MSG150: Seattle International District Lunch Food

Lunch #89: Red Lantern

2011-06-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

Today a platoon of ten veteran and virgin MSG150 lunchers marched in to do battle once again with the noodles, soups, and noodle soups of Seattle's International District. Our mission was lunch at the alluring Red Lantern, the new, upscale tenant of the space that was previously occupied by Golden City. Although many of us mourn the passing of Golden City's $3.95 lunches we were all excited to discover what the Red Lantern has to offer.

Red Lantern, Seattle
Address: 520 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Cantonese, Korean
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 6/10/2011 @ 11:35:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 5 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 15 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 60 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: Depends on the dish
Where is the owner/chef from?: The owner is from Shanghai, and his wife is Korean.
Number of tables: 25
Number of occupied tables: 6 (24%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (33%)
Number of "local" tables: 4 (66%)
Healthcode Score: 30
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Cham-Pong Noodle - $11.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Red Lantern "Contemporary Asian Cuisine" looks saucy and delicious like General Tso. They go with modern interiors, sexy hot red / black motif. They have sexy hot Stella Artois behind the bar. It's also well lit, the tables are comfortably sized, the chairs are sleek on my bottom.

You're going to like the corn tea the first time cause it tastes like corn on the cob was soaked in your tea. After a few visits it starts to get annoying cause it tastes like corn on the cob was soaked in your tea. No matter, it's still drinkable, and though I wish it were plain black it pairs nicely with spicy food. Like corn.

I had the super spicy Cham-Pong Noodle, which looked appetizing and was also a winner because it came first. There were quite a few shrimp, some tiny bay scallops and a couple of mussels, along with some greens, cabbage, and tasty noodles. This was a spicy soup, and it didn't need any extra hotness. I enjoyed it nonetheless; though it would have been a better choice for a chilly January day, it works well on a chilly June day.

I also had bites of Adam's Kimchi Fried Rice, and Geary's Chow Mein. Alex's Garlic Beef also delivered.

This place hurts your pocket book somewhat as they charge quite a bit more than the neighbors. Now closed Noodle King was a block away and served the same dish a full three dollars cheaper. It stings a bit when bargains are available so close nearby. I'll definitely come back but won't put it full-on in the lunch rotation.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Red Kimchi Beef Fried Rice - $6.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

The Red Lantern is to Golden City as butterflies are to caterpillars. Red Lantern has been beautifully remodeled and has a very nice modern feel to it. Golden City was a great little restaurant with a little more 80's feel to it. I'm going to throw this out there though: Golden City fit better with my budget and tastes.

The food at Red Lantern is good. I had the Red Kimchi Beef Fried Rice, which had some great flavors sprinkled throughout. My pile of red-colored rice came in a large pile on the plate with a very nice looking fried egg on top, and lots of beef and kimchi sprinkled throughout. I enjoyed the meal, and even took a box for leftovers. As I was approaching my "must stop eating line," I noticed I was applying increasing amounts of hot-sauce to keep myself interested in the dish. I don't know if that means the rice was lacking something, or if I just like really spicy food. I tend to avoid introspection.

One very nice benefit, was that the server offered to split the check. This is a big benefit if your group of coworkers/friends do not go out for lunch together frequently... because none of you will have cash. Overall, a decent experience with decent food.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Beef Chow Fun - $7.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

Unlike many of the other ID family restaurants, the Red Lantern has an upscale, modern decor. They are also one of the few restaurants in the ID with beer on tap, although they only have Stella. We arrived early and the place was almost empty. The waitress and owner were friendly and welcoming.

The roasted corn tea was completely new to me. It had a pleasant nutty taste. Although, can you really just soak anything in water and call it tea? Who's makes the tea rules? Let me know so I can report this place.

The menu is heavy on Americanized Chinese lunch classics but there are a few items that appear more authentic. I skipped the Thai Rice Noodle (Phad Thai?) and chose the ever popular Beef Chow Fun. The H&SS was nice and pungent. B+. The Chow Fun was a slightly above average version of the classic dish with wide rice noodles, tender well seasoned beef, crisp spouts, green onions, and a healthy coating of oil. I enjoyed bites of other's dishes and the quality seemed good overall.

The Red Lantern is a nice place with friendly service and beer on tap. It would make a good setting for a business lunch or lunch date. However, the price to value ratio is a bit too high for weekly lunches when there are better cheaper options near by.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: General Tso's Chicken - $7.95
Rating:

Al's Review

Best General Tso’s in the ID, but pricey for lunch. 3 chopsticks.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Kong Pao Tofu - $6.95
Rating:

Rob's Review

Yay! The MSG150 train is rolling again! Glad I was able to be there for the reboot. I had just returned from six weeks in Europe, where I avoided almost all Asian cuisine, aside from some Indonesian in the Netherlands, and was looking forward to lunch in the ID. So while I was sorry to find out Golden City had closed (quite some time ago, apparently), I was interested in finding out how Red Lantern was doing in its place. The interior was definitely spiffed up, and the lunch menu included a couple tofu dishes, including kong pao tofu. My last attempt at the kung pao tofu didn't work out well, but since it was on the menu here I had higher hopes. The H&SS was very decent, with black pepper added, which I thought added a fine complementary kick. The kong pao was nicely presented, the flavor was pretty good, the sauce not too starchy, and the hot peppers easy to pick out. Not too spicy, but that was okay. Felt pretty full at the end, too. So yeah, it was all right. I'd go back if other people are going.

Luncher: Yanqing

Lunch: Red Kimchi Beef Fried Rice - $6.95
Rating:

Yanqing's Review

What I had was OK comparing to the other Chinese food in the International District. But, I have fairly high standards in terms of Chinese food because that’s what I eat every day. The lunch menu selection is boring. The only positive thing I have to say is the atmosphere is good against the competition in this area.

Luncher: Alex

Lunch: Garlic Beef - $7.95
Rating:

Alex's Review

The lunch menu was mostly American-style Chinese food. I ordered the garlic beef lunch special which came with a bowl of sweet and sour soup. While ordering we were served a corn-flavored tea. I found it very pleasant and really enjoyed it. This was a nice change from the traditional jasmine tea.

Next came a bowl of hot and sour soup. The broth was pleasingly thick and the julienned veggies were plentiful and cooked just right. The flavor was surprisingly weak. I really had to search to find the distinctive flavor that is typical of hot and sour soup.

The garlic beef came out next. Nice quality strips of meat served on a bed of strips of lettuce. The sauce was not too thick and you could see and taste the little chunks of garlic and other seasonings. It was very tasty without being overpowering. No fortune cookies were served but I won't hold it against them.

The restaurant itself was nice, with simple and modern decor. Our waitress was very nice and took good care of us.

Luncher: Mark

Lunch: Yushan Tofu - $6.95
Rating:

Mark's Review

Lunch began with a slightly clever but mostly uninspiring corn tea, all the corniness of a corn chowder without the tasty chowderyness. The soup was well spiced and nicely gooey. My meal, the Yushan Tofu, was mildly spicy and relatively sweet, with broccoli cooked to a good medium level of softness. My water glass was never more than half empty before getting filled again, but we were a big party and the place was mostly empty, so that is not particularly surprising.

Luncher: Mariya

Lunch: Red Lantern Green (Vegetables) - $6.95
Rating:

Mariya's Review

Good selection of veggies and fairly tasty even though the dish is not spicy. Pricey for what it is.

Luncher: Ken

Lunch: Ja-Jang Noodle - $11.95
Rating:

Red Lantern Photos

Red Lantern

Frontal Assault

Red Lantern Menu

H&SS

Crab Rangoon

Cham-Pong Noodle

Cham-Pong Noodle sides

Ja-Jang Noodle

Beef Chow Fun

Kong Pao Tofu

Red Kimchi Beef Fried Rice

Yushan Tofu

General Tso's Chicken

Garlic Beef

Red Lantern Green (Vegetables)

MSG150 Lunchers

Lunch #88: Sichuanese Cuisine

2010-06-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

Hello again! We've been AWOL. Too busy eating too much good food. But we're back. Today we're at that strip mall on Jackson, right next door to our previous place Thanh Vi. This is one of our old favorites - and Rob rode his bike down to join us for some spicy food.

Sichuanese Cuisine, Seattle
Address: 1048 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Szechuan
Average rating: 4.7 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/12/2010 @ 12:09:00
Time taken to be seated: 1 minutes
Time to take order: 5 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 5 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 51 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Saut says: "Oh yeah...a lot"
Where is the owner/chef from?: Sichuan Province
Number of tables: 12
Number of occupied tables: 12 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 10 (83%)
Number of "local" tables: 2 (16%)
Healthcode Score: 20
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Family Style Dishes

Dry-Cooked Chicken - $8.95
Sichuan Beef - $8.95
Fried Dumplings (20) - $4.95
Sichuanese Boiled Fish - $10.95
Hot and Sour Soup - $4.50
Eggplant in Garlic Sauce - $6.95

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

Few other spots in the ID are more authentic feeling than Sichuanese Cuisine. No attempt has been made to try and cater this place to Americans; there are no painted lions in the entrance (How would you know it's even Chinese?); their name shows either a disregard of or a total disdain for the basic concepts of capitalism; and their storefront sign is only slightly fancier than the default yellow pages listing. It feels like this place was plucked off of the street in modern Chengdu and dropped in this aging strip mall. The interior is corporate cafeteria chic with acoustic tile ceiling, easy wipe wood paneling, plastic flower adorned sconces, and industrial tile flooring. It looked cleaner than previous visits, they must have done some remodeling recently. But we didn't come here for clean (although that's always a nice extra), we came for good food.

We sat around for a while and debated what to order while waiting for Rob. Saut recommended the Sichuanese Boiled Fish and was summarily dismissed as a loon. We knew we wanted the Dry-Cooked Chicken but the rest of the order was a crap shoot. When it finally came time to order Saut had worn us down enough that, even though we expected the worse, we relented and ordered the boiled fish.

We started with a bowl of H&SS that was the perfect blend of spicy and tangy and a huge plate of fried dumplings that were good but maybe not SNB good. The first entree to arrive was the Sichuan Beef. The tender beef was tossed with slightly crisp green onions and covered in spicy, oily and delicious sauce. It was one of the best beef dishes I have ever had at a Chinese restaurant. The Eggplant in Garlic Sauce was a familiar preparation but it's rich and tangy sauce was more flavorful than is typical. Next out was the Sichuanese Boiled Fish and as soon as it landed on the table Saut was forgiven, maybe even lauded. This is the kind of dish I want ladled over my grave when I die. I cannot overstate enough how much the name of this dish undersold its wonderfulness. The fish tasted fresh and was falling apart tender. The sauce was complex and spicy with Sichuan pepper corns that light up your mouth in the most unexpected way when chomped. And finally the Dry-Cooked Chicken was amazing. It's served with fried green beens and coated with a dry Sichuan pepper sauce with its distinctive numbing heat. No better fried chicken exists.

Don't go to Sichuanese Cuisine for healthy food or a wonderful atmosphere, but if you're looking for tasty and spicy this is the spot.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

You are in for a treat. If I want greasy delicious Szechuan (or Sichuan - spell it however you want) - this is my go-to place. Don't let your significant other read the yelp review about how scary the inside of this and that is because the food makes up for it. And besides, this place has recently (sometime in the middle of 2009) been renovated on the inside -- and it's looking good!

The pot stickers - a tad shy of the quality of that other Szechuan place but pretty good. The Sichuan Beef was loaded with onions - green and white - and had great spice. The dry-cooked chicken - no trip here is complete without - is hot, perfectly flavored, loaded with green beans, and juicy on the inside, in spite of the dry. The boiled fish was in a rich, flavorful broth, and spooned over rice was outstanding. The eggplant was saucy, tender, and garlicky sweet.

At night the hot pot is a good choice for sharing. N.B - everything is kind of spicy. Enjoy your trip.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Adam's Review

Sichuanese Cuisine is now my gold standard for which to judge Chinese food on. Every time I tell someone about the concept of the MSG150, about 50% of 'em will say: "oh em gee! have you been to Sichuanese Cuisine?" And now I get to reply with a gushy: Yes!

This is the first time in a long time where I can actually remember everything we ate. And I think it's because it was all so delicious:

First off, someone had told us that we were required to order the Dry Cooked Chicken. I'm not exactly sure what "Dry Cooked" means, but it tastes friggin' delicious. It comes with dry cooked green beans too, so it's healthy.
Sichuan Beef - exactly what you've always wanted in a chinese beef dish. Great beef flavor with some spice. The garlic, scallions, and onions just accent the amazing flavor.
Sichuanese Boiled Fish - We never would have ordered this had Saut not been there. Delicious. Don't let the name "boiled fish" let you think: "flavorless." This dish is popping with flavor and sichuan peppers.
Eggplant in garlic sauce - none of the eggplant bitterness; all of the garlic deliciousness. Great.
H&SS and Dumplings - Solid but only a prelude to the amazing food you're about to enjoy.

I can't wait to get back to this place. But you don't have to take my word for it.

Luncher: Saut

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Saut's Review

Best Sichuanese (is that how you spell it?) Restaurant in Town! This was probably my 5th time to this restaurant. As always, food is always good and spicy.

The dry-cooked chicken with green bean is my all-time favorite dish. But then, I like everything else… I had the eggplant dish for the first time there and it was really good.

In summary “SPICY, HOT, REASONABLE PRICE, and DAMN GOOD!”

Luncher: Ken

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Ken's Review

First off, I'm giving this place 4 stars because "Sichuan Cuisine is my new definition of Asian comfort food." I am utterly certain that almost nothing about this food is healthy. MSG makes it yummy, fat is flavor, and this food had TONS of flavor.

This place is a little strip mall restaurant, with limited parking, and tight seating. It's so nondescript I think if I had driven to it, I would have missed it. It was loud and very well trafficked at lunchtime. That being said, the staff were friendly, fast, and efficient, got our orders right, and our food came out hot and delicious.

The food, quite frankly, was just fabulous. The dry cooked chicken was so flavorful it makes my mouth water just writing this review. The 20 fried dumplings were the perfect appetizer for a big table, and were delicious, plentiful, and cheap. The Sichuan Beef was hearty, spicy and delicious. The Sichuanese Boiled Fish was also incredible, tasty, rich and delicious. Some of the best fish soup I've ever had.

However, the huge surprise for me was the Eggplant in Garlic sauce. I actually don't care for eggplant, and actively lobbied against ordering this dish, but boy was I wrong! They could have called it Eggplant in Awesome Sauce and it would have still surprised you by how awesome it was. Rich, flavorful, with an excellent texture for eggplant.

I will definitely be returning here.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Rob's Review

I think the last time I was here was five and a half years ago. Don't know why I waited so long. I remember loving it back then, and, thankfully, it was just as good this time. The H&SS lived up to its name -- quite spicy and quite sour. After countless bowls of generic H&SS at other restaurants, Sichuanese Cuisine's was a welcome shock: after an initial, stick-in-the-mud thought of "Wait, this doesn't taste like the other hot and sour soups!" I took a few more spoonfuls and then began to think, "Wait, why don't other hot and sour soups taste like this?" Sort of liberating, in a way. My first bite of the eggplant in garlic sauce tasted a bit too sweet, but I soon got used to it. Not as spicy as expected, but I had a second scoop of it anyway. The Sichuanese boiled fish was awesome. Tender chunks of fish (Good Fish, I assume) in a spicy broth with some veggies, and sichuan peppers. I love those little peppers, with their tingling/numbing effect on your tongue and lips when you eat them. And the portions were huge. I felt wonderfully stuffed all afternoon. Yum! I'm not going to wait nearly so long before I come back here again.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Rating:

Sichuanese Cuisine Photos

Sichuanese Cuisine

Sichuanese Cuisine Menu

Fried Dumplings

H&SS

Sichuan Beef

Eggplant in Garlic Sauce

Hot sauce

Sichuanese Boiled Fish

Dry-Cooked Chicken

Interior

Lunch #87: Thanh Vi

2010-02-18T10:56:00.000-08:00

Hey, you got your June in my February! It was almost sixty degrees today as we strolled up the hill to Little Saigon. Our destination today is another Vietnamese restaurant in the same strip-mall as Tamarind Tree and Saigon House. Thanh Vi has a more favorable location than the previous two, being on the street side of the strip-mall. The dumpsters are hardly visible. Rob recently got his training wheels off so he biked over to meet us to show off his new skills and join in on the MSG150 fun.

Thanh Vi, Seattle
Address: 1046 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 3.6 chopsticks
Lunch date: 2/2/2010 @ 11:45:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 1 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 8 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 40 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Some dishes have a little bit.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Saigon
Number of tables: 18
Number of occupied tables: 7 (38%)
Number of business lunch tables: 4 (57%)
Number of "local" tables: 3 (42%)
Healthcode Score: 15
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Canh chua chay - Hot & Sour Tofu Soup - $7.25
Rating:

Adam's Review

We headed into Thanh Vi with 5 veteran lunchers today. The menu was pretty varied, but with these wily vets we were able to get a good sampling of the menu. I'd never had Vietnamese Hot & Sour soup, so that's what I went with.

Right from the first sip, I really liked the broth. Have you ever had a Thai hot and sour soup (tom yum)? Similar broth, but without the influence of a lot of the other flavors. Very clean flavor. I liked it.

The next thing I noticed about the soup was the unidentifiable vegetable that was in it. One of the employees (owner?) brought over a picture of the plant, but couldn't tell us the name. It was good: a light flavor with a slight crisp. The other components of the soup were good, but unremarkable.

The atmosphere of the restaurant was nice. Maybe it was just because the sun was shining, and this place had windows facing the right direction... but the lighting was really nice. I felt like I could really see my food.

Good soup. Good atmosphere. Nothing remarkable though. A solid pick.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Banh Xeo - Vietnamese Crepe with Pork and Shrimp - $6.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

Thanh Vi is large and clean and like Vietnam House it is cheerfully decorated with plastic flowers, nice table cloths, painted walls with decorative accents, and paintings. Oddly the painting over our table appeared to be of Lake Como. Unlike Vietnam House Thanh Vi was mostly empty when we arrived. We grabbed a well-lit table in the corner and studied the menu. It too is large and full of typical Vietnamese favorites. Again I went with the Banh Xeo and again it was delicious. They were a little skimpy on the greens, but the crepe was great. Some of the pork slices were mixed in with the batter such that they got grilled and crunchy a bit on one side. Yum!

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Bun Mum nuoc leo ca sac - Fish Stewed Noodle Soup - $7.50
Rating:

Emmett's Review

I was pleasantly surprised by this place. Is that... Lake Como on the wall? Who cares. This food is great. I went with the special - Fish Stew. Thick, delicious broth, heavy flavor, lots of variety. There's some fatty fish in here, whole okra!, some french fried thingies, chinese eggplant, and some noodles. It's a hearty, tasty dish that I'll definitely come back for.

Everything else on the table looked good, too. Next time you're in this area, give this place a shot.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Bun dau hu xao xa ot - Vermicelli with Lemongrass Tofu (Spicy) - $6.25
Rating:

Rob's Review

This shouldn't be a hard review to write, but I've been putting it off. The veggie bun was good stuff: tasty chunks of tofu, tasty chunks of veggies, ground peanuts, homemade fish sauce, and the small side salad tucked in. As I was munching my way through the meal, I quickly decided to give Thanh Vi a 4. But then I finished, and I was still a bit hungry (probably because I hadn't had breakfast...). And then I remembered I had basically this same dish at Green Leaf. I'd given them a 4, and their version I liked a little more than Thanh Vi's. Should it follow that Thanh Vi gets a 3? Further, you get a veggie sauce at Green Leaf, but then again the homemade fish sauce at Thanh Vi is really, really nice. The Green Leaf salad had refreshing bits of mint in it, and Thanh Vi's had not-as-refreshing bits of basil. But you usually have to wait before getting a table at Green Leaf, whereas Thanh Vi was wide open and even a touch cheaper. How should I let all that affect the rating? Weeks slipped by as I agonized over this decision, until everyone received a three word email from Emmett, "Waiting on rob." So yeah, should those other things matter? Still don't know, but I'll stop worrying about it and stick with my original rating: 4! Ahh, that feels better.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Bun tom thit nuong - Vermicelli with Charbroiled Shrimp and Pork - $6.50
Rating:

Thanh Vi Photos

Thanh Vi

Thanh Vi

Wall Menu

Interior

Thanh Vi Menu

Thanh Vi Menu

Lake Como?

