****NOTE: This review was done prior to the Covid-19 outbreak. Of course, things are much different at the moment, but we hope things get back to normal soon and hope you will continue these local businesses****
Cantinetta
Recommended by: After having created blog posts on some of our favorite Italian restaurants such as Via Tribulani, Tavolata, Pasta Casalinga, Cantinetta and Bizzarro Italian Cafe. We realized we’ve never done a blog pot on our favorite Italian restaurant in Seattle.
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Description on the Cantinetta’s website: We are an Italian restaurant based in Seattle, Washington specializing in Tuscan culinary traditions, authentic hand-made pasta and seasonal, organic ingredients from the Pacific Northwest.
Neighborhood/Type: Wallingford
Address: 3650 Wallingford Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
What we ate/drank: Various. See below.
Comments: When Seattle restaurants briefly opened back up in the Fall of 2020, the first restaurant we decided to go to after 6 months of not being able to dine in, was Cantinetta. That shows how much we love Cantinetta.
This small unassuming restaurant is right in the middle of Wallingford. And when we say right in the middle, I mean it really is in the middle of the neighborhood away from most of the Wallingford businesses on the main street of 45th. It really has an initmate neighborhood feel with high society dishes.
Cantinetta is located on a corner It’s a very intimate setting with huge windows that lets in a lot of sunshine during the daylight hours, but when sun goes down and the lights dim, it’s transformed to a romantic ambiance.
Another cool feature is the open window into the kitchen, which gives you a show of how the meals are prepared and cooked. Like most great Italian restaurants, they had huge wine list of both Italian and PNW wines.
The dishes are always new every time we visit so we know we’ll have something new to try. Two of our favorite dishes we’ve ever had Cantinetta were co-winners of our Top Seattle Dishes of 2018. Here’s an excepr:
Cantinetta -Co Winner Dishes: Tomato Farfalle, rabbit sausage, basil and Tagliatelle,guanciale, farm egg, black pepper
This little Italian gem of restaurant in Wallingford could have had seriously 5 or 6 dishes in the top 15 dishes we had in 2018. The Lopez Island Clams with Nduja Sausage, Shallots, Vino Blanco, the Black Pepper Tagliatelle, Carbonara, Prosciutto, and the Flank Steak with Black Trumpet Mushrooms and Port Butter also could have made the top 15 but the best dishes of 2018 are….
Tomato Farfalle, rabbit sausage, basil– The main issue we had with this dish is that it was a small portion and it was gone and eaten in no time. We really don’t order farfalle that often and basil is not one of my favorite herbs, but I was really interested in the rabbit sausage, so we ordered this dish. So glad we did. Put it all together and it was perfect. No one ingredient overpowered the others and together worked so well. The minty-ness of the basil, the tomato farfalle pasta combined with the slightly gamey, but so savory sausages. Perfect.
Tagliatelle, guanciale, farm egg, black pepper– So simple, so good. It was like a spin on a carbonara. Again, with a raw egg yoke it already had an advantage to being named a best dish of the year. Combined with hand made Tagliatelle and quality cured meat from the jowl/cheek of pork and it got us wondering how something so simple could be so damn good. We broke the yoke, mixed it all up, devoured it and ordered it again.
Here are some of the other dishes we’ve had in our many visits. Lopez Island Clams, nduja sausage, shallots, vino bianco 15. Pane della Casa – house-made focaccia, extra virgin olive oil 3.5. Black Pepper Tagliatelle, carbonara, prosciutto 20. Flank Steak, black trumpet mushrooms, port butter 29
$45
Most of these dishes are 5 out 5, so when we taste one that is 4 out of 5 here, we are surprised even though a 4 out of 5 would be great at any other restaurant. We are so used to Cantinetta being great, they have an unfair standard in our eyes, but more times than not they exceed our expectations.
Friendly and educated service that sets the stage for the dishes and drinks you’re about to enjoy.
Great for date night, intimate dinners with guests from out of town or small celebrations for birthdays, graduations or anniversaries. We came to Cantinetta for our anniversary. Cantinetta may not be a good fit for parties over 4, maybe 6 max and I’d definitely get a reservation.
Everybody we know who’s been to Cantinetta loves it. Loves it. But we are shocked by how many locals have never been there. Like we mentioned, it’s not in a trendy restaurant neighborhood like Capitol Hill, Ballard or Belltown. And it’s not even on the main street of Wallingford, which may be the reason it doesn’t get a lot of publicity. All we know is that when we’re getting ready to go to Cantinetta we get giddy, because we know we’re in for a special evening.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.75
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:
Secret Congee
Recommended by: On one of our trips to pick up from Dumpling The Noodle, we noticed around the corner a group of people standing out in the rain. We assumed that if people were willing to stand out in the rain for something it must be good. We did some research and figured out people were getting congee.
