Nosh Pit

Dine Out Vancouver Starts January 24

And it should be on every Seattle food-lover’s calendar.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jan 10, 2011 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The Dine Out Vancouver promotion that begins in two weeks is a good way to survey the best of our neighbor to the north, and get a mini-vacation in the bargain.

The restaurant promotion offers three-course, prix fixe menus at $18, $28 and $38 price levels (exclusive of taxes, alcohol and gratuity) at 215 restaurants across Metro Vancouver.

Now in its ninth year, the deal has blossomed to include paired BC wines (extra), hotel offers, and over a dozen food-themed events and activities including culinary tours, cooking lessons, dinner-theatre evenings and special dining events. Dine Out Vancouver 2011 is the largest dining event of its kind in Canada and runs from Monday, January 24 to Sunday, February 6.

The participating restaurants are all over the map, from the Old Spaghetti Factory and The Keg Steakhouse—in 14 locations!—to places you actually want to cross a border for, like Diva at the Met, where desserts rock, or Le Gavroche, one of the original charming French house-restaurants statesiders have always loved going to Vancouver for.

What about Daniel Boulud’s DB Bistro Moderne? Or Vancouver’s heralded West, where Cascadian cuisine is being invented nightly? They’re on the program.

Me, if I go I’m heading straight for Salt Tasting Room, Gastown’s minimalist ode to charcuterie and good mustards, or Chambar, where Belgian moules-frites are complemented with intelligent cocktails and gorgeous patrons.

See you there.

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Tags: Promotions, Vancouver

It’s Dine Around Seattle Time, People

(Pssst: Here’s where you’ll get the best deals.)

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Nov 01, 2010 at 09:00AM 1 Comments

Alright, full disclosure: We’re helping sponsor the thing.

But we wouldn’t lend our name to it if Dine Around Seattle weren’t a solid promotion full of screamin’ deals for our readers.

The setup, in case you’ve been living in a neighboring galaxy: Every year during March and November, diners get three-course dinners for $30 at participating restaurants, Mondays through Thursdays. (Some also do lunches for $15.)

That means it starts tonight.

A good deal in some restaurants, three courses for $30 is a fantastic deal in others. Lecosho for instance—Matt’s in the Market founder Matt Janke’s Harbor Steps sensation—is so new your DAS visit will grant you foodie cred that’s dang near priceless.

Outlying destinations, like the spendy Palisade in Magnolia, Barking Frog in Woodinville, and Salish Lodge at the falls in Snoqualmie, offer their patented brand of special occasion dining at a fraction of the usual tab.

As for Seattle neighborhood charmers like 35th Street Bistro, Eva, and Stumbling Goat Bistro …well, sometimes you just need an excuse to cast a new eye upon an old favorite. Sounds like a good deal to us.

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Tags: Promotions, 35th Street Bistro, Stumbling Goat Bistro, Eva Restaurant, Lecosho, Matt's in the Market, Barking Frog, Salish Lodge, Dine Around Seattle, Palisade

Edmonds Gets Dick’s

Seattle’s oldest hamburger chain announces its newest location.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Oct 15, 2010 at 01:49PM 0 Comments

Edmonds is the site of the new Dick’s, the company announced this morning.

Dick’s Drive-In announced this morning that its sixth location will be in Edmonds, a quiet beach community just north of Seattle.

To drum up attention for its new restaurant, Dick’s conducted an online poll this fall; customers voted on the area of town where they’d most like to see it go. North Seattle—which included Shoreline, Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, Edmonds, and South Everett—won.

Read more about this momentous development on the Seattle PI’s website.

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Tags: Hamburgers, Promotions, Seattle Restaurant Openings, Restaurant News, Edmonds

Cafe Lago Turns 20

And man does that give me a crisis.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Oct 06, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Was it really 20 years ago that Cafe Lago opened in Montlake, opening Seattle’s eyes to homemade pasta, wood-fired pizzas, and the astonishing featherweight delicacy of perfect lasagne?

Apparently so, though this critic remembers the city’s collective gasp of delight as if it happened yesterday. Come relive the magic as Cafe Lago celebrates its big 2-0 all month. A few highlights:

A happy hour menu offers classics like pizzas, gnocchi, and salads for $4, Mondays through Thursdays in October, 5pm to 7pm.

