Lunch #49: J Sushi

MSG150 stepped up to the big leagues today. Food writer Leslie Kelly (blog) and photographer Paul Joseph Brown (also does weddings) from the Seattle Post-Intelligencer met us for lunch at the next stop on our route, J Sushi. We've been trying to hook up with Leslie for a couple months. She finally caught up with us today and is giving us our big break into analog media. We arrived at noon on our best behavior. Adam even took a shower.

Update: Read Leslie's article and see our mugs in the Seattle PI.

J Sushi, Seattle
Address: 674 S Weller St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Japanese: Sushi
Average rating: 3.4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/30/2008 @ 12:01:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 2 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 20 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 79 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Metal
Do they use MSG?: No
Where is the owner/chef from?: Owner: Canton, China; Sushi Chef: Hawaii
Number of tables: 9
Number of occupied tables: 5 (55%)
Number of business lunch tables: 5 (100%)
Number of "local" tables: 0 (0%)
Healthcode Score: 10
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Bento Box with Salmon Teriyaki and Sushi - $7.95
Rating:

Emmett's Review

I'm a big sushi fan, and frequent Shiro's, Chiso, Fuji. J's is small, but has a nice atmosphere. We were greeted immediately and they showed us to our table in the back. We regaled our guests with stories both of adventure, and woe. We ate some sushi.

I got the bento box at a not-so-bad-price of 8 bucks. The salmon teriyaki was tasty, a little charred (which is how I like it). The nigiri was forgettable - a piece of salmon, I think, maybe a shrimp, and a white fish (maybe Saba). Like I said - forgettable. Accompanied with some white rice, salad, and an orange, it was a fine spread for lunch. The orange in my lunch box is always a nice touch - makes me feel like a kid in the cafeteria.

The real highlight was the dragon roll. Little sprouts were sticking out as eyes, lots of flavor. We also ordered a Hawaii Five-O roll. It had some fruit in it or something, but kind of skimpy in the fish department.

All in all, I was not blown away by the sushi. Nothing in the food department really stuck out as 'great' but the service was good and the price was decent for sushi. I could see myself coming back.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Bento Box with Chicken Teriyaki and Sushi - $7.95
Rating:

Adam's Review

What a special day. In our DLZ, this is the only (real) sushi place. A Bento box with a couple pieces of sushi, a salad, an orange wedge, and some chicken teriyaki.

There is something to be said for teriyaki at a sushi restaurant... its probably going to be mediocre. This wasn't an exception. My sushi pieces were excellent. And my salad came with some good dark-green lettuce and an amazingly delicious salad dressing.

We also split some rolls amongst the table members. I only tried the Catepillar roll, but it was most excellent.

When in Rome, do as the Romans... eat sushi.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Bento Box with Salmon Teriyaki and Sushi - $7.95
Rating:

Geary's Review

"J" Sushi? I don't get it. There's an I Sushi in Issaquah (actually iSushi on their sign). Is this just the logical next step? I also had trouble visually unwrapping the octopus from the "J" in the logo and thought at first the name of this place was just Sushi, or maybe Octopus on an Anchor Sushi. I'm a huge sushi fan, but spend most of my sushi budget on straight sushi (sashimi or nigiri) rather than elaborate rolls. I also tend to shoot for the "great bargain" type sushi spots where you can get high quality fish at a reasonable price. A couple of my favs are Musashi's in Walingford and Hana up on Broadway. For quick, close to home sushi I go with iSushi, a conveyor belt sushi restaurant with a Japanese owner/head chef, but predominantly Mexican sushi chefs. J Sushi is a bit spendier than these bargain spots, but the prices are not outrageous. In addition to sushi, they also offer some typical Japanese lunch options at reasonable lunch prices. Since I was intent on having some sushi without blowing out my lunch budget, I went with the Bento Box with the sushi and salmon teriyaki options. We also got a couple of rolls to share with the table including a Godzilla Roll (looked like a spider roll on steroids), Caterpillar/Dragon Roll (Is there a difference? There was some confusion.), and a Hawaii 5-0 Roll (book 'em Danno). We reluctantly passed on the Super Dave Roll. What, they have a Super Dave Roll, but no Rick Roll?!

The Bento Box was excellent, the salmon was tender and flaky and a larger portion than Bush Garden; the salad was made of nice mixed greens with a light, tangy Japanese dressing; and the sushi consisted of three large, fresh pieces: one shrimp, one salmon, and one albacore. The shrimp was fine as far as shrimp sushi goes, but in general shrimp sushi (which is cooked, unseasoned shrimp filleted and stuck on rice) is really just a waste of shrimp. The salmon and albacore were excellent. Both were ample pieces of fish without a bit of chewy connective bits that often shows up in sushi of bargain joints. The salmon also had nice fatty striping. Yum! The rolls were fantastic. I didn't get a bite of the Spider Roll, but it was huge, with large chunks of crab. The caterpillar roll was beautiful. It looked like a caterpillar, with eyes, scales, and antenna. This is not the type of roll you get off of a conveyor belt. The caterpillar roll has always been one of my favorites. The distinctive taste of the unagi is complemented perfectly by the avocado and sweet and tangy sauce. Rolls done like this are fun for a splurge, but for my money, I'd still rather just have high quality fish on a ball of rice.

VIP Luncher: Leslie Kelly from Seattle PI

Lunch: Catepilar Roll, Spider Roll, Dragon Roll, and a Godzilla Roll - $20.00
Rating:

Leslie Kelly's Review

Awww! What an adorable dragon.

Whenever I eat at a new sushi place, I always test the waters by ordering rolls. I want to see what kind of care the kitchen takes with its cooked fish before I go for the raw.

J Sushi’s dragon roll – eel, crab and cucumber with avocado on top – was finished with octopus tentacles for eyes and sprouts for horns. The seaweed layered inside was just a little bit chewy, but beyond that, the flavor was great.

I also tried the Godzilla roll ($11.95; pretty good, not great) and the Caterpillar ($9.95; I’ve had better/worse, not too memorable.)

This place gets high marks for friendly service and fun décor.

If you want to read more, check out my Cheap Eats review in the May 9 Seattle P-I.

VIP Luncher: Paul Brown from Seattle PI

Lunch: Catepilar Roll, Spider Roll, Dragon Roll, and a Godzilla Roll - $20.00
Rating:

Paul Brown's Review

I had the spider roll, caterpillar roll, and three pieces of sushi: hamachi, unagi and maguro. I also had a bento with salmon teriyaki and sushi option. I thought the rolls and the sushi were excellent, 5 chopsticks. The bento was uneven, not amazing 2 chopsticks for value, 3.5 over all.