Description on the Secret Congee’s website: Secret Congee is a congee specialist shop located in the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle. Our congee is authentically influenced by the South East Asia style of cooking.
Neighborhood/Type: Wallingford
Address: 4405 Wallingford Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103
What we ate/drank: Garlic Blue Crab Congee – 3 ounces of blue crab lump meat. Fried garlic. Jasmine rice cooked in chicken bone broth. Chopped ginger and scallion. Pepper. Soy sauce -$16. Tom Yum Shrimp Congee – Colossal shrimps. Fried garlic. Jasmine rice cooked in chicken bone broth. Chopped cilantro and scallion. Pepper. Tom Yum sauce -$14.00. Slow-Cooked Beef & Kimchi Congee – Slow-cooked prime brisket. Jasmine rice cooked in chicken bone broth. Young’s Kimchi. Chopped scallion. Pepper. Sesame oil -$14.00
Comments: I give credit to any restaurant that decides to open during the pandemic. Secret Congee, which opened in October, is actually located in Juisala, which is a vegan smoothie and juice bar. It’s located right off the busy corner of N 45th St & Wallingford Ave and is a take-out only operation.
Congee is a thick rice porridge that’s found throughout Asia. It’s Asia’s version of what chicken soup is to Americans. It’s a meal often given when people are ill. The rice porridge is often served with different types of toppings depending on what country your in. And as far as I know Secret Congee is the only place in Seattle that really focuses on congee as the main dish.
Before diving into each individual dish, what we enjoyed most about the congee, is that the flavor is not reliant on the toppings. The toppings add to it. If you eat the congee all on it’s own without the toppings, it’s still a very flavorful dish, but the toppings definitely take it to another level. Even though it’s take-out, the presentation is still very good and the congee was delivered piping hot.
It also mentions on Secret Congee’s website that “in an effort to help with sustainability, we use organic meats and sustainable seafood in all of our congee choices.” if that matters to you.
My favorite is the Beef & Kimchi Congee. The beef is perfectly seasoned and paired with the kimchi and congee provides the perfect “slurp”. Savory, a bit spicy and warm.
Slow-cooked prime brisket. Jasmine rice cooked in chicken bone broth. Young’s Kimchi. Chopped scallion. Pepper. Sesame oil. $14
My wife’s favorite is the Tom Yum Shrimp Congee. We weren’t sure what to expect mixing Tom Yum’s sourness with congee, but it really works. What we really loved is the size and quantity of the shrimp . There were 5 huge pieces of jumbo shrimp that we were not expecting.
The Garlic Blue Crab Congee was no slouch either. Like the shrimp, we were shocked by the amount and size of the crab toppings. The fried garlic and ginger were perfect compliments(again) to each other and the congee. A really good combination of flavors.
You can also add in for $1 a soft boiled egg or a century egg. The other side you can get is Youtiao Crispy Fried Dough which is great for dipping in the congee.
We’re not gonna lie, the price is a bit on the high side for the quantity, but trust us, the topping quality and the amount of toppings(especially the crab and shrimp) along with the deliciousness make it worth it in our minds.
Secret Congee is only open from Wednesday – Sunday in between 11AM – 3PM, so if you are ordering for dinner, you’d better plan ahead.
We ordered from Secret Congee right around the time of the February 2021 snow storm in Seattle and this was the perfect cold weather comfort meal to get us warmed up. Quality ingredients and ample amounts of toppings. The other thing about congee as a hot comfort food it keeps better for take-out/delivery better than some of our other comfort foods like pho or ramen.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: N/A Take Out only
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.60
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:
Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen
Recommended by: Nobody. With our recent patronage of Chi Mac right down the street on The Ave, we continue our visit to Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen.
Description on the Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen’s Facebook Page: We at Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen aim to provide our costumers with a uniquely Venezuelan dining experience.
Neighborhood/Type: University District
Address:1405 NE 50th St, Seattle, WA 98105
Type: Venezuelan
What we ate/drank: Best Bart Arepa-Pork and Shredded Beef w/cilantro sauce, Reina Pepiada Arepa-Chicken, avocado salad, mayonnaise.Chicken Empanada $9.65. Stuffed corn turnover filled with chicken. Beef Empanada $9.65. Stuffed corn turnover filled with beef. Pabellon Bowl -$9.95. Shredded beef, plantain, black beans & grated Monterey jack cheese with rice. Chochina Felix Arepas -$9.10. Signature pork, tomato & cilantro sauce. White corn-meal pockets.
Comments: Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen is located a few blocks down the street from our last review, Sip House. It’s an unassuming little place right off The Ave(University Ave) on 50th. Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen is family owned and established in 2015.
Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen specializes in arepas as you might have guessed. For those not familiar with arepas, it’s similar to the Mexican dish, gorditas and consists of a handmade corn flour, which is then grilled and stuffed with meats, veggies and sauces.
Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen has 19 different types of arepas, so you’re sure to find one to your liking. We were told that the Cochina Felix pictured below was one of their most popular. They have some vegetarian options, but have meat options of pork, chicken shredded beef, sirloin strip steaks and even hamburger. These are accompanied by cilantro sauces, cheeses, avocado salad, and various vegetables.
The arepas are made to order and the menu states that it takes about 15-20 minutes. Besides arepas, they also have empanadas that come three to an order. What makes these empanadas different from the ones we’ve had in the past is that these are deep fried instead of baked. We actually like the crispy outside and the filling is jam packed and really tasty. Of the beef and chicken empanadas we ordered, we really enjoyed the beef.
Another dish we’ve gotten is the Pabellon bowl. It’s a similar dish we had at Mojito, where we discovered that this was the national dish of Venezuela. Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen is known for their arepas, but this dish was our favorite. It comes with sweet fried plantains, perfectly seasoned shredded beef, black beans and cheese over rice. The below picture might be misleading, the amount of shredded beef was substantial and went all the way down to the bottom of the bowl.
There aren’t many Venezuelan options in Seattle. As you would expect being near The Ave, Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen is a no-frills quaint and welcoming spot. Their food is a great take-out option and very much like Sip House is a great option when going to the University Farmers Market
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.50
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:
Kakigori
Recommended by: A reader advised us of a new challenger to Snowy Village called, Kakigori that also specializes in Instagramable bingsoo.
Description on the Kakigori’s website: They ain’t got one.
Neighborhood/Type: Central District
Address: 2207 E Madison St, Seattle, WA 98112
What we ate/drank: Mango Sticky Rice Bingsoo
Comments: We love Snowy Village in the University District, so when we heard another bingsoo place opened, we had to check it out.
Kakigori is kinda out of the way for us, but we just had lunch at Musang, so we stopped here on the way home. It’s located on the bottom floor of a newer apartment building and right next to a Safeways.
It’s a newer modern interior. It’s small and clean with floor to ceiling windows which make it really bright. When we got there nobody was behind the counter and we had to wait awhile for somebody to take our order.
We had the mango sticky rice bingsoo with coconut milk. It was definitely picture worthy with a little R2D2 added on top for good measure. It was a mountain of mangos with sticky rice on the side. Definitely enough for 2 people.
This is the thai tea mochi with red bean paste
Source: Yelp
This is the watermelon bingsoo that actually comes in a watermelon rind.
Kakigori is a worthy advisory for Snowy Village, but we like Snowy Village a little bit better. We liked the shaved ice and condensed milk more than the sticky rice and coconut milk.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 4.25
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.35
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:
Wandering Goose- The place we deemed, “Our Favorite Breakfast Spot in Seattle” and home of The Sawmill, our 10th best dish of Seattle in 2019. Announced their permanent closure the last week of December. Needless to say, this place(and their dishes) will be sorely missed.
Il Corvo – The place we deemed, “The Best Pasta in Seattle”. This is perhaps the place we’ll miss the most. So good, so cheap. There were lines out the door up until stay-at-home directive shuttered the restaurant in March. We’d been huge fans of Il Corvo ever since it was a one burner lunch spot located in a gelato shop near Pike Place Market. All is not lost though. Chef Mike Easton still has Il Nido out in West Seattle.
El Diablo Coffee– In our Seattle Coffee Shop Awards blog posts, we deemed El Diablo the Best Coffee Shop for Big Groups and one of the Best Coffee Shops to Make Visitors Feel Like Locals. El Diablo was located up on Queen Anne Hill, but it stood out for its unique quality of being in a house. The space was one of the biggest in Seattle and for us parents, the dedicated room for kids was a god send.
Tempesta Coffee – This closure is a double punch in the gut, because not only did we think it was the most underrated coffee shop in Seattle as documented here, but also had some of the best doughnuts in Seattle. Located in Belltown, we understand we they are closing since they really rely on downtown and SLU commuters for the majority of their business. Damn, we’ll miss their Americanos.
Caffe Vita – Phinney Ridge – Don’t worry folks, the other Caffe Vita location around Seattle remain in business. You can visit those or nearby Herkimer Coffee – Phinney Ridge a few yards away. We’ll best remember this location for a conversation we overheard where a guy thought John Lennon was over rated as his girlfriend called him out for humming along to the song playing overhead. We documented the conversation in our review.
Some others that we’ll miss:
Steelhead Diner – We never created a blog post for this spot, but we would eat here occasionally for lunch. The real reason this closure hits us in the feels is that we had our wedding reception here in their secluded room off the main restaurant area. They were excellent in working with us creating a menu for our guests and concocting a signature themed cocktail for the event. Whenever we revisited, we could reminisce about that special day, but no more. 🙁
Suika – We had a blog post all tee’d up to be published when we heard the news that they were closing. Luckily their sister restaurant, Tamari Bar remains in business
Cafe Racer – We frequented this bar and had brunches there occasionally. It closed down once before after the tragic events that happened here in 2012, and was reopened a few years later.
