Sizzle & Crunch
Recommended by: We noticed a line out the door at Sizzle and Crunch when heading to our favorite Korean spot, Korea Tofu House. With a line out the door we decided to see what all the hub-bub is all about there.
Description on the Sizzle & Crunch’s website: Sizzle & Crunch Vietnamese Grill serves crunchy banh mi, rice bowls, vermicelli bowls, and salad bowls topped with sizzling meats (or tofu) and your choice of fresh toppings. You can expect a fast-casual experience where the food is served “line style.” In Vietnam, it’s common to have the ingredients separated and prepared in front of you.
Neighborhood/Type: University District
Address: 1313 NE 42nd St, Seattle, WA 98105
What we ate/drank: House Pork Plate-Our signature all-natural grilled lemongrass pork and braised pork belly, green onion aioli, fish sauce, broken rice. Grilled Pork-Our signature all-natural lemongrass pork, green onion aioli, fish sauce, broken rice
First of all, I’ve got to say this an ingenious business model used by the creator of Sizzle and Crunch. Take an existing conveyor belt style food prep model like Subway, Quiznos, Taco Del Mar and Chipoltle Grill where you can pick and choose fresh ingredients to create your meal. Then apply it to a type of cuisine that really utilizes fresh ingredients like Vietnamese food. You have a quick meal prep to your specifications, you can watch it being prepared and you can see the ingredients being used. The creators of Sizzle and Crunch took an existing model and put a twist on it based on their personal expertise-Vietnamese food. It’s a simple concept where you wonder, “why didn’t anybody think of this sooner”?
The University District location opened in 2017 and another location opened up in South Lake Union recently. You understand why there’s a line out the door comprised mainly of poor struggling UW students. It’s fast, the assembly line process makes it simple and catered to your specific tastes and the portion to cost ratio is student-friendly.
So instead of choosing type of tortilla, rice and beans, you’re doing this:
- Choose between a banh mi sandwich or a rice bowl, salad bowl. The sandwich comes with jalapeno cilantro aioli, garlic mayo. The rice bowl comes with green onion aioli, fish sauce, broken rice. The salad bowl comes with green onion aioli, fish sauce, romaine lettuce.
- Choose a protein- grilled pork, chicken, beef or tofu.
- If you chose the rice bowl option, advise if you want an over easy egg.
- Then pick your toppings-house-pickled daikon & carrot, cucumber, chopped jalapeno, shredded scallion, cilantro, and tomato. You can choose either a fish sauce or green sauce(cilantro, green onion, jalapeno—I think.)
- Watch them make it, pay and you’re ready to grind.
All ingredients are made in house including the baguettes, sauces, pickled vegetables and pate. The food is prepared daily and in small batches to ensure freshness although there does appear to have been some stumbles.
Both dishes we had on this visit to Sizzle & Crunch were representative of what we typically think about Vietnamese food-flavorful meats and fresh light veggies. I especially love the green sauce which I think is cilantro, jalapeno and onions. Parking can be a bitch while construction of the Link Light Rail is going on for a few more years, but the price is right, the wait is short and the food is made to order. We’ll add this to our list of mainstays on The Ave along with Korea Tofu House, Little Kitchen, Morsel and Aladdin Gyro.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 3.50
Service: 4.50
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 5.00
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!
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Fremont Bowl
Recommended by: After writing our post about Seattle Fish Guys – Best Poke in Seattle, a local recommended Fremont Bowl as another place that has great poke.
Description on the Fremont Bowl’s website: Just a team of people who love food, like really love food – we have a slight obsession. We love to eat. We love food. We love Seattle. We love people who love food and eating. Most importantly, there’s no better feeling than seeing people enjoy and love the food that we’ve made. Our goal is to make Fremont Bowl a spot where people can just quickly stop by and pick up their order, but also be able to meet up with friends, family, or even a casual date. If you have any events coming up, let us know!
Neighborhood/Type: Fremont
Address:4258 Fremont Ave N Ste #4262, Seattle, WA 98103
What we ate/drank: Chirashi Bowl 14.95. tuna, chopped fatty tuna, salmon, yellowtail, albacore, shrimp, fresh water eel, masago with fresh wasabi + yuzu kosho (pepper). Una-Gyu Don 16.95. unagi + sukiyaki beef don. Crispy Tonkatsu Don 11.95 fresh pork loin, Aburi Sake Don-Seared salmon with sea salt with fresh wasabi + yuzu kosho (pepper)
Comments: As mentioned, a local recommended Fremont Bowl for quality poke, the funny thing is that since visiting we have never ordered poke from Fremont Bowl. They have so many other unique dishes that there’s no need to get poke here when you can get poke from a million other poke places in Seattle.
Fremont Bowl is located in a space that was formerly home to Suga, which had some really good curry dishes and Dot’s Delicatessen, which had some really good sandwiches. Unfortunately, those businesses didn’t last, but based on the traffic we’ve seen at Fremont Bowl, I don’t think Fremont Bowl will need to worry about staying in business. The place is packed and meal delivery drivers were coming in so often they should install a turnstile. For every party that came into eat at Fremont Bowl, there were three drivers to pick up meals.
