Work trip to Seattle: Restaurant Reviews

I've recently taken a trip to Seattle for work and had the joy of visiting a number of SERIOUSLY delicious establishments.  So, without further ado, here are some reviews of the places we visited.  More are coming soon!

The Pink Door
I love that The Pink Door was part of my Seattle experience!  Our group had originally tried to make an OpenTable reservation for dinner, only to find that the first available time was at 9:00pm...too late for those of us still running on a Central Time clock!  The woman I spoke with said that there is a whole portion of the restaurant that is walk-in only, and suggested we try that, and I am so glad we did!

Finding the restaurant was an Alice in Wonderland experience as there isn't a sign for the restaurant at all - merely a pink door.  If you didn't know any better, you might just think it's the door to someone's home so BE BRAVE! Open the door!

We opted to sit on the patio, and the kitschy ambiance was excellent.  I had the soft shell crab, which was a special of the day, and it was wonderful.  It came with a polenta cake and blistered asparagus, and I also ordered one of their specialty cocktails.  The cocktail I wasn't as jazzed about, but it certainly wasn't awful!  Our waitress was attentive, although borderline on overly so.  Overall each of us was pleased with the meals we selected, though I have the feeling that you could almost select anything on the menu and you couldn't go wrong.

Overall rating: 4-stars (out of 5)
 
Lola
My first morning in Seattle, I ventured out to Lola for breakfast.  I got there close to 6:45 am as I was still running on Central Time and the place was pretty empty since they hadn't been open very long.  That said, I was seated right away.

The ambiance of the restaurant was nice and cozy.  My server brought over coffee quickly and I ordered the Lola breakfast.  At the suggestion of my server, I had feta cheese added to my scrambled eggs instead of cheddar and I could not even believe how wonderful that was!  The smashed garlic fried potatoes were everything I hoped they would be, but I honestly was disappointed by the pork-maple sausage and wished I'd chosen the bacon instead.

Overall, though, having my first Tom Douglas experience at Lola was wonderful, and I can't wait to try the others near Downtown! 

Overall rating: 4-stars (out of 5)

Japonessa
At first I thought "Sushi? With Latin flair? What could that possibly mean?!"  Let me tell you, its the greatest sushi I've had to date!

We settled for four rolls to share amongst the table: Street Fighter II, Tres Diablos, Orange Crush, and Madrid Moon.  I will say, however, that many, many of the rolls were of interest and if I had more time in Seattle (or come back in the future), I have some others in my back pocket to try!

The Orange Crush had an excellent crunch to it and a pretty mild flavor.  The Tres Diablos was probably my favorite - the strawberry habañero sauce was a nice addition...sweet on the front end, spicy on the back end of the bite.  The Street Fighter II wasn't as spicy as I thought it would be with the jalepeño on top, but it had just the right balance of flavors.  The Madrid Moon was a little on the spicier side, but completely different than the other three we had on the table.

If you're looking for great sushi with a twist, I'd highly recommend Japonessa.  I can't speak to anything on the menu that wasn't specialty rolls, but if you're in the market for rolls you honestly can't go wrong. 

Overall: 5-stars (out of 5)


Palace Kitchen
Our group ventured over to Palace Kitchen strictly for dessert.  There were four of us, and we got the washington rhubarb brown betty, chocolate trifle, dahlia triple coconut cream pie and the mango sorbet.  Collectively, these were - in a word - divine!

The brown better was warm and luscious and the melting ice cream added into the experience was perfect.  The chocolate trifle is every peanut butter and/or chocolate lover's dream - so creamy and smooth!  You almost can't eat it all by yourself because it's so rich!  The coconut cream pie is the best I've ever tasted anywhere, and the mango sorbet, while nothing incredibly exciting, was definitely refreshing if nothing else.

I'd love to come back for happy hour or dinner.  The rest of the menu looked intriguing!

Overall: 4-stars (out of 5)

***All reviews cross-posted to Yelp.com***