For sushi and rolls J Sushi is in the top 20% of sushi places in Seattle. Their bento is about average.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Bento Box with Salmon Teriyaki and Sushi - $7.95
Rating:

Michael's Review

All the walls of the place had giant paintings of aquatic critters. Behind me a jellyfish, to my left a giant octopus, and in front of me a huge pair of koi. This vibrantly colored orange and black carp watched me eat his relatives for lunch. I think it helped set the mood for lunch.

I tried both the bento box with salmon teriyaki as well sampling several of the rolls. The salmon was good, the sushi was tasty, and the rolls were both fun and flavorful.

If you’ve never ordered a ‘caterpillar roll’ now is the time. A caterpillar roll is a large sushi roll with an outer layer of avocado to give it the appearance of green skin, as well as decorations and eye spots done with fish roe. Top it off with bean sprouts for antennae and you have something that vaguely looks like a giant green caterpillar on your plate. And it tastes great.

Overall this is a quiet lunch spot that puts out a good bento and sushi product for not too much money. Tasty affordable lunch, and a nice splash of orange Koi. J Sushi is a solid place for lunch.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Bento Box with Salmon Teriyaki and Sushi - $7.95
Rating:

Rob's Review

I really wanted to love this place. Huge paintings of fish on the walls, the idea of good sushi for lunch in downtown Seattle, Aji (Spanish mackerel) featured on the sushi menu (although they didn't have it this day). I ended up with the lunch special bento box with salmon teriyaki and three pieces of sushi, as did most of the rest of the MSG150 crew. Also picked out the Hawaii 5-0 roll, featuring tuna and mango. Our new friends at the Seattle P-I picked out some other rolls and various pieces of nigiri. My salmon teriyaki was pretty dry, although the sauce was good. The small salad was one of the best bento box salads I've had -- real leafy greens with a nice dressing. The sushi was average. They were good sized pieces of fish, but the salmon was falling apart and the albacore didn't have the best texture. I've had worse, to be sure, but I've also had much better. The Hawaii 5-0 roll was interesting, but, again, the fish was just average, and there were only four pieces -- less than half the size of the other rolls. I also tried a piece of the very cute caterpillar roll, and that was okay, but not great. None of the fish really stood out. On the plus side, with the P-I folk there, Adam was on his best behavior. We should have newspaper reporters join us more often.

J Sushi Photos

J Sushi


Lunch Special menu with authentic soy stain


Miso


Giant Spider Roll & Caterpillar Roll


Caterpillar Roll & Spider Roll


Bento Box with Chicken Teriyaki and Sushi


Bento Box with Salmon Teriyaki and Sushi


Bento Box with Salmon Teriyaki and Sushi (again)


Hawaii 5-0 Roll


Koi Mural


Sushi Bar

05/06/08 - Fixed table stats
05/07/08 - Added link to Seattle PI

Lunch #46: Bush Garden

The MSG150 crew headed out just before noon to meet up with Naomi, The GastroGnome, who was joining us for lunch today at Bush Garden, the next stop on our death march tour. Some of us have been here before after work for Karaoke and cheap booze, but none of us have ever heard of anyone eating here.

Bush Garden, Seattle
Address: 614 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Japanese
Average rating: 3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/14/2008 @ 12:10:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 15 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 49 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Wood
Do they use MSG?: Didn't Ask, but it doesn't feel like it.
Where is the owner/chef from?:
Number of tables: 32
Number of occupied tables: 7 (21%)
Number of business lunch tables: 3 (42%)
Number of "local" tables: 3 (42%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Two Choices Lunch: Chicken Teriyaki + Tonkatsu - $7.75
Rating:

Adam's Review

Yay! not Chinese food! I was excited for the change of pace that Bush Garden was going to provide. Should I get Sukiyaki? Should I get teriyaki? Some other kind of yaki? I guess I'll get the "Two Choice Lunch Special" with Chicken Terikyaki and Tonkatsu (pork cutlet).

The lunch special came in a bento box with a cup of white rice. There was a token iceburg lettuce salad and 6 fried green beans. The piece of chicken they made the teriyaki with was actually pretty fatty. The chicken sucked up the teriyaki flavor very well but I couldn't get over the flap of fat on the back. The tonkatsu was the definition of mediocre, though. If I were a skinnier man... I may have not eaten the tonkatsu.

Pretty good place. If you're tired of Chinese food in the International District, this is a pretty decent alternative.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Katsudon - $7.75
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Goodness. I was hoping I would have something good to write. Bush Garden has intrigued me as a dining establishment since I started coming here for karaoke. As I belted out R. Kelly, I would dream of sukiyaki, tempura, and sashimi. I drank their cheap rail drinks, and would gaze at the sushi bar, wondering, longing, hoping. I had hopes for something fried, delicious, and not nutritious.

This place is classy, with their pleather seats and rank odor of fried food. I ordered the Katsudon, hoping for a tasty rice, egg, and pork cutlet feast. What I got looked kind of gross - which normally doesn't discourage me. However the rice was mushy and greasy, the egg was flavorless, the breaded pork cutlet was soggy, and the entire dish was permeated with oil. There were a few sick little peas peppered thoughout.

The other food looked quite good, and the price is certainly right. I gave it a decent effort, but left with a mildy upset stomach and a longing for something a little fresher and lighter. Bush Garden, I'm afraid, disappointed. I'll stick with the higher prices and better quality of Fuji up the street.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Two Choices Lunch: Salmon Teriyaki + BBQ Pork Ribs - $7.75
Rating:

Geary's Review

When I was a kid my folks took me to Busch Gardens theme park in Williamsburg, Virginia. I got a Bud Man Frisbee. Bud Man could kick Mickey's ass. There is no Bud Man at Seattle's Bush Garden, but its Mike Brady designed exterior, with its stone wall and neon "Cocktails" sign, reminds me of a more simple time when it was considered okay for a kid to ride unbuckled on the armrest of the family panel wagon or for a giant beer company to open a branded theme park complete with super hero mascot. But, luckily, neither has had any effect on me. Mmmm... beer.

Once I made it past the dimly lit and overly themed entry and my eyes adjusted to the soft light in the Karaoke lounge, I spotted the MSG150 advance team at a table just off the stage. Luckily there is no singing at lunch. The lunch menu offers a nice selection of reasonably priced Japanese favorites including a nice "Two Choices Lunch" bento with nine options to choose from (that's 72 different lunches for those counting). I went with the Salmon Teriyaki and Japanese BBQ Pork Ribs. After we ordered, the waitress brought us a tray of hot towels. Yes, hot towels! Every table is in the first class cabin here at the Bush Garden.