I don’t think any changes were made to the space in it’s former incarnation as Suga. They have the open kitchen, a small high counter near the kitchen and a row of seats/bench along the wall. The place probably seats about 30 people max and it’s a tight squeeze. Getting to your seat without bumping into your neighboring party is a bit tough.
You order at the cash register. There’s a menu on the wall. After ordering you sit down and they’ll bring out your meal to you.
Due to how packed Fremont Bowl typically is, we order take out most of the time, but there are some advantages to eating there. There’s one dish the Aburi Sake Don that they only serve when you eat there. It’s a seared salmon with sea salt and yuzu kasha, which is made from citrus, chile pepper and salt. The pieces of salmon literally melt in your mouth and the citrus and salt a perfect compliments to the fish and rice.
seared salmon with sea salt with fresh wasabi + yuzu kosho (pepper)
seared salmon with sea salt with fresh wasabi + yuzu kosho (pepper) Score: (4.75/5.00)
Another advantage of eating in is that you get to enjoy their house made soy sauce(Dashi Jouyu). You can also ask for additional rice and sauce if you need more. Observing the workers while waiting for our dishes, you can tell they are a well oiled machine when it comes to making the dishes, preparing the trays for delivery to the tables and prepping for delivery orders.
One lone disadvantage of eating in is that you cannot take home any left over raw fish due to Health Dept restrictions, so you’d better finish your raw fish.
The cashier advised the Chirashi Bowl is their most popular and it’s easy to understand when seeing the dish. The different cuts of fish make for a colorful presentation that makes it one of the most photogenic dishes in Seattle. What separates chirashi from poke is that poke marinated in sauce with a bunch of different toppings. This can mask the quality of fish as well as the quantity of fish. Chirashi is just pure raw fish, so the fish quality and quantity is apparent.
Here are some of the other dishes we’ve tried at Fremont Bowl.
Although their other dishes are very good, The Chirashi Bowl and Aburi Sake Bowl are definitely our choices here.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4,50
Service: 4.75
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
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!
Related Articles:
Brother Joe – Georgetown
Recommended by: Nobody. We mentioned our tradition of stopping by in Georgetown whenever we have a trip out of the Seatac Airport in our Square Knot Diner post. We thought we’d try Brother Joe down the street as a change of pace.
Description on Lighthouse Roaster’s website : One of Seattle’s original roaster cafes, Lighthouse has spent more than twenty years creating a loyal following of coffee lovers by treating the coffee buying, roasting and drink-making as a noble call
Description on Brother Joe’s website : What we do. Truly Great Coffee and Teas, Weekday Breakfast and Lunch, Weekend Brunch.
Address:5629 Airport Way S, Seattle, WA 98108
What we ate/drank: CHILE VERDE Hatch chile and tomato braised pork over cornbread with a fried egg, cotija cheese, crema, and cilantro. $13, KALUA PORK ‘LOCO MOCO’ Braised pork with bacon, jasmine rice, miso slaw, sunny side up egg, and aloha gravy. Herkimer – Oh Miso Coffee, Mocha
Comments: We mentioned our tradition of stopping by in Georgetown whenever we have a trip out of the Seatac Airport in our Square Knot Diner post. This time around we made a detour to another Georgetown establishment. We went to Brother Joe for the first time, which is right down the street. Upon entering it appears to be a coffee-centric café with its huge visual infographic coffee menu(We’ll get back to this a little later), but they actually have a kitchen and have a pretty big selection of breakfast dishes, sandwiches, wraps and salads.
You order your drinks and food at the counter, take a seat and they’ll bring it out to you. The counter area has an old weathered vintage – vintage fridge, weathered wall, exposed bricks. There’s a pretty big dining area that serves close to maybe 30+ people. This area has a rhino theme with huge gold rhino trophy head, rhino painting and book ends. The rest of the wall space is filled with different animal portraits dressed in human clothes. Our two year old daughter was both amused and confused to see a cat in a cowboy outfit.
We ended up sitting in their little “living room” section, which basically looks like a mid century modern sitting area with a leather couch, coffee table, shelves, a floor lamp, seating nooks in the window and a couple of chairs. My understanding that this is normally used as a waiting area on the weekends when it gets crowded, but we ended up going on a Friday morning, so they told us it was fine sitting there.
The coffee used here is Herkimer Coffee and as mentioned above there’s a huge visual menu of their coffee drinks, which is definitely needed due to some of the one of a kind specialty drinks, such as:
- You Know Chata? -Cold brew with rice, vanilla and cinnamon
- Black Rhino – Espresso affogato with a cardamom and chocolate fudge ice cream
- Holy Mole Mocha – Espresso with Mexican chocolate, chiles, orange zest
- Oh, Miso Honey – Espresso with orange blossom honey-miso caramel
- Off-White Velour – Espresso with salted caramel, white chocolate
- Egg Coffee – Drip coffee with egg yolk and condensed milk
My wife got a regular mocha, but I tried the Oh, Miso Honey. To be honest, I was expecting a little more flavor, but it was fine. We also ordered food and this is where we were pleasantly surprised.
