MSG150: Seattle International District Lunch Food: Uwajimaya Food Court

Friday, March 14, 2008

Landmark: Uwajimaya Village, Seattle

Uwajimaya Village is a large, modern Asian grocery store plus a food court, and mini-mall in the heart of Seattle's ~~China Town~~ International District. (It's really more the shoulder than the heart.) Uwajimaya is a small regional chain with two other stores, one in Bellevue and one in Beaverton, Oregon, but Seattle is the flagship. It is billed as a "Village" because not only does it supply all of the staples of life, but it is all built under two to five stories of condominiums/apartments.

The selection at Uwajimaya leans to the Japanese side of the continent with every imaginable type of Hello Kitty branded food. In addition to the Hello Kitty pizza rolls, they have an amazing selection of seafood, vegetables, and other local & imported Asian foods. Their live fish, crab, and oyster displays are the largest I have ever seen.

As we ate our way through the 10 restaurants in the food court, we took time each visit to wander the aisles of the grocery store looking for interesting snacks. My favorite sections are the seafood, the hot sauces, and the snack foods. Oh, and also the vegetables and the candy. There's some neat stuff in the frozen foods section too. If you're in the area, be sure to leave some time to stop by and wander the aisles. It's a nice way to take a little Asian journey with out getting to far from home.

Uwajimaya Food Court

As you may know our mission at MSG150 is to eat lunch at all of the restaurants in Seattle's International District. Last week we ate at the last of the ten lunch spots in Uwajimaya's Food Court and just for you, we have summarized them all below:

Samurai Noodle

Cuisine: Japanese
Average Chopstick Rating: 3.6
MSG150 Lunch #16: Samurai Noodle

Shilla Korean BBQ

Cuisine: Korean: BBQ
Average Chopstick Rating: 3.6
MSG150 Lunch #34: Shilla Korean BBQ

Aloha Plates

Cuisine: Hawaiian: BBQ
Average Chopstick Rating: 3.3
MSG150 Lunch #35: Aloha Plates

Uwajimaya - Cooked To Order

Cuisine: Chinese: BBQ, Japanese: Noodles
Average Chopstick Rating: 3
MSG150 Lunch #32: Uwajimaya - Cooked To Order

Uwajimaya - Steam Table

Cuisine: Chinese
Average Chopstick Rating: 2.8
MSG150 Lunch #33: Uwajimaya - Steam Table

Saigon Bistro

Cuisine: Vietnamese
Average Chopstick Rating: 2.7
MSG150 Lunch #36: Saigon Bistro

Thai Place

Cuisine: Thai
Average Chopstick Rating: 2.6
MSG150 Lunch #38: Thai Place

Noodle Zen

Cuisine: Japanese, Thai, Noodles
Average Chopstick Rating: 2.4
MSG150 Lunch #37: Noodle Zen

Uwajimaya - Chef Kenzo

Cuisine: Japanese
Average Chopstick Rating: 2.1
MSG150 Lunch #31: Uwajimaya - Chef Kenzo

Herfy's Burgers, #9

Cuisine: American: Burgers
Average Chopstick Rating: 2
MSG150 Lunch #17: Herfy's Burgers, #9

Uwajimaya Photos

Uwajimaya Village front entrance

Uwajimaya Village NW entrance

Uwajimaya Food Court (UFC)

Uwajimaya Listings

UFC

Honeymoon Tea

Yummy House Bakery

Veggies

Greens

Teapots

Seafood Counter

Crabs & Oysters

Tilapia

Sake

Hot Sauces

Kimchi, etc.

Samurai Noodle

Shilla Korean BBQ

Aloha Plates

Uwajimaya - Cooked To Order

Uwajimaya - Steam Table

Saigon Bistro

Thai Place

Noodle Zen

Uwajimaya - Chef Kenzo

Herfy's Burgers, #9

3/25/08 - fixed typos

Thursday, March 13, 2008

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: 3 Chopsticks

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: 2 Chopsticks

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: 2 Chopsticks

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: 2 Chopsticks

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: 3 Chopsticks

Wayne's Review

Whew! We are finally done with the food court!

Luncher: Rob

Lunch: Pud Kee Mao Tofu - $7.50
Rating: 3 Chopsticks

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.