Banh Xeo - Vietnamese Crepe with Pork and Shrimp

Bun tom thit nuong - Vermicelli with Charbroiled Shrimp and Pork

Bun Mum nuoc leo ca sac - Fish Stewed Noodle Soup

Bun dau hu xao xa ot - Vermicelli with Lemongrass Tofu (Spicy)

Canh chua chay - Hot & Sour Tofu Soup

Soup Greens

Eating Banh Xeo

Eating Banh Xeo II

Lunch #86: Vietnam House

2010-02-17T13:28:00.000-08:00

The Vietnamese were late to the Seattle immigration party and so ended up with assorted strip-malls for Little Saigon. I suspect that in many ways there are advantages to being in a 30-year-old strip mall, as opposed to a 100 year old Chinatown building. But from an ambiance point of view there is a limit to what can be done to recover from the reality that your storefront is in a parking lot. Tamarind Tree has done just about as much as possible to overcome this but it still looks like lipstick on a pig. Immediately next-door to the Tamarind Tree is a small restaurant named Vietnam House. There is very little in the external appearance of this place that might draw you in if you happened to find your way to the back side of this particular strip-mall, especially if you noticed the Tamarind Tree. We, on the other hand, are bound by our mission to eat everywhere. So, today we showed up with a crew of six MSG150 lunchers to brave the unknown.

Vietnam House, Seattle
Address: 1038 S Jackson St (A), Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 3.3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/22/2010 @ 12:09:00
Time taken to be seated: 2 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 3 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 48 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Yes. A little.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Saigon
Number of tables: 10
Number of occupied tables: 10 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (10%)
Number of "local" tables: 9 (90%)
Healthcode Score: 17
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: #8 - Pho Dac Viet - Special Beef Noodle Soup - $6.25
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Perfectly average. Seriously, there is absolutely nothing that is unique, extraordinary, or special about Vietnam House. The food was decent enough. Decor is sparse. Service was fine. If I'm invited to lunch here, I'll gladly join in. But don't make a special trip here.

And since this is a blog, I feel compelled to write something. I love Vietnamese food, I love New Orleans cuisine. I've been reading and cooking out of my favorite Christmas present: John Besh's "My New Orleans", where he describes a sizeable Vietnamese migration to the New Orleans area since the early 1970s. He even incorporates some Asian elements into his recipes. I want to see a restaurant combine these two great cuisines. If you know of a place that does this, hit me up in the comments.

I hear Crawfish King is run by some Vietnamese. Need to check it out.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: #13 - Pho Tai Bo Vien - Round Steak and Meatball (Small) - $5.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

So, six large white men walk into Vietnam House... and it's like a record scratched. It really felt like the entire restaurant turned their heads to look at us. But that was totally fine, just a little weird.

They moved a group of 2 people away from the 6-person table, so we could use it, which was very nice of the customers we displaced. Every table in this restaurant seemed to be in a good place: Easy to get out of, easy to get service. I hate it when a restaurant is laid-out all weird and gets awkward when someone wants to do something other than sit.

Anyways, the Pho I got was pretty good. Nothing spectacular about it. The broth had a solid flavor, and had its own legs to stand on. The noodles were good. The meat balls were good. And the steak was good. It was all good.

I'm probably not going to make a specific trip back to Vietnam House, but I won't hesitate when someone else suggests it.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Banh Xeo - $6.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

To my surprise Vietnam House was packed. We were the only group who didn't appear to be of Vietnamese origin. The interior is cheerfully decorated with purple plastic flowers, mirrors, ceiling fan and couple paintings of Vietnam. We had to wait a few minutes for a seat while the friendly staff rearranged tables and other customers to make room for us. The menu is extensive and filled with the Vietnamese favorites, many of which I now recognize. Having recently enjoyed the Banh Xeo at the Tamarind Tree I thought I’d give it a go here as well.

Banh Xeo is a large savory yellow pan-fried crepe filled with shrimp, pork, onions, and bean sprouts. It’s served with a pile of lettuce leaves, basil, mint, other greens, and a bowl of sweet and tangy fish sauce (nuoc cham). To eat, cut off a bite off crepe and wrap it in a handful of greens and dunk it in the nuoc cham. It’s delicious. My dish showed up last but was worth the wait. I’m always amazed at the pile of greens and herbs that show up with this dish. These alone would set you back a Hamilton or two at the typical suburban grocery store. My only complaint was that the crepe was a bit too oily.

There are better and worse Vietnamese restaurants than Vietnam House but to me average Vietnamese is better than 80% of other lunch offerings in the neighborhood.

Luncher: Scott

Lunch: Spicy Stir Fried Chicken with Lemongrass with Onion and Rice Vermicelli - $7.25
Rating:

Scott's Review

Vietnam House was an interesting experience for me. The parking lot in front is small and overused. It's shared by several local establishments, so don't expect to easily drive and park there for lunch. It was also a little weird to see that it was sandwiched between what looked to be a fancier place to eat and a grocery store with stinky fruit larger than my head (which is saying something). From the outside, my guard probably would have been up if it weren't for my previous adventures in the land of the MSG150 and PBR150.

Once inside, it was pretty standard to look at. Lots of tables, all of them full. They quickly shuffled some other people around to fit our 6-person group at a table together, so that was nice. The menu had something like 96 items in it, well organized. Not feeling adventurous, I went for buzzwords I typically like, such as "chicken", "crispy", "spicy" and "vermicelli."

The most disappointing thing about my order was that right after I ordered it the old guy sitting next to me (Al) ordered the same thing. 95 other options, buddy. 95!

The food was everything the menu said it would be and I quite enjoyed it. Vietnam House is not a place that I would actively recruit people to go eat at, because I have similar options much closer. In short, I got a crispy spicy chicken noodle thing that didn't disappoint, paid a price that wasn't unreasonable, and issued it 4 out of 5 chopsticks because it's better than all-you-can-eat tacos at the Industry Lounge.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Spicy Stir Fried Chicken with Lemongrass with Onion and Rice Vermicelli - $7.25
Rating:

Al's Review

Food was good, ambience fair, but price a little high

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: "the basic pho" - $6.25
Rating:

Vietnam House Photos

Vietnam House

It's a Restaurant

Inside their house

Vietnam House Menu

Vietnam House Menu (sample page)

MSG150 Behind the Scenes

MSG150 Behind the Scenes

Fresh Rolls

Spicy Stir Fried Chicken with Lemongrass with Onion and Rice Vermicelli

Spicy Stir Fried Chicken with Lemongrass with Onion and Rice Vermicelli

#13 - Pho Tai Bo Vien - Round Steak and Meatball (Small)

#8 - Pho Dac Viet - Special Veef Noodle Soup

"the basic pho"

Banh Xeo

Eating Banh Xeo

Eating Banh Xeo II

Admiring the "fruit" at the market next door

Lunch #85: Dim Sum King

2010-01-13T16:20:00.000-08:00

The fireproof Bush Hotel has done some remodeling lately and has a couple of new tenants. One on the NW corner is a small Dim Sum cafe with a large new sign. Today five MSG150 lunchers headed out with the "Seattle sunshine" dampening our clothes but not our hunger to check out this new spot

Dim Sum King, Seattle
Address: 409 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Dim Sum
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/11/2010 @ 11:50:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 0 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 32 minutes
Chopstix quality: Plastic Fork
Do they use MSG?:
Where is the owner/chef from?:
Number of tables: 6
Number of occupied tables: 3 (50%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (33%)
Number of "local" tables: 2 (66%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf, Chicken Foot, Onion Bun, and various other Dim Sum favorites. - $5.25
Rating:

Geary's Review

Dim Sum King is the smallest Dim Sum restaurant in the ID and the only one with counter only service. There was only one other person in front of us so it was barley enough time to figure out what and how to order. There's a lunch special that includes rice or chow mein and two choices of Dim Sum. I chose to order al la carte.

I had seen a giant Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf go by already so I ordered one for my self. As I was the last of our group to order I poked around and tried to uncover items that others hadn't already ordered. I went with a Chicken Foot and various other rolls and dumplings. I paid a very modest $5.25 for my haul, grabbed a cup of the dark black tea and headed back to sit down at the cafeteria style seating.

The Onion Bun was delicious -- although I've never had an onion bun I didn't love. The Shu Mai were big and tasty. The large Ginger Dumpling was cold and a bit chewy. The Chicken Foot was fine if your into that kind of thing, but also a bit cold. The most impressive part of the meal was the Sticky Rice. It was HUGE. For a buck fifty (the same price as beer nuts) you could easily fill up on this alone. That reminds me, what's the difference between Sticky Rice at the Dim Sum King and deer nuts? The Sticky Rice is a buck fifty; deer nuts are under a buck.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Sticky Rice, Sui Mai, Shrimp Dumpling, Pork Pot Sticker, Steamed BBQ Dumpling, Chicken wings - $6.50
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This place gets a +1 for awkwardness. There is a small storefront, and very few tables. We were unsure if we should sit or head up to the buffet. I am vaguely reminded of trips to Morrison's Cafeteria with Grandma.

We soon get the swing of things, and I start barking out what looks good - chicken wings hmm yes, Sui Mai, some shrimp, oh and how bout some rice, good. The Sui Mai came out of a massive round container containing perhaps 50-75 dumplings. Perhaps we should come back and go party style on one of those suckers. The Sticky Rice was massive, and alright. The Sui Mai were fairly basic, slightly less good than its competitors. The wings were not super fresh, but tasty with a little hot sauce. The Steamed BBQ Pork Dumpling was fresh and quite good. The Pork Pot sticker was forgettable. The Shrimp Dumpling had nice flavor, but the dumpling shell was kind of tough.

What this place lacks in food quality they make up for in price and quickness. You could be in and out with a good sized meal in under 10 minutes for under $5. I may return for a quick fix.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Lunch Special: Chow Mein, Shu Mai, and Fried Meat Turnover - $4.99
Rating:

Adam's Review

We have an unofficial "8 hour rule." That is, don't write your review until you (and your body) have had 8 hours to process your thoughts and food. We had lunch at noon, and on the bus ride home at 7PM... my stomach did a flip. I'm not directly blaming Dim Sum King (DSK), but I don't believe that these two points are unrelated.

My chow mein would've been perfect for drunk food: It's cheap, it's greasy, and it's fast. For lunch, it makes my stomach sad. My Shu Mai was OK, and if forced back to DSK I would order them. My Fried Meat Turnover was cold, undercooked, overly-doughy, and lacking meat.

Maybe I ordered the wrong thing, but I don't think I'm headed back.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Lunch Special: Chow Mein, Shu Mai, Dumplings, + Sticky Rice - $5.49
Rating:

Dave's Review

not sure i'd call this 'dim sum', strictly speaking, but it was pretty plentiful and cheap. as i'm sure others will mention, the sticky rice alone could just about be a meal; add in a couple of shu mai and dumplings at $.50 a pop and you've just had a $2.50 lunch. everything tasted good; the shu mai and sticky rice were quite good. the chow mein was typical chinese steam-table chow mein, which was fine but probably superfluous. i'm a little torn -- on paper, tasty and inexpensive sounds great, but in reality it was a little uninspiring. it's certainly not a replacement for real dim sum, but i could see going back.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Onion Bun, BBQ Pork Bun, Dumpling, 2 Shu Mai, Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf, & Tea - $4.99
Rating:

Al's Review

Super fast dim sum and soooo cheap. I didn't care I felt ill afterwards.

Dim Sum King Photos

Dim Sum King

Dim Sum King

Dim Sum King Menu

Ordering at the Counter

Display Counter

Dave's Lunch

Adam's Lunch

Emmett's Lunch

Dim Sum Close-up

1/2 of Al's Lunch

1/2 of Al's Lunch

Geary's Lunch

Sticky Rice Exposed

Lunch #84: Thai Curry Simple

2010-01-06T13:04:00.000-08:00

COFFEE TEA FOOD SNACK. When this place opened in November with this all-caps message on the storefront awning it was easy to assume it was going to be just another scary mart servicing the folks lingering on the corner of 5th and Jackson. However, upon closer inspection it appeared to be a legitimate lunch option with possibly edible food. We even got word from reliable sources that it may even be good. Today five MSG150 lunchers stopped by to check it out.

Thai Curry Simple, Seattle
Address: 406 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98014
Cuisine: Thai
Average rating: 4.6 chopsticks
Lunch date: 1/5/2010 @ 11:40:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 37 minutes
Chopstix quality: Slivery Wood in Customized Sleeve
Do they use MSG?: No - The owners are allergic.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Thailand
Number of tables: 6
Number of occupied tables: 1 (16%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (100%)
Number of "local" tables: 0 (0%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Pad Thai Chicken - $5.00
Rating:

Adam's Review

I haven't done this in a while... but... bam!: 5 chopsticks. Thai Curry Simple (TCS) is lunch perfection.

There are so many variables that are in perfect harmony (quality, price, size, assortment, etc), that anything less than a 5 is wrong. The food at Thai Curry Simple is just that: Simple. It's not amazing; it's not fancy; it's good; it's hearty; it's fun to eat. My problems with Phad Thai usually fall into two categories: it's too peanut-y or it's too ketchup-y, and this was neither. It reminded me of my first experience with Thai food and thinking: "holy crap, this is just damned good."

TCS has an excellent assortment of hot sauces, of which I used four and one of which blew my socks off. I haven't talked about hot sauce in a while, but this place had it in spades. Because the hot sauce is available to the consumer, you can make your food however many "stars" you want. On a scale of 1-to-5... mine was on the high-side of 6 (whoops, this is going to hurt tomorrow). I loved it.

The price is $5. That gets you a place of food that is a great size. When it was first served, I was thinking: "This looks kind of small." But at the end of the dish, I thought: "That was perfect." I wasn't crammed full of food, and I wasn't still hungry. I didn't have a post-lunch sleep attack that is frequent with restaurant lunches.

The owners are definitely wily veterans of the lunch-restaurant game; apparently the wife has owned and operated several lunch outfits in NYC. They've got me hooked. I left Thai Curry Simple with a smile on my face, a full belly, and thoughts about when I could return.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Pad Thai Chicken - $5.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

When we showed up today all but the "CK" had been scraped off the awning. There is a tiny sticker in the window with the store name, ThaiCurrySimple.com. The interior is a little dark, but nicely appointed with a mix a Thai decorations and other oddities including a set of kitsch bird houses hung from the ceiling. There is a large, clear, but limited, menu on the wall with a section of Thai lunch dishes for $5 each plus desserts and drinks. I went with the Chicken Pad Thai.

Thai Curry Simple also sells sauce packets for $2 each to take home and recreate the dishes in your own kitchen. I examined the Pad Thai sauce for signs of ketchup and to my delight didn't detect any. My hopes for the lunch increased. The Pad Thai was in fact delicious. The chicken was tender and it had a nice tangy sauce. It was made even better with the liberal addition of homemade hot sauce, one of the many hot sauce choices on the table.

The owner (cashier/server) noticed we were taking photos and introduced us to his wife (cook) who is apparently a Thai food blogger (her blog is in Thai). We learned that they had run a similar restaurant in NYC for ten years before moving to Seattle. He also gave us a couple of cups of a tasty Thai tapioca dessert. Our plan to get free food has finally paid off.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Green Curry - $5.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This joint, on a corner known more for homelessness than Thai Curry, is a welcome addition to the neighborhood. We've laughed at the name a bit as we walked by, not brave enough to try it till now. Coworkers have reported that it's interesting, and brought back strange artifacts from their ventures forth, like little plastic bags of curry juice. Excitedly we entered.

The place is clean, well decorated, and in spite of the grey walls, warm. There are a handful of curry options, pad thai, some Ro Tee, and a variety of to-go sweets and other such things. My green curry chicken was flavorful, though when served was closer to room temperature than hot. It was also heavy on chicken and bamboo shoots, light on the eggplant. Regardless, I enjoyed it, spiced with a little of the "No Kidding" hot sauce.

For dessert we shared the Banana Chocolate Ro Tee, which needless to say, was tasty for $3 or so. There are not enough Thai places in this neighborhood, and I'm happy for one more option. All in all a great bargain, and a great choice for a quick cheap lunch.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Red Curry Tofu Veggie - $5.00
Rating:

Rob's Review

I never would have known there was a Thai restaurant here just from walking by -- the first thing I noticed was a big sign in the window advertising coffee and lattes. But it's definitely a great find. My red curry tofu veggie lunch showed up with what looked like only soft tofu and carrots (with choice of white or brown rice), and that made me a little nervous because I'm not the biggest fan of carrots. On closer inspection, though, I was happy to find cauliflower and onions and, if I remember correctly, bamboo shoots. The carrots had been steamed or boiled pretty soft, and the curry masked their flavor, which made me even happier -- carrots without carrots, sort of. The curry reminded me of dishes I've had in Thailand: simple and flavorful. But not so spicy, and that was easily resolved with the homemade hot sauce in a plastic tub on the table. Taking the lid off the tub released the sauce's wonderful aroma, and its taste and heat kicked ass. I savored every bite as beads of sweat trickled down my forehead. The Thai Iced Tea was good, too. And they do Ro Tee, which is something I haven't seen much or at all here. Those Thai pancakes were a staple of mine when I was traveling there a year and a half ago. So yeah, Thai Curry Simple is pretty awesome, and I'm looking forward to going back. All they need is better signage.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Massaman Chicken - $5.00
Rating:

Al's Review

Finally, good Thai food in the ID – and lunch for $5!

Thai Curry Simple Photos

Thai Curry Simple

Thai Curry Simple

Thai Curry Simple Menu

Thai Curry Simple Menu in Thai

Owner at Counter

Interior

Interior w/o Fools

Hot Sauce - No Kidding

Red Curry Tofu Veggie

Pad Thai Chicken

Green Curry

Massaman Chicken

Pad Thai - Chicken

Banana Chocolate Ro Tee

Apportioning Dessert

Pad Thai Sauce

Eating Lunch

Wall of Fame

WE WIN! (blurry)

Lunch #83: Noodle King

2009-12-18T11:31:00.000-08:00

Noodle King is no longer in business.

Former Union Gospel Mission space now has a Chinese restaurant! The shelter is now located in South Seattle. The street occupied by Unicorn Crepes (now Unicone), Joe's Bar, Henry's, Piece of Cake, and Fu Lin now has new tenant. We went 5 strong to check it out.

Noodle King, Seattle
Address: 522 S. King St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Noodles
Average rating: 4.2 chopsticks
Lunch date: 12/7/2009 @ 11:40:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 7 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 45 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Little Bit
Where is the owner/chef from?: Shandong Province, China
Number of tables: 9
Number of occupied tables: 2 (22%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (50%)
Number of "local" tables: 1 (50%)
Healthcode Score: N/A
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Hot Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup with Hand Tossed Noodles - $8.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

We spied this place on a regular visit to Pho Bac or something. We saw some nerds inside and some Chinese food on the menu so we figured it was our kind of place. And on this cold blustery December day, hot soup sounds like it fits the bill.

I went with the hot and spicy seafood soup. It was filled with large, fresh mussels, some bright leafy greens. The broth was thick and red. And the spice - they weren't lying when they said it was hot/spicy. There was absolutely no need to reach for the hot sauce on this one. They spiced it well.

The hand tossed noodles - I'll save my money next time. They were good but they didn't seem significantly better than standard store bought.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Beef Noodle Soup - $6.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

You may remember the address of this place, it's the old Union Gospel Mission's Women and Children Center. It's been almost 2 years since we were last there, and that was a great experience. Could the soup at Noodle King possibly beat Kathy's stew?

Trying to decide between the weekly special and the kimchi pork soup was difficult. It was made much easier when Geary and Saut decided to steal my order before I had a chance to choose, so I went with the standard Beef Noodle Soup. This was like an unspicy version of Szechuan Noodle Bowl's #13. The chunks of beef were incredibly beefy flavored. I got the normal noodles and thought they were pretty good, but it would definitely be worth the extra $2 to watch the noodles being tossed. Let whomever you're with pay the extra $2, and you can watch and enjoy the still-delicious standard noodles. The broth was pretty well flavored, but not overly beefy. Describing broth is hard. Maybe I'd call it "well balanced."

Tastier than your average Chinese bear. I'll be back. This place might have UGM's stew beat on flavor, it'll never beat UGM's big heart.

Donate to Union Gospel Mission.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Za Jiang Noodle (Noodles in Black Bean Sauce with Pork) with Hand Tossed Noodles - $5.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

The place looked great. They have taken over the dining area of the abandoned mission. It's a beautiful space with dark wood walls and big front windows. Our server was very friendly and and patient as she helped us decipher the menu.

Nobody else stepped up so I ordered the lunch special, Za Jiang Noodle (Noodles in Black Bean Sauce with Pork). Plus for $2 extra I went with the Hand Tossed Noodles. We quickly realized that "Hand Tossed" meant actually, really hand tossed right there while you wait. I jumped up and caught a few shots of the noodle chef and this short video of him finishing up. It was AMAZING. I had heard of this before and had seen it done in the special features section of the Kung Fu Panda DVD (see it here), but I didn't, until today, know of any place in Seattle that was doing this.