Bamboo Garden in Lower Queen Anne was a long time institution and I remember it being one of the first restaurants i frequented with co-workers as poor young 20-somethings.
Bastille– Even with the present environment, this one was a bit of a surprise. Bastille always seemed to be crowded and their croque madame was one of the best in the city. Their Paris subway decor was also unique for Seattle.
The Ram in University Village. Alas, there are no more Ram restaurants in the greater Seattle restaurants. We’d come here frequently to watch football and basketball games in their massive bar area pre-kids. It was a great place to meet up with friends to watch games because there was plenty of seating. Post-kids we were relegated to the restaurant area, but they had decent solid burgers. The nearest locations are now in Kent and Issaquah.
Related:
This is always one of our more enjoyable posts of the year as it winds down. It allows us to review all the great dishes we’ve had throughout the year and debate which ones belong in our top 15. When we first started on this post, we thought we’d have a hard time finding 15 dishes considering that we haven’t been out much due to Covid-19 causing us to stay home for most of the year. Surprisingly, we didn’t have any problems and actually had a hard time whittling it down to 15.
We’ve already counted down our Best Seattle Dishes of 2020, 15 through 8.
Without further ado, here are our Best Seattle Dishes of 2020, 7 through 1:
7. Paju-$16. Paju Fried Rice – Kimchi, bacon, squid ink, smoked quail egg
Excerpt from our blog post:
Saving the best for last. The Paju Fried Rice contains bacon, kimchi, rice immersed in squid ink with rice with a smoked quail egg yolk in the middle. So many different textures -gooey egg yolk, crunchy kimchi, sticky rice. So many different flavors – smokey, sweet, savory, but none overpowering the others. Such a distinctive dish both visually and taste-wise. You won’t find anything like this in Seattle. This is the dish we’ll get over and over on return visits. I’d love it if they could add more quail eggs. The egg is only able to be mixed with a small percentage of the rice. Definitely, an early contender for top 2020 Dishes of the Year.
6. Salare – $17. Beef Tartare – Sunchoke Chips, Capers & Smoked Egg Vinaigrette
We’re suckers for beef tartare. And as mentioned in our in our Best Dishes of 2018 blog post, we order it whenever we see it on the menu. And as expected when visiting Salare for dinner, we knew it was going to be a quality dish. Bits of capers and onion and bound by raw egg yolk, it’s all that we were hoping for.
5. Fil Cuisine – $20. Sisig -Savory morsels of roasted pork with onions, chilis & citrus juice, placed on a sizzling hot plate!
One bad thing about getting sisig for takeout is that you don’t get it in its intended fashion, which is on a hot sizzling plate with and breaking a raw egg over it. Even so, this dish was one of our favorite dishes of 2020. Another difference is that traditional sisig incorporates chopped up parts of a pig’s head(ear, snout, cheeks, etc) for it’s main protein versus regular pork/pork belly for this particular dish. Even if it’s not presented on a sizzling plate and non-traditional pork, it’s still really flavorful. The sisig is a guilty pleasure due to the amount of grease, but put this over some rice and a I dare you to stop at just one serving.
4. Bok A Bok – $15. Bowl O Shame-Kimchi mac n’ cheese, spicy tater tots, chopped fried chicken thigh, 4 chili hot sauce, green onions, crispy garlic, crispy shallots and a poached egg
This is the forth consecutive dish on the list where a major component of the meal is a raw egg or runny egg. That shows our love of egg yolk. This dish is the perfect for having with a beer or as a hangover dish. But be warned, it probably has a million calories and clogs your arteries the instant you eat it. Ohh…. its so worth it. Mac N cheese, tater tots, fried chicken, hot sauce, poached egg. How can something so bad for you, taste so good.
3. Salare – $21. Cavatelli Lamb Bacon, Parmesan, Brussels sprouts & Cured Egg Yolk
Make that the fifth dish in a row that incorporates a raw or runny egg.
Excerpt from our blog post:
The Cavatelli with bacon and parmasean was another winner. The pasta is so unique and the lamb bacon, name somewhere else you can find that?
2. Bizzarro Italian Cafe – $13.25. Drunken Clams –Local manilla clams in spicy tomatoes with prosciutto, basil, shallots & ouzo.
Excerpt from our blog post:
We started off with the Drunken Clams which is a perfect match to slop up the sauce with the bread. The clams and bits of prosciutto were tasty, but the sauce is the star.
Our server offered to bring more bread when he saw we had extra sauce, but ran out of bread. We were tempted but didn’t want to fill ourselves up before our mains came and said he could take the sauce away. We shed a little tear as he took it.