The food arrived quickly and my lunch was delicious. The salmon was small, but perfectly cooked and drizzled with a light teriyaki sauce. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. I still don't understand the crappy salad you always get at Japanese restaurants. It's nice to get some crisp fresh greens, but come on. Maybe it's time to modernize the salad a bit. The orange slice was tasty, too. Yum! Put me back in coach. I'm ready for the second half.

Luncher: Erin

Lunch: Two Choices Lunch: Tuna Sashimi + Tempura Shrimp and Vegetables - $7.75
Rating:

Erin's Review

Bush Garden is one of those old school ID places. It has been there since my Dad can remember – the very early 60’s! Walking in, the place has a split personality. There is a sushi bar to one side, and then we sat in the regular restaurant place, where apparently they host Karaoke.

Service was prompt and the tea was in a nice ceramic pot – not the metal ones that lose heat. I ordered a lunch special with two entrees ($7.75): tuna sashimi and tempura shrimp and veggies. One could order two items from a selection of about 12 different things for this particular lunch special. It came with miso soup, salad, an orange slice, rice and a little side of sautéed green beans. The lunch menu had a good selection of different items. Service was quick and efficient.

Overall my food was nicely prepared. It was, however, a little bland. The sashimi was fresh – always a good thing, especially since the place was not particularly busy. The vegetable tempura was good, with a nice selection of veggies. The shrimp was a little mushy and the dipping sauce had no flavor. Bush Garden is a nice Japanese standard, but otherwise unremarkable.

VIP Luncher: Naomi from The GastroGnome

Lunch: Sushi Lunch Special - $6.75
Rating:

Naomi's Review

For $6.95 I was served a miso soup, a small salad, 5 nigiri sushi and 2 hand rolls. That is dirt cheap, my friends. For $6.95 you get the pieces of square shaped half frozen tuna maki at the grocery store. And this was definitely better than store sushi. It was clearly made on the spot, the rice was made that day, though not too recently. The fish quality was definitely not top notch. It was cut into odd shapes and was slightly grainy. It tasted fresh though, not old, and they did not skimp on it. My 5 nigiri were ahi and albacore tuna, salmon, shrimp and a white fish that I didn’t identify and can’t remember. One hand roll was cucumber and the other was spicy tuna, a favorite of mine.

Overall, I have to admit I was pretty impressed at the amount and quality of sushi I got for 6.95, though I’m not sure I wouldn’t just rather get cheap food elsewhere and save sushi for the splurges!

Naomi's full review of Bush Garden.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Kobe Beef Sukiyaki - $7.75
Rating:

Bush Garden Photos

Bush Garden


Hot Towels!?


Bush Garden Lunch Menu


Miso & Salad Starter


Lunch Special with Salmon Teriyaki & BBQ Pork Ribs


Kobe Beef Sukiyaki


Two Choice Lunch: Chicken Teriyaki + Tonkatsu


Two Choice Lunch: Tuna Sashimi + Tempura Shrimp and Vegetables


Katsudon


Sushi Lunch Special


Bush Garden Sign & Parking

Lunch #44: Ocean City

We started into the inner most loop of the MSG150 route today as we headed up Weller to find the next lunch spot. Even though we only have a handful of blocks left, the restaurant density is pretty high so I figure we still have a couple of months to go before we have to expand the DLZ. We headed out with a good sized group today and met up with Erin in front of Ocean City, arguably the most ornately decorated restaurant in the ID. They make China Gate look like they are not even trying.

Ocean City, Seattle
Address: 609 S Weller St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Dim Sum
Average rating: 3.4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 4/7/2008 @ 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: 41 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Didn't Ask
Where is the owner/chef from?: San Francisco
Number of tables: 30
Number of occupied tables: 20 (66%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (10%)
Number of "local" tables: 18 (90%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Family Style Dishes

• 2 x Shu Mai
• 2 x Tofu Wrapped Shrimp
• 2 x Fired Tofu w/ Shrimp
• Shrimp Stuffed Eggplant
• 2 x Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf
• Spareribs in Black Bean Sauce
• Chinese Broccoli in Oyster Sauce
• BBQ Pork Hum Bow
• BBQ Pork Turn-over
• Steamed Dumpling with Scallops
• 2 x Egg Tart

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You are surrounded by true friends.
Rating:

Emmett's Review

This place is huge. Big, fancy, ornate lions guard the entrance. They're not fucking around - they have a parking garage. Walking inside - what is this? Is that a ... an Elevator? Don't know where it goes, but dang, those other dim sum places don't have elevators.

As is often the case, we were the only white people in the building. They have disco balls on the ceiling and a big throne in the corner. So the king can sit there and watch minions eat dim sum and dance the night away. I didn't inquire to the rental rates, but I will.

The dim sum itself? Nothing stood out. The scallops were alright, I guess. I think I remember having some chinese brocolli. The rice was really hot. The Sui Mai weren't bad.

Nothing here really distinguishes it from the competition. The hustle and bustle of Jade Garden is just more fun. But the atmosphere here is relaxed, and the service was good.

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will soon travel on a business trip.
Rating:

Geary's Review

Ocean City is all about the glitz. Other places have private parking lots, Ocean City has an underground parking garage with an elevator to the main dining room. Other places have murals with pandas, Ocean City has giant golden dragons on the walls and golden lions flanking the entrance. It's a bit more toned down once you get into the dining room, but they do have fancy chandeliers and, like House of Hong, they are set up for Chinese weddings with a large dance floor and stage with a golden throne.

The large dining room was not completely full, but there was a large crowd of mostly Chinese. This was a good sign and offset my innate fears brought on by all of the gold paint. Dim sum appeared to be the lunch of choice and a cart showed up as soon as we were seated. It started a bit rocky as they brought us all forks and were quick to offer egg rolls and pork buns, but we were able to work through that and were even glad that they served us all ice water. Not all profiling is bad. It's a shame that they didn't recognize that I'm accustomed to foot massages during my lunch. We loaded up the table pretty quickly and set about working away at our bounty. This part was made slightly more difficult than it could have been since our large table had no lazy susan and the plates were tiny. They have an elevator but no lazy susan.