Our food came out quickly and I dove in. I had already gotten more than my $2's worth watching the noodle chef so the fact that the noodles were incredibly tender and delicious was just gravy. The black bean sauce had wonderful subtle flavors, but needed some Kimchi (provided as a shared side) and a few squirts of Sriracha to give it a little bit of a tangy kick to push it over the edge. The Noodle King indeed.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Meatball Noodle Soup with Hand Tossed Noodles - $8.50
Rating:

Dave's Review

this is a 2-for-1 review, because geary and i went to this place two days in a row for lunch. what can i tell you, hot noodle soup on a cold day is one of life's great pleasures. soup #1: meatball soup. rich pork? chicken? broth, toothsome but tender noodles, delicious moist tender meatballs, bok choy. sounds simple, but the depth of flavor in the broth was surprising. i was sort of jealously eyeing the various spicy red bowls around me, but i realized by the end that i was stuffed but could Not. Stop. Drinking. Broth. i put the spoon down, i sat there a few seconds, and i realized i had spoon in hand and broth in mouth. if i had to find something to complain about, i'd say the kimchi (which, dipped in the broth, improved both) was a little salty for my taste. not that that stopped me from...

soup #2: kimchi pork. if you love kimchi as much as i do, you will like this soup. great balance of spice and richness and tanginess. i had the regular (non-hand-tossed) noodles in the name of science, and to be 100% honest, i'm not sure i'd be able to tell the difference blindfolded, but when i go back (and i will) i'll probably pay the $2 for the show. the only drawback for this bowl of soup was that it was so hot temperature-wise that halfway into the bowl it was still steaming my eyeglasses. also, for whatever reason, this time the kimchi wasn't too salty.

the ID was already a great place for noodle soup, and noodle king adds another fantastic option. the fact that they're doing the hand-stretched noodle deal is awesome, both to watch and to see the tradition alive and well.

Luncher: Saut

Lunch: Kimchi Pork Noodle Soup with Hand Tossed Noodles - $8.50
Rating:

Saut's Review

Kimchi noodle with pork and homemade noodle was pretty darn tasty and they serve something different than regular china town restaurants.

Noodle King Photos

Noodle King

Noodle King

Menu Side B

Menu Side A

Special

Lunch Nook at the Noodle King

The Noodle Chef at the Noodle King

Beef Noodle Soup

Kimchi

Za Jiang Noodle (Noodles in Black Bean Sauce with Pork) with Hand Tossed Noodles

Meatball Noodle Soup with Hand Tossed Noodles

Hot Spicy Seafood Noodle Soup with Hand Tossed Noodles

Kimchi Pork Noodle Soup with Hand Tossed Noodles

Lunch #82: Skillet Walk-up Window

2009-12-17T13:57:00.000-08:00

Skillet Walk-up Window is no longer in business. It has been replaced by The Swinery.

We've been big fans of the Skillet Airstream ever since their debut on the Seattle scene in 2007 with their "Bacon Jam," their "trailer," and their inability to follow "basic health codes." And God dammit, as soon as they appear, they leave. For a brief period in the Summer of 2009 the Skillet opened a walk-up window literally across the street from MSG150 HQ.

Gone from our zone (but not forgotten), here is our overdue, still somewhat relevant, review of the Trailer-gone-Walk-Up-gone-back-to-the-streets food place.

Skillet Walk-up Window, Seattle
Address: 220 Fourth Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: American: Burgers
Average rating: 4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 9/1/2009 @ 12:15:00
Time taken to be seated: N/A minutes
Time to take order: 8 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 13 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 23 minutes
Chopstix quality: Plastic Fork
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Josh Henderson
Number of tables: 0
Number of occupied tables: 0
Number of business lunch tables: 0
Number of "local" tables: 0
Healthcode Score: 15
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Pho - $8.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

The walk-up window is located on the back side of an abandoned looking building next to the trash cans. Really. There is nowhere nearby to sit, but from what we can see from our office, the back of the building is a popular place to pee in the early evening. So it's got that going for it. We've been a few times since it opened, but never in our official capacity as MSG150 lunchers until today.

Everything on their menu except the burger changes daily. Today I went with one of the specials, Vietnamese Pho. We ate back at the office in a conference room so the time between order and eating was longer that I would have liked. I was ravenous by the time I popped the lid on my soup and dug in. There were fewer fresh veggies that with traditional Pho, but the broth was sweet and delicious with a much richer flavor that most Pho. The beef was tender and tasty as well. We also shared some Poutine, decadent, and Carrot Cake, yum. As usual the food was fantastic, but I can't get over how crappy a location the walk-up window is, other than it being across the street from me.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Tacos - $7.50
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Once upon a time there was a Hip Hop Night Club here. Not that I would know anything about such things. It's been derelict for awhile so good god were we excited to hear that Skillet was setting down roots here.

I had the Tacos and we all split some Poutine. Their Tacos - delicious, savory, fresh. Kind of what you wish every Mexican restaurant in town could put on your platos, but consistently fail at it, inexplicably. The French Fries/Gravy/Cheese Curds need no review. On previous visits I've had their breakfast Tacos - yum, their Burger - 5 chopsticks, their Summer Lasagna - probably the best lasagna I've tasted in my entire life, and it was vegetarian to boot.

This window is closed (their replacement ain't bad), but you can find the Skillet round town still. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Dal - $6.00
Rating:

Adam's Review

I feel kind of morbid about writing this review, because the Skillet Street Walk-up Window (SSWW) is already dead. We miss you, and your delicious Bacon Jam'ed eats.

On this occasion, I got something new: Dal. I'd never had Dal before. I'd never heard of Dal before. But, the sign made it sound tempting: "Curry Lentil Soup over a bed of garlic ginger rice with cachumba and yogurt." Sounds pretty damned tasty, right? Unfortunately, it was lacking the flavor explosion of awesome that I'd come to expect from SSWW. This was mostly just a bland Indian Soup on a bed of bland rice. Next time we hit up a Skillet Trailer (and there will be another time), I'm definitely going back to the Bacon Jam covered burger. Oh em gee, it's so good.

Long story short: skip the Dal (if it's available) and just get "the burger".

On a side note, if you haven't had the Bacon Jam yet... get it. Great "Authentic Seattle" Christmas/Hanukkah present(s). On second thought, maybe you'd be better with just a coupon for Hanukkah.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: The Burger - $9.50
Rating:

Al's Review

Bacon jam on the burger was great; fries even better, but pricey; 4 chopsticks.

Skillet Walk-up Window Photos

Skillet Walk up Window

Skillet's Menu

In line at Skillet

The Window

Emmett placing his order

A peak inside

Adam placing his order

The ambiance

The Burger

Dal

Tacos

Pho

Poutine

Poutine being devoured

Carrot Cake

Lunch #81: Tamarind Tree

2009-12-07T10:37:00.000-08:00

The MSG150 crew was six strong today as we headed up the hill. We were all excited to have finally passed the hurdles necessary to now be headed towards the Tamarind Tree. Many of us have been here for dinner and had great experiences. Now it was Tamarind Tree's time to show what it's got going on for lunch.

Tamarind Tree, Seattle
Address: 1036 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 3.5 chopsticks
Lunch date: 7/20/2009 @ 11:40:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 2 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 5 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 50 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: Little Bit
Where is the owner/chef from?: Vietnam
Number of tables: 38
Number of occupied tables: 12 (31%)
Number of business lunch tables: 9 (75%)
Number of "local" tables: 3 (25%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Bun dau nu nuong - Grilled Lemongrass Tofu Noodles - $7.25
Rating:

Adam's Review

Wow, this place is amazing. A beautiful interior, and a great outdoor deck to eat on when the weather is nice (as it was on this day).

If anyone could compete with Pho Bac, it's going to be this place. I ordered some Bun noodles to enjoy in the mid-day Seattle heat.

I was impressed when they brought the food out only moments later; they've got this lunch timing down pat. Let's start with the fish-sauce for the Bun noodles: it was good, and not too garlic-y, I was able to enjoy the rest of my afternoon without burping up fish sauce. The noodles were cooked well, as would be expected at a Vietnamese restaurant. The lemongrass tofu was good and had some fun flavor. Overall Tamarind Tree has decent prices, and I'm happy with the experience.

I'll visit this place again. Their menu is large, and I'm sure contains some real gems.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Bun thit nuong - Skewered Grilled Pork Noodles - $6.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

The Tamarind Tree is by far the fanciest lunch spot so far on the MSG150 tour. Real, living plants. Water features. Matching tables and chairs. It has it all, almost. It's located at the back end of an aging strip mall parking lot. It also has the most outdoor seating of any other spot and is equipped with lots of heat lamps for chilly days. We were greeted warmly by the host and seated on the patio.

Looking over the lunch menu I was pleasantly surprised by the prices. They are inline with the other Vietnamese lunch purveyors in spite of the extra fanciness. I went with the Bun Thit Nuong, BBQ pork on cold noodles with fresh veggies and sweet fish sauce, since it's a good barometer by which to measure this place against the others. I was also enticed to throw in an order for the Fresh Rolls having spotted a neighbor enjoying theirs.

The Bun was beautify presented, more than enough food, and delicious. The bowl was heaped with hot pork just off the skewer. I would have like the BBQ pork to have more crispy bits and a bit more of a saucy tang, but I ate it all and fully enjoyed it during the process. The Fresh Rolls were good, but didn't show up until I was gorged on Bun and were way more then we needed.

Finally, in summary and to conclude, the Tamarind Tree is a great lunch spot for an important business meeting or lunch date as long as your guest is blind or at least blind folded during the approach through the strip mall parking lot. However, if your date has agreed to be willingly blindfolded, it seem a shame to stop here and not just go straight home. Once in, it is a great lunch value and completes well on taste with (but doesn't quite beat) the all mighty Pho Bac.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Bun chao tom - Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane Noodles - $8.25
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Way to go on converting a strip mall parking lot into a soothing outdoor oasis. This place makes me feel like a rich LA debutante out for brunch with the grrls. There's nice music, vines, bamboo. Was there a waterfall? I don't remember. Sadly the food doesn't overwhelm.

We're big fans of the Vietnamese food here at MSG HQ, so I was excited to see a variety of options that are normal hot spots don't offer. Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane sounded unique, interesting, and exciting! It came, and it looked good. Big cuts of sugarcane had molded ground shrimp wrapped around them like meat on a stick. I doubt it was grilled, most likely the whole thing was thrown in the deep fryer, sugarcane and all. Regardless, the flavor wasn't all that great. The ground up shrimp was a disappointment, as I was hoping for whole shrimp to be wrapped around the sugarcane. The salad greens thrown in with the bun still had a plastic label attached.

On the flip side, the spring rolls were tasty.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Bun thit lui Da Nong - Da Nange Grilled Pork Noodles - $7.50
Rating:

Al's Review

Only al fresco dining in the ID -- a little pricey, but good enough to justify it. 4 chopsticks.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Saigon Pork Grill Noodles - $7.25
Rating:

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Banh man cu cai tom - Steamed Prawn Coconut Rice Cake - $7.50
Rating:

Tamarind Tree Photos

Tamarind Tree

MSG150'ers

Bun dau nu nuong - Grilled Lemongrass Tofu Noodles

Bun chao tom - Grilled Shrimp on Sugarcane Noodles

Saigon Pork Grill Noodles

Bun thit nuong - Skewered Grilled Pork Noodles

Bun thit lui Da Nong - Da Nange Grilled Pork Noodles

Banh man cu cai tom - Steamed Prawn Coconut Rice Cake

Fresh Rolls

Emmett's Lunch is apparently a product of Thailand

Lunch #80: Viet-Wah Deli

2009-08-21T16:55:00.000-07:00

On our last trip up the hill, while waiting outside for Rob's order -- we're always waiting on Rob's order -- we spent some time giggling at the "remedies" being offered by the herbalist at the Viet-Wah Asian grocer. "Valuable Ant Kidney: Take effect in 15 minutes and last for 180 hours. Makes it big, thick, long-lasting, increasing sperms." Another was a mix of Engrish plus a careful misspelling, "Herbage Vaigra: Made in USA". Amidst our chortles we noticed that there is a lunch counter and eating area inside the Viet-Wah. So today we headed up to give it a try.

Viet-Wah Deli, Seattle
Address: 1032 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98109
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 2 chopsticks
Lunch date: 7/17/2009 @ 11:45:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 0 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 30 minutes
Chopstix quality: Metal silverware
Do they use MSG?: Likely
Where is the owner/chef from?:
Number of tables: 5
Number of occupied tables: 2 (40%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (50%)
Number of "local" tables: 1 (50%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Ginger Chicken and "Big Eyed Jack Fish" Lunch Special - $5.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This place is like the ghetto bastard stepchild of Uwajimaya. They have lots of groceries, shelves stocked full of deals and weirdness. And then there's the food court. If you can even call it that.

This place has a heated selection behind glass, and they also do sandwiches. The glass is a bit faded in color, colored no doubt by the gaseous grease emanating from the options. The food appears to have been simmering in its broth for god knows how many days. It's like they arrive in the morning, flip the switch, wait 10 minutes, and serve.

Going with well-cooked and fried meats for safety's sake, I went for the chicken wings in sauce, along with the fried fish. He put some rice in a plate, tossed the fish on there, then spooned the chicken wings, along with the viscous, gooey sauce, all over the whole shebang. The chicken was cooked; it had flavor. The fish, interestingly, was fine.

I believe you could find someone to do anything for the right price. It'd be a high price to get them to eat here.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Chicken Banh Mi and Combo Banh Mi Sandwiches - 2 x $2.25
Rating:

Adam's Review

We eat at a lot of awesome restaurants, but let it be known that Viet-Wah's deli counter is at the exact opposite end of that spectrum.

We ambled up to the counter, and I was expecting something in the same vein as Uwajimaya's Steam Stable, but was presented with something out of a grosser version of Maxang. I looked at the tubs of week-old (I'm speculating) gooey seafood dishes, and decided that none of it was passable. I turned my gaze above the counter to the menu showing noodle soups, rice dishes, and a handful of other things. I ordered from that menu, only to learn that they don't actually make anything listed on the menu. I switched to the Banh Mi menu; can't go wrong with a sandwich. I ordered a couple of them from the Bahn Mi menu, only to find out that they only serve Pork, Chicken, or Combo Banh Mi... again, total disregard for signage they-themselves had posted. Anyways, I was eventually able to get a couple of sandwiches ordered.

They brought the sandwiches out, and I tore into the Combo banh mi like a starving Urgal (yes, I've been reading Brisingr).

At the conclusion of tasting both sandwiches, I had determined that they forgot to add any flavor to any of the ingredients. My food was flavorless. This may have actually been the most boring food I've ever had. *tear*.

Bottom line: run, don't walk, past the deli counter in Viet-Wah

On a side note, the grocery part of Viet-Wah is awesome and has lots of great stuff to eat and cook with.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Catfish + Crab Combo Lunch Special - $5.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

Viet-Wah is an authentic Asian market. It was similar to Uwajimaya before Uwajimaya remodeled and went all modern. Back in the day Viet-Wah was my first choice ID grocer. But it has let itself go and has a bit of a run down feel to it now. However, it still has an amazing assortment. The vegetables and seafood sections are particularly impressive. It's one of the few places in town where you can get live blue crab. Today we took a right past the Chinese medicine apothecary into the Viet-Wah Deli. The counter has a selection of prepared dishes in a warmer that for $5 you get a choice of two over rice. There are also various posted menu items, but we found that today few of those were actually available. I went with the $5 lunch special and chose the Dungeness crab in gooey sauce and the catfish steaks in teriyaki-like sauce. It was truly an amazing amount of seafood for $5. I got almost an entire half of a crab, claw plus two legs and a large body section, and two catfish steaks on a pile of rice. There was some confusion at the counter, and the man serving us motioned for me to sit down and pay later.

The gooey crab was very hard to eat. It is apparently customary in many Asian countries to eat the crab shell. I wasn't sure if that was the intention here, but it would make fighting through the sticky goo possible. I tried this with the body section with some success, but I fell back to my Western ways when it came to the legs and especially the claw. As it was, I ended up with a big sliver of claw shell stuck between my teeth from cracking it open. Other than the logistics of getting at the meat, the crab was good. The gooey sauce was slightly sweet and salty and the meat fresh and tender. The catfish was also tasty. It was cooked in a soy sauce mixture similar to teriyaki, but wasn't at all sweet.

Other than the battle with the crab shell, my lunch was tasty, but the cluttered, messy deli and eating area didn't really sit well with me. We all agreed that this is the kind of place that the 8 hour rule* was meant for. While I might be tempted to give four chopsticks for the food alone, the rest of the dining experience brings me back down to a solid 3.

After eating we wandered the aisles a bit and then left. I didn't realize until later in the day that I had dined and dashed. I went back up the next day to try and pay, and it took the help of two other customers with more versatile language skills than I to convey what I was trying to do to the woman behind the counter.

* The 8 hour rule: We don't release our posts until at least 8 hours after the meal to be sure we account for any food borne illnesses.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Egg Rolls + "Meatball" bowl - $4.00
Rating:

Al's Review

Orangey meatloaf bowl – looked odd; tasted o.k.; sat like lead in my stomach. 2 chopsticks

Viet-Wah Deli Photos

Viet-Wah

Viet-Wah

Viet-Wah Deli

Hot Deli Items

More Deli Items

Baked goods

Catfish + Crab Combo Lunch Special

Ginger Chicken and "Big Eyed Jack Fish" Lunch Special

Egg Rolls + "Meatball" bowl

Close up of Al's Meatball bowl

Combo Banh Mi

Chicken Banh Mi

Egg Roll Chip Lumpia Snack

Inside Viet-Wah

Viet-Wah vegetable & fruit aisle

Viet-Wah vegetable & fruit aisle

Viet-Wah Chinese Medicine Store

Service counter at Chinese Medicine Store

Chinese Medicine offerings

Valuable Ant Kidney

Herbage Vaigra & Seadog Pills

Lunch #79: New Saigon Deli

2009-07-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

Expectations were low today as the MSG150 crew headed out to meet up with Michael and Veggie Roberto at the New Saigon Deli. Having scoped out this Bahn Mi only joint on a previous venture up Jackson, we were put on guard by the run-down storefront and cluttered interior, even though we are all fans of the Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches. Michael met us there and Rob showed up on his bike a short time after. We scoped out the menu and then stepped up to the counter to order.

New Saigon Deli, Seattle
Address: 1034 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 3.3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 7/7/2009 @ 11:50:00
Time taken to be seated: N/A minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 20 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 50 minutes
Chopstix quality: Plastic Fork
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Saigon?
Number of tables: 1
Number of occupied tables: 0 (0%)
Number of business lunch tables: 0
Number of "local" tables: 0
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: BBQ Pork Bahn Mi + Sardine Bahn Mi + Mystery Dessert + Bubble Tea - $2 + $2 + $1.50 + $2.50
Rating:

Geary's Review

I gave Yelp a peek before heading out and was intrigued/terrified by a reviewer who recommended the sardine Bahn Mi. I imagined a baguette with a dozen tiny fish heads poking out. However, having overdosed recently on Andrew Zimmern, I resolved to give it a try.

I can't imagine what the Old Saigon Deli was like. This place is a pit. There are a couple of chairs and a stool in one corner, food and snacks on tables in the middle and at the counter, and an old cake display refrigerator in another corner with only a couple of lonely items in it. The food menu lists Bahn Mi sandwiches exclusively but there is also a large picture menu of bubble tea offerings as well.

I went with the Sardine Bahn Mi that I had previously committed to and the BBQ Pork. There are two prices for Bahn Mi and mine were both the expensive price at $2 each. The cheaper sandwiches are $1.75. How do they make any money on these? Maybe they are just the loss leader and they get you on the phone cards and cigarettes that are also for sale behind the counter. Since I was still far from my spending limit, and worried about the sardines, I grabbed a colorful dessert-looking concoction from the table and ordered a bubble tea.

Since there is essentially no eating room in the deli, we decided to walk down to the Kobe Terrace hillside park and p-patch and look for a spot for a picnic. Having secured a picnic table I unwrapped my sandwiches and dug in. I decided to start with the Sardine Bahn Mi using the logic that this would optimize the amount of other food I had left to wash away any horrible Sardine Bahn Mi taste. To my utter surprise the Sardine Bahn Mi was not only edible, it was great. Not only was the crisp baguette stuffed with tons of tasty pickled daikon, pickled carrots, onions, and cilantro, the sardines themselves were delicious. Plus, no head! It wasn't whole sardines at all but sort of a sardine salad similar to tuna salad. In fact if you like tangy tuna salad you would like this. It wasn't mayo based, but it had onions and some sort of chili sauce. I really can't say enough about this sandwich. I was even regretting I hadn't ordered two until I started in on my BBQ pork Bahn Mi. It too was delicious. The pork was tangy and tender with very little of the gristle you might expect for $2. While the sandwich was not as substantial as Sub Sand, the BBQ pork was better.