1. Salare – $22. Trompetti Squid Ink, Clams, Mussels, ‘nduja Sausage, Kale & Garlic Cream
Salare could have easily had four or five dishes in our top 15 dishes of the year. That’s how good Salare is. In the end three of their dishes made it into our list of Best Dishes of 2020, but this was our favorite. It had lots of different types of protein – clams, mussels and sausage. Like the Musang pancit dish above squid ink was used in the pasta and we’re not sure what made it a little spicy, but it was just enough to add to the overall taste.
Excerpt from our blog post:
Our favorite dish was the Squid Ink Trompetti with clams, mussels and sausage. It was just the perfect amount of spicy.
I’m salivating just remembering and writing about this dish. Oh man, we can’t wait til business gets back to normal and we can go back and visit Salare.
This was our Favorite Seattle Dish of 2020
Related:
This is always one of our more enjoyable posts to create every year. It allows us to review all the great dishes we’ve had throughout the year and debate which ones belong in our top 15. When we first started on this post, we thought we’d have a hard time finding 15 dishes considering that we haven’t been out much due to Covid-19. We were able to hit up a lot of spots early in the year, did a ton of take out and visited some places when things started opening back up in the Fall. Surprisingly, we didn’t have any problem and actually had a hard time whittling it down to 15.
Without further ado, here are our Best Seattle Dishes of 2020, 15 through 8:
15. Katsu Burger-$12.45. Ohayou Gozaimasu Burger-Local Beef katsu, fried “cage free” egg, bacon, cheddar, Japanese mayo, tonkatsu sauce.
Ohaiyou Gozaimasu means “Good Morning” in Japanese, which categorizes this as sort of a breakfast burger with egg and bacon as two of the ingredients. Messy and huge with some of our favorite simple ingredients egg, bacon, cheese, but what sets this apart is the Japanese mayo they use and the encrusted fried burger. Maybe higher than it should be, because I remember being super hungry(a bit hung over) and just inhaling this gigantic burger, thinking it was one of the best meals on earth.
14.Musang – $15.00. Adobong Pusit Pancit – hand-caught squid by Musang / bihon / tinapa.
Musang was just names Seattle Met Magazine’s Restaurant of the Year and this was our favorite from this establishment. I believe our server said this was their best selling dish. It’s a nice spin on a traditional Filipino dish. Pancit bihon is typically a translucent rice noodle, but in this case it’s squid ink black. In addition to bits of tender puncit(squid), there’s also bits of tinapa(dried fish). Citrus flavor from the vinegar in combination with the savory from the tinapa provided a nice balance to the dish.
13. Family Donut Shop – $2.50. Apple Turnover
First of all, look at the size of this thing. We took a picture of the apple turnover on a plate with a butter knife for scale. The apple turnover is a favorite of our family and due to its size, everybody gets their fare share. The turnover has a thick crust of glaze and cinnamon crumbles, which matches perfectly with the apple filling inside. Many times when getting apple turnovers from other donut shops, there is a minuscule amount of filling, but the Family Donut Shop has a massive amount of filling as you can see in the picture above. Pair this with a nice cup of coffee and it’s the perfect way to start your day.
12. Nue – $15.00(Happy Hour), $18(Regular). Chengdu Spicy Jumbo Chicken Wings, Green Szechuan peppercorn, fish sauce, lime, chili, basil, mint and Thai chili.
Nue was one of the last places we were able to visit prior to Covid-19 shutting down restaurants in Seattle. There are a lot of interesting dishes that they serve here from various cuisines from around the world, but Chengdu chicken wings was our particular favorite. Check out the presentation of this dish. The jumbo wings come piled on top of each other on a giant vertical skewer. Nice balance of sweet, spicy and savory as well as crispy and tender. Also love that they use jumbo wings instead of normal smaller wings. A layer of spices at the bottom allows you to add more to the wings to your tasting.
11. Cafe Turko – $17. Abdullah Sauteé -Tender juicy lamb cubes served as a blanket on baked eggplant moussaka
We’ve been to Cafe Turko in Fremont on many occasions and were glad when they continued with take out while we were stuck indoors. Trying to support local restaurants we’ve been doing a lot of take out and the Abdullah Sautee is a dish we order often. The Abdullah Sautee has tender gigantic chunks of lamb that’s served with a small salad and rice pilaf. Not sure what type of sauce and spice they use, but it’s damn good. There is such a wide variety of dishes at Cafe Turko and they’re all good, so it’s easy to want to try them all, but this is the one we stick to. The portion of lamb is so generous, we make rice at home and add any leftovers to create a brand new dish.
10. Bizzarro Italian Cafe -$19.25. Elk Bolognese- Wild Oregon Elk with fennel, thyme, Mama lil’s peppers and pork shoulder slowly simmered into a creamy ragu tossed with our handmade parpardelle ribbon pasta.
Excerpt from our blog post:
I’m a sucker for a ragu sauce and how often can you find elk on the menu. This is probably their most popular dish. I was expecting a bit of gamey, but there was none. One thing I loved about the dish is they are not chintzy on the meat. Normally the meat to pasta ratio is decidedly heavy on the pasta side. This dish surprisingly was heavy on the elk side. This is a comforting dish to have on a cold night.