Even though we were there in the midst of the lunch rush, many of the items were only lukewarm. Nothing was bad but most was just average. The sticky rice was good but the shu mai were sub par as were the spareribs. I think we were recognized at some point during our lunch. Near the end of our lunch, the managers started each stopping by making sure we were happy and making suggestions like, "make sure you get a picture of the throne". Unfortunately, however, there were no bribes.

In the pantheon of Seattle ID dim sum (so far) I place Ocean City just above House of Hong (even with all of the gold, it doesn't feel as much like Disney's version of a Chinese restaurant; It's more like the Vegas version) and just below Sun Ya.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: Your lover will never wish to leave you.
Rating:

Adam's Review

Another day, another dim sum. This is one of those places we've walked-by and noticed... but never bothered to go in.

We ordered all the standard stuff, and it tasted like all the standard dim sum. The shu-mai was tasty, as per usual. The one real kicker about this place was the potatoes in the blackbean spare ribs. I took a big bite of (what I thought was) a spare rib, but it was soft and mushy... and felt like a big piece of pork fat. But, it wasn't, it was just a potato.

This is decent food, but in the sea of dim sum of the ID, swim elsewhere.

Luncher: Wayne

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will soon find a treasure.
Rating:

Wayne's Review

• Plus 1 for the giant golden throne at the end of the room.
• Minus 1 for hot dishes that weren't hot.
• Plus 1/2 for the wild bird flying around inside the restaurant.
• Minus 1/2 for the lazy-susan that wasn't at our table.

It was an OK dim sum experience. They had some tasty dishes, but nothing particularly exceptional. Worse yet, some of the dishes were not served as warm as they should have been. The worst was the Asian broccoli which was barely warm.

If Ocean City was the only game in town, I’d give it another try. As we have multiple better choices, I doubt I'll return.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will have an opportunity to reach your goal.
Rating:

Michael's Review

A really nice looking place to have lunch. Very tasty foods at a very affordable price. My only real complaint was the forks that were rushed to our table as we sat down.

The little egg custards at the end of lunch were flaky and fresh. Egg custard good, forks bad.

Luncher: Erin

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will speak to an important person today.
Rating:

Erin's Review

Ocean city has a very elaborate building – like something I imagine would be in Hong Kong (from what I’ve been told) – so it’s very distinctive. It has a grand entrance. Inside it has very old school Chinese decorations, lots of red and gold, and we were seated at a table on a dance floor. A dim sum cart arrived almost immediately after we sat, and several more streamed by in short order. The dim sum offerings were pretty standard, although well executed. I tasted eggplant stuffed with shrimp, a square of tofu with a shrimp stuffing, a honey walnut shrimp, sticky rice, some Chinese greens, shu mai (shrimp and pork), and of course an egg tart. Some of our food was not as warm as it should be, since it looked freshly prepared; some was nice and hot. It seemed to depend on which cart it came from. Everything was fresh and tasty, but not really different from any other dim sum offering in the ID. The egg tart was very good, with a fresh eggy custard and a nice flaky crust. This is a place to return to, especially if you wish to introduce a newbie to dim sum. I give this 3 chopsticks instead of 4; it was well done, but nothing was particularly outstanding.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will have good luck in your personal affairs.
Rating:

Al's Review

If you can’t get a seat in the Garden, the larger Ocean will suffice.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Family Style - $10.00
Fortune: You will receive a promotion soon.
Rating:

Ocean City Photos

Ocean City Restaurant


Ocean City with Adam as The Lion Tamer


Ocean City Parking


Throne


Dining Room


Shu Mai


Tofu Wrapped Shrimp


Fried Tofu w/ Shrimp


Chinese Eggplant w/ Shrimp


Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf & Spareribs


Chinese Broccoli


Pork Buns


The Spread


Again with the Spread


BBQ Pork Pastry


LBB (little brown bird) on Party Lights


More gold dragons

Lunch #41: Sea Garden

A couple of weeks ago Grant from Coffee.net gave us a shout out and, after checking out his site, we invited him to lunch. Coffee.net is worth a look so check it out if you haven't. They are not just about coffee. They have done some thoughtful restaurant reviews and a helpful beginners guide to dim sum which includes tips like: avoid restaurants with the word "Golden" or "Dragon" in their name. They have also put together some Top 10 lists by utilizing UW student cultural organizations including Top 10 Chinese Restaurants in Seattle and Top 10 Indian Restaurants in Seattle. Today Grant and his colleague Steve joined us as MSG150 VIPs for lunch at the Sea Garden Seafood Restaurant.

Also this week, clearly gifted food writer Jonathan Kauffman over on Seattle Weekly's Voracious blog called MSG150 "Seattle's most useful food blog" and "brilliant". Thanks Jonathan. However, we still haven't heard from Jess Thompson regarding the Unicorn Crepe challenge.

Sea Garden, Seattle
Address: 509 7th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Cantonese, Chinese: Seafood
Average rating: 3.3 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/26/2008 @ 11:45:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 7 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 55 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Plastic
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Hong Kong
Number of tables: 13
Number of occupied tables: 3 (23%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (66%)
Number of "local" tables: 1 (33%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Family Style Dishes

• Chicken with Chinese Greens - $6.75
• 2 x Chinese Green with Scallops - $8.25 ($16.50)
• 2 x Chinese Broccoli with Prawns - $8.25 ($16.50)
• Prawns Sauteed with Honey Glazed Walnuts - $15.75
• Scallops Szechuan Style - $11.95
• Braised Cod with Pork and Tofu - $12.95
• Mongolian Beef - $6.75
• Deep Fried Cod Fillet with Creamy Corn Sauce - $11.25
• Salt and Pepper Fried Chicken Wings - $11.95
• Beef with Chinese Broccoli - $6.75

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: Someone will give you something.
Rating:

Emmett's Review

We had a big crew today, plus guests. Sea Garden, the lady claims, has been in Seattle for almost 25 years. Its interior is very modern looking. They sell cigarettes up front, which is awesome. They also show off the fresh seafood offerings - Geoduck, crab, etc, in the tanks up front.

The menu was extensive. The lunch specials were more limited. I chose the Scallops with Chinese Greens. The scallops were fresh and had a nice flavor, and the Chinese Greens were Bok Choy. The dish was fresh and tasty, but kind of ho hum in the flavor department. I tried some of Grant's Szechuan Chicken, which had a lot more going on, and was good. The salt and pepper chicken wings were fresh fried, delicious.

The service was good, but otherwise Sea Garden was unremarkable.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will receive an invitation from an unexpected source.
Rating:

Adam's Review

Sea Garden. This has place has been around for a while... or as our server put it: "twenty-five-something years old." I think this is probably a prime example of one of those places that has an excellent and unique dinner menu, but a relatively boring lunch menu.

