Red Arrow Coffee
Description on Red Arrow Coffee’s website: Wander through the garden gates, 7 days a week, from 7 am – 1 pm to our little studio to find us pulling espresso and serving up a cup of joe in a quaint, fast & casual coffee shop.
Neighborhood: Fremont/Ballard
Address: 425 NW Market St, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Macchiato
Comments: One day we were driving down NW Market St and saw a Red Arrow Coffee sign out on the sidewalk next to one of our favorite restaurants, Brimmer and Heeltap. Our interest was piqued. It turns out their outdoor section has been turned into a an outdoor cafe.
If you circle around the back of Brimmer & Heeltap building, what you’ll find is a Secret Garden-type oasis that is unlike any coffee spot in Seattle.
In a brilliant move to pivot and get creative, the owners of Brimmer & Heeltap decided to use their unused outdoor space as a cafe while the restaurant was shut down due to Covid-19. Red Arrow Coffee was opened in July and I’m really hoping they continue this space even when they reopen the restaurant.
The name Red Arrow came from the name of the general store that occupied this building many years ago. You can read more about its history here.
The cafe is located in a garage-style covered area. Coffee is from Caffe Umbria and they’ve also got Chai and Tea. They also have some liqueurs if you’d like to spice up your drinks. Not only does Red Arrow Coffee have a normal selection of house made pastries(also $1.00 pastries. Holla!) like cookies, cake slices, scones and muffins, but also house made ricotta, salad and sandwiches straight out of the Brimmer and Heeltap kitchen.
There’s a few covered tables inside the garage area, but the real attraction is the outdoor area. There’s just so much green as you can see from the pictures and a variety of outdoor sections. There are overhead heaters and a fire pit for the cold mornings. There’s a long table with barstools and there are numerous individual tables with a string of lights overhead. The small running fountain gives it that tranquil feel.
Ratings(1-5)
Favorite Thing: The entire patio full of green.
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food Options: 4.75
Overall: 4.85
Eavedropping Convo:
Related:
- Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Seattle Coffee Shops
- Best Seattle Coffee Shops For Each Stage of Dating
- Part 4 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops to Impress Visitors, Impress Visiting Coffee Snobs, Make Visitors Feel Like Locals.
- Part 5 – Best Seattle Coffee Shops for Food Options, Friendliest Service
Best Seattle Doughnut Shop Award: Family Donut Shop
Recommended by: Nobody. We’ve been to Family Donut Shop many times, but never got around to adding it to our reviews of Seattle donut shops.
Description on the Donut Factory’s website: Don’t Worry, Be Happy. We exist to help everyone achieve delightful experiences. We believe in quality, especially when it comes to a donut, taste is the key ingredient to happiness.
Neighborhood/Type: Northgate
Address: 2100 N Northgate Way, Seattle, WA 98133
What we ate/drank: See various pics below
Comments: We’ve mentioned before we consider ourselves donut connoisseurs and due to our love of donuts we’ve unintentionally turned our two daughters into budding donut experts. So it’s apropos that Family Donut Shop has become one of our favorites since family donut picking has now become a full-fledged sport in our family.
You can see our review on the two Seattle doughnut empires, Top Pot and Mighty-O, the trendy, General Porpoise Doughnuts and Dochi and the secret doughnut spot that nobody seems to talk about, Tempesta Coffee (RIP). We also just tried the relatively new Half N Half Doughnut Company and Raised Doughnuts. And we can’t forget nearby Donut Factory.
Family Donut is of course a family owned business that’s been in existence since 1993. It’s not in a trendy neighborhood nor is it’s decor modern and sleek. It’s located in a nondescript strip mall shared with a 7-Eleven. You also won’t find fancy toppings or exotic fillings.