9. Bok A Bok – $8. Yuzu Green Chili Chicken Sandwich – Charred pasilla peppers, dill pickles, pea sprouts, yuzu aioli-
Excerpt from our blog post:
Both the Umami BBQ and Yuzu Green Chile Chicken Sandwiches will be repeat orders for our family on future visits to Bok a Bok. I have no idea where they get these chickens from but they are so big that they dwarf the buns they come on. We especially enjoyed the Yuzu Green Chile Sandwich. It’s spicy, sweet and the slight tart from yuzu all blends very well with the chicken.
8. El Camion -$11.85. Conchinita Pibil Sopes -Three thick handmade tortillas topped with your choice of meat or veggies, grilled onions, salsa avocado slices, and cotija cheese.
Pretty much anything you order at El Camion is damn good-burritos, quesadilla, gorditas, mulitas, tortas. They also have 9 types of meat to choose from. We’ve been going to El Camion for years and now that a new location opened up in our neighborhood we visit on average at least once a week, but we only discovered this combination of Conchinita Pibil + Sopes this year. These are little slices of heaven and can truthfully be split up into three separate meals. The sopes is dense enough to carry the weight of generous portions of pork and toppings of avocado, grilled onions and cotija cheese. To top it off we normally request the guacamole salsa. It’s a perfect combination of flavors.
Stay tuned for our top dishes of 2020
Related:
- Our 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 (Part 1)
- Our 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 (Part 2)
- Our 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2019 (Part 1)
- Our 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2019 (Part 2)
Our Seattle Doughnut Awards
You already know Seattle is the coffee capital of the world. We have close to 100 coffee shop reviews on our website and 6 separate posts about our Seattle Coffee Awards. And we believe there is nothing that goes better with a coffee than a doughnut. Doughnuts and coffee make one of the tastiest and formidable combinations on the face of the planet.
If there is a food that all four members of our family clamour for, its doughnuts. When we make at the spontaneous decision to get doughnuts, you can hear cheers along with feet jumping up and down echoing through the house. And as parents, we’ve discovered the extreme power of doughnuts that can be used to bribe our daughters to do their chores, eat their vegetables and to get dressed quickly or else, “no doughnuts”.
Doughnuts are an affordable luxury where each member of the family can window shop and choose their own. We’ve pretty much visited every single doughnut shop in Seattle multiple times, so I guess you can say we are a family of authorized Seattle doughnut connoisseurs
Best Variety – The Donut Factory
Look at the picture above. That says it all. I never thought I’d say it, but they have more choices than Top Pot. From what I can tell the doughnuts on the right side of their display case are your standards like your old fashioned, raised glazed, sprinkle, etc and the doughnuts on the left are your fancy doughnuts. If the Donut Factory doesn’t have the donut you’re looking for then it probably doesn’t exist. As you can tell from the various pictures in our Donut Factory blog post, we go there quite often.
Best One of a Kind Doughnuts- Half N Half Doughnut Co
Get a load of these doughnuts — Banana Foster Filled, Pineapple Fritter, Apple Caramel Fritter, Georgette Cinnamon Twist, Sweet Potato Casserole Filled, Cherry Cola Old Fashioned, Mexican Hot Chocolate, Almond Joy Old Fashioned. You will not find these types of doughnuts anywhere else. These doughnuts have “special treat” written all over them. They have so many one-of-a-kind doughnuts and interesting combination of flavors that it’s difficult to choose. But damn, they good.
Best Mochi Doughnuts – Dochi
Located in the Uwajimaya food court, Dochi specializes in mochi doughnuts. The main differences between the dochi and your regular doughnut is the texture and its unique shape. It’s crispy on the outside and very chewy like mochi on the inside. We really love the shape of the dochi. It’s like 8 doughnut balls that are connected together. You can either eat it as a regular doughnut or tear it apart and divide the 8 little doughnut balls to share. The Strawberry Shortcake is our favorite.
Best Cream Filled Doughnuts – General Porpoise Doughnuts
General Porpoise Doughnuts is the overlord of Seattle cream filled doughnuts. They don’t have much variety at any one time, but they are very well executed. Here are some of the current fillings -Vanilla Custard, Chocolate Marshmallow, Lemon Curd, Raspberry Jam, Gingerbread Cream. They also have seasonal fillings like Rainier Cherry Jam and Peaches and Cream. It’s part of James Beard Award Winner Renee Erickson’s restaurant empire, so you know you’re in for a quality treat.