The lunch special menu consisted mostly of beef, chicken, pork, or prawns mixed with Chinese broccoli or Chinese greens. I opted for the Chicken with Chinese Greens. But we ended up eating family style, so I got to sample everything. First, the high notes: the scallops were delicious; they had an excellent lemon flavor without totally overpowering the subtle flavor of the scallop. The H&SS wasn't particularly hot, but it had a nice tangy sour to it.

The low note: some severely undercooked (basically raw) onions-- the eight of us from the office were all regretting eating them.

The food is good, but not special. For lunch, you're not missing anything if you skip this place... but I think the dinner here would prove to be quite delicious (and a little expensive).

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will take a chance in something in the near future.
Rating:

Geary's Review

I have been to Sea Garden before for dinner, but it has been ten years. The interior is clean, well furnished and has the feel that they might charge a little bit extra than their neighbors. The tank of live crabs in the entry helps remind you that it's a Seafood restaurant. I arrived a few minutes late and found our group taking up the two largest tables in the back corner of the medium sized dining room. I met our VIPs and then went about trying to add my order into the mix. In accordance with rule #2 I went for a dish off of the lunch menu. Again I was delighted that there were no "Kung Pao" offerings, however the Seafood options on the lunch menu were a bit uninspired. I went with the Chinese Greens and Scallops.

Luckily it was a family style meal and everything was up for grabs. The food arrived quickly for such a large group and it appeared we were getting extra attentive service. Taking photos and notes is always good for a little extra attention. I started with the Greens and Scallops. The scallops were fresh and sweet and cooked perfectly. The greens, bok choy and carrots, were crisp and plentiful. Nothing too spectacular on the flavor side of things, but fresh, well-cooked ingredients goes a long ways on its own. Of the other dishes, the non-seafood lunch specials were on the average side, but the seafood items off of the dinner menu (cheaters) were very good. My favorite was the Cod with Pork and Tofu.

In summary, come to Sea Garden for a good Chinese Seafood dinner or large lunch, but if it's an under $10 lunch you are looking for there are better places in the neighborhood. Since I'm bound by rule #2 to rate based on typical lunch fare, I have to go with three chopsticks.

Luncher: Dave

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will take a chance in something in the near future.
Rating:

Dave's Review

rating: 4 if you get seafood, solid 3 if you get lunch specials, but heck, call it 4 overall

i was one of the brave souls who ventured off the lunch special menu (possibly in violation of rule 2, but i'd weasel out of that by saying: just because there's lunch specials doesn't mean that that's what people order there for lunch). the honey walnut prawns are mentioned in a number of the online reviews for this place, and with good reason; this was a great version of a dish that's always good. the lightly-battered fried prawns were still crisp despite the saucing, but not rubbery. the sweetness on the walnuts actually tasted like honey -- at other places this dish is more like plain candied walnuts tossed with sauteed shrimp. the downside for this one is the hit to the pocketbook, but if you family-style it up and the rest of the table ends up eating more of it than you do, uh, and you still pay more than other diners, uh, hey wait guys.

we did a little of said family-style action, so here's what else i can tell you. rob's fish in corn sauce was the standout for me, and it's what i'm getting when i go there next. the only criticism i have of it was that the sauce was too cornstarched, turning it a little gluey. bear in mind that i only noticed this after having gobbled up the fish and was chopsticking up every last piece of rice that it touched. the braised cod with tofu that the coffee cabal brought to the table was really a tofu dish flavored with cod and pork, which is right in my sweet spot, and it's probably what i'll get the time after next.

the lunch special stuff i think is going to be a polarizer. erin's mongolian beef was good, but the onions were pretty harsh; it sounded like that was a problem elsewhere at the table too. i didn't try any of the chicken or beef versions of lunch special blank with chinese blank*, but geary's steamed? scallop i stole was good, and i liked both of the chinese blanks which made up the bulk of the dishes. i'm a sucker for chinese broccoli because i never get it in real life, only on these big group outings. the baby bok choy which was the "chinese greens" was great -- crisp but tender -- but i always want my baby bok baby bok baby bok, so unless you love it too, it might be a bit much.

bottom line: the non-lunch-special seafood dishes we had were very good, and my 4 chopsticks has unexplored headroom in the form of the live crabs which are the first thing you see when you walk in. as a lunch-special ID joint, this is good if you like chinese broccoli and bok choy, and decent if you don't. as a chinese seafood place, this is adventurous-out-of-town-guests good.

[*] if it weren't already obvious from the selected dishes, they could have saved a ton of space on their lunch special menu by doing:

LUNCH SPECIAL: [chicken, beef, pork, prawn, scallop] with chinese [greens, broccoli]

not that there's anything wrong with that.

Luncher: Jeff

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You or a close friend will be married within a year.
Rating:

Jeff's Review

Since this was the Sea Garden I did my best to stick with seafood and I'll try and focus mostly on my lunch. That said, I was lucky enough to try some of Dave's Walnut Prawns (or whatever they were called) and can’t write this review without raving about them. They were FANTASTIC!!! The appetizer soup was also very good. I'm a big fan of most hot and sour soup variations. Sea Garden's version looked like most -- but had a very distinct flavor. "Please Sea Garden, can I have some more?"

I ordered the Prawns with Chinese Broccoli lunch special. Initially, I thought this was a bad choice. My dish appeared to be all greens with 3 smallish prawns. Luckily, there were more prawns hiding within. I spread my dish over some light, well cooked rice. The Prawns were tasty and most likely fresh. They were just big enough for 2 bites which was perfect. The greens were cooked perfectly. They had the perfect balance of crispness without being undercooked. The light sauce was perfectly complimentary.

While the overall meal didn't jump out as "best food ever" -- it was all good, served fast, fresh, and well proportioned. I'll definitely return to the Sea Garden.

Luncher: Erin

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: Believe in your abilities, confidence will lead you on.
Rating:

Erin's Review

Sea Garden is a standard in the ID, and I have been here several times for dinner. Today I had the Mongolian Beef ($6.75) lunch special. It was not quite the standard Mongolian Beef that you find in most Chinese restaurants. The meat was not deep fried and there were none of those dry rice sticks. The dish was stir-fried meat with onions & sauce. It was cooked nicely – tender and not over done, and the sauce was pleasantly flavored, but not spicy. I also had bites of other dishes: Honey Walnut prawns, Chinese veggies from a scallop dish, and fried cod in corn sauce. Everything was well prepared and tasty; however nothing was particularly outstanding. It was strangely empty for lunch, even though the food was tasty and the interior is clean, tidy and has interesting art on the walls. Overall, it was a good meal, and I enjoyed the company. My hike up the hill took longer than normal!