I made it through both sandwiches, the bubble tea, and bites of the delicious mystery dessert but I was stuffed. One and a half Bahn Bi is the right number. Go with a friend and split three, just make sure you get a whole sardine one to yourself.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: BBQ Pork Bahn Mi + Banana Rice - $2 + $2
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This place has the potential to scare off every female I've ever met. Mental note, don't bring a date here. The entrance is basic enough. When you enter there are tables covered with to-go sweets and foods. There's a counter where you order. A total of two places where you could sit. Two dollar sandwiches. Hells yes.

I grabbed a BBQ Pork Bahn Mi, a banana rice, and a diet coke for the grand total of $5 I think. They are SLOW. They offered to heat my bun. Seriously? Yes please! I patiently waited outside for the others so we could proceed to the nearby park to eat our food.

The sandwich was fantastic. It's definitely on par with the best Bahn Mi from the nearby bakeries and delis. It falls a bit short of Sub-Sand, but then again, for $2, it comes in at less than half the price. The banana rice was a little bit gross to look at, and was cold, but in spite of that, was tasty.

The food quality and price merit this Deli a 4, but the lack of space and slow service brings it down to a 3. I'll definitely come back but I like a place to sit.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Cha Lua Chay Bahn Mi (vegetarian ham) + Chinese Sausage and Rice - $2 + $1.50
Rating:

Adam's Review

New Saigon Deli has a Maxang-style interior. It's dumpy. Although, this place doesn't have tables.

The food here was actually pretty good, I just ordered the wrong sandwich. I am now 100% anti-Vegetarian-"Ham". The other stuff in the sandwich was actually quite good. Pickled vegetables on a sandwich always throw a nice pick up on it. I ordered mine to be "warm"... which means they toasted it first. Definitely recommended if you have the time.

For a little bahn mi sandwich shop, these take a surprising amount of time to make. To get all 8 of us in-and-out... it took at least 20 minutes. I know this isn't the world's most complicated sandwich, but if it's the only kind of sandwich you make... you should be able to get it down to only a minute. Jimmy John's can do it in about 30 seconds.

Next time I'll be ordering one of the other sandwiches... but the important thing to note is that I'm definitely heading back to this place.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Tofu Bahn Mi + Ginger Candy - $1.75 + $1.00
Rating:

Rob's Review

Well, I'm back in Seattle, and back to the MSG150. Traveling around and about South America was fun, but now I've returned, and I'm hungry for lunch. And it's good to see everyone again.

Speaking of lunch, my "welcome home" outing was to this curious establishment. The decor lends itself more to the practical than to the aesthetic, but the bahn mi prep time surprisingly lacked the efficiency I expected when I walked in. At least I had good company while waiting for the sandwich.

So yeah, the tofu bahn mi. I liked it. It wasn't the best bahn mi I've had, but I liked it, and it had a good spicy jalapeño edge. Would I eat here again? $1.75 for the sandwich = you certainly bet I will. If I'm craving something tastier and have more coin in my pocket, though, I would probably venture elsewhere, such as Sub Sand or Baguette Box.

What else? While I was munching away, I was thinking that one sandwich wouldn't be quite enough, but after I'd finished and had a brief walk, it felt just right. Maybe all the various and sundry GI problems I had in Bolivia and Peru actually had a beneficial effect of helping shrink my stomach a bit. I'll see how long that lasts...

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: BBQ Pork Bahn Mi + Chicken Bahn Mi - $2 + $2
Rating:

Michael's Review

Very nice and simple Bahn Mi priced just right for the unemployed. You really can't find a tastier cheaper lunch than this. The only down side is there isn't a place to sit down and enjoy it.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Meatball Banh Mi + Chicken Teriyaki Banh Mi - $2 + $2
Rating:

Dave's Review

Well, this isn't the place to take a big crowd. It took forever to get all the sandwiches made and cycled through. Next time I won't bother getting it heated; it was cold by the time we got around to eating. Still, the banh mis were pretty good, especially at $2 a pop. 2 was too much food, 1 probably not enough. Bring a friend and split 3. The meatball was more like cooked ground flavored mystery meat (probably pork) spread in a layer; tasty. The chicken teriyaki was unremarkable but good. Still, for $4, go to Sub Sand and get one salt-and-pepper tofu banh mi instead.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Special Bahn Mi + Almond Bubble Tea - $2 + $2.50
Rating:

Al's Review

Bahn Mi -- Good; Price -- Fantastic! Almond Bubble Milk Tea was extra sweet too.

New Saigon Deli Photos

New Saigon Deli

Not so new New Saigon Deli sign

New Saigon Deli Menu

Backup Menu

Bubble Tea Mennu

The Eye is watching

Table of assorted treats

More treats

BBQ Pork Bahn Mi + Banana Rice

Cha Lua Chay Bahn Mi (vegetarian ham)

BBQ Pork Bahn Mi + Sardine Bahn Mi

Tofu Bahn Mi + Ginger Candy

Mystery Dessert

Adam's Sticky Rice & Chinese Sausage

Emmett's Banana Rice

MSG150 Crew Picnic

Lunch #78: Saigon Bistro

2009-07-14T13:33:00.000-07:00

Another day, another hidden ID restaurant. Today's trek took us to the back side of the Viet Wah grocery store to Saigon Bistro. Apparently this Saigon Bistro is in no way related to the other Saigon Bistro in the Uwajimaya food court. Once we navigated the parking lot and swung around Viet Wah's loading bay and dumpsters we found the somewhat quaint entrance to today's lunch spot.

Saigon Bistro, Seattle
Address: 1032 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 3.3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 6/3/2009 @ 12:15:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 7 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 18 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 50 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Saigon?
Number of tables: 14
Number of occupied tables: 6 (42%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (16%)
Number of "local" tables: 5 (83%)
Healthcode Score: 10
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Bun Chay (with Tofu) - $7.00
Rating:

Adam's Review

It's always so hard when you put a restaurant head-to-head with Pho Bac. But I ordered the Bun noodles knowing that that was exactly what I was doing to this restaurant.

We should really start with the approach to this restaurant. Unless you know where you're going, you're going to have a tough time finding the front door. Why? Because it doesn't actually have a front door, the restaurant's door is actually on the back of the building. And as you're searching for it, you may notice some not-so-nice aromas coming from some nearby dumpsters. Although, as soon as you walk in, you're presented with a quite nice looking interior. Once you sit down and figure out what you want, it'll take a few minutes for them to take your order... and in this time you'll notice that the interior isn't nice, it's just almost nice. Lots of cut corners.

Anyway, the Bun noodles were good. Nothing special. The appetizer was good. Nothing special. With prices higher than Pho Bac, the only reason you'd come here is if you were skittish about how the interior of a restaurant looked (and hence, didn't want to go to Pho Bac).

Not a bad place to try out... but nothing special

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Bun with Lemongrass Chicken - $7.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

The first problem with this place is it's hard to find even if you're looking for it. Find the Viet Wah sign, turn into the parking lot, head around back. You'll see the entrance.

Inside this place is fairly nice. White tablecloths abound; we chose a nice table by the window. The menu, though inconsistent, has a lot of good choices. I really wanted Bun, but their lemongrass chicken also looked good, so I asked if they could do a Bun with Lemongrass. Certainly they said.

We split the Bo la lot and they were delicious. I had just eaten at Monsoon East, whose waiter prided them on their Bo La Lot, and these were as good if not better. The main course was great. The Lemongrass chicken had a nice flavor. There were a good mix of greens, veggies, noodles, and meat. For $7, the price compares favorably to nearby Pho Bac.

The service was average, but I liked the atmosphere. This may make a good dinner place. I'll definitely come back at some point.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Bun with Grilled Pork - $7.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

Saigon Bistro is attempting to be in the fine dining category and fails. They have granite along the counters and copper accents above the kitchen, but the tables and chairs are old and mismatched. I ordered the BBQ Pork Bun noodles and we shared Grilled La Lot Leaf Wrapped Beef appetizer. The beef was tough and chewy. I know gristly and chewy is expected to some degree, but I have my limits. The BBQ Pork Bun noodles was presented nicely but the pork was dry and gristly. Although the price was reasonable, for the same price I am assured a better meal at either Pho Bak or Green Leaf.

Saigon Bistro Photos

Saigon Bistro

Fine Dining?

Saigon Bistro Menu Cover

Saigon Bistro Lunch Menu

Lunch Menu Page 2

Saigon Bistro Menu

Entry Way

La Lot Beef Rolls

Bun with Lemongrass Chicken

Bun with Grilled Pork

Bun Chay (with Tofu)

The view

Lunch #77: LA Cafe

2009-06-01T09:39:00.000-07:00

MSG150's good friend Tien has been talking up LA Cafe for years. It was not in the path of our original route so it went untouched. Now, as we expand east, LA Cafe gets its day. Not having had much luck with previous "cafe" types our crew was skeptical when we arrived at the Pacific Rim Center to get it on LA style.

LA Cafe, Seattle
Address: 900 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese
Average rating: 3.8 chopsticks
Lunch date: 5/19/2009 @ 11:47:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 5 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 17 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 63 minutes
Chopstix quality: Forks!
Do they use MSG?: Likely
Where is the owner/chef from?: Guangzhou
Number of tables: 22
Number of occupied tables: 6 (27%)
Number of business lunch tables: 4 (66%)
Number of "local" tables: 5 (83%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Rice with Preserved Meat and Steamed Frog in Hot Pot - $8.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Dude our trip into the heart of darkness keeps getting better. LA Cafe -- sounds like they sell crappy pizzas with goat cheese and no sauce -- has a lot of glitter and LED going for it on the outside. It is decorated like a diner, and gestures, invitingly for us to come in and gossip about the latest Beverly Hills Cop and how awesome A-Ha is.

Like these other Hong Kong Style diner places, the menu is immense. I asked the waiter to boil it down to one simple option - what does he like the best. Without hesitation he recommended the Rice Hot Pot with Chinese Sausages and Frog. Hells yeah BRING IT. I've had frog before (grew up in FL -- we eat weird) so I was initiated. However this was a new discovery for the ID. I dove in.

The rice was cooked well done, had very little flavor. The sausages were tasty, though not outstanding, definitely enhanced the rice. The frog legs were small, bony, a bit fishy and chickeny. The sauce it came with rounded out the flavors with some salty savoriness.

For dessert we had the black glass jelly. Try to pronounce that if you're an ESL kid and you'll sense our confusion as we ordered dessert. It was unlike anything I ever tried. It was bitter, cold, like jello. Jet black. Interesting. Apparently homemade as well. It cleansed the palate, leave my mouth fresh, clean, black.

Our server was fantastic. Prompt courteous service, and he encouraged us to try new things. The variety was definitely a refreshing change. My meal wasn't the greatest but I'm excited to come back, and see what else is in store.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Grilled Chicken Steak - $6.99
Rating:

Adam's Review

Back up to the Pacific Rim Center. I'm sure everyone will mention this, but we had a coworker, Tien, who absolutely loved this place. Geary sent her a message that we were going here, and she came back with a recommendation to get the "Grilled Chicken Steak."

I ordered the Grilled Chicken Steak... which apparently means Fried Chicken Steak. So, here comes a shocker: the fried chicken was friggin' delicious. I had my choice between 4 different sauces, and I went with the Garlic Sauce. So I've got this piece of fried chicken that is covered in what is essentially Garlic Gravy. All I can say is "winner." Get it.

The lunch special comes with all sorts of choices. I got to choose the sauce for my chicken steak. I got to chose between Seafood and Tomato Soup (I went with the Seafood, it was very sea-foody, and good). I got to chose between Mango Yogurt and Black Glass Jello for dessert (the Mango Yogurt was awesome!)

Lots of food. Lots of choices. Tien was right to love this place.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Braised Ox Tail with Red Wine Sauce - $8.99
Rating:

Geary's Review

Self promotion is not their strong suit. If you didn't know it existed you would have almost no way of finding it. Other than a small sign near the parking garage entrance there is no exterior signage for the LA Cafe. East meets West in an odd way here. The interior looks like a fifty's diner but with clear Chinese accents like TV blaring Chinese soaps and the case of Chinese buns and other baked goods. The menu is a mix of Cantonese favorites plus western derivatives. The lunch specials come with a choice of white rice, spaghetti, or fries. In addition to traditional rice bowls and noodle dishes they serve club sandwiches and chicken fried steak. I went with Ox Tail in Red Wine Sauce with a side of rice. We also had a choice of tomato or seafood soup. I went with seafood.

Service was very friendly however even though it was not crowded our lunches took a while to come out. The seafood soup was good but not like anything I'd had before. It had a clear broth with tiny bits of chopped up, completely unidentifiable, seafood, small cubes of tofu, and carrot flakes. The Ox Tail was unexpectedly delicious. It wasn't anything that would show up anywhere near a Michelin star, but given the surroundings I was impressed. The meat was fall apart tender and the brown wine sauce was rich and tasty with peas, carrots, and mushrooms thrown in per spec. Seeing the amazing variety of the other dishes at the table makes we want to come back many more times to look for other gems in the vast menu. Way to go LA.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Fried Egg and Beef with Rice - $6.99
Rating:

LA Cafe Photos

LA Cafe

LA Cafe Lunch Menu

LA Cafe Lunch Menu (cont.)

LA Cafe Interior

LA Cafe Interior

Street sign for LA Cafe on the side of the well cemented Pacific Rim Center

Seafood Soup

Grilled Chicken Steak

Fried Egg and Beef with Rice

Braised Ox Tail with Red Wine Sauce

Rice with Preserved Meat and Steamed Frog in Hot Pot

Behold the frog

Dessert went too fast for photos

Lunch #76: Tsukushinbo

2009-05-19T15:27:00.000-07:00

Today the MSG150 crew ate at the last restaurant in our Japantown route. We have now eaten at every International District restaurant west of I-5. This is a feat that has never before been attempted and will surely win us a place in Guinness. Or at least a Guinness. I'm buying.

We set out for Tsukushinbo again today which, as we learned last week, is closed on Monday. We showed up at 11:40 to find out that it doesn't open until 11:45. Luckily the sun was out and soon we were in to give it a go.

Tsukushinbo, Seattle
Address: 515 S Main St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Japanese: Sushi, Japanese: Noodles
Average rating: 3.6 chopsticks
Lunch date: 5/12/2009 @ 11:45:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 3 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 14 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 45 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Kawasaki, Japan
Number of tables: 9
Number of occupied tables: 6 (66%)
Number of business lunch tables: 4 (66%)
Number of "local" tables: 2 (33%)
Healthcode Score: 10
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Katsu Don - $6.75
Rating:

Geary's Review

Tsukushinbo is the most hole-in-the wall and likely the most authentic Japanese restaurant in Japantown. And, if they were going for the run-down restaurant feel they nailed it. The sign and storefront are in need of an update and a good wash. The interior is dark and also in need of a good wash. There are short curtains that hang over the doors just low enough that your head (at least my head) gets a light brush that as a result have started to turn a little brown along the edge. All of the plastic chair cushions are cracked with exposed foam. Mine also had a small helping of last night's dinner crusted too it which I had to brush off before sitting. Our server was nice, possibly the daughter of the owner, and passed out menus and answered questions. Although, either through profiling or neglect, she failed to bring us green tea for our meal. However it wasn't all bad. In fact the food was mostly good.

I ordered the Katsu Don to see how it stacked up to Ichiban, my current favorite. It was $1.20 cheaper which was a good start. It was very good, however, my dish somehow had a big dollop of cold, uncooked egg white that was hard to overlook. I tried to stir it in, but the rice and bowl weren't quite hot enough to cook it so it just turned the rice a little gooey. However, I'm not chicken when it comes to raw egg so I dove in anyway. Like Ichiban, there was lots of sauce and the pork was nice and tender. I ate every bite.

If you're looking for a sterile Japanese dining experience, you'll have better luck across the street. However, if you are looking for an authentic, family run, slightly grungy Japanese restaurant experience with tasty food then look no further. You won't be disappointed.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Sanma Shioyaki & Tonjiru with Rice - $7.50
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Well god damn. You could walk by this place and not even know it exists, but once the door opens, you enter a warm, welcoming, inviting place. There is a sushi bar in the rear right corner, and a smattering of tables fill out the rest of the room. There's a white board of specials that all look intriguing.

On the Tuesday we visited, the daily special was Sanma Shioyaki with Tonjiru. I can't recall ever having Sanma, or Mackerel Pike in English, but it was a short fish about an inch in diameter. Briefly before my meal came over, I saw the Sushi Chef with a blow torch, and I can't help but wonder if the blow torch was doing it's number on my Sanma. It was delicious. A little bony, and it took some work to get the fish off, but it was juicy, savory, and delicious. The Tonjiru was the star of the show. Basically Miso soup with sliced pork. Why didn't I think to try this before? In a word, awesome. The special was rounded out by a mediocre green salad with some macaroni thrown in. Forgiveable. All for $7.50.

Besides being a delightful surprise (and relative bargain), the daily special menu is tempting me to come back. Jay Friedman gushed recently about their Top Secret Friday shoyu ramen. I can't wait to stand outside on a Friday morning at a quarter til noon to try this.

Thank you Tsukushinbo, for reminding me why I do this. 5 chops.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Oyako Don - $6.50
Rating:

Adam's Review

11:45AM is a weird time for a restaurant to open. Normally, we would get there after the time, but Dave is an early luncher, so we had to wait outside the door for 5 cold minutes.

To be honest, Don buri dishes have never sounded that appetizing to me; they sounded really boring. After everyone got done raving about the Don Buris at Ichiban (and my experience was crap there), I decided to go with the Oyako Don. Hot dang! It was good. The little marinated chunks of chicken thighs (my favorite part of a chicken), mixed with well-cooked eggs (not runny but not dry) and the sweet sauce they put on the rice was a winner. I spiced it up with some Shichimi, and enjoyed it some more.

Overall, I think the Don Buri was good but will remain a dish I keep on a back burner. It's good, but it's simple and gets old after a whole bowl of it. If the windows in our office opened, I could throw Geary, and hit Tsukushinbo. I'm pretty weak, so let that give you an indication of how close this place is. I'll definitely hit this place up again, for both it's proximity and good food.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Oyako Don - $6.50
Rating:

Dave's Review

Tsukushinbo is an unassuming little place, and a little dingy; it's showing some definite signs of age and neglect. This maybe isn't the place to impress a date. That said, you don't eat the decor, so down to what matters: this was a darn good bowl of oyakodon. I love donburi -- if it's on the menu, that's what I'm getting. To me it's comfort food: steaming rice, scrambled eggs, sweet mirin-and-dashi sauce. This bowl was exactly what I wanted: the balance of sweet and salty in the sauce was spot on, the eggs weren't overcooked, and the chicken was tasty enough. The bits of seaweed and the pickled radish garnish were great, and the unexpected strips of fish cake were a nice textural contrast. And as a bonus, the price is right. I can definitely see this place making its way into the rotation, at least for me.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Curry Udon - $7.25
Rating:

Tsukushinbo Photos

Tsukushinbo

Good News!

Specials

Menu Cover

Tsukushinbo Menu

Tsukushinbo Menu (cont.)

Sanma Shioyaki & Tonjiru with Rice

Oyako Don

Oyako Don

Katsu Don

Curry Udon

Lunch #75: New Hong Kong Restaurant

2009-05-18T10:29:00.000-07:00

Though not complete with Japantown, we were dismayed to find our next joint, Tsukushinbo, closed that day. Intrepidly we proceeded into the vast unknown, eastward up our old friend Jackson, under the freeway and into our central station: the Pacific Rim Center. This place is a veritable cornucopia of all things Pacific. We passed the hair salon, travel agency, to our mark: the New Hong Kong Restaurant. The adventure begins.

New Hong Kong Restaurant, Seattle
Address: 900 S Jackson St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Dim Sum
Average rating: 3.5 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/37/2009 @ 12:00:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 0 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 27 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Vietnam, but ethnically Chinese
Number of tables: 35
Number of occupied tables: 4 (11%)
Number of business lunch tables: 4 (100%)
Number of "local" tables: 8 (200%)
Healthcode Score: 10
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Family Style Dishes

Tofu Shrimp Ball
Tofu Shrimp Roll
Fried Shrimp Ball with Sweet Mayo Sauce
BBQ Pork Bun
Eggplant with Shrimp
Shrimp and Cilantro Dumpling
Shu Mai
Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf
Pea Vines with Garlic

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Family Style - $11.50
Rating:

Adam's Review

More Dim Sum! We haven't had Dim Sum recently... so this was pretty exciting. I've heard that one good indicator of a Dim Sum restaurant is the number of Chinese people. This place was relatively empty, so I was a little scared to begin with, but we have a mission... so we sat down and ordered some friggin Dim Sum!