Best Small Batch Doughnuts – Raised Doughnuts
Raised Doughnuts has only 6 regular everyday doughnuts and 4 special monthly doughnuts. But once any of those doughnuts runs out, they are gone. There is no 2nd batch of doughnuts baking in the oven. You’ll have to wait for the next day. This does give a specialness to their doughnuts. You have to think about going early in the day to ensure you get what you want. Like Half N Half Doughnuts, many of their doughnuts are ones you won’t fine anywhere else. They are a bit on the costly side, but once you taste these doughnuts, we think you’ll agree, the small batches ensures high quality.
Best Local Chain- Mighty O
Most Popular Doughnut Shop – Top Pot
These two Seattle doughnut chains are the most well known in Seattle by far. They are joined at the hip when comparing Seattle doughnuts, so much so that we had a Food War blog post comparing their doughnuts one by one, side by side. We agreed that the vegan doughnuts of Mighty O were the better doughnuts, but not by much. The most popular chain is Top Pot which was visited by President Obama on a Seattle visit and also is known for former Seattle Seahawk Golden Tate breaking into a branch because he couldn’t control his urge for a Top Pot doughnut. Top Pot has 18 locations around Seattle compared to Mighty O’s five locations.
Biggest Loss in 2020 – Tempesta Coffee
What a blow to find out that Tempesta Coffee is closing permanently. When I first stumbled upon this coffee shop, I was presently surprised that they also sold doughnuts. And these doughnuts were not your standard doughnuts. It was one of the best kept secrets in Seattle. I never heard anybody ever mention Tempesta for their doughnuts though. I remember bringing a batch into work and people absolutely raved about them. Damn you, Covid 19!!!
Best Overall – Family Donut Shop
When you talk about solid, cost efficient and consistent doughnuts, Family Donut Shop is the standard. As their name states, they are family owned and you can feel it in their customer service. Their apple turnover made it into our Top 2020 Seattle Dishes of the Year. It is that damn good. They have a few out of the ordinary doughnuts, but they really excel in your standard doughnuts- old fashioned, cinnamon rolls, vanilla sprinkle, maple bars, Bavarian cream, apple fritter, chocolate glazed, jelly filled, etc. They have a wide variety and their popularity is evidenced by normally having a line out the door. This is our favorite doughnut shop in Seattle.
Thanks for reading Our Seattle Doughnut blog post.
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Chi Mac – Korean Fried Chicken
Recommended by: We talked about The Ave(University Ave) in the University District becoming a Korean Fried Chicken epicenter with the opening of Bok A Bok and bb.q Chicken. We review another such spot, Chi Mac.
Description on the Chi Mac’s website: Inspired by this national dining culture and pastime, we created “Chi Mac”—“Chi”—short for Chicken in English; and “Mac” short for Beer, or “maekju” in Korean; as a way to bring this uniquely Korean-American experience and delicacy to Seattle—where East and West go together like chicken and beer.
Neighborhood/Type: University District
Address: 4525 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105
What we ate/drank: See Below
Comments: We visited Chi Mac at the brick and mortar location prior to Covid-19 and have ordered take out a few times after that.
Their physical location has a massive Banksy-Inspired mural, which is cool, but we’d say the cleanliness of the place is on par with normal restaurants on The Ave. Take that for what you will. It’s definitely more of a “shoot the shit” with your boys type of place having some wings and beer versus an “impress-your-date” or “bring the parents” type of place. Nothing wrong with that. Just letting you know what to expect.
Their chicken sandwich was just okay. The flavors were there, but as you can see from the picture below, the cheese was cold and not close to being melted. We also had some wings and fries and while the wings were good the fries were pretty sad. So this made our decision for future orders to be strictly chicken and mainly wings only.
So our normal take out dishes from Chi Mac are as follows:
We’ve gotta say the Popcorn Chicken is better than what we’d expected. We typically get these for our girls because it’s easy to eat with no bones. Normally when we get this from other places, they can be rock hard small pieces of chicken. These were much bigger pieces and are quite tender, so this dish is definitely one of our regulars.
My favorite is the snow wings that has parmesan and onion powder. It has a bit of sweetness to it and the right amount of powder that’s not overpowering.
This ain’t fried chicken. This is Pride Chicken. I believe this is their standard base fried chicken and you can get either a 5 pc or 10 pc chicken. It’s not earth shattering, but it’s decent. Nice and crispy on the outside and super tender on the inside.
This is my wife’s favorite. Again perfectly crisp on the outside and tender on the inside. This is a bit spicy, but not mouth-on-fire spicy. Definitely flavorful and another regular dish we order.
Our suggestion is to stick with the wings and popcorn chicken. This is where they really shine. We’d put Chi Mac ahead of b.q Chicken and slight being Bok A Bok. If The Ave ain’t your style, they have another location in Bellevue.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 3.75
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.25
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
Overall: 4.25
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: Staying with our theme of ethnic foods found on The Ave, we’ll be visiting Arepa Venezuelan Kitchen right down the street.
Winner of our Best Small Batch Doughnut Award: Raised Doughnuts
Recommended by: One of our friends recommended Raised Doughnuts after seeing our Family Donut Shop review.