Unfairly, we had low expectations since our mindset was a coffee shop that happens to serve food as an afterthought, but the meals stand on their own. All sauces and syrups are made in house. We had the Chile Verde and the Kalua Pork Loco Moco. As mentioned in our Watson’s Counter post, we’ve had a lot of Loco Mocos in Seattle and although not as good as Watson’s Counter’s, it was just a small notch below, but still very delicious. Brother Joe’s take on the dish uses braised pork instead of a beef patty, but we really liked their variation it. The addition of the miso slaw and bacon along with the standard Loco Moco ingredients of a sunny side up egg, rice and gravy gives it a one of a kind twist.
KALUA PORK ‘LOCO MOCO’ Braised pork with bacon, jasmine rice, miso slaw, sunny side up egg, and aloha gravy. Score: (4.75/ 5.0)
The Chile Verde was a closer to a traditional dish, but delicious none the less. The menu says the pork is over cornbread, but ours came with fried potatoes, which to be honest we prefer. To have tortilla and cornbread seems a bit redundant. Glad they gave us potatoes instead.
Square Knot Diner has been our defacto Georgetown breakfast destination ever since Carmela at Roxy’s Diner suggested it, but after visiting Brother Joe, it’s given us options now. We will for sure be back after our enjoyable experience here.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 4.75
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: We met a young lady outside who had a dog. She was waiting for her coffee to be made. Our daughter wanted to see her dog. We told her it was our first time at Brother Joe and if she could recommend any of her other favorite places to eat. She suggested The Hangar Café a few blocks away.
Related:
Revel – Our Favorite Seattle Restaurant
Recommended by: Nobody. After visiting Trove recently we decided to revisit our favorite in the Relay Restaurant Group.
Description on the Revel’s website: Revel—a lively, casual space filled with bright art and music—has been attracting crowds with its menu of street food-style comfort food including dumplings, savory pancakes, noodles, and rice bowls, since 2010. Now located in South Lake Union, Revel features unique lunch, happy hour, and dinner specials to cater to our new neighborhood. Stay tuned for more information and updates regarding our move back to Fremont in Fall 2019 for the opening of Revel 2.0!
Neighborhood/Type: Currently: South Lake Union. Soon: Fremont
Address:513 Westlake Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
What we ate/drank: Albacore tuna, fennel kimchi, escarole $17, Caesar Pancake – White anchovy, spinach and bonito flakes, Lemongrass beef, cilantro noodle, yu choy, pickled tomato $18, Kalbi Beef Dumplings w/pickled shallot, scallion
Comments: Update 9/22/19: Revel just made Seattle Met’s 100 Best Restaurant
Revel is part of the Relay Restaurant Group created by Chef couple, Rachel Yang and Seif Chirichi. In addition to Revel, Relay Restaurant Group includes Joule right down the street and Trove in Capitol Hill . They also have a restaurant in Portland. Rachel Yang and Seif Chirichi actually appeared on Iron Chef on the Food Network, so that should tell you something about their popularity and skill.
Revel is currently in their temporary space in South Lake Union, but will be moving back to their original location in Fremont later this year once construction is completed. Although in their temporary space, two things remained from the old location. The huge pop art of Randy “Macho Man” Savage and an open kitchen where you can get a seat at the chef counter, so you can watch the chefs do their thing. Since you get to see them prep all the dishes if you sit here, it gives you an opportunity to see what dishes look interesting and what to order.
The thing we love about Revel is that they have a very simple concentrated menu, but it’s always changing menu so on each visit there are new dishes to try. They have four house made sauces you can add to your dishes- a soy sauce, a spicy fish sauce, miso sauce and sweet chile sauce.
Here are just a few of the dishes we’ve had on our visits
No matter how many times we come to Revel or how many dishes we order, we are never disappointed. This isn’t the cheapest place, but we don’t feel the prices are out of whack for the quality of food received. As we were writing this, I’m just reminded of the occasions in which we visited Revel-Dinner with visiting friends from out of town, it was the last meal we had prior to the birth of our first born, we just went here for our anniversary. So you could say Revel holds a special place in our hearts, but not only is it about the memories and occasions, but more importantly the food. Oh my god, the food!
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 5.00
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.85
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!
Related Articles:
- Our Top 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 (Part 1)
- Our Top 15 Best Seattle Dishes of 2018 (Part 2)
- Kokkaku
- D’La Santa
- Kamonegi – Best Soba in Seattle
Portage Bay Cafe – Ballard, South Lake Union, University District, Roosevelt
Recommended by: Our server, Angela(?) from Toulouse Petit suggested Portage Bay Cafe as having really delicious locally sourced brunches.
Description on the Portage Bay Cafe’s Facebook: Eat Like You Give a Damn!™ We serve local, organic, sustainable breakfast, lunch & brunch in four Seattle neighborhoods. We also offer to-go orders for corporate events and private parties, as well as hosting private dinner events in our bright, open cafes.
Neighborhood/Type: Ballard
Address: 900 NE 65th St, Seattle, WA 98115
What we ate/drank: See below. We’ve been here numerous times and had numerous dishes.