Hey Hey! The food is warm, fresh and pretty tasty... and because there were fewer people we got good service with the carts. We were always within eye contact with the server which made ordering round 2 easier. The fried food was crispy, hot, and tasty. The sticky rice was tasty, but kind of small. The Shu Mai were good. In general, everything was pretty danged good. Nothing is sticking out in my mind as "head and shoulders" delicious, but all of it was good.

The bill came, and after two rounds and only a moderate amount of Dim Sum... the bill was $11.50 per person, which I felt was pretty high.

Good food. Doesn't meet the gold standard of Jade Garden. Fast Fresh and good.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Family Style - $11.50
Rating:

Geary's Review

I really don't understand this building. It looks like a parking garage from the street. The restaurant is very nice inside with more of an upscale feel like Ocean City and less of a lived in feel like Jade Garden. There were lots of open tables (not a great sign) and we were seated right away. We started with some shrimp rolls and eggplant. They were good, but not very hot. There appeared to only be two or three carts serving the entire restaurant. The steam cart arrived soon afterwards and turned out to be more successful. We added Shu Mai, Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf, various dumplings and put in for an order of Pea Vine Greens. The Sticky Rice was out of this world. It was the best sticky rice we have had in our tour. It was chocked full of meat and shrooms and was moist, steamy, and full of flavor. The Shu Mai and the Shrimp and Cilantro Dumplings were also stand outs. The Pea Vine Greens were great as well, however I have never met a pea vine green I didn't like.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Family Style - $11.50
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This place was a trip. Big sign! New building. Very lively as we enter. And we're charging up Jackson now, on our way to Little Saigon, so we're giddy with anticipation at what we might find.

Overall - expensive, not too varied, but adequate dim sum. I didn't find the flavors or variety as compelling as either Jade Garden or Harbor City. I put this more in line with House of Hong. To be sure, it was a satisfying meal, but not displacing Jade in my book.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Family Style - $11.50
Rating:

Dave's Review

So, there are enough dim sum places in the ID that to me picking a place is all about tradeoffs. Overall, the food was quite good. Everything fried was crispy, everything dumpling-shaped was dumplingy, all the basics were spot on. In New Hong Kong's favor: the pea vines were great. Of course, it's (early) spring, so they'd better be. Also notable was the eggplant with shrimp, which was nice and sweet. Downsides (especially compared with jade garden, which is kind of the gold standard): price was a bit higher than I remember Jade Garden being. Also, this may have just been bad ordering on our part, but we didn't get any of the big thick rice-noodle-wrapped meat rolls, which are one of my favorite standard dim sum items.

Still, everything we had was good and there was plenty of variety. Would I come back? yeah, pretty happily. Would I consistently choose New Hong Kong over jade garden? that's not so clear. Is that partly because it's a long uphill walk to get there and I'm lazy? yes. yes it is.

Luncher: Ross

Lunch: Family Style - $11.50
Rating:

Ross's Review

Overall, I’d say it was fine dim sum. I wouldn’t avoid it, but didn’t think it was worth seeking out. There were a few very good plates, but overall it was neutral. That said, I haven’t had dim sum in years, so I wouldn’t trust me on this one.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Family Style - $11.50
Rating:

New Hong Kong Restaurant Photos

New Hong Kong Restaurant

New Hong Kong Restaurant

Pacific Rim Center (not a parking garage as you may have assumed)

Tofu Shrimp Ball, Tofu Shrimp Roll, Fried Shrimp Ball with Sweet Mayo Sauce

BBQ Pork Bun

Shu Mai

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

Shrimp with Cilantro (half eaten)

Pea Vines with Garlic (half eaten)

Lunch #74: Ichiban

2009-05-11T15:42:00.000-07:00

The lime green sign calls. MSG150 heeds. Ichiban it is.

Mt. Fuji on sign. It mocks the Fuji near by. We mock both the same.

We find Ichiban. We are welcomed in to sit. Our hot tea arrives.

Menus are green too. "No sushi" explains the sign. We eat no sushi.

Ichiban, Seattle
Address: 601 S Main St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Japanese
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/23/2009 @ 12:10:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 5 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 30 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 55 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Kyūshū, Japan
Number of tables: 9
Number of occupied tables: 4 (44%)
Number of business lunch tables: 3 (75%)
Number of "local" tables: 1 (25%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Nanbanyaki (Spicy Beef Teriyaki) - $9.25
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This place has got the Tai Tung vibe going for it. The interior decor seems to be out of the 70s with little update. The sign outside appears to be similarly as old. The inside reeks of a deep-fryer, which is slightly unappetizing. But we're tough, we've been through the gauntlet already. Bring it.

I went with the Nanbanyaki, or Spicy Beef Teriyaki. The beef was sliced thin like steak-umms and was bursting with saucy flavor. The intensity was pretty high, and it came with quite a bit of meat. The appetizer was a small bowl of bean sprouts with toasted sesame, which was delicious. Not sure what it was called (the menu indicated that all lunch entrees come with 'Ohitashi', but my research indicated that this was a spinach dish). The Miso was adequate. Oh and again I got a slice of orange with my meal, which makes me feel like a kid again.

It was a decent meal, and a good amount of food. The price was high for lunch though, and the fryer smell was a bit overwhelming. I may be back.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Yaki Udon - $8.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

Almost done with Japantown; only a couple of restaurants left. The first thing you'll notice when you walk into Ichiban is the smell of something unpleasant. Right now, I can't remember what it was but it didn't make me happy.

The second thing you'll notice is that the food is more expensive that you would expect. For lunch, I expect to pay $6.99 or less (if you've read Predictably Irrational, you'll notice this is my "anchor" for lunch food). Also, this place is kind of dingy and dirty (and doesn't smell good), so I might expect some inexpensive food (because they're not "blowing" their profits on decor). The server is nice and was obviously the owner of the joint.

The food was decent, but unremarkable.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Katsu-Don - $7.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

Even with two "Yes We're Open" signs, it's not completely clear that Ichiban is open until you peek in the door. The interior is a bit cramped and the kitchen is hidden by a wall made to look like the side of an old Japanese building in 1970. When we arrived there was a bit of a dirty fryer smell in the air. Yum. We were greeted warmly and given big cups and hot green tea. I ordered the Katsu-Don to compare against my lunch at Fuji. After our order was in we were served a bowl of miso and a small plate of cold bean sprouts with sesame oil and toasted sesames. The miso was good and had little crunchy bits of something that added a nice extra texture. The sprouts were great. They were crisp with a toasty flavor. I tried to save some to eat with my meal but failed.

My Katsu-Don arrived steaming and I dove in. It was substantially saucier than the Fuji version. That's a big plus for me. The pork was crispy, tender, and flavorful. The sauce had just the right mix of sweet, salt, and tang. I've had them all now and Ichiban is the best Katsu-Don in the ID. I'll be back.

Luncher: Ken

Lunch: Chicken Teriyaki - $8.95
Rating:

Ken's Review

The atmosphere was very dark in Ichiban, but the food was quite good. I remember feeling like I was eating in someone’s paneled daylight basement. The food came out in its own time, each dish as it was completed. I had the teriyaki chicken which was tasty and delicious. I don’t think I left a grain of rice on my plate. So, all in all I would say a 2 on the atmosphere scale and a 4 on the food scale, leaving me with a 3 overall.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Katsu-Don - $7.95
Rating:

Ichiban Photos

Ichiban

Ichiban is number one

They are sorry.

Ichiban Menu

Green Tea

Specials. No sushi fish.

Sprouts and Miso

Nanbanyaki (Spicy Beef Teriyaki)

Yaki Udon

Chicken Teriyaki

Katsu-Don

Lunch #73: Fuji Sushi

2009-04-23T13:56:00.000-07:00

Today our Japantown route stated to show some of its Japanese roots. The route turned east today on Main Street from 5th Avenue and brought us to Fuji Sushi in the base of a cement urban second growth high-rise housing complex. We were joined today by our friends from Urbanspoon who last lunched with us at the now defunct Made in Kitchen. Let's hope the same curse does not befall Fuji.

Fuji Sushi, Seattle
Address: 520 S Main St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Japanese: Sushi
Average rating: 3.4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/16/2009 @ 11:45:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 3 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 17 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 70 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: None added. Fish stock they use may have some.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Chiba, Japan
Number of tables: 21
Number of occupied tables: 21 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 20 (95%)
Number of "local" tables: 1 (4%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Katsu-don - $8.25
Rating:

Geary's Review

Fuji is on the upscale side of ID lunch spots. It's appointed with typical Japanese decor and includes two semi-private rooms with traditional sunken tables and floor seating. The Urbanspoon crew arrived first and were greeted warmly by the hostess who found us a nice table for eight by the window. The restaurant was already half full by 11:50 when we arrived.

Our waitress was friendly and prompt. I ordered the Katsu-don, my favorite Japanese lunch of a breaded pork cutlet sliced and stir-fried with egg, onions, and a light sauce on top of rice. It was great to see the Urbanspoon folks again and we were so wrapped up in our conversation I didn't notice how long the food took to arrive. I think Adam kept tally though. When the food arrived I took a break from the table talk to actually eat. The Katsu-don was good, but I've had better. This one was a bit too dry, i.e. there wasn't enough sauce. I ate it all though. For $8.25 I would have expected better.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Lunch Bento Special with Salmon Teriyaki and Ginger Tofu - $8.65
Rating:

Adam's Review

I first went to Fuji a couple of years ago with Brian Dorsey via his strictly plutonic lunch-date making service (don't worry Brian, I just want to be friends too). Since then, I think I've been ordering roughly the same thing: Lunch Special Bento.

I decided to go with the Catholic version of Vegetarian this meal, and ordered the Bento with Salmon Teriyaki and Ginger Tofu. The tofu portion of the highly comparmentalized lunch tray was 4 large-ish blocks of soft tofu with a nice ginger sauce on top. I liked the sauce, but there wasn't quite enough of it. Also, "cutting" and eating large chunks of soft tofu with chopsticks is pretty danged tricky. The Salmon Teriyaki was the big winner: the piece of fish was large than I expected, the fish still tasted like fish, and the teriyaki flavor was really nice. There was other stuff in the other compartments, but nothing notable enough for me to remember right now.

A good option for Japanese food if you're in the ID.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Lunch Bento Special with Sashimi and Salmon Teriyaki - $10.65
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Long before I visited I heard rumors of the "Fuji Bento Box." I was told it was an awesome amount of food with a price to match. Having visited many times, I wouldn't say it's a tremendous amount, but for the price you pay, you get a good quantity.

This place is very pretty on the inside, with an upscale vibe suitable for suits and the power lunches of the digerati. We snagged a nice table by the window. I went Bento-Style on some Sashimi and Salmon Teriyaki. The Teriyaki was delicious, crispy in places and juicy on the inside. The Sashimi was average, and not worth the extra two dollars, in my opinion. The salad had a tangy dressing but was otherwise not memorable. The miso soup was fairly standard.

For food I give this place a 3, but overall atmosphere bumps it up to a 4. I like coming here, and will continue to come back frequently.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Lunch Bento Special with Pork Ginger and Deep Friend Dumplings - $8.65
Rating:

Al's Review

Pork was beyond tender - dumplings works of art; +1 if you are not as cheap as I am.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Tanin-don - $8.25
Rating:

VIP Luncher: Adam from Urbanspoon

Lunch: Lunch Bento Special with Sushi and Tempura - $9.65
Rating:

Adam's Review

The bento box is near and dear to my heart, and I'm tempted to give Fuji Sushi a high score simply for offering them. I like having my food compartmentalized.

The sushi wasn't spectacular, but certainly a cut above the sushi option near our HQ in Eastlake. The nigiri was standard fare, as was the included roll. Something a bit more exotic might have been nice. The tempura was similarly satisfying without offering any surprises. I wish there had been some potato, eggplant, or fruit in there.

The restaurant was clean and the service attentive, though no one took a drink order and I absentmindedly forgot to request tea. I would eat there again if I was in the neighborhood and Pho Bac didn't exist.

VIP Luncher: Patrick from Urbanspoon

Lunch: Lunch Bento Special with Sushi and Chicken Teriyaki - $9.65
Rating:

Patrick's Review

The sushi was 2 thin pieces of a California roll, 3 pieces of a cucumber roll, and 3 nigiri (salmon, tuna, shrimp). The food was fine, but the quantity was little thin, particularly the rolls. The chicken teriyaki was good, but I had some envy of the salmon teriyaki, which looked really good.

VIP Luncher: Ethan from Urbanspoon

Lunch: Lunch Bento Special with Sushi and Tempura - $9.65
Rating:

Ethan's Review

This was my second time at Fuji Sushi, and I'd be happy to eat there again, though I probably won't go out of my way to try it another time. Service was friendly, food was fine, just nothing standing out.

The bento box offered a basic mix -- miso, a little salad, rice, tempura and sushi. The tempura was tasty, though the batter seemed to dissolve a little too quickly in the dip. The nigiri was uninspired, but serviceable. The rolls were small and not very numerous. The california roll was pretty wet -- lots of mayo -- but I like that.

I found I was still kind of hungry after finishing the lot, but then I usually eat too much. So maybe that's a good thing.

A couple of the MSG150 crew had the salmon teriyaki. That looked great.

Short version: enjoyable but unexceptional.

Fuji Sushi Photos

Fuji Sushi

Open + Menu

Fuji Sushi Menu Cover

Fuji Sushi Menu

Miso

Katsu-don

Tanin-don

Lunch Bento Special with Sushi and Chicken Teriyaki

Lunch Bento Special with Pork Ginger and Deep Friend Dumplings

Lunch Bento Special with Sashimi and Salmon Teriyaki

Lunch Bento Special with Salmon Teriyaki and Ginger Tofu

Lunch Bento Special with Sushi and Tempura

Lunch Bento Special with Sushi and Tempura

Lunch #72: Gyro House

2009-04-14T13:24:00.000-07:00

Immediately Next door to Tenoch is a relative newcomer to the neighborhood, the Gyro House. The Gyro House has been here for almost a year now and most of the MSG150 crew have been occasionally to regularly for the past few months. It replaced a fairly horrible Filipino restaurant/night club that had been there for years. In Seattle we pronounce this Greek sandwich dZee-ro starting with the voiced alveopalatal affricate (duh). The patron saint of the Gyro is of course not the Gyro Captain. After a couple of false starts the MSG150 crew made it out today to put it to the test.

Gyro House, Seattle
Address: 212 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Mediterranean
Average rating: 3.4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/8/2009 @ 12:08:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 37 minutes
Chopstix quality: Forks!
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Greece
Number of tables: 20
Number of occupied tables: 6 (30%)
Number of business lunch tables: 6 (100%)
Number of "local" tables: 0 (0%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Chicken Schwarma Sandwich and Greek Fries - $5.99 + $3.99
Rating:

Adam's Review

It's nice to have some diversity in the area. This place and their neighbor, Tenoch, are members of a precious few who serve non-Asian food. Because of this, I've probably been here about 10 times prior to our "reviewing visit."

After years of getting Gyros, I've learned one thing: always get the "greek fries" too. One thing I've learned from eating at Gyro House: Don't order the falafel. Their falafel is dry and not that delicious. With these nuggets of wisdom in mind, I ordered the Chicken Schwarma Sandwich.

Let's start with the fries. They were Seasoned fries with some parsley(? something green), and topped with a healthy amount of Feta cheese. There were four of us eating the fries, and it ended up working out pretty well for portions. A great starter to precede the coming sandwich.

The chicken Schwarma sandwich was one of the first dishes to arrive, and I had a tough time resisting it because of the delicious smell wafting out of the paper wrapper. Finally everyone's food got to the table and we dug in. I spiced mine up with a splash or two of hot sauce (which I had to fetch... they have several bottles by the soda fountain). A solid "sandwich". The schwarma sauce was good and the pita was a bit chewy but still easy to get through.

The food is good, but the service is typically a little slower than I'd like for a quick lunch. The food portions are also a bit smaller (but still filling) than other places, and I was left wanting of left-overs.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Mozaka - $8.50
Rating:

Emmett's Review

I've been here several times, and generally love Mediterranean food. This place has a couple of things going against it. They're very slow, even when there isn't a long line, which makes me think twice about coming here for lunch. Second their Falafel is dry and bitter. Perhaps Ross got treated to some new batch, but there's something unsavory either in their mix, or in how they cook it. On the other hand their Gyros are tasty, and their Gyro Salad is loaded with meat, which makes it a great deal for the price. They also have daily specials, which keep things interesting.

Today I went with their Mozaka. Go ahead, click the link, it will tell you NOTHING. I assume they meant Moussaka (also Musakka), which is forgivable, given that it was delicious. According to Wikipedia there are several variants of this, made slightly differently depending on if you're in Greece, the Balkans, Turkey, or Arabic nations. I'm generally accustomed to the Greek versions, which is layered and covered in Custard or Bechemel. But this was closer to the Turkish version, and wasn't formed into a lasagna-esque square. It had great flavor, and big pieces of eggplant, onion, potato, and even broccoli. I can't remember if it was lamb or beef, but the seasoning was great. They served it on top of rice with a greek salad and some pita on the side.

This place does a few things well, but overall I prefer Zaina.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Lamb Gyro Sandwich - $5.99
Rating:

Geary's Review

There are three other spot in the neighborhood where you can get a good gyro: there's the Mediterranean Mix on First, Main Street Gyro two blocks west on, and Zaina on Cherry. Gyro House falls somewhere in the middle, somewhere between Mediterranean Mix, on the low side, and Zaina, the gold standard. I had the Lamb Gyro. It was good, but the meat was a bit too salty and dry. Adam shared his Greek Fries and they were excellent, although clearly not healthy.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Lamb Schwarma Sandwich - $5.99
Rating:

Al's Review

Not as good as Zaina’s, but closer and good enough. Shawarma was well spiced.

Luncher: Ross

Lunch: Falafel Plate - $8.99
Rating:

Ross's Review

Pros:

Very big – great value for the money
Good hummus, pita, and salad

Cons:

Falafel was a bit dry
Rice was also a bit dry and tasteless

Bottom-line: A lot of pretty good food for the money.

Gyro House Photos

Gyro House

Gyro House w/ open doors

Gyro House (graffiti view)

Gyro House Menu

come for the food, not the proofreading

Greek Fries

Lamb Gyro Sandwich

Mozaka

Chicken Schwarma Sandwich

Lamb Schwarma Sandwich

Falafel Plate

ID Springroll 2009 - Party Down for Chinatown

2009-04-08T11:14:00.000-07:00

What: ID Springroll 2009
When: Wednesday, April 29, 6-9 PM
Where: Showbox SODO
Why: "Party Down for China Town"

Come out and support the Seattle International District. The neighborhood is important to us here at MSG150, and to you. Without Chinatown where would we go for lunch? The [deep breath] Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority is sponsoring this event to support their community development programs and projects. This is a great organization and it worthy of your support.

The ID Spring Roll website says it best: "Support Seattle's Chinatown International District! Join us for a lively cultural celebration featuring Pan-Asian food and drinks, a spring roll eating contest, and performances headlined by Massive Monkees, internationally-renowned break dancing crew and B-Boy World Champions!"

You may be asking "what are the said 'Pan-Asian food and drinks'?" Well, the list is long and includes many MSG150 favorites:

and more...

The whole event sounds like it's going to be a great time. The Spring Roll eating contest sounds awesome: Who wouldn't want to see Dino Rossi stuffing fried food into his mouth as fast as possible? Make sure to RSVP and secure your ticket as soon you can.

More details here...

Lunch #71: Tenoch Mexican Grill

2009-03-27T12:32:00.000-07:00

Today the MSG150 Japantown route took us south along an obscure block of 5th where a couple lunch spots have sprung up in recent years. The first on our tour is the well hidden Mexican burrito joint Tenoch. The MSG150 crew members are all well seasoned Tenoch lunchers, so today's outing was more of a formality than an adventure. So let the formality begin.

Tenoch Mexican Grill, Seattle
Address: 206 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Mexican
Average rating: 4.6 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/26/2009 @ 11:40:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 0 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 25 minutes
Chopstix quality: Forks!
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Mexico
Number of tables: 9
Number of occupied tables: 4 (44%)
Number of business lunch tables: 4 (100%)
Number of "local" tables: 0 (0%)
Healthcode Score: 8
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Three tacos: Puerco en Pasilla, Pollo en Pipian, and Pisinan Roast - $7.15
Rating:

Geary's Review

Tenoch is a small, owner run lunch spot with an assembly line service model copied from Taco Del Mar. On first glance you might mistake Tenoch for being unremarkable, even if you noticed the dried flowers hot glued to the small cactus on each table. However, it is far from a cookie cutter, same-ol' burrito joint. Tenoch offers eight different meat options plus two vegetarian. Four of the meat options are traditional preparations that you are unlikely to have ever heard of. Tenoch's selection of Mexican flavors is likely only matched by a handful of other restaurants in the state.