So what do you get with Family Donut? You get a huge variety of simple solid classic doughnuts that are freshly made. And once they run out for the day, you are out of luck. So coming in early will ensure you get your full selection. They’ve got your classic maple bar, old fashioned, jelly filled, Bavarian cream filled, lemon frosting, blueberry frosting, chocolate cake, etc. They’ve also got donut holes, apple fritters, cinnamon rolls and even ham/cheese croissants.
Just take a look at the size of their apple turnover and cinnamon roll in the picture below that has a butter knife for size reference. It’s not just the size of the donut, but the taste and texture of the donut is on point. The selection is so vast and the donuts so good that when our family visits there is literally a battle royale that occurs over picking donuts. Their apple turnover made it in to our Top 15 Seattle Dishes of 2020. It’s that damn good!
It’s gotten to the point where we order a dozen instead of half a dozen because it gives every family member an equal amount of donuts divisible by four. There’s also been occasions where I wake up early, sneak out of the house and get a dozen donuts from Family Donuts to bring home, so there’s not the fighting and indecision when the entire family goes.
The customer service is what you’d expect from a family run business. It’s personal and exceptionally friendly. They’ve provided suggestions, answered all our questions and even gave our girls free donut holes while we’re picking donuts. If you get a dozen on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, you get a free latte.
The best thing about Family Donuts is the price. It is by far the best bang for your buck for Seattle donuts. The picture of the dozen donuts that includes the huge apple turnover and cinnamon roll was a total of $16.99. The is a steal in Seattle!! It also came with a free latte. Half a dozen at Top Pot is $15.39.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 5.00
Overall: 4.70
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers locals recommendation to visit in the future: One of our friends recommended Raised Doughnuts after seeing our Family Donut Shop review.
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****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things will get back to normal soon and hope you will continue to support these local businesses****
Chiang’s Gourmet
Recommended by: We realized upon writing a blog post for Dumpling The Noodle that we have never done a review of one of our favorites, Chiang’s Gourmet.
Description on the Chiang Gourmet’s website:Whether you are looking for a light lunch of award-winning dim sum, a relaxing dinner, or an elegant party, the Chiang’s attentive staff will make your visit a memorable one.
Neighborhood/Type: Lake City
Address: 7845 Lake City Way NE, Seattle, WA 98115
What we ate/drank: Pan Fried Noodle In Spicy Hot Sauce With Shrimp, Fish Fillet w/Spicy Hot Sauce On Soybean Cake, Fried Or Steamed Dumpling (8), Spicy Fried Chicken, Pan Fried Noodles Shanghai Style With Chicken, Fried Rice W/Chicken
Comments: Don’t be surprised if you’re looking for Chiang’s Gourmet and all you see is an abandoned building. The building is actually not abandoned. It just looks like it. If I had to guess, there have been no updates to Chiang’s Gourmet since it was Triple XXX Barrel Drive-In from the 1930’s that you can read about here.
Once inside Chiang’s Gourmet, there’s not much difference either. It looks like it’s been stuck in time since the building’s inception. It’s almost like you’re eating in somebody’s house. The word, “comfort” comes to mind. But let’s get one thing straight, you don’t come to Chiang’s Gourmet for ambiance. You go there for some damn good Chinese food and if making no updates to the building keeps the costs down, we’re all for it.
Chiang’s Gourmet is our favorite Chinese restaurant in Seattle and a Seattle institution for our family. We’ve eaten here when our families have come into town to visit us from other states and countries and have had many a impromptu lunches and dinners with friends. We’ve done take out on Christmas, coming home from the hospital after our daughter’s birth or whenever we’re too lazy to cook.
First thing you need to know is that there are multiple menus at Chiang’s Gourmet and if there’s one piece of advice we can give, don’t order off the “American” menu. I don’t want to disparage anybody from getting their normal egg roll, sweet & sour pork or General Tso’s chicken, but you can get these from any Chinese restaurant. I encourage you to be a bit more adventurous and order off the Chinese menu. Whenever we’ve done the ordering on behalf of family or friends who tend to “stay in their lane” when it comes to Chinese food, they’ve been pleasantly surprised.
