Three days, four meals in Seattle

Context: I’m a frequent poster on [r/foodlosangeles](r/foodlosangeles) and whenever I travel out of town, I usually keep a small food diary of what I ate. I was visiting Seattle for a couple of days before heading up to Vancouver. I’ve been coming to Seattle practically every year for the past 25 years and I’ve seen, from a distance, how the food scene has leveled up (I miss The Wandering Goose on Cap Hill!). For this quick trip, most of my choices were based more on either convenience or where my friends wanted to go but overall, we ate well.

Day One:

Manzuko Izakaya (Belltown)

Our first meal was dinner after dropping stuff off at our hotel in South Lake Union. This spot was a quick 10 minute walk from our hotel and the menu seemed decent.

* Ikageso Karaage ($8). Deep-fried squid. It was fried well/properly, with a light batter and good crunch. The spicy mayo they serve it with had a surprisingly decent kick to it. A solid appetizer. 8./10

* Seaweed Salad ($5). Meh. A bit slimy and otherwise, generic. 6/10

* Yaki-Niku Fries ($11). Definitely the most unique dish of the meal: a bed of fries topped with sliced beef, mozzarella cheese, green onion, and a sweet glaze. Enjoyable but the glaze was cloyingly sweet and I would have preferred if they had tossed everything together because once you clear the top layer, the remaining fries were rather underseasoned (even though they were fried well).

* Negima Yakitori ($7.50): This is supposed to be chicken thighs grilled with green onion but what we received was chicken breast. I didn’t feel like a fuss about it but regardless, it was mediocre. 4/10

* Butabara Niku ($8). For pork belly, this was rather lean; was expecting something a little fattier and therefore, juicier. It was ok but underwhelming. 6/10

Overall: for a “it’s close and convenient” meal, it was fine but that’s about it.

Day Two:

Portage Bay (South Lake Union branch). Met up with my sister, who used to live in Seattle and still comes back for work; it was a nice coincidence that our trips overlapped. This was her pick since it was close to her office but I had been to their other location years ago.

* Lemon Ricotta pancakes ($21). These are gluten-free, made with rice and tapioca flour and I have to say: loved these. Texture is springy and light and flavorful. The butter/whipped cream + the berries from the berry bar made this a delicious brunch dish. A bit expensive IMO though. 8.5/10

* Uli’s Pork Sausage ($7.50). This was ok. I liked the rosemary but it wasn’t that memorable, otherwise. 7/10

Overall: despite how good the pancakes were, as someone who’s had some incredible brunches in Seatttle, the menu here doesn’t nail that kind of savory breakfast food I’d prefer.

familyfriend (Beacon Hill). Our friends who live in the neighborhood suggested coming here. First Guamanian restaurant I’ve been to!

* Kewpie Burgers and Truffle Fries ($20). My friend, who had been here before, said it was quite solid despite being fairly small and as I had never had a smash burger before, I figured “why not?” It was good; I kind of get the appeal of the crust on smash burgers but I think I prefer conventional burger, all things said. It comes with a side of shoestring fries—normally not my favorite—but these were fried to an enjoyable crisp. 8/10

* Tinatak Rice Bowl ($29.50). This was my wife’s dish but I ended up finishing about 1/3rd of it. I could be wrong but this feels very Filipino, flavor-wise, made with tofu and eggplant. I liked this a lot; really tasty and hearty but not heavy. 8.5/10

The only thing…and I don’t want to sound cheap here but I was surprised at how expensive a bunch of our meals were during this trip, especially here. L.A. obviously has a relatively high cost of living and maybe Seattle is just a lot more responsible to their labor (familyfriend has a mandatory 25% service fee for parties of five or more: that’s a new one for me) but a $30 rice bowl (with no animal protein to boot) is kind of wild by what I’m used to and likewise, my burger and fries felt more like a $15 meal than a $20 one. But again, I’m applying SoCal expectations to a Seattle reality so I probably just need to retune those expectations accordingly.

Regardless, I enjoyed the meal here; would come again.

Day Three:

The Wayland Mill (North Lake). This was our last meal, a quick brunch on our way north to Vancouver. They specialize in Japanese/Japanese American-inspired food which is always going to get our attention (my wife is 4th gen JA).

* Breakfast Sando ($15). This comes on a thick slice of what they call Saint Bread shokupan (milk bread), along with a tamago omelet, provolone cheese, an added-on order of Canadian bacon, and “yum yum sauce” (which tasted like either wasabi or a strong mustard). This is what’s in my photo and while it’s a literal handful and looked like it’d be amazing, the flavors didn’t meld right for me. It’s aggressive on the palate which I normally like: a mix of savory, sweet, and the yum yum sauce adds both acidity and the bite of the wasabi/mustard. The problem for me is that these flavors didn’t harmonize; it was discordant instead, with every bite me trying to figure out “what’s wrong/missing/too much here?” It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t anywhere near as good as I was hoping. 6.5/10

Overall: would still come back again and try some other dishes like their porchetta sando or one of their GF pastries.

We’ll be driving back through Seattle next week to fly out of SEATAC and should have time for one last meal, maybe in the I-District. Will add onto this post in a comment if that happens.