I'm a regular and eat at Tenoch about twice a month. I usually order a burrito and rotate through the meats. Today I went with the three tacos (with a different meat in each) so I could have recent exposure to the widest range of meats possible for this review. I had the Ropa Vieja burrito on Monday so today I went with Puerco en Pasilla, Pollo en Pipian, and Pisinan Roast for my tacos. They also offer grilled chicken, steak, Pollo Adobado, and Mole Verde (chicken), but these seem so common compared with the rest. Nothing is very spicy, but they all have deep, rich distinct flavors. Ropa Vieja is shredded beef cooked with tomatoes, onions, jalepenos, and cilantro. The Pollo en Pipian is grilled chicken in a sauce made from guajillo chillies, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds and other spices. I have never been able to nail down a favorite but if pressed would lean towards the Ropa Vieja or the Pisinan Roast... but man, the Pollo en Pipian and the Puerco en Pasilla were pretty darn good. Be sure to grab a free side of the tangy corn salsa made with roasted corn, carrots, cauliflower, and squash.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Taco Salad with Pollo en Pipian - $6.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Tenoch provides some of the finest Mexican food you can find in Seattle. I always look forward to coming to this place and never leave unsatisfied. They serve tacos, burritos, rice bowls, and taco salads, each with a choice of eight meats or two vegetarian options. I usually go for the Pisinan Roast, which is marinated pot roast with orange, garlic, vinegar, and some other mexican spices. The meat falls apart and is fantastic. Today I opted for the Taco Salad with Pollo en Pipian - chicken with Guajillo chiles, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and some other spices. Don't be shy and get the home-made guacamole and hot sauce. This sucker was tough to finish but I did it, and am glad. My stomach hates me but I care not.

On other visits, I've tried the Steak Salad (not bad but I prefer the Pisinan), the Tortilla Soup (awesome), Quesadilla (easy to make, easy to please). You can't go wrong. Also, the ladies working this place are exceptionally nice and put care into the food.

This is one of my top 5 lunch places in town. I'll be back frequently.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Burrito Bowl with Pisinan Roast - $6.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

Truely one of my favorite lunch spots in the ID. A very unassuming place that typically has quite an assuming line. The women working the counter are extremely pleasant and will eagerly listen and help with your meager Spanish skills.

At some point in the last year, I switched over to ordering the Burrito Bowl here (instead of the burrito), and I think it has to do with the fact that you can then cherry-pick what toppings you want in each bite. Normally, I would get one of the vegetarian options: one based on potatoes, and one based on garbonzo beans. Both of them are freakishly delicous, and I have a hard time deciding which to get. I went with one of the eight meat options this time: Pisinan Roast. I could see the roast sitting there looking delicious behind the window... and just couldn't resist.

Going down the toppings line, this is what my bowl was loaded with for me:

Pisinan Roast, Rice, and Black beans
Cheese, and a light dusting of sour cream
Pica de Gallo, Corn Salsa, and their hot sauce (Habenero-based, I believe)
There are other thing you can get in this, I just opted-out.

The roast was perfect: flavorful and tender. And the juice flowed around the dish a little bit and lent a great flavor to the rice. Their Corn Salsa is definitely something you need to try; it's a very simple side, with a great taste. And I love the hot-spicey food... so the habenero sauce was particularly delicious to me.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Burrito Bowl with Pisinan Roast - $6.95
Rating:

Dave's Review

look, i eat here at least once every couple weeks. it's great. the bowls are a good deal, and even if you just look at the basic combinations (10 fillings vs black/pinto beans vs red/green salsa) there are 40 burrito/bowl combinations to choose from. and i've yet to have a bad one. it's simple, fresh-tasting mexican food, and it's a keeper. as i write this, i'm looking out my cubicle window at tenoch, and a single tear of joy is coursing down my cheek.

okay, to be impartial, there have been a couple times when the rice hasn't been as warm as i might like, and it's not the most efficient place in the world so it can get a little backed up sometimes, but overall, dang. the pisinan roast is a great mix of spices and orange juice, giving a sweet and tangy kick to fall-apart-tender beef. the chicken in pipian is spicy and creamy, even though the sauce is primarily ground pumpkin seeds, not cream. the vegetarian potatoes-with-chipotle option is spicy and satisfying. seriously, i'm starting to think this is going to be a two-lunch day.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Veggie Burrito Bowl - $6.95
Rating:

Rob's Review

I'm not sure how kosher this is, me writing a review without having attended the MSG150 lunch proper (and not even being in the country at the time), but I've eaten at Tenoch so many times that I'm going to write one anyway.

When it comes to good Mexican food in Seattle, a phrase from high school Spanish comes to mind: En la tierra de los ciegos, el tuerto is rey. And yeah, Tenoch is king for me when it comes to Mexican lunch spots in and around the ID. The first time you go to Tenoch and order a burrito, you look at the enormous pile of food heaped on the tortilla, and the woman behind the counter gives you a sheepish smile as she tries to wrap it because there's just not enough tortilla -- you think that there must be a new person working who doesn't know that they've dished out too much. But when it keeps happening every time you go, you realize that that's just how they roll, so to speak. And then you switch to the Burrito Bowl.

There are two veggie options for the burrito. I prefer the potato-based one a little more than the garbanzo bean one, but you get so much food that with the potato option, it's just too much for me. So I usually get the garbanzo beans. And the hot sauce -- it's so rich and smoky and flavorful -- oh my. Not really too hot. Just right. I've also tried the fish tacos, and they're pretty good, but not good enough to make me switch from the burrito bowl.

I really want to give Tenoch 4.5 chopsticks, and I think I came up with a rule for myself to round down for halves, so Tenoch only gets a 4. Why not a 5? Silly reasons, mainly. It's just too much food; I always feel way too full after eating here. And the set up is just so inefficient. It can take a while to get to the register if there's a line, and when I go to Tenoch I'm very hungry -- I want my burrito bowl, and I want it now!

Well, thanks for indulging me with the remote review from the relaxing beach town of Villa Gesell, Argentina. Lounging around the beach, writing the occasional Seattle restaurant lunch review -- unemployment doesn't get much better than this.

Tenoch Mexican Grill Photos

Tenoch Mexican Grill

Tenoch Menu

The Tenoch Burrito Counter

Taco Salad with Pollo en Pipian

Burrito Bowl with Pisinan Roast (Adam's Fixin's)

Burrito Bowl with Pisinan Roast (Dave's Fixin's)

Three tacos: Puerco en Pasilla, Pollo en Pipian, and Pisinan Roast

Cactus + Hot Glue + Dried Flower

Lunch #70: Hong Kong Bistro

2009-03-19T16:08:00.000-07:00

MSG150's ever vigilant International District Intelligence and Observation Team spotted a "Grand Opening" sign last week on Maynard under the Hong Kong sign. The previous ID grand opening was the Crawfish King which is oddly and unfortunately not open for lunch and thus not subject to the MSG150 ~~shakedown~~ impartial review. Hong Kong Bistro is, however, a lunch spot and today MSG150 showed up with a crew of five lunchers to put it to the test.

Hong Kong Bistro, Seattle
Address: 511 Maynard Ave, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Hong Kong
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/19/2009 @ 11:50:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 7 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 55 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Likely, but the communication gap was too big ascertain definitively.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hong Kong
Number of tables: 28
Number of occupied tables: 5 (17%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (40%)
Number of "local" tables: 3 (60%)
Healthcode Score: N/A
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: As You Like, Pick & Choose with (b) Deep Fried Pork Chop and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles - $5.25
Rating:

Emmett's Review

From the looks of this place I was expecting another turkey like KC Kitchen or Pacific Cafe. They have a massive (and impressive) sign outside, advertising where, exactly, they're from. :) As you go in - the place is HUGE. We counted 28 tables. And on top, the menu is massive -- containing over 300 items.

Paralyzed by choice, I went with the aptly named "As you like it" with Pork Chop, Curried Fish Balls, and Chow Fun. I was expecting a platter of some kind but they came in a soup bowl with some broth, and some bok choy. This was a nice surprise, and the flavors commingled well together for a tasty meal. The pork chop was very thin, fried, and a bit grisly. The fish balls were pretty standard for what you get at these places. The broth and noodles were good. All told, it was good value for the price.

Nothing special, but they good selection and price, so I'll be back. They have some Stone Pot rice bowls that look worth trying.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: 58 - Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl - $6.25
Rating:

Adam's Review

I had no idea there was even a new place here! It just opened on March 2nd (there are still "congrats flowers" in the front of the restaurant). When we walked in at 11:50AM, there was only one other table of people there, but by the time we left the 2 person wait staff was being overworked. This place almost feels too clean and "corporate" to fit into the ID; I'd peg the interior as Dennys-esque.

I ordered the "Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl"... which translates into Super Rice Bowl with Thin Beef. This was a large scoop of rice with some slices of (not-so-thin) beef and grilled onions, covered in an overly sweet sauce. The meat was stringy and not very meat flavor-y. Neither the onions nor the rice were good, but that have been a function of the overly-sweet sauce.

With over 300 hundred numbered items on the menu, I'm sure something at this place has to be good... but the Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl isn't it. I liked the look of the Curry Fish Balls, and want to hear what Geary and Emmett have to say about those.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: As You Like, Pick & Choose with (c) Chinese Cabbage and Prok and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles - $5.25
Rating:

Geary's Review

I recognized it as soon as I entered. It's another Hong Kong Tea Cafe or cha chaan teng. These seem to be sprouting up everywhere offering a mixture of Hong Kong comfort food and western bastardizations like the ketchup omelet or egg toast. Hong Kong Bistro is ambitious with a huge dining room and an even larger menu offering over 270 entrees plus drinks and deserts. After getting lost in the 150s somewhere I gave up and went with the aptly named "As You Like, Pick & Choose" with (c) Chinese Cabbage and Pork and (e) Curried Fish Balls. And I chose the Chow Fun wide rice noodles as my accompanying noodle (they do deliver in the choosing).

The place was almost empty when we arrived but traffic picked up during the meal. Service was fast and friendly. My soup (I wasn't sure what form the "As You Like, Pick & Choose" would take) arrived quickly and had a nice rich aroma. The large bowl was chocked full with broth, noodles, small bits of pork, purple pickled cabbage, crunchy veggies, and curried fish balls. It was an odd combinations but somehow all worked well together. The fish balls were not too fishy and had a treat in the center and a tasty curry sauce poured over top. The curry quickly mixed in and became one with the soup. The pork was tender and the pickled cabbage added a nice tang to the mix. My hopes were low but Hong Kong Bistro came through. Based on the size of their menu and my past experience with this particular cuisine I'm sure there are duds and even dead zones on the menu, but the "As You Like, Pick & Choose" was not one of them.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Beef with Chinese Chives Noodle Soup - $5.25
Rating:

Al's Review

Many tables, many choices: picture looked better than food tasted: 3 chopsticks.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup - $5.95
Rating:

Hong Kong Bistro Photos

Hong Kong Bistro

Hong Kong Bistro under Hong Kong Sign

Hong Kong Bistro menu

Hong Kong Bistro menu (17-57)

Hong Kong Bistro menu (58-117)

Hong Kong Bistro menu (240-312)

Shrimp Wonton Noodle Soup

As You Like, Pick & Choose with (b) Deep Fried Pork Chop and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles

Super Thin Beef Rice Bowl

Beef with Chinese Chives Noodle Soup

As You Like, Pick & Choose with (c) Chinese Cabbage and Pr0k and (e) Curried Fish Balls on Rice Noodles

Huge dining room

Lunch #69: Viet My

2009-03-18T13:46:00.000-07:00

Fourth Avenue between Main and Washington is a mostly neglected, slightly seedy downtown Seattle block. But its fortunes seem to be rising. The new fire station to the northeast and the artist lofts and All City Coffee to the northwest are spawning a resurgence in the area. This block has only one, single story building which is currently home to one and a half operating businesses: The Viet My Vietnamese restaurant and the occasionally open, excessively sketchy Dome Stadium Tavern. There is new life coming though. On our way out to brave Viet My today we ran into Josh Henderson, of Skillet Street Food fame, working on his new kitchen and walk-up counter that will be the newest addition to the block. He said that they are trying to open up in early April.

We knew Viet My was there, but had not summoned the courage to visit until recently. After extending our range north there was no more ignoring this ID outpost. Today six brave luncher show up hungry and ready to serve (or actually be served).

Viet My, Seattle
Address: 212 4th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 3.5 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/5/2009 @ 11:55:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 17 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 50 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hanoi
Number of tables: 14
Number of occupied tables: 7 (50%)
Number of business lunch tables: 5 (71%)
Number of "local" tables: 2 (28%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: 32 - Tofu Sate - $7.00
Rating:

Adam's Review

This was my second time to Viet My... so I've got a couple of data points to base my review off of. This time around the 2-person (maybe 3-person?) team was busy serving and cooking the nearly-full restaurant. The server (also the owner, I believe) would dash out with some food, then run back to help in the kitchen. We were allowed more than ample time to make our decisions for food, and I went a vegetarian option (because I miss Rob): Tofu Sate

So, I'm not sure I've ever eaten a Sate soup before (at least I've never had one like this)... but it's spicy peanut "broth" with noodles, veggies, and tofu. The noodles were a great firmness and were easy to scoop and chew... not rubbery at all. The tofu went well with the peanut flavor; the tofu was fried, and I think soft tofu may have been better... but that's totally a personal preference. If you like peanut-y things (like Thai swimming rama), you'll definitely like this dish. If you're allergic to peanuts, there isn't enough research going on at Duke to save you.

Don't let the exterior of the place scare you (like it did to me). Don't let the crazy ceiling tiles disorient you (like they did to me). Focus on the food, and you may very well find a keeper in your "I'm so hip because I know dingy restaurants with good food" repertoire.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: 34 - Bun This Nuong - Grilled Pork - $7.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

Viet My is a bit like the Chameleon XLE, it's surprisingly nice on the inside compared with its dingy exterior. The first thing that caught my eye was the amazing faux painted tin ceiling with golden dragons on a bright red background, an obvious relic of a past occupant. There is art on the walls and plastic flower arrangements all around. It has a nice airy, clean feeling with the exception of the occasional fly that buzzed past. The place was about three quarters full when we arrived and grabbed the last large table. There were only two people, one server/cook and one cook, running the place and it showed. It took 15 minute before they even took our order. I went with the Bun noodles with BBQ pork.

The food arrived reasonably quickly once we got our order in. They got my order wrong, but politely corrected the mistake and expidited a replacement. The noodles and pork are presented in a fancy square bowl with crinkle cut carrots and daikon. The pork was a funny shade of maroon. (Luckily it didn't taste maroon.) The pork was very flavorful with lots of ginger and lemon grass and together with the cold noodles and sweet fish sauce made a tasty lunch, but something had a healthy MSG kick that got me all a tingly. Aside from the wait, it was a good meal.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: 33 - Bun Thit Ga - Grilled Chicken - $7.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

I generally enjoy Vietnamese places over Chinese/Cantonese food because the dishes tend to be less fried, less saucy. I was excited for this place - another hole in the wall with a dumpy sign. We arrived and the place as quite full for the time of day. The service took forever - we probably waited 10 minutes to place our order. The poor guy behind the counter was working the whole restaurant it seemed.

I ordered the Bun Thit Ga. It was good - not Pho Bac but pretty decent nonetheless. There was a little less meat that I would have expected for the price, but the noodles were tasty, and the Nuoc cham had a nice flavor. I also wish there were more leafy greens.

If the service were quicker I might make this a more regular choice.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: 29 - Chicken Sate - $7.00
Rating:

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: 47 - Banh Xeo - Chicken Crepe - $7.50
Fortune: Your lover will be true to you.
Rating:

Michael's Review

Funny story: The outside of this building is so run down and unapealing that the guys were afraid to eat here for more than a year. It all looks much better on the inside.

The service today was a bit slow - but the food got here in the end and it was good. My Crepe was big and tasty - but I've never really figured out what to do with all those extra green things on the side. If I try to wrap a bite of crepe up with the leaves and dip it in the sauce I always end up with a mess. A big mess.

Overall the food at Viet My is good. Darn good. But it doesn't stand out as any better than the other places in the neighborhood. I would go back, but it might not be my first choice.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: 41 - Bun This Bo Loi Xa - Lemongrass Beef - $7.25
Fortune: You can breeze through most of the day.
Rating:

Dave's Review

The place doesn't look too promising from the outside, but inside it's much more inviting. first, the service: it took waaaaay too long for us to have our order taken, but from that point the service was fine. there was a minor mix-up with geary's order, but it was quickly and painlessly resolved. i had some tasty lemongrass-beef bun, and it was as good as the bun is at nearly every other place i've had it in the ID. green leaf beats it, but not by a mile, and it's close to on par with pho bac. the sauce was a good balance of the four magic flavors (salty, spicy, sour, sweet), the pickled carrot and daikon were tasty, the lemongrass beef was well seasoned and well cooked. the only downside is that i think it's a bit more expensive than pho bac, but not substantially better. that said, if the crowd were going here, i wouldn't hesitate to come back.

Viet My Photos

Viet My

Viet My Interior & Ceiling

Viet My Menu (oddly glossy)

Viet My Menu

Chicken Sate

Banh Xeo - Chicken Crepe

Tofu Sate

Bun Thit Ga - Grilled Chicken

Bun This Nuong - Grilled Pork

Bun This Bo Loi Xa - Lemongrass Beef

Ceiling Close-up

Future home of Skillet Street Food's kitchen and walk-up counter

Lunch #68: V Garden

2009-03-06T15:48:00.000-08:00

Spring is coming and February's teaser days of sun have put new fuel under the growing bellies of the MSG150 crew. Having accomplished our mission in the DLZ we have now expanded north a block or two to take in the rest of Japantown. We are starting way over on 4th and zig-zagging our way east between Washington and Jackson. (See our updated map here.) The first stop on our new tour is V Garden on 4th just north of Jackson. The two blocks of 4th north of Jackson are on the sketchy side. The neighborhood plus its dilapidated exterior has made V Garden an easy place to walk past, even for gastro-adventurers like ourselves. Today, however, we took the dare and plunged in.

[Today is make your own segue day.] If you liked Seattle Magazine's Cheap Eats edition in January (which included the critically acclaimed MSG150 section) as much as we did, it may be because of Alison Austin Scheff. She has been doing great work over at Seattle's premier glossy and it shows.

V Garden, Seattle
Address: 310 4th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese
Average rating: 2.7 chopsticks
Lunch date: 2/20/2009 @ 11:38:00
Time taken to be seated: 2 minutes
Time to take order: 3 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 7 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 37 minutes
Chopstix quality: Cheap Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Canton
Number of tables: 18
Number of occupied tables: 3 (16%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (33%)
Number of "local" tables: 2 (66%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Shrimp with Black Bean Sauce - $6.50
Fortune: Good health is in your future.
Rating:

Geary's Review

The interior of V Garden is not nearly as slummy looking than the exterior although it may too have seen better days. The dining space is broken up into multiple rooms each with ample gilded decorations. The fish (crab) tanks near the entrance are stunning. I think they are the largest we have seen. The giant King Crabs are impressive. Luckily for Dave we ate in a non-crab infested room. The lunch hour is apparently slow at V Garden and we were one of only a few tables. However, service was prompt and friendly.

As is common, the lunch menu offered the standard crappy options but the full menu looked much more interesting. But, bound by rule #2, we each chose a lunch special. I went with the Shrimp with Black Bean Sauce. The requisite H&SS arrived quickly but was crappy. It was not very hot or sour and was so thick with corn starch that after you removed the spoon the soup took a while to settle back to having a completely flat surface. It was more like a thin pudding. My lunch special arrived soon after and was only slightly better than the soup. The fried rice had rice (check) and was apparently fried (check) but other than some soy sauce had nothing else added. Maybe this is common somewhere, but when I am forced to buy Americanized crappy lunch special Chinese food, I expect at least veggies in my fried rice. The shrimp were fairly typical, cooked with onions and peppers in a gooey, overly salty black bean sauce.

We came to V Garden as Visitors with no Vendetta. Nate came as an MSG150 Virgin. We left in Victory unlikely to visit again. (Note: There wasn't really a clear way to link all possible V's in to this review.)

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Szechuan Pork in Hot Garlic Sauce - $5.50
Fortune: You will receive some high prize or award
Rating:

Adam's Review

I've always been a little scared of V Garden, based almost entirely by the looks of its cover; its dingy gross exterior. It was nice to get inside and finally judge this establishment by inner beauty. When inside, we were seated in an almost emtpy room and presented with the lunch menu. The lunch menu is chock full of the American Chinese food greatest hits: kung pao, black bean, general tso's, etc.

