this is a winner.  Luckily for the Bellevue team, there is a location right across the street from them and it gets super packed at lunch time. 

We had to lie and say we had a smaller group of people just so we could get a booth and squeeze in about 8 people into it.  We pretty much ordered the entire menu:  every kind of soup dumpling, delicious green beans (I know it sounds lame to love green beans but there were amazing), spinach, shrimp shu mai, fried rice with pork, spicy wontons, and steam buns.  It looked like we had never eaten before judging by the amount of food we ordered.  But we devoured all of it.  The best part of the whole meal is that nothing is really that expensive - I think the most expensive thing on the menu is $12 or $13.  The joys of Chinese food. 

I'll admit that I really love the meal and wished that there was one in NYC but I can only imagine the shitshow it would be if there was one.  There aren't that many locations in the US and they are all on the West Coast, so for that reason alone, it's definitely worth a visit unless you'll be in Asia anytime soon. 

Photo Credit: Yelp