Comments: If I had to guess, Portage Bay Café is probably the most popular brunch spot in Seattle. Any published list of best/most popular/favorite brunch spots in Seattle will inevitably have Portage Bay Café on it. And if you don’t believe it, all you have to do is walk past Portage Bay Café on any given morning and see groups of people waiting outside for tables to open. Here’s also more proof, Lyft has something called a Lyftie Award of their most visited places by their riders.
In 2018 more riders requested a Lyft to Portage Bay Café more than any other brunch spot in Seattle.
There are currently four Portage Bay Café locations-University District, Roosevelt, South Lake Union, Ballard. The one we frequent most is Roosevelt. This location is relatively new and I believe bigger than the other locations.
Portage Bay Café is the quintessential Seattle brunch experience and one of the main places we take visitors from out of town to. It’s always buzzing with patrons, they have a variety of dishes for everybody, they source locally(in fact there’s a chicken coop right next to the University District branch for eggs). Our visitors all seem to love the experience and feel they’ve gotten a real local experience. The pictures on the wall show their various suppliers of locally sourced product. There’s also a hanging racing shell which pays homage to the rowing culture out on Portage Bay. UW is one of the powerhouses in the world when it comes to rowing and most of their practices happen on Portage Bay and the Montlake Cut.
No doubt, Portage Bay Café’s claim to fame is their breakfast bar with endless toppings of fruits, nuts, butter, real maple syrup, sugars whenever you order. Their breakfast bar menu includes a variety of French toasts and pancakes, which then gives you the privilege of going to the bar to pile on as many ingredients as you want.
Another reason Portage Bay Café is so popular is they are a very family friendly establishment. I’m not exaggerating when I say that on a typical day, 20% of the patrons will be kids. Portage Bay Café is definitely one of the easy choices when meeting up with other families for brunch. As mentioned there is always groups of people waiting for a seat, but one of the more perplexing things is that Portage Bay Café takes reservations from a party of one to parties of ten. So unless people are going to Portage Bay Café on a spur of the moment, they must love waiting in line or building the anticipation of being seated?
Apart from the breakfast bar, there are a variety of meals on the menu as well as specials. Here are a few of the dishes we’ve had over our multiple visits.
THE BREAKFAST SANDWICH 2 organic scrambled eggs*, hill’s pepper bacon, house-made bourbon fig jam, organic arugula, mount townsend creamery new moon jack cheese on house-made potato bread with salad.
GREEN MOLE BURRITO uli’s chorizo & carlton farms pork shoulder carnitas, organic potatoes, spicy bean blend, organic cilantro-lime cream, wrapped in a large, organic flour tortilla. topped with our house-made, green mole sauce & a sunny-side up organic stiebrs farm egg, quest cotija & green onion garnish.
FARMER’S HASH (V**) (GF) Three organic, over-easy stiebrs farms eggs*, a variety of local, organic, sustainably grown vegetables, roasted onions, fingerling potatoes, fresh herbs. served with house-made whole wheat toast and your choice of: $14.50 locally sourced corned beef
CLASSIC FRENCH TOAST organic, house-made challah bread, rich egg batter, powdered sugar garnish.
JOE’S SCRAMBLE your choice of uli’s apple chicken or maple pork sausage, organic baby spinach, beecher’s flagship cheddar, sautéed local mushrooms.
THE BREAKFAST SANDWICH 2 organic scrambled eggs*, hill’s pepper bacon, house-made bourbon fig jam, organic arugula, mount townsend creamery new moon jack cheese on house-made potato bread with potatoes.
The funny thing is that we rarely go to Portage Bay Café when it’s just our family going to brunch. Because of Portage Bay Café’s popularity it’s continually crowded, so we don’t go there often. Their dishes are consistently solid and there’s something for everybody and their famous breakfast bar always makes visitor’s jaws drop, but there’s not a lot of dishes that push the boundaries like recently visited Porkchop & Co., Wandering Goose(RIP 2020), The 5 Spot and Watson’s Counter do. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s one of the reasons Portage Bay Café is so popular. They make great dishes with sustainable locally sourced product in an inviting atmosphere that has excellent customer service. So we normally reserve Portage Bay Café outings when visitors are in town since we are assured of impressing them.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.25
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 Locals recommendations to visit in the future: We met up with friends a recent visit to Portage Bay and they mentioned that Skillet Diner on Capitol Hill is another favorite brunch place they enjoy. We’ll check it out.
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Toulouse Petit – Queen Anne
Recommended by: Our server at The Hi-Life, a recent transplant to Seattle, was really friendly and engaging. She tried to give suggestions on where some of her favorite restaurants in Seattle were, but she was so new to the area that she hadn’t gone to a lot of places and the ones she suggested, we’d already been to. She actually went to the co-worker who suggested Toulouse Petit.
Description on the Toulouse Petit’s website: Toulouse Petit brings the Big Easy to Seattle. Located in Lower Queen Anne, It’s known for having Seattle’s favorite happy hour, New Orleans and cajun creole cuisine, and an amazing cocktail list. Its texturally rich and intricate décor and the general desire to deliver the various possibilities of dining, drinking and adult escapism to others leaves everyone better off for having had the experience.