I ordered the Szechuan Pork in Hot Garlic Sauce. The service wasn't bad. The food was decent. The portion size wasn't ridiculously huge nor small. All in all, the inside wasn't as bad as the exterior... but nothing to write home about. The highlight of the lunch is when they served Michael's dish (Crispy Beef) to me... and it was damned good. As Michael likes to say: "It was meat candy. Sugary sauce on the outside and savory meat on the inside." And my food was slightly ironic: it wasn't spicy or garlic-y.

If you work within a couple of blocks, you should check this place out. But no need to make a special trip to try it out.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Kung Pao Shrimp - $6.50
Fortune: Someone will be very proud of you.
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Totally nondescript on the outside, V-Garden surprises you as you enter with a nicely adorned interior. Big crab sit in a tank; the ceiling has a nice pattern to it. I ordered the Kung Pao Shrimp from their totally bland lunch menu. The viscous hot and sour soup was awful, but the Kung Pao Shrimp wasn't bad at all.

It just wasn't great. It wasn't anything to write home about. It almost isn’t worth blogging about. :) If a group of people invited me to join them for lunch at V-Garden, and it wasn't their birthday, and they weren't planning on drinking, I would politely decline.

They do have eerily accurate fortunes though. Maybe this place is like Zoltar from Big. Maybe tomorrow I'll wake up and be able to dunk on Shaq. :)

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Mongolian Beef - $5.50
Fortune: There is a prospect of a thrilling time ahead of you.
Rating:

Dave's Review

I suspect this is one of those places where the lunch-specials-only rule hurts us. the impressive (and to arachnophobes like me, kind of squick-inducing) display of ginormous crabs and the self-designation as a seafood place means that they're probably only doing kung pao chicken and mongolian beef to cater to the non-chinese lunch crowd. this was borne out by the fact that the two "local" tables had a nice looking variety of family-style dishes and appeared to be having a pretty good time, whereas our stuff all looked fairly generic. plus the menu had some more "authentic" stuff that sounded cool; goose foot and fish maw soup is definitely more authentic-sounding than general tso's.

anyway, the meal: the hot and sour soup was just what it said on the tin, so to speak. i'm never a huge fan, and this didn't make me change my mind about that. the mongolian beef was actually pretty good, and from the general comments about the fried rice it sure doesn't seem like i missed out by going with steamed rice. if i had a complaint it was that it was pretty onion-heavy; i'm popping WinterMynt Blasts like candy and i still feel the sulfury burn. otherwise, it seemed decently fresh and had a nice sweet-n-savory sauce. service was good, tea a little funky but okay, crabs terrifying. someday i'd like to come back and order something off the regular menu, but for lunch specials it sounds like $4 at golden city is a better bet.

Luncher: Nate

Lunch: Kung Pao Chicken and Beef - $6.50
Fortune: A career change may be in your future.
Rating:

Nate's Review

While I really would like to rate the culinary experience a 2, the accuracy of my fortune cookie earns it a 3. If I ever go back there it will only be for the fortune cookie. Hopefully the next fortune will be something a bit more uplifting.

Luncher: Ken

Lunch: Shrimp with Vegetables - $6.50
Fortune: You will soon achieve your financial goals.
Rating:

Ken's Review

The vegetable shrimp was which essentially hot vegetables and shrimp, was almost non-descript in all ways. It was edible, I ate it all, but I remember almost nothing more about it. The Fried Rice, however, was NOT what I consider good. It was rice, with what appeared to be soy sauce on it, thrown into a pan and fried. I have no desire to return of my own volition.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Crispy Beef with Orange Flavor - $6.50
Fortune: You will make many changes before settling satisfactorily.
Rating:

Michael's Review

The holding tanks for the seafood were well stocked with a number of critters you don't often see. King crab, sturgeon, and cod were all waiting for their 15 minutes of fame on some lucky person's plate. All though the stocking density was very high the animals all looked very healthy and the water was very clear.

Also my Crispy beef was very good. You should eat here.

V Garden

V Garden Photos

V Garden's southern flank

RESTAUraNT

Fish/Crab Tanks

Snow Crab

Crab enjoying it's own lunch special

V Garden Menu

H&SS

Inspired use of phone cord

Kung Pao Shrimp

Mongolian Beef

Kung Pao Chicken and Beef

Szechuan Pork in Hot Garlic Sauce

Crispy Beef with Orange Flavor

Szechuan Pork in Hot Garlic Sauce

Shrimp with Black Bean Sauce (and some metal pronged object)

Lunch #67: Green Village

2009-02-26T11:25:00.000-08:00

We have heard tales of Green Village since the early days of our journey. But the tiny, well worn eatery was shuttered every time we walked past. It was still closed when its place in line came around and we were forced to pass on by. We did not forget about it and during a recent foray into the area, we noticed that it was open and hopping again. So today the MSG150 crew ventured out to finally check it off our list.

Green Village, Seattle
Address: 516 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 2/13/2009 @ 11:45:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 3 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 5 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 35 minutes
Chopstix quality: Cheap Wood
Do they use MSG?: Yes, but they can make anything without it.
Where is the owner/chef from?: Wendy is from Taiwan, and very nice.
Number of tables: 13
Number of occupied tables: 10 (76%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (20%)
Number of "local" tables: 7 (70%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Juicy Beef Noodle Soup - $6.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This is one of those places that everyone tells you about, usually with a bit of glee. Their verbal reviews contain comments like "it's sooooo yummy," or "BEST KUNG PAO EVAR!" Some written reviews even contain ASCII art shrines to this place. Ok, so ASCII art is pretty cool. :) As this is the 67th unique lunch place I've tried in this area, I'll do my best to put this place in context to its near neighbors.

First thing I notice - this place is CLEAN. Not typical of the ID. There's a short line, and then you order at the counter. The counter lady was super friendly, and quickly took my order of Juicy Beef Noodle Soup with side of hot tea. She helped find us some places to sit in the crowded restaurant and promised to bring our food out to us, which was great. I give it an A for the service, which you wouldn't expect in a fast food joint like this.

The noodle soup came in a sizeable bowl, was nice and hot, had a decent flavor. The beef chunks were fatty, a little grisly, and nothing too special. The egg noodles were average, and along with the broth we have a fairly average bowl of beef noodle soup. Here's the lowdown: beef noodle soup is a pretty common dish in this neighborhood, and you can get some fantastic soups for the same amount of money or less literally a block away. Geary had what appeared to be a delicious bowl at Sub-Sand just the other day. Szechuan Noodle Bowl delivers a version that is easily three times as good as this. Gourmet Noodle Bowl, Mike's, Phnom Penh, and of course Pho Bac will have you coming back for more.

However, great quick service does count for something. I'll definitely be back to try other things on the menu.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Hot Pepper Diced Chicken - $6.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

The green awning is a bit grungy but the interior seems to have received some care recently. There are new tables and chairs in the otherwise spartan dining area which today was bustling with a near capacity crowd. We got in line to order from the counter and were shouted a friendly welcome from the woman taking orders. The line moved quickly and by the time we ordered a table had cleared and we grabbed it.

The H&SS was delivered almost immediately and was delicious. It was just the right combination of pungent and spicy to get my appetite teed up for the main course. The lunches arrived soon after. My Hot Pepper Diced Chicken was disappointing. I had higher hopes for Green Village, but what I ended up with was typical greasy Kung Pao chicken.

If you are looking for friendly fast service and a filling meal of palatable Chinese food, Green Village would fit the bill. However there are better and cheaper options in the area.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Twice Cooked Pork - $6.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

Green Village is open! It had been inexplicably closed for several months, and we were quiet excited to see it's lights on.

When we walked in, we were greeted with an excited "Hello!" and busy restaurant. I love ordering off of a menu board: something about a big menu mounted behind a counter always gets me a little excited. I stepped up, and threw out my order for twice cooked pork (on Amanda's recommendation).

A few minutes later, the food started showing up. The first thing I noticed were the large portion sizes. Then I tried the food and it was pretty danged good. It didn't knock my socks off, but it at least pulled 'em down a little bit. I was also happy to go home with atleast enough food for another meal.

Overall, a pretty positive experience. I'll be back.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: House Special Chow Mein - $6.95
Rating:

Michael's Review

My food came last to the table, and it wasn't worth the wait. Average flavor with very above average grease.

This lunch left me feeling ill for the rest of the day.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: General Chicken - $6.95
Rating:

Al's Review

I had the General Tao Chicken with sweet and sour soup.

Service - fast; chicken - tender; breading - light; soup - surprisingly bland; price - a little high: 4 chopsticks.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Twice Cooked Pork - $6.95
Rating:

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Twice Cooked Pork - $6.95
Rating:

Green Village Photos

Green Village

Male Pattern Waiting to Order

Green Village Menu

H&SS

Juicy Beef Noodle Soup

Hot Pepper Diced Chicken

Twice Cooked Pork

General Chicken

House Special Chow Mein

Lunch #66: Sub Sand

2009-02-13T15:33:00.000-08:00

Last week on the way back from lunch I noticed a new store front on 6th. On closer inspection I realized it was a new restaurant. I stopped in found out that they had been open for over a month. How did that get past us? I guess we've been slacking. But we're on it now. Today we headed out in full MSG150 fighting strength to find out what Sub-Sand was all about.

Sub Sand, Seattle
Address: 419 6th Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average rating: 4.1 chopsticks
Lunch date: 12/15/2008 @ 12:15:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 1 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 10 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 45 minutes
Chopstix quality: Metal!
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Vietnam with Chinese ansestry
Number of tables: 3
Number of occupied tables: 3 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 3 (100%)
Number of "local" tables: 0 (0%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Tofu Vermicelli Noodles - $5.50
Rating:

Adam's Review

A new Bahn Mi joint: we're on it. This place isn't much larger than a hole in the wall, so the 7 of us in the group pretty much filled the place to capacity. I figured someone else would review the deliciously stacked Bahn Mi sandwiches, so I went with the Tofu Vermicelli Noodles (a.k.a. Bun noodles).

Bun noodle dishes aren't very complicated, and it really feels like the "secret" is in fish sauce. This fish sauce was good (not great, not Pho Bac... but pretty damned good). The one beauty of their fish sauce is that I wasn't burping garlic all afternoon: a true treat. The noodles were the right texture... and the helping was pretty huge. The pickled dicon and carrots are good. The lettuce in the noodles was surprisingly fresh and crispy. Overall a very solid meal that I would recommend.

With a nice owner and some good food, I definitely recommend this one.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup - $6.50
Rating:

Geary's Review

Sub-Sand is a Vietnamese/Chinese sandwich and soup place. The owner is from Vietnam but of Chinese ancestry. The restaurant is small with only four tables. The Sub-Sand logo is an orange cartoonish submarine with a smile and is panted on the back wall under a large neon Sub-Sand sign. There is also a giant mural of a military submarine surfacing on the wall next to the tables. There is a sandwich bar like most sub shops, but since we were eating in they asked us to sit, brought us tea, and took our order at the table.

I ordered the Spicy Beef Noodle Soup based on the beautiful photo of the dish on the wall. While we waited for our food we enjoyed Hong Kong TV on two flat screens and watched the owner carefully prepare sandwiches. He puts an amazing amount of care and effort into each. The soup we good and I ate it all, but it was a bit too divergent from the standard American pallet to be fully enjoyable. For instanced, it contained chunks of congealed blood and a whole pigs knuckle. The tender hunks of beef were good, but the broth was a bit to pungent for me.

I have since been back and have had the BBQ Pork Sub and Salt-and-Pepper Tofu Sub which were both delicious. These subs are more substantial than typical Bahn Mi and include a large toasted bun, lettuce, and cucumbers among other things.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: BBQ Pork Sub Sandwich - $3.99
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Sub Sand has a peculiar name for its tiny storefront, nestled between Unicorn Crepes and a Travel Agent. Unlike Subway, which has wallpaper showing early 20th century subway maps, Sub Sand gets it right and has an 8 foot World War II Submarine on the wall. Hand painted too. It's a small joint, with only 3 tables or so with lava lamps instead of salt shakers. The televisions were showing either Justice John G screwing up Barack's moment, or some crazy TV show with Frodo dancing with robots. It was like we entered some crazy alternative reality - a reality with GREAT sandwiches.

The ordering situation is a bit awkward because it appears to be a deli, so you want to order at the counter, which we do. However, the guy making the sandwiches takes his time making them, so we end up sitting down at the table. If there were more people here it'd be a little cramped. Fortunately the food is worth it. On this visit I ordered the BBQ Pork Sandwich. The sandwich is fresh, delicious, and made with the utmost attention to detail. They are very similar to Vietnamese Bahn Mi, with the spice and veggies, however, Sub Sand adds the lettuce and tomato and does away with Cilantro, aiming for a more American style sub.

My biggest complaint is that for a sandwich shop, it's not a quick in/out. I've been the only person in the restaurant and it's at least 5 minutes to get a to-go order. Fortunately the courteous service, the beautiful wall art, the zen-like ambience, and the delicious subs keep me coming back for more.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: "Look Luck" Beef Fried Rice - $6.95
Rating:

Michael's Review

One of the finest lunch spots in the area. Huge sandwiches, juicy and tasty, made with great care for very little money. The fellow behind the counter really takes his time and lays out all the ingredients with great precision. This is how you want your food prepared.

I have been back to SubSand over twenty times since our first visit. We are going at least 2-3 times per week. No other lunch spot in the ID has seen so many return visits after a review.

Get the Pork sandwich. Get the Herbed Duck with Noodles. Split an order of spring rolls. And then go back and get another sandwich to go for dinner.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Beef Stew Noodle - $6.95
Rating:

Al's Review

BBQ Pork “Sub-Sand”: at $3.95, with all the fixings, and fresh bread that is just the right amount crusty, it is magical. 5 chopsticks.

Luncher: Emily HD

Lunch: BBQ Pork Sub Sandwich - $3.99
Rating:

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Spicy Beef Noodle Soup - $6.50
Rating:

Sub Sand Photos

Sub-Sand

Sub-Sand counter and awesome neon sign

Sub-Sand menu

Sub-Sand submarine mural

Tofu Vermicelli Noodles

Bún + Lava Lamp = Subtastic

Sub production

Sub artistry

BBQ Pork Sub Sandwich

Spicy Beef Noodle Soup

Beef Stew Noodle

"Look Luck" Beef Fried Rice

BBQ Pork Sub Sandwich (the NSFW view)

Lunch #65: Harbor City

2009-01-23T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last summer we got word that Harbor City had changed hands and was reopening as a dim sum joint. Our previous lunch there was good and we were not overly excited to have yet another dim sum place to visit. I've lost count, but I think we can no longer count the ID dim sum spots on our fingers. We ventured out today with a small, yet eager, crew of four.

There are other changes to note in the ID: Vegetarian Bistro has gone out of business [tear]; China Gate has a sign up that declares, "Under new management" [joy]; Made in Kitchen closed its doors (the city shut them down because of the stupid name) and is being replaced by The Crawfish King in a couple of weeks (possibly as early as the 23rd); And, there's a new hole-in-the-wall that the MSG150 crew has high hopes for but you'll have to wait until next week to fine out what it is.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot, MSG150 was featured in Seattle Magazine's cheap eats issues. Also, fellow Seattle luncher Elliot lauded us in his blog as having "somewhat questionable wisdom". Thanks for the compliment Elliot, but where did you see any wisdom? I think even completely questionable wisdom would have been a stretch.

Harbor City, Seattle
Address: 707 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Dim Sum
Average rating: 4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 12/1/2008 @ 11:55:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 0 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 35 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Canton
Number of tables: 18
Number of occupied tables: 18 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 1 (5%)
Number of "local" tables: 17 (94%)
Healthcode Score: 45
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Family Style Dishes

Sticky Rice
Pork and Ginger Dumpling
Shrimp and Cilantro Dumpling
Shrimp Dumpling
Sticky Rice
Shu mai
Fried Shrimp Dumpling
BBQ Pork Pastry
Green Pepper with Shrimp
Green Onion Bun

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Family Style - $9.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

The first thing I noticed upon returning was that the new Harbor City was packed. We were only one of two tables when we ate here last. Today, however, we were sat at the last available table. We were also the only non-Chinese table in the place. My hopes were high.

We started off quickly and within a few minutes had our table full of dim sum. There was nothing fancy, but everything was hot and tasty. A couple of items stood out. The Pork & Ginger Dumplings were excellent. Always a favorite of mine, these were fresh and flavorful. The Green Onion Bun was also a winner.

The four of us ate our fill of good dim sum for under $9 each. This place is second only to Jade Garden in my current ID dim sum rankings. I will be back again.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Family Style - $9.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

We're back for a re-review, and this time Harbor City has moved on from serving merely typical Cantonese fare and added Dim Sum to their menu. After the raw shrimp experience at Duk Li I was skittish about these cart-less, boutique Dim Sum places. However, I enjoyed the service last time at Harbor City, and they were commended by the health department, so my mouth is open.

There is a hustle and bustle to this place. It's positively jammed packed with locals, chit chatting, drinking tea, etc. I was ready to lay down at Mahjong but then realized my competitive Mahjong skills are limited to the shareware version I played when I was 11 years old. Dominos on the other hand, well. . . let's not go there. We were seated and served quickly, thanksfully the great service is still here.

Food was above-average, mostly fried, but all-in-all fresh and definitely competes well with Jade Garden. I will return.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Family Style - $9.00
Rating:

Adam's Review

A new Dim Sum restaurant? It's time to rock and roll. We rolled up on this mission with an elite commando force of Dim Sum-ers... all with at least 4 tours of Dim Sum duty.

This place had a couple of dumplings that I'd never had before: the pork and ginger dumpling, and the shrimp and cilantro dumpling. Both of these had excellent flavor, and I would highly recommend both of them. We also had some of our traditional dim sum dishes: shu mai, sticky rice, and a few others. All of these dishes were also pretty tasty and quite fresh.

This place has quite a few tables, and was totally full. For a new-ish restaurant I thought this was quite impressive. We were the only whitefolk in the whole place.

At some point we'll have to make an ordered list of the best Dim Sum restaurants in Chinatown, and when we do this one should have a pretty solid place near the top.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Family Style - $9.00
Rating:

Harbor City Photos

Harbor City

Harbor City window

Fried Shrimp Dumpling

Shrimp Dumplings, Pork & Ginger Dumplings, Shrimp & Cilantro Dumplings

Shu Mai, Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf

BBQ Pork Pastry

The Spread

Green Pepper with Shrimp

Green Onion Bun

Dim Sum Prices

Lunch #64: Pacific Cafe

2009-01-12T11:42:00.000-08:00

Without a clear goal, MSG150 has spent the last few month going back to favorite spots and watching for changes in the ID. Soon after our Fort St. George review, Pacific Cafe, opened in the shell of a failed restaurant next to the sketchy bar on 5th and Main. About that time Brad Cassiday, a freelance writer for the Seattlest, found our blog and asked if he could join us for lunch so we invited him to try out Pacific Cafe with us. We showed up with a crew of six and met Brad at the door.

Pacific Cafe, Seattle
Address: 416 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA
Cuisine: Chinese: Hong Kong
Average rating: 2.9 chopsticks
Lunch date: 9/12/2008 @ 12:00:00
Time taken to be seated: 3 minutes
Time to take order: 5 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 30 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 75 minutes
Chopstix quality: Fork
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hong Kong
Number of tables: 11
Number of occupied tables: 11 (100%)
Number of business lunch tables: 6 (54%)
Number of "local" tables: 6 (54%)
Healthcode Score: N/A
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: #9 - Sliced Beef with Onions - $5.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Happy 2009. We ate at this restaurant back in September 2008, when the Seahawks still had a chance at not sucking and Lehman Brothers still existed. We got lazy and started watching our fortunes dwindle, and we hosted this thing at Hing Hay park, which turned out to be a fun filled evening.

Our bud Joey apparently knew somebody who knew somebody who ran this place, and it looks real pretty on the outside, so we were totally psyched to go in. We found a table in the back, and joined up with some blogger guy who writes about Football and wanted to do a Pre-Game Football Food article or something. My choice this day was #9 - the Sliced Beef with Onions, which I guess appeals to my German Midwestern roots in some way. It had lots of black pepper on it, was very saucy, and it sucked. Alright it didn't totally suck. I mean it looked good on the outside, and like You, Me, and Dupree, it had all this potential. But then it just wasn't good, and I wanted to leave.

Service was slow, food was unremarkable, I'll probably never come back even though our new office is a block away.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: #2 - Singapore Style Fried Rice Noodles - $5.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

Pacific Cafe is clean and has a modern feeling. There is a big flatscreen TV over the service bar broadcasting beautifuil photos of menu items toward the folks waitng for tables in the small entry way. As we sized up the menu we noticed that nobody was using chopsticks. It's strckly forks and knives at the Pacific Cafe.