Description on the Raised Doughnut’s website: WE START OUR DAY AT 2AM. Scaling ingredients and mixing our dough. It takes five to six hours for our doughnuts to be made from start to finish. The dough is mixed in small batches, hand cut, shaped, fried and glazed every morning! FROM SCRATCH Our glazes, toppings and fillings are made from scratch using whole ingredients. We don’t use preservatives, fillers, or artificial coloring! Because of this, our doughnuts are best enjoyed as soon as possible!
Neighborhood/Type: Central District
Address: 1101 23rd Ave, Seattle, WA 98122
What we ate/drank: See below
Comments: One of our friends told us we should try Raised Doughnuts. We’d heard great things about them since they opened up back in the summer of 2018, but we’d never visited Raised Doughnuts since it’s a bit out of the way for us.
We decided to go early on a Monday morning and made it there right before 9:00am. Even though we arrived early on a weekday, one of their doughnuts(the mochi sugar) was already sold out. They have 6 original doughnuts which they serve daily. They also have 4 monthly special doughnuts and have also have 3 weekend special doughnuts.
On this particular occasion we ordered each of the 4 monthly special doughnuts along with a couple of their originals, the maple bar and the apple fritter. The person serving us( I believe the owner) gave us a extra apple fritter for free because she deemed the fritter a bit on the small size. Score!
Before talking about the doughnuts, we wanted to talk about Raised Doughnuts. During the time we visited, dine-in wasn’t an option due to the Covid-19 situation, so we were met at the door with a menu posted on the wall for available doughnuts. Although we weren’t allowed inside we could see inside and it looks like it’s somebody’s house with doughnut shop inside it.
Finding parking was a bitch. I think they have two spots outside their building otherwise it’s street parking.
The owner worked at Macrina Bakery for 10 years, so she definitely has a pedigree. For those of you not familiar with Macrina Bakery, they are probably the most popular bakery in Seattle. And not only did she work there, she was actually the head pastry chef.
With that background, it’s no wonder the owner of Eastern Cafe decided to form a business partnership to make Raised Doughnuts into a brick and mortar business after having done numerous pop-ups around Seattle.
During regular times(non-Covid), Raised Doughnuts also offers classes for making doughnuts, cakes and cookies.
And here are some other interesting things about Raised Doughnuts from their website:
- ANTI WASTE There is a lot of food waste in our industry and we don’t want to add to it! We strive to avoid waste at all costs. This is why we choose to make one big batch a day and sell them until they’re gone! We also use every last bit of our dough, recycling the scraps into fritters and holes.
- WEEKENDS We bust out our maximum capacity. Which comes out to approx. 1500+ doughnuts a day on the weekend.
- WEEKDAYS Our weekday batches vary and are determined using our gut and past sales. Sometimes we sell dozens at a time and other days just a few per person. Because of this unpredictability, some days we sell out quickly while other days we last all day. We encourage preordering or calling ahead to put some aside. No minimum required! We just ask you to pick them up by 1PM!
On to the doughnuts. The Cranberry Thyme had a nice thick glaze with sprinkled cranberries on it. It was nice and sweet and perfect with a cup of coffee, but couldn’t really taste the cranberry. Perhaps it’s mainly for aesthetics. Another of the monthly specials was the Gingerbread Fritter, which again had ample amounts of glaze and definitely had a festive look with red(peppermint?) and white toppings and was the favorite of our daughter. The Pandan Mochi is all about the texture. It’s light, but chewy like a mochi doughnut should. We both took a bite and were surprised by the chewiness. We’re thinking it’s harder to make a mochi doughnut in a traditional doughnut shape versus the connected little balls at Dochi.
White Choc Peppermint Bark Bar -$3.50
The White Choc Peppermint Bark Bar was my personal favorite. It was like eating a candy cane doughnut. Really minty fresh. Perfect for the holiday season. The apple fritter doesn’t look like your traditional round flat fritter. The fritter here is actually dense, shaped almost like a muffin. Fluffy with bits of apple, this was another winner. I’m not a huge fan of maple bars and usually maple bars may have a hint of maple syrup. The Raised Doughnut maple bar strongly tastes like maple syrup, so if you’re a fan, grab one of these.
The higher quality(and higher prices) and the one-of-a-kind doughnuts remind us of Half N Half Doughnut Co.
As mentioned Raised Doughnuts is a bit of a trek for us and the doughnuts are a bit on the higher priced side, but you just get the feeling a lot of thought, care and personal touch is put into these one-of-a-kind doughnuts. Our recommendation is to try the specials. The originals are good but, the specials are exceptional. If we have a hankering for doughnuts we’re likely to go to some of the donut places closer to home, but on special occasions or if we want to impress out-of-town visitors, we’ll definitely hit up Raised Doughnuts.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: N/A (During Covid 19, so no entry)
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
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:
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