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will inherit a small piece of land.
Rating:

Rob's Review

The wait staff at the Sea Garden knew something was up. Eleven lunchers taking pictures, scribbling down notes. They were very attentive about keeping our water glasses filled and bringing out our orders. It took me a bit to wade through all the shellfish in the Sea Garden menu, but I eventually found some cod, and the waitress sort of recommended ("many people like this one") the one with the longest name, the deep fried cod fillets with creamy sweet corn sauce. Pricey at $11.25, but none of the lunch specials were vegetarian enough for me. First we got hot and sour soup, which did not appear to have chicken stock, but did have chunks of pork. So much for that. My dish, of course, was one of the last to come out, and I have to admit that it did not look the most appetizing, all that lumpy yellow sauce gooped on top of chunks of fish. Thankfully, though, it tasted pretty good. The corn sauce wasn't too sweet and didn't overpower the cod. The corn flavor actually went well with the fish; it wasn't spicy, but a few small spoonfuls of hot sauce fixed that. As the dish cooled, however, the sauce did start to congeal, but I was most of the way through it by that point. An added bonus was, since there were so many of us, I sat about as far away as I could from Adam-the-control-freak. I swear, if I have to listen to him rattle on and on about the MSG150 rules one more time, I'll punch him in the nose.

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will be rewarded for your good ideas.
Rating:

Joey's Review

I ended up not getting seafood, because I didn't want to spend $10+ on lunch, so I decided to go with beef with gai lan (Chinese broccoli). The food came pretty fast considering how many people we had, but Erin pointed out that we were the only ones in the restaurant. I have been to restaurants that have taken forever even though my group was the only ones in the restaurant however... very frustrating. About the food. As the food arrived I was a bit disappointed in seeing the portions people were getting. This made me glad that I decided to go non-seafood to save some money, which was doubly justified by the small serving size. They did give plenty of rice however served family style. I think I ate about 2.5 bowls of rice to help fill me up. The quality of my dish was about equivalent to getting a $3.95 lunch special at Golden City, so I wasn't that impressed. I can't really be too harsh in my rating though given that I didn't order seafood and this was a seafood restaurant, but the fact that I could've gotten something just as good for $4 bugged me still.

My meal was $6.75, so with tax and 15% tip that comes out to about $8.35. So I put in $9, but we were short of the total, so I ended up putting in $10 when I didn't want to spend that much in the first place... go figure.

2 chopsticks... food was okay, but could've gotten the same for less than half at Golden City.

Luncher: Doug

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: Expect a change for the better in job or status in the future.
Rating:

Doug's Review

There were only 2 or 3 other customers there, not a great sign. I ordered the prawns with Chinese broccoli. The vegetables were fresh, the prawns had nice texture and flavor. However the sauce was a bit too salty and I was left with a mild MSG headache for much of the afternoon.

VIP Luncher: Grant from Coffee.net - Seattle, Restaurants, Coffee and Life

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will receive an unexpected compliment.
Rating:

Grant's Review

The service at Sea Garden was a fairly smooth ride. They were more than happy to combine two large tables to seat our large group. Servers brought out waters without having to ask. Plating and tables were all clean as well.

The first dish Steve and I ordered was the scallops with szechuan sauce. The scallops were slightly firm and of the thin variety.Accompanying our mollusk friends was a medley of onions, peppers and the semi-sweet, oyster sauce like sauce. What immediately caught my attention however was the onions, which had an unmistakable bleach-like taste. Quite unappealing unless you're used to gargling with Clorox in the morning.

Luckily, the braised cod turned out much better. Stewed in a brown seafood broth, the cod was lightly fried. This gave the fish a crisp texture that pleasantly contrasted with the savory sauce. Fried tofu was a smart ingredient for this dish, soaking up much of the flavor of the broth as well.

Last, the salt and pepper chicken. This was a disappointing dish, as it looked delicious to the eye, but tasted plain to the tongue. There was a lack of salt and pepper flavoring to the batter, which made the initial bite rather bland. Getting to the meat of dish (puns are bad), the texture was slightly dry and lacked any flavoring as well.

It's certainly not the worst Chinese food around, but Sea Garden isn't making me come back for more anytime soon. This matches our experience in their Bellevue location, which performed poorly as well.

VIP Luncher: Steve from Coffee.net - Seattle, Restaurants, Coffee and Life

Lunch: Family Style - $13.00
Fortune: You will speak to an important person today.
Rating:

Steve's Review

Sea Garden offers up a decent menu selection with a few rare notables, such as Shark Fin soup and Geode duck. But be warned, as Shark Fin soup comes with a hefty price tag of $32.95. I decided to be a little more on the sensible side and opted for the Szechwan-style scallops. Served on a bed of chopped onions, they were seasoned in a light sauce with some spices that gave it a real smoky taste. I was a little disappointed at it lacked a more pervasive spice that has become the trademark of Szechwan cuisine. When you put the label of Szechwan, people expect some numbing hotness. Portions were great, though I really would have in enjoyed it more if the onions didn't taste so raw. Service was great, as dishes seemed to be cooked at breakneck speeds. The lunch specials are a great budget option with a complementary hot and sour soup and steamed rice to go with your entrée. I had to bump up the rating to four chopsticks as Sea Garden falls in the category of "best ambiance of a restaurant in the International District that has been open for more than 20 years." Whew, that's a lot to say.

And the only bad part about the experience... An important person didn’t talk to me today.

Sea Garden Photos

Sea Garden Seafood Restaurant


H&SS


Prawns Sauteed with Honey Glazed Walnuts


Scallops Szechuan Style


Mongolian Beef


Chinese Greens and Scallops


Salt and Pepper Fried Chicken Wings


Beef with Chinese Broccoli


Chinese Broccoli with Chicken


Chinese Broccoli with Prawns


Braised Cod with Pork and Tofu


The Blob (A.K.A. Deep Fried Cod Fillet with Creamy Corn Sauce)

04/2/08 - Fixed typos (Geary is spelling challenged)

Lunch #40: Tai Tung

The MSG150 crew headed out again today still giddy about being back in the wilds of the ID. Today's mission: Tai Tung. Tai Tung is another spot that we have passed by many times but none of us as been to in recent memory. Today we stopped briefly to snap a shot of the exterior and headed in.

Tai Tung, Seattle
Address: 655 S. King St, Seattle, WA, 98104
Cuisine: Chinese: Cantonese
Average rating: 3.4 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/19/2008 @ 12:00:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 10 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 16 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 64 minutes
Chopstix quality: Nice Wood
Do they use MSG?: Yes
Where is the owner/chef from?: Canton
Number of tables: 18
Number of occupied tables: 9 (50%)
Number of business lunch tables: 2 (22%)
Number of "local" tables: 7 (77%)
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Chinese Greens and Black Bean Spareribs with Rice - $6.45
Fortune: You will make someone happy today.
Rating:

Geary's Review

Years ago upon first moving to Seattle in the early nineties a friend recommended Tai Tung as a good representation of old school Seattle Chinese. I remember a crowded, fun dinner with lots of unfamiliar menu choices. I hadn't been back since. Today, at lunch, it felt much different. There were fewer then ten other diners there and four of them were setting on stools at the bar in the entrance. The place looks out of repair and new menu items are simply scrawled on sheets of paper with a marker and taped to the wall. Maybe the place picks up in the evening, but it looks like it's a ghost of what it once was.

We were seated quickly, but left unattended for a while before the waiter took our order. Once engaged, however, the waiter was very attentive and helpful. He even made a few suggestions to us as we ordered. There is an extensive lunch menu that to my joy did not contain a single Kung Pao anything, however the prices are a bit high.

We ordered individually, but did lots of sharing. I ordered the Chinese Greens and Black Bean Spareribs from the lunch menu. It was a bit light on the greens, but the meat and sauce had a nice flavor. The Chop Suey had nice crisp veggies, but was a tad bland. The Chow Fun and Curried Beef looked good, but Joey and Torrey horded their lunches so I didn't get a taste.

We received our first bribe today. Our waiter brought out a large plate full of fortune cookie. Nice try, but it's going to take real, hard cash to get extra chopsticks out of me.

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Chef Special Rice (Hong Kong Style) - $7.25
Fortune: You will be admired for your internal beauty.
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Tai Tung's got some class. Shiny metal front. A big fat counter in front with some grisly old dudes. White paper sheets with the specials written in sharpie. The yellow crusty newspaper from 1938, reviewing this restaurant. The waiter with a 'I don't give a fuck' attitude. The back room where we were seated reminded me of some 1970s-era Milwaukee rec room, complete with smell. The menu's got lots of options. Stuff like War Mein! Chop Suey, Chow Mein, Chow Fun. I decided to get the Chef Special Rice.

Rice wasn't bad - had lots of veggies, a tasty, yet pretty basic sauce, and an okay amount of seafood. I had the Beef Curry - a little too much Turmeric for me. The Chop Suey - also average.

It was a fun experience, and very affordable. I'd come back.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Roast Duck Won Ton Mein Special Lunch Special - $5.45
Fortune: You have a winning way. Keep it.
Rating:

Adam's Review

This is arguably one of Seattle's favorite Chinese restaurants. It's been around forever and everyone loves it.

Walking in, you can definitely tell this place has been around for a while. The interior looks like it hasn't been updated since the 100 Years' War. Our menus were a little shabby looking and felt a little greasy--I was right-at-home.

I ordered a soup off of the lunch special list. The food was good and loaded with about 6 dumplings of won-ton-y goodness. The duck in the soup was OK, but tasted a little too salty for me. What struck me about this lunch menu though, was that it is really expensive.

If you're a restaurant trying to bring in a lunch crowd, the bulk of the lunch menu should hover right around the $5.95 mark... with each add-on costing you about $1 extra. This menu seemed to have an median lunch price of $8+ dollars. Too rich for my blood on a normal day of the week.

Decent food. Can accomdate a crowd. There are lots of better places for lunch in the ID.

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Sliced Cod with Greens - $8.95
Fortune: You will be presented with several good opportunities.
Rating:

Rob's Review

Tai Tung was one of those restaurants I'd walked by many times but never noticed. It has an old and forgettable exterior, and, as it turned out, an old and forgettable interior, as well. But enough of the awful decor. When I walked in, I tried to read all the specials written in that old school style of one special per sheet of paper taped to the wall in a grid, but it was too much to take in. A couple of cod specials caught my eye, and I ended up ordering one of them, the sliced cod with greens. The meal came with bland cabbage soup in what turned out to be chicken stock -- that seems to be following me around these days. The soup went mostly untouched. My expectations for the main dish were pretty low by the time it arrived, and maybe that helped. The fish was tender and flaky within the soft breaded coating, and the taste was subtle but not bland. I dolloped on the red hot sauce, added just a touch of the hot mustard that comes with your plate in its own little bowl, and suddenly the meal came to life. I ended up finishing the whole thing. Wow. The hot sauce combo made this a four; otherwise it probably would've been a three. At the end, the waiter presented us an overflowing cornucopia of fortune cookies, and the second one I ate had the following lovely fortune: "You will have gold pieces by the bushel." Adam, however, stubbornly refused to replace my first fortune with that one. Jerk.

Luncher: Joey

Lunch: Beef Chow Fun - $6.25
Fortune: You will be fortunate in the opportunities presented to you.
Rating:

Joey's Review

When in doubt order beef chow fun. That’s been my strategy for restaurants during MSG150 that I’ve never been to like Tai Tung or KC Kitchen. You can’t really go wrong with it. It’s like ordering mac n cheese at an American restaurant, because how can you mess up mac n cheese? Well, that’s a bit of an extreme example, since mac n cheese is a lot easier to make than chow fun. Tai Tung’s beef chow fun turned out to be on par with other Chinatown restaurants. Maybe not the best, but a solid 3/5 rating is deserving.

Luncher: Al

Lunch: Special Chop Suey with BBQ Ribs - $7.95
Fortune: Your efforts will be favorably acknowledged.
Rating:

Al's Review

Marginally better than American Chop Suey.

Luncher: Michael

Lunch: Wor Won Ton - $7.95
Fortune: You have a wise spirit, an advanced intellect and faith in human nature.
Rating:

Michael's Review

I tasted a little bit of nearly every dish on our table. I'm fairly sure I had the most awesome meal of the table! A huuuuge bowl of noodles, veggies, bbq pork, shrimps, and ultra tasty dumplings. I'm not sure exactly what the broth was. Probably chicken and vegetables - it did have an almost green tint to it.

Did I mention how big the bowl was? I could probably have dunked my whole head in it. Tasty lunch, great value, and bonus: this place is open late. Add it to your list of post drinking eating spots.

Luncher: Torrey

Lunch: Beef Curry Lunch Special - $7.45
Fortune: You will be awarded some great honor.
Rating:

Tai Tung Photos

Tai Tung


Bar & Specials?


More Specials


Mad Fun


No Incoming Calls


Cabbage Soup


Wor Won Ton


Hot Soup Action


Special Chop Suey with BBQ Ribs


Beef Chow Fun


Beef Curry Lunch Special


Roast Duck Won Ton Mein Special Lunch Special


Sliced Cod with Greens


Chinese Greens and Black Bean Spareribs with Rice


Chef Special Rice (Hong Kong Style)


Our first bribe

03/27/08 - Fixed typos

Lunch #38: Thai Place

There were times when I thought this day would never come. Today MSG150 completes its tour of the Uwajimaya Food Court. The Thai Place marks the 10th and final lunch spot. We hit two during our first pass along the western side in January and then the final eight during this three week stint. The Thai Place is one of the first places you see when you enter the UFC from the NW corner. When not busy, the Thai Place ladies call out like food court sirens trying to snare passers by into stopping for lunch. Up until this point, we have resisted their calls, but today we headed in.

Thai Place, Seattle
Address: 600 5th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104
Cuisine: Thai
Average rating: 2.6 chopsticks
Lunch date: 3/13/2008 @ 12:05:00
Time taken to be seated: 0 minutes
Time to take order: 0 minutes
Time for food to arrive: 5 minutes
Total lengh of meal: 25 minutes
Chopstix quality: Cheap Wood
Do they use MSG?: ?
Where is the owner/chef from?: ?
Number of tables: 0
Number of occupied tables: 0
Number of business lunch tables: 0
Number of "local" tables: 0
Healthcode Score: 0
Links: Yelp!, Urbanspoon

Luncher: Geary

Lunch: Lunch Combo: Red Curry Chicken + Prikking Prince Chicken - $7.25
Rating:

Geary's Review

First, "Thai Place"? Is that really the best they could come up with? Maybe they were going for Thai Palace but ran out of a's. It's certainly better than Thai Palce or Thi Palace.

There are two ways to get lunch out of the Thai Place: the steam table or the cook to order menu. I went with the steam table and chose the "2 Choices" option with Red Curry Chicken and Prikking Prince Chicken. In addition to my two choices, I also got a scoop of Phad Thai, a scoop of rice, and a small spring roll. The friendly woman serving me even offered to ladle some of the curry sauce onto my rice and of course I accepted her offer.

The Prikking Prince Chicken is chicken with green beans, red peppers and a chili pepper sauce. It had a nice flavor and the veggies were only slightly overcooked. The curry and Phad Thai were passable. Loading on the a bunch of the provided hot sauces helped the whole meal. The spring roll was soggy. In all a reasonable meal, but nothing to go out of your way for.

Luncher: Adam

Lunch: Lunch Combo: Orange Chicken + Garlic Chicken - $7.25
Rating:

Adam's Review

I was warned several times to not order something from Thai Place's steam table. But, I'm impatient and the food looked decent through the glass baricade... so I went with the "2 entree combo.".

The lunch combo with with your choice of flavorless Pad Thai, Flavorless fried rice, Flavorless white rice, or a flavorless combo. I opted for the flavorless pad thai.

Entree #1: Orange Chicken. I'm pretty sure they just ran over to Safeway, and ordered some of their General Tsao's chicken... threw a little extra sauce on it, and called it a day. Bleh. Entree #2: Garlic chicken. See review for entree #1. Overall, the food was crap.

Go someplace else

Luncher: Emmett

Lunch: Lunch Combo: Prikking Prince Chicken - $6.25
Rating:

Emmett's Review

Talk about ending with a bang. Thai Place has buffet food and a smattering of menu dishes. I went with the Prikking Prince Chicken, side of rice and Pad Thai.

Looking back at the photo that Geary took of my meal, I almost want to vomit all over my laptop. But in fact, as I was eating it, it wasn't half bad. It just wasn't good. I don't think I've been to a good Thai restaurant in Seattle. They all serve the same bullshit. Anyway.

To drink, I harnessed the power of Aquarius!. This makes me want to burn my draft papers and drop acid in Central Park. Or maybe it's the fact that I've just ate at Uwajimaya NINE TIMES that makes me want to get blotto. Big surprise - Aquarius is made by Coca Cola. And it's refreshing! Kind of like Pocari Sweat.

For dessert - Rice Cake Chocolate Pies. Unfortunately these were a miss. The packaging was some of the nicest packaging I've ever seen in any container, ever. But unfortunately they don't deliver. They taste like chocolate flavored cardboard surrounding tasteless rice chew toys.

Luncher: Yvonne

Lunch: Lunch Combo: Orange Chicken - $6.50
Rating:

Yvonne's Review

I would equate the taste and texture to that of the Thai food gotten late in the afternoon at Safeway. My orange chicken was a bit cold and greasy. This meal was definitely missing the yum factor. But if you are hungry and in a hurry, it will do.

Luncher: Wayne

Lunch: Pud See Ew - $7.50
Rating:

Wayne's Review

Whew! We are finally done with the food court!

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Pud Kee Mao Tofu - $7.50
Rating:

Rob's Review

Thai Place is usually where I end up when forced to dine in the UFC. The key is to order off the menu -- it takes a little longer than picking from the (mostly non-vegetarian) pre-made items, but you get a freshly cooked lunch. Today's Pud Kee Mao was tasty and had a good spicy kick to it, but too many of the wide noodles were stuck together. They also went a little overboard on the basil. I do like the flavor that basil adds, and an individual leaf gives a nice little zing to a forkful of food, but a whole sprig of basil with half a dozen leaves all connected with a thick stem is too much for me to consume all in one go. There were quite a few of those in the Pud Kee Mao, but they were easy to work around. Overall, it's a three chopstick meal -- it's good, but has some flaws.

Luncher: Jared

Lunch: Golden Cashew + Beef - $7.50
Rating:

Thai Place Photos

Thai Place


Thai Place again


Thai Place steam table


Thai Place menu


Lunch Combo: Red Curry Chicken + Prikking Prince Chicken


Pud Kee Mao Tofu


Aquarius


Lunch Combo: Prikking Prince Chicken


Lunch Combo: Orange Chicken


Pud See Ew


Lunch Combo: Orange Chicken + Garlic Chicken


Golden Cashew + Beef


UFC


Peach Cool Frozen Desert