I went with #2, Singapore Style Fried Rice Noodles. The H&SS starter was marginal. It was bland and neither sour nor spicy. The noodles were passable, but nothing really outstanding. The dish consisted of wide rice noodles with shrimp, small bits of BBQ pork, and a few veggies tossed with a dry curry. It was certainly no better than the $4 Singapore noodles on the Golden City lunch menu.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: #1 - Shanghai Style Stir Fried Noodles - $5.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

A new restaurant? Awesome. It's good to have my eatin' shoes back on, and it's time to review.

When you see a lunch special menu like this one, it's hard to determine what to get. A great method: pick something from the beginning of the list, they must be putting great things at the front. I was following this method to the extreme when I ordered: "#1 please."

The Shanghai Noodles were pretty delicious. You can't really go wrong with a dish like this. Loaded with lots of tasty ingredients and cooked to a nice consistency.

The restaurant is clean. They give you forks (not chopsticks). And there isn't hot sauce on every table. This isn't your standard Chinese restaurant. Not quite a 4 for me, but it's close.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: #47 - Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms - $5.75
Rating:

Rob's Review

When I picked the Tofu and Shiitake Mushroom dish from the hundred or so lunch options, the waitress asked, "No meat?" in order to make sure I would not be disappointed when a meat-less meal showed up. Points to them for looking out for their customers. On the menu was one other veggie option, plus a couple of fish dishes, so there you go. The restaurant was packed, and it took about three hours for our food to arrive. Well, it felt like three hours because I was hungry and lots of other patrons were eating, but it was really about half an hour, and the wait staff apologized for the inconvenience. But still, a long wait for a pile of rice, veggies and tofu. The food was fine, but nothing great. The sauce was light and tasty, the tofu was the usual deep-fried stuff, the mushrooms and whatnot were decent. So yeah, it was a lunch. I'll have to make sure to go early or late next time to get faster service.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: #43 - Shredded Pork with Vegetables on Rice - $5.75
Rating:

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: #11 - Sliced Beef in Tomatoes Sauce - $5.95
Rating:

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: #19 - Grilled Pork and Chicken Steak - $6.50
Rating:

VIP Luncher: Brad from Seattlest

Lunch: #3 - Sliced Beef with Stir Fried Flat Noodles - $5.95
Rating:

Brad's Review

The noodles were really good, and it made me realize that I don't eat noodles nearly enough. Especially with fall coming, the noodles were a big hit for me. The beef was better than average and the scallions were crispy. Kinda surprised the server didn't push drinks more, since that's were the profits are. The place was packed and the location is perfect. The porkchop for $6 is a steal.

Pacific Cafe Photos

Pacific Cafe - Hong Kong Kitchen

Pacific Cafe Menu

H&SS

#11 - Sliced Beef in Tomatoes Sauce

#2 - Singapore Style Fried Rice Noodles

#3 - Sliced Beef with Stir Fried Flat Noodles

#19 - Grilled Pork and Chicken Steak

#47 - Tofu with Shiitake Mushrooms

#43 - Shredded Pork with Vegetables on Rice

#9 - Sliced Beef with Onions

#1 - Shanghai Style Stir Fried Noodles

MSG150 presents Ratatouille

2008-09-05T00:10:00.000-07:00

This Saturday, September 6, 2008, the Seattle Parks department will be showing Ratatouille in the ID's Hing Hay Park, hosted by us, MSG150. Yes, you heard that right. The city of Seattle and the good people who promote business and community in the ID have somehow determined that MSG150 crew is qualified enough to emcee a public event. I'm not sure how they came to this decision (I suspect we were vetted even less than Sarah Palin) but we were happy to accept the gig.

There's gonna be some games, prizes, food vendors, popcorn, good conversation, and fun for the whole family^*. Once the sun goes down, the movie screen will light up, and we will shut up. Security will be tight so those looking for payback for a bad review will have to bring their A game. Also, there is still time for good old fashioned bribery. It's completely possible we typed "sucky" when we meant "succulent". Hey, that's nothing a couple of crisp Benjamins couldn't fix.^**

Hing Hay Park is located at 423 Maynard Ave. S. The festivities begin at 6:30 PM, and the movie should start by 8:30 PM.

View Larger Map

Special thanks to Joyce from the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) for inviting us!

Hope to see you there!

^{* Please refrain from throwing said games, prizes, food vendors, popcorn, good conversation, or fun at the emcees, even if we suck.}

^{** Actually the whole bribery thing never panned out so we are now taking the moral high ground. We may still take your money, but the reviews are etched in stone.}

Lunch #63: Fort St. George

2008-08-01T19:40:00.000-07:00

Back in November when we traced out our route through the DLZ the end at the southeast corner of 6th and King seemed like the distant future. We had a seemingly uncountable number of lunches ahead of us. Well, the future is now and our sixty-third lunch brought us out to the end of the DLZ route to find one of the most baffling of the Asian imports inhabiting the ID, Fort St. George. We showed up in full MSG150 force and then some. We had a crew of twenty including all of the MSG150 regulars plus some bandwagon jumpers looking for a piece of the fame. We stopped by earlier in the week on a recon mission to see if we could make reservations. We were told that they don't take reservations since people often show up, look at the menu, and then leave. I suspect there was some profiling being applied with this policy. No matter, we showed up early and grabbed the last twenty seats in the place.

Even though this is the last stop on our prepared route this is not the last you will hear from MSG150. There are at least two new restaurants under construction today in the DLZ, plus the original DLZ is only a sixteen square block subset of the ID. If we have the strength, we will start exploring areas like Little Saigon, east on Jackson, and the north edge of Japan Town that we missed on Main.

Oh yeah... If you didn't already know, we rock!

Fort St. George, Seattle
Address: 601 S King St Ste 202, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Japanese
Average rating: 2.9 chopsticks
Lunch date: 8/1/2008 @ 11:50:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 10 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 15 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 80 minutes
Chopstix quality: Smoothed Wood and Silverware
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Japan
Number of tables: 13
Number of occupied tables: 4 (30%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (50%)
Number of "local" tables: 2 (50%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Spaghetti - Curry Sauce with Chicken Cutlet - $8.00
Rating:

Geary's Review

Full disclosure: I have been here before. Long ago (4 years?) when I first started working in the area I was attracted by the mysterious neon sign in the second floor window and talked a couple of friends into trying it out. We had no idea what to expect and were shocked by what we found. The cuisine offered by "The Fort" is frightening to most Americans in a very different way than chicken feet or pork bung is. This makes it the perfect place for MSG150 to celebrate the successful completion of our founding goal. We ate at them all!

The Fort is in a mini-mall that has a couple of shops and a travel agent on the first floor and Fort St. George and a bar that is only open in the evenings on the second floor with an internal staircase and open area in the middle. The Fort has a bar as well and lunch seating for about 35 people (tables + bar). The wall is covered with Polaroids of young (at least younger than me) patrons presumably enjoying the bar offerings and karaoke. There is also a large bookcase of Japanese comic books.

When we arrived, there were three tables that I took note of. One had four young Japanese men, all apparently regulars, another had two young, male non-Japanese local office types (likely computer-related work), and the third had a young Japanese woman and her non-Japanese girlfriend (of the "friend that is a girl" type). The two non-Japanese guys were both eating the Spaghetti with Curry Sauce and Chicken Cutlet. They seemed to be enjoying themselves so the Curry Spaghetti jumped to the top of my options. The two women were at the table right next to mine. The Japanese woman was doing all of the ordering and saying things like, "Isn't this amazing? Now you see why I love this place." She had ordered Spaghetti with Hamburger and the Chicken Fried Rice with Ketchup Sauce topped with an Omelet (and more ketchup). The Ketchup-Rice-Egg ensemble looked amazing/terrifying. I wasn't brave enough today (apparently Michael either didn't see theirs or is fearless). In the end I went with the Spaghetti-Curry-Fried-Chicken "recommendation" from the computer guys.

For as big of a group we had, ordering and food delivery went fairly well with the exception of Glenn's lunch which somehow was forgotten. The staff was friendly and very accommodating for our large group. In the end though, my spaghetti was so-so. The curry was bland and oddly had chunks of beef in it. The slices of fried chicken breast were tender but soggy with curry sauce and the spaghetti was undercooked. It was filling and edible but in no way memorable.

We had fun, but for me it's sayonara to Fort St. George. For my crazy Japanese food fixes I'm sticking with Unicorn Crepes just across the street.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Spaghetti - Curry Sauce - $6.50
Rating:

Adam's Review

Oh, the bitter-sweet finale. I'd heard a lot about Fort St. George, and I was really excited to try it out for myself. Apparently a lot of other people wanted to try it out too, because we had a huge group.

The menu is awesome. Look over what some of the other people got, and you'll notice some real winners (I think Michael wins by getting the Chicken Fried Rice with Ketchup Flavor Topped With Omelette). In retrospect, I feel kind of lame by ordering something as standard as Spaghetti in Curry Sauce.

In line with my recent vow to eat less meat, I ordered a dish that looked like it would be meatless. But, much to my excitement... it had little chunks of beef in the curry. I really had no idea what to expect while I was waiting for my food. Will it really be as weird as I've heard? or will it be delicious? Well, luckily it was the both; my food was unique and delicious. The curry sauce had a great flavor, and I added some chili flakes to give the sauce a little kick.

I would say that there is better food in the International District, but FSG's menu is unique and full of food that I'd like to try out. I'll definitely be visiting FSG again. Maybe I can try all the dishes there, and write a blog about it... the FSG150?

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Hamburger Steak Japanese Style - Topped with Oroshi & Original Soy Sauce - $7.00
Rating:

Emmett's Review

The morning was a beautiful one, for Seattle in August is heaven on earth. A perfect day to close out our quest. A couple of hours of work went by, and soon enough, Geary roused me out of the zone and excitedly, on to our final destination - Fort St. George.

I was dogsitting this week, so I had to take care of the dog while I was away for lunch. As such I arrived late to the restaurant, which is upstairs from a video game store and a travel agency. The place has a fun feel - a bit Bennigan's, a bit like your local Mexican joint. They have polaroids on the wall, a full bar, white boards with specials, a couple of neon signs. They also have a decent view of the city from their second floor vantage point. Rob, I saw, was already deep in the drink by the time I arrived. I ordered quickly and went with the Hamburger Steak - Japanese Style. I think Japanese Style means "no bun".

Not bad for a hamburger with no bun. It had a soy-sauce flavor and was topped with Oroshi, which is grated daikon. The pasta it came with is Ketchup flavored, which is tolerable, but not great. I tried some of Geary's curry chicken, which was decent, but not terrific. But the dish was creative and interesting, and certainly better than I expected.

I bet this food is a lot better when you're plowed, hence the bar. I'd come again. :)

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Daily Special - Deep Fried Salmon with Tonkatsu Sauce and Aioli Sauce - $7.25
Rating:

Rob's Review

My first time at Fort St. George was not a good one. This time, though, I pretty much knew what to expect, and I think that helped. The side salad partly topped with a small amount of cold, Chef Boyardee-esque spaghetti wasn't nearly as odd as I remembered, and they didn't taste all that bad when you combined them. Miso soup in the coffee cup was a nice touch. The white board lunch special of deep fried salmon with tonkatsu sauce and aioli sauce was okay. It was an average piece of fish, in both taste and size. The squeeze-bottled sauces were all right. I did find it amusing that the lunch special aioli sauce looked exactly the same as the garlic mayonnaise on Tyan's dish -- "aioli sauce" is definitely the winner between those two names. So yeah, I liked it better the second time around. I think the martini I had helped, too.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Chicken Fried Rice with Ketchup Flavor Topped With Omelette - $6.75
Rating:

Michael's Review

I never want to eat or look at ketchup again.

The salad was nice, the whole place had a novelty thing going for it, but I don't think it's enough that I'd ever want to go back.

Ketchup is wrong in quantities like this. Never again.

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: Beef Curry and Rice with Chicken Cutlet - $8.00
Rating:

Joey's Review

I’m gonna be really generous today and give 4 chopsticks to Fort St. George. It wasn’t that it was amazing, but it really hit the spot. Don’t get me wrong… it was pretty good, but if I hadn’t been craving curry, I probably would’ve given it a 3. It tasted like the curry flavoring you can get at the store, like Golden curry (see here http://www.flickr.com/photos/kaoko/1183236401/). The beef was alright, but the chicken cutlet (katsu) tasted pretty good with the curry. Who knew crispy katsu and soggy curry could go so well together?

Luncher: Erin

Lunch: Lunch Entree - Pork Ginger - $7.00
Rating:

Erin's Review

Fort St. George has the oddest name for a restaurant. Sounds like a state park. We were a very large group for this final outing, and they really didn't know what to do with us. There were seats, so we sat at two different tables. The menu was an interesting mix of American style Japanese food. I ordered the Pork Ginger. After a very long wait, our food arrived, or most of it did. The pork ginger was a stir fry of thin pork in a mild ginger sauce. This was served with a side of rice, a side of salad, and a side of cold spaghetti. The sauce spilled over into the salad and spaghetti, making them soggy. The pork was tender, but the whole dish was bland; there was very little ginger flavor in the dish. The service was slow and confused; I thought the whole restaurant was a little dirty. I give this two chopsticks, it wasn't quite dog food. I would not return.

Luncher: Jeff

Lunch: Lunch Special - Tenderloin Pork Cutlet - $7.00
Rating:

Jeff's Review

Not a lot of heart-healthy options on the Ft St George lunch menu.

This place earned the only 1 chop-stick rating I’ve given.

That said, let’s start with what was good… The white rice was good – well cooked. The mini side-salad had a nice sesame dressing. The miso soup hit the spot (although it probably contained my full day's worth of sodium). Moving on to what’s not so good; the entrée was completely lacking! I had the Tenderloin Pork. The meat was tough and rubbery. The batter was uninspiring. The mystery dipping sauce was the only redemption. Ft St George did have a cheery and bright dining area with nice windows to look through. Everything was clean. I just wouldn’t go back for the food. It’s a shame to end the MSG adventure with such a lame duck.

Luncher: Ben the Intern

Lunch: Spaghetti - Meat Sauce with Hamburger Steak and Garlic Flavored Mayo - $8.50
Rating:

Ben the Intern's Review

There is enough to criticize about Fort St. George, but why bother, I didn’t go there expecting gourmet dining. I went there looking for the most outrageous food item I could find and I think I did a decent job, selecting the “pasta with meat sauce and garlic mayonnaise” (with additional steak burger). The food was good. Nothing so outrageous you wouldn’t eat it again, nothing to write home about. I also purchased a cherry float, which you can’t really go wrong with except that they put far too much ice into the glass which is silly for a drink topped with ice-cream. All in all this is a solid 3/5 for food quality but if go looking for some laughs with friends you’ll come back with a 4/5 chopsticks experience.

4/5 Sticks!

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Lunch Special - Hamburger and Chicken Cutlet - $6.50
Rating:

Al's Review

Howard Johnson’s food circa 1972 via Japan. Ho Jo’s floats were better.

Luncher: Wayne

Lunch: Daily Special - Deep Fried Salmon with Tonkatsu Sauce and Aioli Sauce - $7.25
Rating:

Wayne's Review

We stormed Fort St. George with a force of 20 as we set out to complete our coverage of the DLZ. The staff struggled to accommodate our massive group in their small space, and all things considered, didn’t do too badly. Sure, finding seats, taking our orders, and bringing our food wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, but heck, we probably accounted for more than half of the diners in the restaurant.

For my lunch, I opted for the Daily Special: Deep Fried Salmon with Tonkatsu Sauce and Aioli Sauce. It sounded more interesting than anything else on the menu, and it didn’t disappoint. I’ve never had deep fried salmon before, and with its two rich sauces, it was really quite tasty.

I’m giving this meal a three chopsticks rating. The yummy Salmon easily deserved four, but the meal was brought down by the mediocre salad, the cold noodle side dish that I didn’t really care for, and the (supposedly included) miso soup that I was looking forward to but never received.

Luncher: Glenn

Lunch: Lunch Special - Steak and Chicken Cutlet - $6.50
Rating:

Glenn's Review

The wait staff forgot my meal which irritated me. When the food actually showed up I was somewhat surprised. I ordered the lunch special which let me choose 2 of the standard items. I chose the Hamburger Steak out of pure curiosity -- I have never heard of a hamburger steak before -- and the chicken cutlet. The chicken was breaded and fried chicken strips -- standard bar food. The Hamburger Steak turned out to be a meatloaf in the shape of a hamburger without a bun -- it was pretty good. The main course was garnished with a small salad and a helping of spaghetti. The spaghetti sauce was spiced up ketchup and did not score well considering that I am a mustard eater.

Slow service (though we were a big group) and ketchup as a main ingredient:
2 chopsticks.

Luncher: Tyan

Lunch: Spaghetti - Meat Sauce topped with Garlic Flavored Mayonnaise - $7.00
Rating:

Tyan's Review

This is American comfort food interpreted by the Japanese. Sounds a little weird but I felt the concept worked surprisingly well. I had spaghetti with meat sauce and garlic flavored mayonnaise. The spaghetti was pretty decent, although a bit overcooked for my taste. The meat sauce was basic but tasty. The garlic mayonnaise is what really made this dish for me. It gave the otherwise bland food a little oomph. This is not a place you go for spice but a place you go when you want something familiar but with just a little twist. The service was pretty good considering there were 20 of us and we practically filled up the place. My only complaint is that my dish came out of the kitchen with a hair on it. A pickier eater may have found that gross but I have furry pets so a little hair in my food is hardly anything worth noticing in my book. I will definitely go back again to try the spaghetti with curry.

Luncher: Anthea

Lunch: Spaghetti - Curry Sauce - $6.50
Rating:

Anthea's Review

If the curry sauce has a little bit more kick it will be more than average.

Luncher: Chad

Lunch: Doria with Broccoli and Mushrooms - $7.00
Rating:

Chad's Review

The restaurant’s ambiance was as expected for the International District. Menu looked pretty affordably priced. I tried a dish I have never tried before, and I was ok with it. Had the Broccoli and Mushroom Doria. Not too bad. Being a Midwesterner myself, it’s a casserole dish I can relate to. Flavor was ok. I liked that it was something I’ve never tried, but then getting it, I guess you could say that I did way back when at the church potlucks. There were a lot of people in the group, and for a small shop, they did ok in getting food out, save perhaps for one of our people. Just an OK experience. I was more interested in the company I was with than the food.

Luncher: Yvonne

Lunch: Lunch Entree - Tenderloin Pork Cutlet - $7.00
Rating:

Yvonne's Review

This was a wonderful excursion back to my time as an expat living in Japan. The typical “American” style found in many Japanese restaurants. The Pork Tenderloin Cutlets were good. The salad and side of spaghetti (cold) also very authentic. The service was a little slow. Overall, it was a fun little adventure.

Luncher: Tracy

Lunch: Doria with Bacon and Mushrooms - $7.00
Rating:

Tracy's Review

Comforting food covered in cheese…..mmmm. Plus, I got to watch Rob drink a martini for lunch.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Lunch Special - Steak and Pork Cutlet - $6.50
Rating:

Luncher: Emily

Lunch: Doria with Broccoli and Mushrooms - $7.00
Rating:

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Lunch Special - Chicken and Pork Cutlet - $6.50
Rating:

Fort St. George Photos

Fort St. George

Dining on the Mezzanine

Fort St. George Menu

Fort St. George Menu Side 2

MSG150 Crew

MSG150 Crew Annex

Specials Board & Photo Wall

Japanese Comic Books

Cherry Floats

Apparently the martinis are vegetarian approved

Cheers!

Salads

Lunch Entree - Tenderloin Pork Cutlet

Lunch Entree - Pork Ginger

Chicken Fried Rice with Ketchup Flavor Topped with Omelet (really)

Daily Special - Deep Fried Salmon with Tonkatsu Sauce and Aioli Sauce

Doria with Broccoli and Mushrooms

Lunch Special - Steak and Pork Cutlet

Lunch Special - Hamburger and Chicken Cutlet

Beef Curry and Rice with Chicken Cutlet

Hamburger Steak Japanese Style - Topped with Oroshi & Original Soy Sauce

Spaghetti - Curry Sauce with Chicken Cutlet

Spaghetti - Curry Sauce

Spaghetti - Meat Sauce topped with Garlic Flavored Mayonnaise

Doria with Bacon and Mushrooms

Daily Special + Martini

Lunch Special - Chicken and Pork Cutlet

Spaghetti - Meat Sauce with Hamburger Steak and Garlic Flavored Mayo

Lunch Special - Steak and Chicken Cutlet