We tend to mix it up with more traditional dishes like pan fried noodles and fried rice, but we’ve also had the more exotic spicy hot lamb w/cumin, crispy pig’s intestine in garlic & hot pepper and shredded beef tripe w/hot sauce. Our absolute favorite dish which a server recommended is the fish fillet w/spicy sauce on tofu. This was actually our 6th favorite dish of 2018:
….our favorite dish is the Fish Fillet with Spicy Sauce and Tofu. It may not look so appetizing from the photo below, but it’s damn tasty. It has generous portions of fish, but the main reason you get this dish is the sauce. It’s not overly spicy and ohh sooo.. flavorful. A hack we learned is to take the sauce home even if we eat all the fish. We then pour the sauce over rice at home and create a brand new dish. Two yummy dishes for the price of one!
We’ve made some light hearted comments about the physical appearance of Chiang’s Gourmet, which we feel adds to its charm, but there is no denying the quality of their food. There are so many dishes on their menu that we have yet to try, but we always have our mainstay dishes, because it is so damn good. Don’t forget to be adventurous.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.75
Overall: 4.65
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future:
Related Articles:
****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things will get back to normal soon and hope you will continue to support these local businesses****
Miss Cafe in Pike Place Market
Recommended by: While walking to pick up some take out from Pasta Casalinga, I noticed Miss Cafe and remembered a co-worker mentioned that they had “surfboard pizzas” there.
Description on the Miss Cafe’s website: We offer a home-style, Turkish food experience in the heart of Seattle. Our shop is filled with a variety of delicious Pide, delectable desserts and healthy platters. Our signature Turkish Pizzas are baked to perfection and topped with fresh ground beef and vegetables.
Neighborhood/Type: Downtown / Pike Place Market
Address: 1523 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98101
What we ate/drank: Doner Meat & Cheese Pide
Comments: Pide (Pronounced Pee- Day) is a flat bread with toppings baked in an oven. Pide and its various varieties are wide spread throughout Turkey, but the only other place in Seattle besides Cafe Miss that we’re aware of that serves pide is Cafe Turko.
Traditional pide as well as the pide served at Miss Cafe is indeed shaped like a surfboard. The other difference from your normal pizza is there’s no tomato sauce.
I believe the location Miss Cafe is in, which is connected to Pike Place Market, used to be a Cajun restaurant. We ordered the Donor meat and cheese pide, which comes with beef and lamb gyro meat, mozzarella cheese and tomato. It comes with a squeeze bottle of tzatiki sauce. It went well with the pide, but honestly the pide was delicious without the sauce.
The decor is nothing fancy. It’s simple with some booth seating and some outdoor benches and tables
Besides various types of pide(Vegan, pepperoni, ground beef, chicken and more), they also have various salads, meatballs, kebab, and grilled chicken. There are a couple of other dishes that caught our eye that we’ll definitely try the next time we visit Miss Cafe. One is the Lahmacun which s a flatbread with ground beef and a mix of onion, garlic, green and red peppers, and tomato. The other was the Turkish Dumplings-spiced ground beef, onion with butter sauce and yogurt.
On this occasion we were only able to have a pide, but we’ll definitely be back to try some of their other dishes. It’s also another place we can take out of town visitors when visiting Pike Place Market along with Storyville Coffee Co , Alibi Room, White Horse Trading, Maxmillien, Radiator Whiskey, Country Dough, Chan, Le Pichet, Matt’s in the Market, The Pink Door.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.00
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.40
Locals Only Factor: “Locals Only” grading-We’ll assign a grading as to how “local” a place is.
-
- Well known or Touristy. Most locals don’t go there unless they have business dinners or visitors in town.
- Most locals know about it
- Locals “in the know” know about it
- Only those who live close by know about it.
- You’re in on the secret. Don’t tell anybody!
Servers recommendations to visit in the future: Cafe Turko
Related Articles: