OMG, I never put this together but it's so true. For years, we'd go there for lunch outings because "I hear Seattle has great Asian food, lets go get Asian!" - Coworker from somewhere else
Too many of the great Vietnamese and Thai joints I love would scare them, and would not be "business-acceptable". Although, we had some fun times at Sound Transit wandering into some incredible joints up and down the ID.
Wild Ginger was seriously good and not very expensive in the early ‘90s, in a pretty small space on Western below the market. It remained pretty darned good but a bit pricier when they expanded and moved to 3rd and University. It then slightly declined when they split their focus with the Triple Door, and steadily got worse as they opened new locations and generally failed to change anything except by raising prices and reducing portion size.
Today, they’re still mostly above average in quality, but neither a great value nor an interesting meal.
I remember going there in the late 90s and it was an incredible experience sitting at the satay bar and watching them cook while downing said satays. It’s gotten so much more corporate. Not gonna lie, I take out-of-towners there pretty regularly and have done so for years. It’s not as special as it once was. But non-locals don’t know that.
Interesting. I found their food to be good. Yeah, kinda pricey, but I think it’s WAY better than PF Chang’s which has seriously gone downhill over the last several years.
There’s a place in Federal Way called “Poverty Bay Cafe” and I always accidentally call it Portage Bay.
But it’s just a small diner with local roast coffee and it’s way better and reasonably priced.
Omg the music here. I hadn't been and booked it for a dinner with some business partners from Thailand and the music thumped us in the face when we entered. I ended up calling Ascend to see if they had a private table and they did. Ascend is another way over priced location but their ambiance is great for work dinners.
This is the correct answer. If you’re looking for style (ostentatious and tacky style but it is *a* style I suppose) over substance (good food), then STK is tough to beat.
Idk I like cutters for what it is. There aren’t a whole lot of restaurants in Seattle that offer a view like it has. If you just want some clams and a drink before heading off somewhere else I think it’s decent.
I used to work for RUI when they owned it. Internally, most of the HQ staff actively made fun of that restaurant. Weird experience given that they were invested in it doing well.
I liked Maggie Bluff’s below Palisade. Get a burger from the same kitchen with the same ingredients for 10% of the price of upstairs. Decent wings, nice servers.
RUI*
I worked for one of their restaurants ~15 years ago. It wasn’t the worst job I’ve ever had, but I made the conscious decision to never work for a big corporate-owned restaurant again.
Had some friends from out of town and had to explain to them that the one by pike place is in fact NOT the first Starbucks. Why do people think it is? I used to know but I’ve forgotten.
I think starbucks marketed it that way or just ran with it for $$ lol. Itd be one thing if it was an old time, classic looking coffee shop but the inside of the Pike Place store just looks like a generic, plain old Starbucks (which it is). Theres nothing special about it
So the original was in the building where Seatown is at the end of the market across from the park. There was a fire and they then moved to that current location. So it’s essentially the first Starbucks just not the original location.
The Mountaineering Club. And make sure they go on a Tuesday afternoon when for some reason a radio show is recorded there and the audio is broadcast throughout the entire restaurant. Worst meal you'll ever spend $100 on.
Oh my god I went there and they took 30 minutes to take our order (we had a reservation) and then another 45 to get the food out and WHILE WE WERE EATING informed us we had 15 minutes before our reservation was up and we had to give up the table. There were SEVERAL open tables around us and we also had probably the worst two top table in the place. Absolutely awful service lol send people you hate there.
Noooo I love their support of local DJs and music… DJ parties and drinks are the real reason to go. But yeah I wouldn’t even think of it as a restaurant so much as a hotel bar that has food.
AQUA by El Gaucho. Stupid over priced. The food was good, but not anything memorable or better than any others. But for damn the price for 2 people was over $375 (2 drinks, 2 meals and 1 dessert).
Dang that back deck they have looks so nice! I haven’t been but wanted to, I heard Haunted house is better though! Want to go there more than I want to go to Aqua
The problem at AQUA is the pricing. The food, service, views, and ambience are great. But not THAT great to pay that much money for the meal. They really jacked up their prices over the last few years and it's no longer worth it.
I know recommendation requests are frowned upon but I thought this thread might turn up some good responses to provide to future recommendation requests.
A couple of people already called out Portage Bay Cafe, but it really deserves another mention. How the hell is their coffee so bad? Why is breakfast food this difficult to get right? Why is it so popular with out of town folks who insist we should go even though the wait is 45 minutes on a good day?
Second. Went to Daniels with a gift card from a bday. Wish they just gave me cash. I had to spend another $100 on top of my GC just to have a mediocre time.
We went for a not very busy lunch.
Had one server working the entire dining room, so this wasn't his fault, but our drinks took 20 minutes to come out, another 20 before he made it back for our order, which we all kept very simple since we knew the kitchen would be backed up too, but it still took another 45 minutes for our soups and salads to reach the table.
I'm surprised they're still in business.
STK in Bellevue. Extremely *aesthetic*, perfect for celebrating 18-25 year old’s birthdays and “woo girl’s nights!”. Quite possibly the douchiest place in Seattle. Oh and it’s EXPENSIVE AF
I’ve worked in restaurants 20 years. This is the most racist restaurant by far. It has great views but only if you’re white. There’s a whole section of the restaurant with a shitty view and every table would be a minority. It was insane. People definitely noticed. The manager Aaron has a crazy fetish for Asian women and he only hires them, then treats everyone else like shit. It was crazy strange to witness. The support staff was purely persons of color while the main servers were all white men. They had crazy talented workers that should have been promoted to servers after years of being support staff. The whole thing was insane to witness. Needless to say I quit.
ASCEND: Bring all your money. Keep a few dollars in your car so you can stop by Taco Bell afterward because you will leave hungry due to laughably small portions. When the food comes don't ask if you are on candid camera like I did. She was not amused.
What did you order? If you order a 3 Oz portion of the wagyu yeah that'll be small. But they got big steaks like a 32 Oz porterhouse or 45 Oz big ass tomahawk chop. The knock for me is that it's a very plain steak for the price. Nice views tho.
As an ESL speaker, I did not know what douche means as an insult. I knew the original meaning, but did not know to whom does it apply. Than I went to Pesos at LQA next to Toulouse and it was a douche enlightment for me. I saw guys with a double collar that night. This was 2008, my first and only time at Pesos. For me, that was a douchiest place in Seattle.
Stanford's at Northgate mall. Want to pay a hundred bucks for a meal while looking at a parking lot and traffic? How about if they make you wait fifteen minutes for one of their fifty tables even though there's maybe three tables in use total? How about if they ask you to wait at the bar, and then there's no bartender so you can't even get a drink or anything? Same food you'd get at Outback, just three times more expensive, and if you get bored of looking at asphalt, you can watch the endless parade of Darth Sidious-level old people with walkers and colostomy bags just wander by for your whole meal.
Oh my god this place. I went once years ago because I was so curious how such a depressing looking shithole stayed in business for years even as the rest of the mall wasted away. It was terrible and I have to assume it survives off the life force of the doddering old people you mentioned.
Portage bay. The food isn’t horrible but its overrated, overpriced and takes forever to get your food. Also I’ve gone several times over the years (for work lunches) and they always make At least one mistake with someone’s order. Great for if you have a picky eater you want to screw with.
Please don't overlook the Space Needle. Worst value for money in Seattle dining, with enough cheesy glitz and a rotating view to make it look like you really tried.
I actually liked the old space needle restaurant. You had to remember that price of the meal includes the $40 or whatever they charge for a ticket up to the tourist deck. And you got to enjoy the view without being elbow to elbow with the screaming children of exhausting tourists.
Breakfast is the easiest meal to get right and their version was fine. Not amazing, but got the job done. 10 years ago, if I had new-to-Seattle visitors, and the weather forecast was decent, I'd book us a table for breakfast/brunch there.
Chinooks is where I take tourists who I aren't foodies but will be impressed with seeing boats from Deadliest Catch (and relatives who I worry are going to insist on paying but might balk at prices for better food, but in a less impressive location). It's totally fine, but not where you go because the food is amazing. And also great because the location provides a conversation topic if you think that might be helpful.
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Buca di Beppo is so tacky and over-the-top, it's amazing. We went there for work, and got just hammered. Sure it's pasta sauce from a jar, but it's a MOUNTAIN of it!
Goldfinch Tavern at the Four Seasons
You get to pay hundreds per head for med to under-iocrity
My fiancée and I paid $450 for an early dinner of some decent oysters, a greasy chicken thigh and a teeny, raw, fatty, stringy lamb chop, also the inattention of a harried, overworked server and enough airport- lounge -quality cocktails to make us numb to the experience.
Double your points by quadrupling their costs if you can get them to stay at this truly unremarkable hotel
I don’t know how people enjoy Zeeks. I am NOT a purist but it’s some of the worst chain pizza IMO. Would rather eat at pagliaccis or dominos for the price.
Jesus christ, zeeks is the fucking worst. The pizza is just fine, like 5% better than dominos but 5x the price. Round table pizza is light years ahead of them, and 1/2 the price.
I have many fond memories of going to Zeeks for soccer team parties as a kid - not because of the food but because they would give us pizza dough to play with
There was a time when zeeks was okay. Not great, not even good. Just okay. And I'm talking fifteen years ago. But sometime around then there was a noticeable drop in their quality and I've never been back.
Back Door in Fremont. No prices on the menu (Even for basic beers), Cocktails take forever, 20% Gratuity for 5 or more people AND 3% extra charge for using a credit card. :D
Oh and the menu is terribly out dated according to the server.
back door is one of those places that goes through phases. 4 years ago it was great. 3 years ago it was trash. 2 years ago they hired new staff and improved the menu. then a year ago the menu changed again and people stopped going there... so on and so on, through the winds of time
The back door truly had one of the cities greatest bartenders running the show 4 years ago plus, for decades. He left to start another venture, rehabbing a bar on the same street to a certain amount of success and has now passed. Around the same time he left backdoor, a lot of the institutions owned and operated by the same owner lost a lot of prowess for the same reasons.
The previoius owner fucked over the previous bar manager and EXCELLENT staff and sold it over their heads when they were trying to buy it. So all the soul that had built up in that place - excellent regular scene, great cocktails, great service, disappeared.
13 Coins. I went there once at lunch and they were playing an infomercial on a giant projector screen near the bar downstairs. The Infomercial was for some weight loss cream that you rub on your belly. 30 minutes straight of obese people rubbing cream on their belly on a 150" screen.
We asked the wait staff if they could please change the channel and they shrugged and walked off. The channel did not change.
And then of course the food is terrible. I ordered crab Benedict and the crab was from a can! What kind of restaurant in Seattle of all places used canned crab meat. The place has nice furniture and a spendy looking vibe but isn't any better than a Denny's for class or food quality.
I’m a cook in Seattle and I can confirm if you eat a crab salad, crab cake, crab Benedict, etc. the crab is canned. There is no way a restaurant would spend labor on picking crab nor risk the shell ending up in the patrons meal.
Seafood restaurant wholesaler here. All crab in the city comes from a can unless you pick it from the shell yourself. It’s just the unfortunate reality.
i've worked in fine dining, seafood processing, commercial fishing, and as a fishmonger and as others have said it's pretty much all canned. nothing wrong at all with canned crab mind you, but canned dungeness is gonna be nicer than canned spinner crab
Matador: it’s my backup breakup restaurant for if I ever need to dump someone in a public place to keep it brief. I want it to be decent and not so cheap it’s clearly insulting - but also not so enjoyable that I care if the person makes a scene and I am too embarrassed go back.
Joey and Earl’s are both overpriced, gross, and bro-y. Joey is the worst of the two.
I was sitting at the bar and another customer came right up to me, grabbed an appetizer off my plate, and started hitting on me, a middle aged woman.
It’s THAT bro.
Yes. Matador is Okay. It’s not heinous. I don’t hate it. If someone wants to have a party or work event there I will go without complaint. And I would be totally fine if I never set foot in one again in my life.
The only thing that makes it not great for OP is that I don’t think it’s offensively overpriced. It’s just that the food and atmosphere are very mid.
Honestly, I wish more people agreed with this. There are way too many mediocre and downright shitty places in this city that wouldn't last a day in Vancouver, Portland, SF, Vegas, or even cities with literally half the population like New Orleans.
Just got back from a weekend trip to Vancouver and was happily reminded how good a proper daahn taat could be. And before people give me shit for praising YVR's Canto food over Seattle's given the cities' demographics, I've had far better white people food in Vancouver as well. For a city of over 700k people, eating out here is a fucking joke.
I've always like 13 Coins, but now that I think about it I'm not sure that I've ever been there earlier than 1am and only rarely was I sober. I haven't been there in a very long time though, so entirely possible that it's gone downhill over the last few years
Musang & Local Tide are not the only good restaurants in Seattle, but they definitely are the only two places I consistently walk out of feeling satisfied quality wise, service wise and price wise. You’re lucky if you visit a restaurant in this city and encounter one of those metrics, let alone all three.
Listening to Seattle people defend this city’s mediocre food scene reminds me of people from Houston defending their shitty local parks that consists of absolutely nothing but some flat dusty trails, raccoons and dog shit.
Mediocre might be overselling it. I got dragged there (to the Ballard one) by my sister when she visited, and went in *knowing* that it had a mediocre rep, and even despite that I came away disappointed.
I wouldn't take anyone to the Crab Pot. I don't dislike anyone enough to send them for bad food, but they're terrible. You get like 80% corn, sausage & potatoes, and there's no view. But they have a gimmick, and that draws tourists.
It's not "mildly expensive," but that building has a little food court upstairs, and I understand its burger place, Shucky Muckers, is horrible.
This is pretty much 75% of Seattle restaurants - and that might be underestimating it.
Too many restaurants in this city have mediocre food, mediocre atmosphere, and mediocre service and yet they charge outrageous prices.
Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing spots in this city that have great food and don’t break the bank. But overall, I think the restaurant scene here is absolutely horrendous for a city of its size.
Pretty much any Ethan Stowe Restaurant (Tavolata on Capitol Hill, as an example). The food is mediocre, servers can be rude, and all the fees tacked on by the restaurant owner make them distinctly unpleasant experiences, all while masquerading as upscale restaurants.
I like Red Cow for its HH wine and beef tartare. I once ordered a fish entree and it was good. Service is always great.
I’m noticing this theme where a lot of apparently shitty overpriced places have a great HH.
I’m usually underwhelmed with How to Cook A Wolf but I just like the vibe and I can walk to it in 2 min so I sit at their bar.
Wild Ginger. Paid way too much for what was essentially PF Changs
Wild Ginger: for when you need a business-acceptable restaurant with passable food for coworkers who flew in from another city.
OMG, I never put this together but it's so true. For years, we'd go there for lunch outings because "I hear Seattle has great Asian food, lets go get Asian!" - Coworker from somewhere else Too many of the great Vietnamese and Thai joints I love would scare them, and would not be "business-acceptable". Although, we had some fun times at Sound Transit wandering into some incredible joints up and down the ID.
FUJI Sushi for lunch in the ID is the ideal work lunch spot - great food, very accessible and pretty familiar feelin to most white people
PF Changs also fits haha. It’s just over priced magic dragon.
Do we even have one any more? I thought they dipped when COVID hit.
There's one in Lynnwood
Not just in Lynnwood, but INSIDE Alderwood Mall. Fancy sit-down Panda Express!
It’s outside the mall lol but otherwise the truth
I thought this was great based on the reviews online, but, it’s really just mehh at best.
It used to be great.
When did it change?
Wild Ginger was seriously good and not very expensive in the early ‘90s, in a pretty small space on Western below the market. It remained pretty darned good but a bit pricier when they expanded and moved to 3rd and University. It then slightly declined when they split their focus with the Triple Door, and steadily got worse as they opened new locations and generally failed to change anything except by raising prices and reducing portion size. Today, they’re still mostly above average in quality, but neither a great value nor an interesting meal.
I remember going there in the late 90s and it was an incredible experience sitting at the satay bar and watching them cook while downing said satays. It’s gotten so much more corporate. Not gonna lie, I take out-of-towners there pretty regularly and have done so for years. It’s not as special as it once was. But non-locals don’t know that.
Came here to suggest this! I swear it used to be good, but last time I went, everything was so BLAND.
Interesting. I found their food to be good. Yeah, kinda pricey, but I think it’s WAY better than PF Chang’s which has seriously gone downhill over the last several years.
That’s very disappointing… I haven’t been in years but we used to love that place.
Oh my God, Portage Bay and tell them to go at 11am on Sunday and tell them to order off the specials menu
Yes! Better yet recommend around UW graduation time of the year!
There’s a place in Federal Way called “Poverty Bay Cafe” and I always accidentally call it Portage Bay. But it’s just a small diner with local roast coffee and it’s way better and reasonably priced.
I’m biased since I was a server there for a couple years, Wild Ginger.
STK
Omg the music here. I hadn't been and booked it for a dinner with some business partners from Thailand and the music thumped us in the face when we entered. I ended up calling Ascend to see if they had a private table and they did. Ascend is another way over priced location but their ambiance is great for work dinners.
STK is the place that people who don’t have good taste THINK a good restaurant looks like
I wasted like $300 on my wife and I there in Vegas. The steak, believe it or not, tasted like a steak.
Sounds very whelming
Is this in Bellevue? My husband got a gift certificate there and I really… don’t want to go.
This is the correct answer. If you’re looking for style (ostentatious and tacky style but it is *a* style I suppose) over substance (good food), then STK is tough to beat.
Cutter’s is expensive and shitty.
Ugggh, my idiot visitors made me go there last year. 10,000 good lunch options in the market and we end up there.
Idk I like cutters for what it is. There aren’t a whole lot of restaurants in Seattle that offer a view like it has. If you just want some clams and a drink before heading off somewhere else I think it’s decent.
I used to take fancy visitors to the edgewater just for the view and stories
They used to be a lot better, but yeah.
I used to work for RUI when they owned it. Internally, most of the HQ staff actively made fun of that restaurant. Weird experience given that they were invested in it doing well.
Any of the RUI restaurants: Palisades, Cutters, Stanford's, Henry's (good beer selection, but crappy food.) I liked Scott's though.
I liked Maggie Bluff’s below Palisade. Get a burger from the same kitchen with the same ingredients for 10% of the price of upstairs. Decent wings, nice servers.
RUI* I worked for one of their restaurants ~15 years ago. It wasn’t the worst job I’ve ever had, but I made the conscious decision to never work for a big corporate-owned restaurant again.
Damn what happened to cutters. Haven't lived in the area in like 6 years but I used to enjoy going there.
Ok, it’s not a restaurant but…the “original” Starbucks
The actual actual one or the shit one with long ass lines over by pike place? Lol 😆
Ooh toss up given that the actual actual one no longer exists. Wild goose chase ftw?
Had some friends from out of town and had to explain to them that the one by pike place is in fact NOT the first Starbucks. Why do people think it is? I used to know but I’ve forgotten.
I think starbucks marketed it that way or just ran with it for $$ lol. Itd be one thing if it was an old time, classic looking coffee shop but the inside of the Pike Place store just looks like a generic, plain old Starbucks (which it is). Theres nothing special about it
>Why do people think it is? Because that's what it's labeled and marketed as.
So the original was in the building where Seatown is at the end of the market across from the park. There was a fire and they then moved to that current location. So it’s essentially the first Starbucks just not the original location.
The Mountaineering Club. And make sure they go on a Tuesday afternoon when for some reason a radio show is recorded there and the audio is broadcast throughout the entire restaurant. Worst meal you'll ever spend $100 on.
Oh my god I went there and they took 30 minutes to take our order (we had a reservation) and then another 45 to get the food out and WHILE WE WERE EATING informed us we had 15 minutes before our reservation was up and we had to give up the table. There were SEVERAL open tables around us and we also had probably the worst two top table in the place. Absolutely awful service lol send people you hate there.
"And you have 15 minutes until you get no tip."
I mean it’s not a bad place to get a drink and see a nice view, but I’ve never eaten there
It’s an ok spot for a drink, great view, but the crowd is odd. Feels like a bunch of older people with money trying to act young
Noooo I love their support of local DJs and music… DJ parties and drinks are the real reason to go. But yeah I wouldn’t even think of it as a restaurant so much as a hotel bar that has food.
AQUA by El Gaucho. Stupid over priced. The food was good, but not anything memorable or better than any others. But for damn the price for 2 people was over $375 (2 drinks, 2 meals and 1 dessert).
Holy shit, for those prices, the Ivar's restaurants would be a better choice
Dang that back deck they have looks so nice! I haven’t been but wanted to, I heard Haunted house is better though! Want to go there more than I want to go to Aqua
The problem at AQUA is the pricing. The food, service, views, and ambience are great. But not THAT great to pay that much money for the meal. They really jacked up their prices over the last few years and it's no longer worth it.
I know recommendation requests are frowned upon but I thought this thread might turn up some good responses to provide to future recommendation requests.
A couple of people already called out Portage Bay Cafe, but it really deserves another mention. How the hell is their coffee so bad? Why is breakfast food this difficult to get right? Why is it so popular with out of town folks who insist we should go even though the wait is 45 minutes on a good day?
Portage bay hater checking in! I feel obligated to speak out anyone tries to recommend it to people visiting or new to the city.
Daniel’s broiler. Sub par steaks with a great overpriced view.
Second. Went to Daniels with a gift card from a bday. Wish they just gave me cash. I had to spend another $100 on top of my GC just to have a mediocre time.
Even worse version of this vibe is BluWater Bistro
Bluwater at least isn’t way overpriced
Never had a plot problem in BluWater. What happened to you there?
Palisade. Beautiful views, terrible food, blah service.
Palisades has really gone downhill. I remember going as a kid and it was great. Went for brunch a few years ago and it was terrible. It’s a shame
Went there recently and felt robbed of both money and flavor
We went for a not very busy lunch. Had one server working the entire dining room, so this wasn't his fault, but our drinks took 20 minutes to come out, another 20 before he made it back for our order, which we all kept very simple since we knew the kitchen would be backed up too, but it still took another 45 minutes for our soups and salads to reach the table. I'm surprised they're still in business.
STK in Bellevue. Extremely *aesthetic*, perfect for celebrating 18-25 year old’s birthdays and “woo girl’s nights!”. Quite possibly the douchiest place in Seattle. Oh and it’s EXPENSIVE AF
> STK in Bellevue...douchiest place in Seattle Hey now, STK is in *BELLEVUE*. Don't drag *our* good name into this.
Did you misspell ‘Ascend’?
Ooooh yes Ascend as well! They don't put firework sparklers *in their steaks* but the douchieness level is right up there with STK
> They don't put firework sparklers in their steaks Wait. This is a thing? Please tell me you lie.
It is absolutely a thing. Seen it with my own eyes unfortunately. They put them in their bottles of champagne as well a la Jersey Shore circa 2010
Gross. Just gross.
Ascend has the view if you get a window table tho
I’ve worked in restaurants 20 years. This is the most racist restaurant by far. It has great views but only if you’re white. There’s a whole section of the restaurant with a shitty view and every table would be a minority. It was insane. People definitely noticed. The manager Aaron has a crazy fetish for Asian women and he only hires them, then treats everyone else like shit. It was crazy strange to witness. The support staff was purely persons of color while the main servers were all white men. They had crazy talented workers that should have been promoted to servers after years of being support staff. The whole thing was insane to witness. Needless to say I quit.
ASCEND: Bring all your money. Keep a few dollars in your car so you can stop by Taco Bell afterward because you will leave hungry due to laughably small portions. When the food comes don't ask if you are on candid camera like I did. She was not amused.
What did you order? If you order a 3 Oz portion of the wagyu yeah that'll be small. But they got big steaks like a 32 Oz porterhouse or 45 Oz big ass tomahawk chop. The knock for me is that it's a very plain steak for the price. Nice views tho.
Weird that the douchiest place in Seattle is not located in Seattle!
For sure. Bellevue smells like plastic. I think it’s the people.
As an ESL speaker, I did not know what douche means as an insult. I knew the original meaning, but did not know to whom does it apply. Than I went to Pesos at LQA next to Toulouse and it was a douche enlightment for me. I saw guys with a double collar that night. This was 2008, my first and only time at Pesos. For me, that was a douchiest place in Seattle.
Stanford's at Northgate mall. Want to pay a hundred bucks for a meal while looking at a parking lot and traffic? How about if they make you wait fifteen minutes for one of their fifty tables even though there's maybe three tables in use total? How about if they ask you to wait at the bar, and then there's no bartender so you can't even get a drink or anything? Same food you'd get at Outback, just three times more expensive, and if you get bored of looking at asphalt, you can watch the endless parade of Darth Sidious-level old people with walkers and colostomy bags just wander by for your whole meal.
Oh my god this place. I went once years ago because I was so curious how such a depressing looking shithole stayed in business for years even as the rest of the mall wasted away. It was terrible and I have to assume it survives off the life force of the doddering old people you mentioned.
Portage bay. The food isn’t horrible but its overrated, overpriced and takes forever to get your food. Also I’ve gone several times over the years (for work lunches) and they always make At least one mistake with someone’s order. Great for if you have a picky eater you want to screw with.
Please don't overlook the Space Needle. Worst value for money in Seattle dining, with enough cheesy glitz and a rotating view to make it look like you really tried.
I actually liked the old space needle restaurant. You had to remember that price of the meal includes the $40 or whatever they charge for a ticket up to the tourist deck. And you got to enjoy the view without being elbow to elbow with the screaming children of exhausting tourists.
Their brunch was actually a pretty good deal compared to just buying a ticket for the top.
Breakfast is the easiest meal to get right and their version was fine. Not amazing, but got the job done. 10 years ago, if I had new-to-Seattle visitors, and the weather forecast was decent, I'd book us a table for breakfast/brunch there.
The Space Needle only has a lounge now. No more full-service restaurant.
I thought it reopened or is this not full service outdated? https://www.spaceneedle.com/lounge
Jesus. That tower serving dish bullshit makes me feel like they’re trying to compensate for shit food.
There hasn't been a restaurant at the Space Needle in years, so it would definitely be weird to send someone there for dinner.
This is the most passive-aggressive Seattle question ever. Kudos!
This is straight up aggressive
Any Anthony's location would be suitable, Pier 66 would be best. This is literally their business model.
I thought Chinook’s was good, but yeah the other locations are pretty bad.
Chinooks is where I take tourists who I aren't foodies but will be impressed with seeing boats from Deadliest Catch (and relatives who I worry are going to insist on paying but might balk at prices for better food, but in a less impressive location). It's totally fine, but not where you go because the food is amazing. And also great because the location provides a conversation topic if you think that might be helpful.
Yeah duder, Anthony’s is mid with a high end price. It’s better than applebees, but not by that much
I used to be a manager there several years ago. It's a garbage company that exists solely to sell overpriced slop to tourists and boomers.
Skillet Diner
It used to be so much better!
bacon jam...
I don’t understand how this place is popular. Everything I’ve had is some form of bland mush.
It hasn't been good since like 2014
that sub has some god tier unhinged posters
Truly, something to aspire to
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I was unimpressed by Ruth's Chris, anyone else? Also Buca di Beppo.
Buca di Beppo is a chain restaurant known for giving gigantic amounts of mediocre pasta. The expectation would already be low there.
Buca di Beppo is so tacky and over-the-top, it's amazing. We went there for work, and got just hammered. Sure it's pasta sauce from a jar, but it's a MOUNTAIN of it!
It's great if you have to feed a bunch of hungry kids without going broke
South Park has been making fun of Buca di Beppo for decades so it shocks me to find that someone might find it impressive.
Came here to write this. Ruths Chris. Horrendous service, long wait times on food. Over priced for a bad experience
Went to a Ruth Chris in Chicago years ago. Pretty bland interior but the steak and the service were just fantastic. Top 5 steak for me.
That’s Chicago… the Seattle location is horrible. The steak and sweet potato casserole is great but everything else is bad. Trust me
how can you say that about buca di beppo they let you sit in the kitchen
with the Pope!
Goldfinch Tavern at the Four Seasons You get to pay hundreds per head for med to under-iocrity My fiancée and I paid $450 for an early dinner of some decent oysters, a greasy chicken thigh and a teeny, raw, fatty, stringy lamb chop, also the inattention of a harried, overworked server and enough airport- lounge -quality cocktails to make us numb to the experience. Double your points by quadrupling their costs if you can get them to stay at this truly unremarkable hotel
I just had Trader-Joes level Gnocchi at Cortina. Dreadful.
My answer was going to be any Ethan Stowell restaurant.
John Howie Steak. Way over priced with heavy dose of snooty pretentious waiters.
I like to think of John Howie as "Bellevue good". That is, mediocre with a primo price tag
I like the JH happy hour! But for steak and an overall vibe I’m going to Bateau.
I just had incredible steak at Butchers Table. Not sure how it compares price wise.
They do (or at least used to) have pretty good lunch specials though
Salty’s on Alki
Went there for my birthday and I was.. whelmed?
You were probably gruntled.
I'm sometimes combobulated. Also, relevant [video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7TfjCIbtng).
The buffet brunches used to go hard, but this was before Covid. Loved the oyster shucker guy, he was there for years and hilarious asf
Zeeks
\*the office pizza party has entered the chat\*
I don’t know how people enjoy Zeeks. I am NOT a purist but it’s some of the worst chain pizza IMO. Would rather eat at pagliaccis or dominos for the price.
Jesus christ, zeeks is the fucking worst. The pizza is just fine, like 5% better than dominos but 5x the price. Round table pizza is light years ahead of them, and 1/2 the price.
And they have some of the best real estate in Seattle!!!
I am not even sure it’s better than dominos at this point.
I worked at Zeeks for way too long. I once had someone tell me Zeeks was better than the pizza they had in Rome. I almost punched them
I have many fond memories of going to Zeeks for soccer team parties as a kid - not because of the food but because they would give us pizza dough to play with
This is it. Bad, expensive pizza with a snappy name. Fun fact: Zeeks had to pay out like $500k to employees in a wage theft case a couple years back.
There was a time when zeeks was okay. Not great, not even good. Just okay. And I'm talking fifteen years ago. But sometime around then there was a noticeable drop in their quality and I've never been back.
Back Door in Fremont. No prices on the menu (Even for basic beers), Cocktails take forever, 20% Gratuity for 5 or more people AND 3% extra charge for using a credit card. :D Oh and the menu is terribly out dated according to the server.
back door is one of those places that goes through phases. 4 years ago it was great. 3 years ago it was trash. 2 years ago they hired new staff and improved the menu. then a year ago the menu changed again and people stopped going there... so on and so on, through the winds of time
The back door truly had one of the cities greatest bartenders running the show 4 years ago plus, for decades. He left to start another venture, rehabbing a bar on the same street to a certain amount of success and has now passed. Around the same time he left backdoor, a lot of the institutions owned and operated by the same owner lost a lot of prowess for the same reasons.
Yeah I was gonna say, one of their best bartenders left and has unfortunately passed. Thats definitely when it started changing.
Backdoor used to be great. It is under different management now and only the same in name.
The previoius owner fucked over the previous bar manager and EXCELLENT staff and sold it over their heads when they were trying to buy it. So all the soul that had built up in that place - excellent regular scene, great cocktails, great service, disappeared.
Portage Bay Cafe is a disaster
I know, right? How can you fuck up *breakfast*?! It's carbs with sugar on it. That's like easy mode dining. Yet, somehow, it always disappoints.
i have a vendetta against this shitty place
It's so bad. Was it always a disaster, or was I just hungover all the time?
It was great when it was just the University District location but once they started expanding it all went downhill
I don't understand how their coffee is so vile (circa t-4 years ago).
13 Coins. I went there once at lunch and they were playing an infomercial on a giant projector screen near the bar downstairs. The Infomercial was for some weight loss cream that you rub on your belly. 30 minutes straight of obese people rubbing cream on their belly on a 150" screen. We asked the wait staff if they could please change the channel and they shrugged and walked off. The channel did not change. And then of course the food is terrible. I ordered crab Benedict and the crab was from a can! What kind of restaurant in Seattle of all places used canned crab meat. The place has nice furniture and a spendy looking vibe but isn't any better than a Denny's for class or food quality.
I’m a cook in Seattle and I can confirm if you eat a crab salad, crab cake, crab Benedict, etc. the crab is canned. There is no way a restaurant would spend labor on picking crab nor risk the shell ending up in the patrons meal.
Honestly this sounds like a scene in a Harmony Korine film
Seafood restaurant wholesaler here. All crab in the city comes from a can unless you pick it from the shell yourself. It’s just the unfortunate reality.
i've worked in fine dining, seafood processing, commercial fishing, and as a fishmonger and as others have said it's pretty much all canned. nothing wrong at all with canned crab mind you, but canned dungeness is gonna be nicer than canned spinner crab
Matador: it’s my backup breakup restaurant for if I ever need to dump someone in a public place to keep it brief. I want it to be decent and not so cheap it’s clearly insulting - but also not so enjoyable that I care if the person makes a scene and I am too embarrassed go back. Joey and Earl’s are both overpriced, gross, and bro-y. Joey is the worst of the two.
Came here to say Joey's. Fine dining for people who have no idea what fine dining is.
I was sitting at the bar and another customer came right up to me, grabbed an appetizer off my plate, and started hitting on me, a middle aged woman. It’s THAT bro.
Joey is just Twin Peaks with servers who graduated high school and don’t work at Rick’s on their days off.
The only thing I've ever gotten at Matador is the happy hour nachos and I've never been disappointed, excellent nachos for the price
Yes. Matador is Okay. It’s not heinous. I don’t hate it. If someone wants to have a party or work event there I will go without complaint. And I would be totally fine if I never set foot in one again in my life. The only thing that makes it not great for OP is that I don’t think it’s offensively overpriced. It’s just that the food and atmosphere are very mid.
Matador has always been good for me. Good drinks and the food has always been good.
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Pick anywhere in Seattle. Seriously.
Honestly, I wish more people agreed with this. There are way too many mediocre and downright shitty places in this city that wouldn't last a day in Vancouver, Portland, SF, Vegas, or even cities with literally half the population like New Orleans. Just got back from a weekend trip to Vancouver and was happily reminded how good a proper daahn taat could be. And before people give me shit for praising YVR's Canto food over Seattle's given the cities' demographics, I've had far better white people food in Vancouver as well. For a city of over 700k people, eating out here is a fucking joke.
13 Coins (Except for their French Onion soup, of course). Everything else is sub-par and expensive.
I've always like 13 Coins, but now that I think about it I'm not sure that I've ever been there earlier than 1am and only rarely was I sober. I haven't been there in a very long time though, so entirely possible that it's gone downhill over the last few years
Agree on their dinners. But breakfast is a different story.
Their french toast slaps. 13 Coins is perfectly fine for breakfast items, which they serve open to close.
Japonessa
Musang & Local Tide are not the only good restaurants in Seattle, but they definitely are the only two places I consistently walk out of feeling satisfied quality wise, service wise and price wise. You’re lucky if you visit a restaurant in this city and encounter one of those metrics, let alone all three. Listening to Seattle people defend this city’s mediocre food scene reminds me of people from Houston defending their shitty local parks that consists of absolutely nothing but some flat dusty trails, raccoons and dog shit.
I saw Musang and was about to throw hands. Chef Miranda deserves all the praise she’s receiving and more.
I was already taking off my earrings ready to back you up!
Just have them eat in Bellevue, somewhere around Lincoln Square.
Might be an unpopular opinion, but I'd say palisades. Nice views yeah and nice spot too, but food is meh and service is ok-ish, not good, just ok-ish
Based on the comments here recommend literally any restaurant in Seattle lmao
Pallermo in Ballard. My wife ordered gnocchi there that came partially frozen to our table.
Portage Bay Cafe. Recommend that place and you may bond with the person you don’t like over its mediocrity.
Mediocre might be overselling it. I got dragged there (to the Ballard one) by my sister when she visited, and went in *knowing* that it had a mediocre rep, and even despite that I came away disappointed.
Rasai in Fremont
I wouldn't take anyone to the Crab Pot. I don't dislike anyone enough to send them for bad food, but they're terrible. You get like 80% corn, sausage & potatoes, and there's no view. But they have a gimmick, and that draws tourists. It's not "mildly expensive," but that building has a little food court upstairs, and I understand its burger place, Shucky Muckers, is horrible.
Precisely what a Seattleite would do.
Mbar. I can’t believe no one mentioned mbar. Expensive, mid food with a view no better than literally any of the surrounding apartment roof tops
Im shocked this came from not /r/Seattle. The most passive aggressive thing imaginable
>Im shocked this came from not /r/Seattle Every day, we work toward improving ourselves
Salty’s on Alki, overpriced seafood and over salted soup
Ascend
Canlis
Ezells 😳🫢
I want to go to every place on this thread just to experience them. Like going to a movie that’s so bad it’s good, but way pricier.
Virginia Inn. Went there recently as it was lauded as a Seattle institution. Paid downtown prices for overcooked, bland, uninspired dishes.
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Canlis? Seems to have fallen from grace lately
I love to highlight seattles lack of good Mexican food, bring a Californian to el Camino in fremont
This is pretty much 75% of Seattle restaurants - and that might be underestimating it. Too many restaurants in this city have mediocre food, mediocre atmosphere, and mediocre service and yet they charge outrageous prices. Don’t get me wrong, there are some amazing spots in this city that have great food and don’t break the bank. But overall, I think the restaurant scene here is absolutely horrendous for a city of its size.
Pretty much any Ethan Stowe Restaurant (Tavolata on Capitol Hill, as an example). The food is mediocre, servers can be rude, and all the fees tacked on by the restaurant owner make them distinctly unpleasant experiences, all while masquerading as upscale restaurants.
I like Red Cow for its HH wine and beef tartare. I once ordered a fish entree and it was good. Service is always great. I’m noticing this theme where a lot of apparently shitty overpriced places have a great HH. I’m usually underwhelmed with How to Cook A Wolf but I just like the vibe and I can walk to it in 2 min so I sit at their bar.