Neighborhood/Type: Queen Anne
Address: 601 Queen Anne Ave N, Seattle, WA 98109
What we ate/drank: Spicy Creole Andouille Hash- Potatoes, tasso, housemade Andouille sausage, mama lil’s peppers and tomato confit. Cured Pork Cheeks Confit Hash, Spicy Shrimp Creole & Eggs over Creamy Grits. Chicken Fried Chicken w/Spicy Creole Sausage Gravy. Two eggs, homemade buttermilk biscuit
Comment: Toulouse Petit claims to be Seattle’s Premier and Most Visited Brunch for the Past Ten Years. We’ve got to admit it’s hard to argue. For us, it’s just such a difficult place to get to on weekday mornings being in lower Queen Anne and it’s always packed on the weekend. But once you get there, they have such a huge variety of dishes and interesting things to try, that you could go here every week and still try something new each week. Besides their claim mentioned above, they also have a few other accolades:
- Their Cured Carlton Farms Pork Cheeks Confit Hash was featured on Food Networks’s “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”.
- 2012 Trip Advisor Traveler’s Choice Award – 5th Favorite Restaurant in the US
- 2012 Trip Advisor Traveler’s Choice Award – 10th Favorite Restaurant in the world
Yes, you read that right – 10th Favorite Restaurant in the world! Toulouse Petit specializes in Creole food.
Unlike most Seattle brunch places, Toulouse Petit is open early every day(not just weekends). There’s even a happy hour breakfast from 8-11 on weekdays and a 10pm-1am late night happy hour every day including the weekends. We’ve mainly been to Toulouse Petit for the brunches, but their dinners are equally delicious. The space is huge by Seattle standards.
The tables in the booths have really intricate details as does the tiling on the floor. And you can’t ignore the ornate lighting and 270 candles on the wall, which makes for some romantic dinners. Large windows let in as much light as possible, but certain areas of Toulouse Petit are dark due to it’s size.
One nice touch about Toulouse Petit is if you order coffee, they will give you a French press and a warmed up coffee mug. I love this. No need to request refills. The menu has so many interesting choices. The best way to try a variety is to get a group of friends and order family style so you can get a taste of multiple dishes. For this visit we got the four dishes below:
Spicy Shrimp Creole & Eggs over Creamy Grits. Score: (5.0/5.0)
This is not a your normal greasy spoon diner and prices are on the higher side for brunch, which is why you should really try to go during the weekday happy hour. It made many of the dish prices go from $17 to $12. Toulouse Petit is not a place I’d suggest to friends on a struggling artist’s income, but it really is an out-of-the-ordinary spot that stands out in Seattle and appropriate for special occasions or impressing out-of-towners. It’s not like anyplace else in Seattle. In fact, if you were blind folded and dropped inside, you’d have no idea you were in Seattle.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.80
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: Our server, Angela(?) suggested Portage Bay Cafe as having really delicious locally sourced brunches.
Related Articles:
**********Unfortunately, This Restaurant Has Closed Down**********
Recommended by: Not a server, but a customer eating next to us at Porkchop & Co. made small talk and mentioned the Hi Life down the street is another great option for brunches and is a bigger space, so there’s less of a wait.
Description on the Hi-Life’s website: Located in the 106 year old historic Firehouse No. 18 built in 1911, we serve up a rotating menu that features the best of our four seasons here in the Pacific Northwest. With an emphasis on our grilled and brick oven roasted dishes, our line turns out tasty, full flavored food for breakfast, lunch and dinner each and every day.
Neighborhood/Type: Ballard
Address: 5425 Russell Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Ballard Barrio Breakfast Burrito- A burrito full of chorizo, black beans, eggs, and cheese, topped with salsa and served patatas del desayuno, Chorizo Scramble-Green onion, avocado, tomato, parmesan cheese with crispy potatoes and toast. 2 x Caffe Ladro drip coffee.
Comment: We’d never been to this establishment as the Hi-Life, but I did come here when it was a concert venue known as The Ballard Firehouse. In fact, I remember seeing The Fixx and The Alarm play here one weekday night many years ago. Bands such as The Kinks, Blue Oyster Cult, Anthrax, Motorhead and Modest Mouse also played here.
Well now this former firehouse is The Hi-Life, part of CHOW Food, which also includes one of our other favorite breakfast restaurants, The 5 Spot.
Based on the pic above of the Hi-Life you can definitely see the remnants such as the huge doors and open space that this building has been reincarnated from a previous life of a firehouse. It was built in 1911 and the horses were kept in stables where the kitchen is now. You can actually see one of the original fire poles from the old sleeping quarters right over the current bar. The building was in use as a firehouse until 1975 and has been the Hi-Life since 2004. The exposed beams and brick walls give the feel from yesteryear.
Like the The 5 Spot, you enter a huge space with a bar area on the right and the dining area on the left. Many of the dishes harken back to the firehouse, such as the Firehouse Benedict, Station House #18(short stack of pancakes with bacon and two eggs) and Firehouse Mac & Cheese.
One of the better deals you can get here are the meals on the “Not-So-Early-Bird-Breakfast” menu, which is served from 8am-11am on weekdays for $7.75. Can’t beat that. One of the dishes we got off this menu was the Ballard Barrio Breakfast Burrito, which had chorizo, black beans, egg and cheese and served with potatoes and salsa. The burrito was toasted on the outside just how we like it. We were thinking that because it was on this special priced menu, it might be on the smaller size, but that was not the case. It was huge and we took half of it home with us.
The other meal was a special of the day, a Chorizo Scramble with green onion, avocado, tomato, parmesan cheese with crispy potatoes and toast. We had originally ordered another dish and after our server left to put in the order with the kitchen I noticed the special on their black board. We flagged down our server and she graciously went to the kitchen to change the order without issue.
The Hi Life is a good place for groups and in a historical building with a fun history.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.25
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.25
Bang for the Buck: 4.75 especially off the “Not-So-Early-Bird-Breakfast” menu.
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: Our server, a recent transplant to Seattle, was really friendly and engaging. She tried to give suggestions on where some of her favorite restaurants in Seattle were, but she was so new to the area she hadn’t gone to a lot of places and then ones she mentioned, we’d already been to. She actually went to a co-worker who suggested Toulouse Petit.
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Porkchop & Co.
Recommended by: The person making coffee drinks and cashier at The Fat Hen suggested another popular brunch place nearby in Ballard, Porkchop & Co. We’d been to Porkchop & Co. before, but it was a good reminder to revisit.
Description on the Porkchop & Co.’s website: Porkchop & Co. is a New American restaurant located in the heart of Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. We make casual and creative food from scratch using seasonal, locally sourced ingredients. We smoke, cure, pickle and preserve everything in house – utilizing the full, rich and varied American arsenal – from longer-standing traditional fare to contemporary techniques.
Neighborhood/Type: Ballard
Address: 6201 15th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Croque Madame, Steak & Kimchi Hash, Coffee
Much like many of the coffee shops and restaurants around Ballard on Sundays your experience will be very different if you happen to come on this day due to the Ballard Farmers Market. Porkchop & Co. is likely to be packed with a lengthy wait on Sundays, so our advise is to visit during the weekdays if possible. And luckily Porkchop & Co. does serve breakfast during the week unlike many Seattle restaurants that only serve breakfast on the weekends.
Porkchop & Co. is a bit on the casual side which is perfect for breakfast/lunch. There’s no table service. You just order at the counter, find a seat and they’ll bring out your food to you. There’s a bottle of water and glasses at each table, so you don’t have to ask or wait for that. Even the drip coffee is self serve. Although there isn’t your traditional table service, somebody came around to check in on us regularly to see how things tasted and if we needed anything else.
The space is bright and their front windows can be opened when the weather is nice, which is a nice touch for semi-al fresco eating. The main focal point is Porkchop & Co’s extensive library of cookbooks displayed on their walled book shelf.
Looking at their menu you’ll see a wide variety of foods from French inspired(Croque Madame, Foie Gras Stuffed French Toast), Medeiterranean(Shaksouka), Asia(Steak & Kimchi Hash) and some American(Scrambles). They not only serve breakfast dishes, but also sandwiches if you want an early lunch instead. They close everyday at 3:00pm, so no dinner. They also serve cocktails, wine and beer along with your normal non-alcoholic drinks such as coffee, sodas and juices.
One thing to take note of is that they smoke, cure, pickle and preserve everything in house, so you won’t get these flavors anywhere else. On this particular visit we have the Croque Madame – Brioche toast topped with Tails & Trotters ham, roasted kale, gruyere, house cheese sauce, & a sunny Stokesberry egg. Along with a chicken fried steak, my favorite breakfast dish is the Croque Madame. Porkchop & Co.’s variation has a cheese sauce that you don’t normally see on a Croque Madame. It’s doesn’t overpower like you’d suspect and compliments well with the other ingredients.
The other dish was the Steak & Kimchi Hash -House kimchi, potatoes, cauliflower, Painted Hills beef chunks, and a sunny Stokesberry Farm egg. The kimchi by itself was a little over powering, but eaten with the steak, potato or cauliflower, it provides a good balance of flavor.
On previous visits we’ve had the Pork Belly Hash, the Porchetta Benedict and Frank’s Scramble(eggs, asparagus, cheese kale, mama lil’s peppers and a bagel) and all are delicious.
Porkchop & Co. is a great place where you can bring out-of-towners and know they’ve never had any of these dishes before since the dishes are inventive and everything is made in house from locally sourced ingredients.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 4.75
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: Not a server, but a customer eating next to us made small talk and mentioned The Hi Life down the street is another great option for brunches and is bigger so there’s less of a wait. We’ll check it out.
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Watson’s Counter
Recommended by: Nobody. We saw it on the way to Biscuit and Bean a few blocks down the street and decided to try it.
Description on the Watson’s Counter website: We’re native Seattleites who want to provide a space for people to come together and build relationships over some damn good coffee and food. We have a full espresso bar as well as a kitchen focused on classic brunch foods and afternoon bites. We’ve drawn upon our Korean heritage and taste for nostalgic flavors to add a bit of our personality to the offerings.
