Lunch #62: King's Barbecue House, Seattle International District

Today's MSG150 target was King's Barbecue House, a meat-in-window joint on 6th Avenue just north of Shanghai Garden and Yummy House Bakery. We skipped Yummy House Bakery since it didn't seem to offer much in the way of lunch food. Michael chided us for the decision and again said we would have to rename the blog to MSG149. We compromised and bought some desserts to have after lunch. Rob and Wayne bailed out again for the lack of meatless options.

Immediately next door to King's is the Green Village which has been closed for months. There is a sign in the window saying they will be back soon. Since they apparently won't be back before our next lunch, our next stop is Fort St. George. This will be the LAST restaurant in the DLZ!!!

King's Barbecue House, Seattle
Address: 518 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: BBQ
Average rating: 2.8 chopsticks
Lunch date: 7/22/2008 @ 12:10:00
Time taken to be seated: N/A minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 2 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 4 minutes
Chopstix quality: Plastic Fork
Do they use MSG?: Didn't Ask
Where is the owner/chef from?: Canton
Number of tables: 0
Number of occupied tables: 0
Number of business lunch tables: 0
Number of "local" tables: 0
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Roast Pork and BBQ Duck Lunch Box - $6.30
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Geary's Review

King's Barbecue House is the most focused of the meat-in-window joints in the DLZ. You can either buy meat by the pound or a Lunch Box with white rice and your choice of meat. That's it. No noodles. No fried rice. Just meat and rice. I chose a combination of duck and roast pork. (I always start with duck.) The couple running the place were friendly and efficient. She took orders and scooped rice while he chopped the meat.

There are no tables for eating in at King's Barbecue House, so we took our styrofoam lunch boxes across the street to the Uwajimaya Food Court to eat. The duck was good, but not as tender and flavorful as Asia BBQ or even what's available in the UFC. The roast pork was tender and delicious. In the end, though, meat on rice is pretty much an average meal unless my socks are knocked off. Socks still on, 3 chopsticks.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: BBQ Pork and BBQ Duck Lunch Box - $6.30
Rating: 2 Chopsticks

Emmett's Review

Sixty-one down, two to go. King reminded us that we're in the home stretch. We can literally see Fort St. George from where we stand. Our quest is nearing completion.

King's got a couple of nice people working the area behind the counter. There's not too much going on in this place - there's a little table where real estate agents, PETA activists, and Northwest Asian Weekly delivery people can drop their reading materials. Not a chair to be seen. The window's got a nice glistening set of chops dangling there, a nice sight. The guy in front of me placed his order, and check this: you can pick which piece you want. "Naw gimme that pork with the fuzz on it -- yeah that piece." Nice! I wasn't as picky, asked for a combo of duck and pork. The man chopped it up, ladled a big soup spoonful of brown sauce onto it. Off I went to the food court.

The meat just wasn't all that, though it wasn't bad. The pork couldn't compare to Ocean City II, the duck wasn't much better than Asia BBQ. Merely average. I would have liked some veggies to go with my rice and meat, but straight up you get meat and rice.

Like Samurai, I'm docking points for making me take my food and go to the food court or something. I'm not one of those slow food peeps, but dangit I want at least a place I can set my meat down before eating it.

Next.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: BBQ Pork and BBQ Duck Lunch Box - $6.30
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Adam's Review

There aren't any actual seats in King's, so we ordered the food to-go, and headed over to the Uwajimaya Food Court.

This is Meat in Window distilled down to its essence: when you order their "lunch box," you get a styrofoam to-go container full of white rice with whatever meat you ordered (in my case, pork and duck). That's it. No vegetables. No chow mein. Just meat and rice.

Unfortunately, for my first serious foray into the world of meats since my aforementioned medical affliction... the food left me wanting. Neither the duck or the pork were anything special. I didn't feel like the pork was overly salty... but I don't think it had much flavor. The duck was on par with other BBQ Duck we've had, but didn't taste quite fresh.

Nothing special. If you're looking for run of the mill Chinese BBQ, this place'll do.

Luncher: Ben the Intern

Lunch: BBQ Pork and BBQ Duck Lunch Box - $6.30
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

Ben the Intern's Review

So, I'm not sure how to rate this bbq joint. I liked the food, the sauce was tasty and the meat -- duck and beef -- was of good quality. It was a bit of a letdown as we weren't able to sit down and eat, instead finding refuge in the local Asian food-mart. 3/5 for the food, don't go there for a lunch experience, but it's worth it for an on-the-go meal.