Neighborhood/Type: Ballard
Address: 6201 15th Ave NW, Seattle, WA 98107
What we ate/drank: Loco Moco, Chicken & Waffles, 1 + 1 = espresso and 4 oz latte, Anchorhead drip coffee. Update 7/19 below- KBBQ PORK PLATE-Roasted pork belly, rice, assorted kimchis, perilla leaves, tofu, lettuce wraps, Korean peppers, and sauce
A few weeks ago we noticed Watson’s Counter on our way to Biscuit and Bean down the street, so we decided to check it out. We found out they’ve only been open for a little over a month. When first walking in you really wouldn’t know they served food since the first thing you see as you enter is the espresso machine and the coffee/drink board hanging overhead.
Upon entering it reminded us of a mini Mr West Café & Bar -white marble table and counter tops, lots of plants, fancy pendulum lighting , dark wood bench and cabinets, lots of natural lighting, airy. There’s limited seating, a couple of 2 seat tables, a couple of 4 seat tables and a community table for 8. They also have a small counter that’s probably more conducive for standing than sitting. Even with its limited seating, it’s really family friendly. I counted 3 high chairs stacked and they have a changing table in the rest room.
We happen to be there for breakfast and it’s served all day. Watson’s Counter opens at 6:30am and closes at 4:00pm(7:00pm on Fri) on the weeknights, but opens from 8:00am to 7:00pm on Sat and Sun. To start, I ordered the 1 + 1, which is a solo espresso and a 4oz latter. My wife got a drip. Anchorhead is the coffee roaster they use. Can’t go wrong there.
They don’t have a lot of dish choices, but we prefer that a restaurant have fewer plates that they do well, than a restaurant that has a lot of options, but of mediocre quality. Although the menu is small, it’s still varied-Soba Noodles(Japan), Loco Moco(Hawaii), Poutine(Oh, Canada!), Chicken Wings(Korean). The menu definitely has a Korean slant to it.
I got the waffles and chicken. On the menu it’s listed with a honey butter, but the owner advised it comes with an in-house made gochujang option and recommended it, so that’s what I went with. The waffles came with two huge chicken wings and was prepared to perfection-crispy outside, juicy inside. It came with an organic maple syrup, but I thought the waffles tasted best eating it plain in combination with the savory gochujang flavored wings.
CHICKEN & WAFFLES
two of our honey-butter wings on top of our house rosemary Belgian waffle. Served with organic maple syrup and Louisiana hot sauce. gochujang. Score: (4.0/5.0)
My wife got the Loco Moco. I know it’s early in the year, but this dish is a contender to be on our Top Dishes of 2019. We’ve had our fair share of Loco Mocos in Hawaii and around town at Kona Kitchen, Maono, Cheeky Café. This is the best we’ve had. The patty is made with a blend of chuck, short-rib, and pork belly and you have the rice and egg, but the showstopper is the house-made gravy. It’s a thick peppery flavorful smack in the mouth. Mixed with the egg yolk, generous sized patty and topped with sesame seeds and green onions = Broke Da Mouth! As mentioned the dish selection is on the small side, but there are definitely a lot of other interesting dishes we’ll need to try in the future. The K-Poutine, soba noodles and a cereal French toast creation covered in Fruity Pebbles that the gentleman next to us ordered, all look really delicious.
Tips are included so the prices are rightfully a little higher and payment is made at your table-Canadian style. I think I saw a notice/application for a liquor license in their window, so alcohol is likely on the way. We asked about the logo since it’s hard to figure out what type of animal it is. The owner said that it’s his dog wearing a tiger outfit, whose name is Watson, the namesake of the restaurant. We also found out that the owner is the former Director of Education at Caffe Ladro. Quite the pedigree.
For only being open for a short time, it felt like they’d been open for years-attentive service, good suggestions, organized, efficient, spotless.
Prediction Time: Right now this small Watson’s Counter is new and at the moment largely unknown, but trust us this place will soon go the way of other popular Seattle small spots like Fat Hen, Wandering Goose(RIP 2020), Il Corvo(RIP 2020) and have crowds waiting and lines forming when word gets out, so get your ass over there soon!
Update 7/19: Went back for breakfast and got the Loco Moco again and it was as good as we remembered. We also tried a new dish, the KBBQ. You can eat it as just as you see below or you can use the provided lettuce leaves to create a lettuce wrap. As you can see below, there area a ton of ingredients that you can mix and match and come up with your own favorite. One ingredient I’d never seen before was kim chi apples.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 5.00
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.75
Bang for the Buck: 4.50
Overall: 4.80
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 recommendations to visit in the future: Back in the spring, a friend of ours mentioned a new Mexican restaurant that opened on 15th Ave NW that served breakfast everyday. He couldn’t recall the name of the place, but on the way to one of our Watson’s Counter visits, we saw Sazon Kitchen and tried it.
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The Fat Hen – Not Little Red Hen!
Recommended by: The cashier at Wandering Goose(RIP 2020)recommended Fat Hen as a suggestion. We’d heard of Fat Hen , but we’d never been there.
Description on the The Fat Hen’s website: The Fat Hen is a neighborhood café serving breakfast & lunch along with handcrafted coffee drinks, house-made pastries, tea, fresh squeezed juices, local & import beer and wine, mimosas, and more. The Fat Hen seats up to 25 guests, and reservations are not accepted. Please note that the menus below are sample menus only; please inquire about our seasonal specials and current menu highlights!
Neighborhood/Type: Phinney Ridge
Address: 1418 NW 70th St, Seattle, WA 98117
What we ate/drank: Alla Boscaiola 12.50 two eggs in house-made tomato sauce with sausage, mushroom & mozzarella. Chicken Sandwich 16.5. Buttermilk fried chicken breast, calabrian chili aioli, cabbage slaw, house-made spicy pickle. Served with small side salad. Cortado
Comments: Before we get into our review of The Fat Hen, we have a funny story to tell. About 5 years ago, friends of ours recommended The Fat Hen to my wife as a place we should visit due to their great brunches.
When my wife relayed the message to me, all I heard was “hen” and I assumed they were talking about Little Red Hen, which I’d never been to, but knew about as the de facto country line dancing establishment in Seattle. My wife was new to Seattle at the time, so she assumed I knew what I was talking about when I said, “Little Red Hen? Really?
I never knew they served breakfasts. And never heard anybody say they were great.” So of course we had to check out Little Red Hen for brunch. Those of you who don’t know Little Red Hen, it’s a lovable divey bar with the service to match. Here’s a picture of Little Red Hen:
So we go there on a Saturday morning at about 9:00. The place opens at 8:00. There is not a soul in the place. I said to my wife, “If this is such a great brunch place, why is nobody here”?
There was one lady there who was our host, server and bartender. She gave us menus and we ordered. If I remember correctly, it was your normal breakfast stuff-eggs, bacon, hash browns, white toast, etc.
We order and she says, “You guys will have to wait a bit. Our cook just called and he’s hung over and I just woke him up. He lives real close though, so he’ll be here shortly”.
We’re already there drinking Bloody Marys, so we just wait. He did come shortly and our breakfast was fine, nothing special. We ask the server for our check and she busts out a pen, grabs a cardboard coaster from a table and writes the price of our meal on the back of the coaster and hands it to us! That was our bill. We looked at each other and laughed.
A few weeks later we saw our friends and told them about our experience at Little Red Hen and asked them why they liked it so much? They looked at us like we were insane, “The Fat Hen, not Little Red Hen!”
On to The Fat Hen: Like Mike’s Noodle House, Il Corvo(RIP 2020), Wandering Goose(RIP 2020), The Fat Hen is small on space and big on popularity, so you’ll most likely be waiting for a table. But of these small places, Fat Hen is by far the tiniest. If you come with more than 2 people, good luck to you. If you come with more than 4, I’ll give you credit for being gutsy.
The space seats only 25 people and even with just 25 seats, the space is so small it feels cramped. There were actually a few daring folks who came in with kids in bassinets and even that was a challenge to find any space to lay the bassinet down. The place is well lit and bright, though. If you are waiting for a table, they will take a drink order from you while you wait. I ordered a Cortado.
They have some small side dishes and salads, but there main dishes ate their Chicken Sandwich, Benedicts and Egg Bakes.
The latter two dishes have variations where you can change the ingredients. For example for the Benedicts you can have Dungeness crab, salmon, prosciutto, pancetta or Florentine. They don’t have a huge menu, but I think it allows them to really perfect the dishes they do have.
I ordered the Chicken Sandwich and my wife ordered what appears to be their most popular dish, Alla Boscaiola, which comes in a skillet and includes two eggs, sausage, mushroom and mozzarella in a their house-made tomato sauce.
As you can see from the picture of the chicken sandwich below, the chicken breast was bursting out of the bun. The chicken was tender and lightly seasoned and matched well with the tartness of the aioli and pickle and came with a side salad . I enjoyed the sandwich and would recommend it albeit at quite a hefty price tag of $16.50.
The Alla Boscaiola is definitely an instagrammable looking dish and not one I’ve seen anywhere else in Seattle. It’s simple ingredients make it one of those dishes that seems so simple to make at home, but difficult to replicate due to the superior ingredients used here and the expertise needed to cook it. The bread that comes with it is the perfect tool to dip and sop up all that sauce.
Summary: The space is really beautiful, but hard to enjoy when the seating is so close together and the rest of the available space is being taken by those waiting for a table. The food is also beautifully presented and tasty, but the prices a bit steep. The service was great. With such limited space, they do a good job of managing the number of parties waiting.
Of course they want to turn tables as quickly as possible, but we never felt hurried. We did feel guilty though about those waiting so we tried to balance enjoying our brunch, but being conscientious of those waiting. The Fat Hen would be a perfect place to visit on a weekday morning while catching up with an out of town guest one on one.
Ratings:
Atmosphere: 4.50
Service: 5.00
Food/Drinks: 4.50
Bang for the Buck: 4.00
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: The person making coffee drinks and acting as cashier suggested as another popular brunch place nearby in Ballard- Porkchop & Co.
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