On October 27th, drop in to grab a pizza for $9.95—the price of its pies in 1990, and about half the price they sell for now.

Then mark this date: November 14. That’s the night Lago culminates its festivities with a 7-course dinner with wine, starring such crowdpleasers as butternut squash with hazelnut goat cheese, braised short ribs with parmesan polenta…and that lasagne. Reserve a spot, $99 per person excluding gratuity.

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Tags: Promotions, Pizza, Montlake, Cafe Lago, Lasagne

Spud Fish ‘n’ Chips Turns 75

The Seattle fried-food legend invites you to celebrate with them.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Sep 13, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The old gal turns 75

This Wednesday, September 15, Spud Fish ‘n’ Chips at Alki kicks off a series of promotions celebrating its 75th anniversary.

Founded by brothers Jack and Frank Alger in 1935, the original Spud sold its battered fish and tartar sauce out of a converted garage. During WWII the joint nearly closed for want of cooking grease, until West Seattleites donated their ration tickets to keep the fryers going.

One family has admitted their matriarch loved Spud’s fish so much, they lovingly tucked one of its signature blue and white wrappers into her casket.

Now it’s grown to three independently owned shops in three beachy locations (Alki, Juanita Beach, and Green Lake)—along with two stands at the Puyallup Fair—peddling fried fish and tartar sauce still made with the same recipes.

Come to the Alki store this Wednesday, which the Mayor has proclaimed “Alki Spud Fish and Chips Day,” and get free prizes and $1.75 fish ‘n’ chips (with canned food donation to West Seattle Food Bank).

Then check www.facebook.com/AlkiSpud for news of ongoing deals and promotions.

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Tags: Promotions, West Seattle, Deals, Fish 'n' chips, Spud Fish 'n' Chips

Seattle Gets Restaurant Week!

Like Dine Around Seattle…on steroids

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Apr 05, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

Tried Huiyona yet? Here’s your chance

From April 18 to 29 Seattle joins New York, Chicago, and San Francisco as cities with Restaurant Week, during which diners score three-course dinners for $25, Sunday through Thursday.

Uh…didn’t we just get done with that?

Dine Around Seattle, a bi-annual dining event held every March and November, featured 27 participating restaurants doing $30 three-coursers. Restaurant Week, by contrast, will feature over 100 restaurants with $25 dinners (and some with $15 lunches.)

Restaurants from chains (Anthony’s HomePort Shilshole) to independents (Eva), offering veggies (Carmelita) to carnage (Capital Grille), in settings both urban (La Medusa) and rural (Barking Frog). And more.

As one who took sumptuous advantage of this promotion in Chicago last winter, it’s a great deal that broadens horizons and saves bucks.

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Tags: Promotions, Restaurant Week

Cult of the Crab Returns to Waterfront

We are talking blue crab Benedict, people.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Mar 08, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

For its fifth year Waterfront Seafood Grill celebrates March with its Cult of the Crab promotion.

All month, every night of the week, a special crab-centric menu will feature delights like Maryland blue crab ravioli, Dungeness banh mi sandwiches, and crab and sweet pea panna cotta. Look also for ice cold and fresh steamed crab tastings.

Best, all but the Hokkaido Bay Kings are U.S.-caught, keeping the carbon footprint small, and all are caught sustainably.

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Tags: Promotions, Crab

Dine Around Seattle…

…starts a week from today

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Feb 22, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

The dining promotion formerly known as 25 for $25 went up a five-spot a few years back, changed its name to Dine Around Seattle, and firmly fixed itself upon the November and March calendars of Seattleites who wish their favorite restaurants weren’t so spendy.

It consists of three courses for $30, every Sunday-through-Thursday in March, at 28 joints across the region. Some do 15-buck lunches too. Great way to sample the places you’ve been hearing about but haven’t made it to yet.

Like Bastille, the gorgeous new Gallic sensation in Ballard. Or Artisanal Brassserie at the swanky Bravern in Bellevue.

It’s also a good way to stay current on the many joints enjoying new energy in their kitchens. That’s why I want to check out Ponti under the new leadership of returning superstar chef Alvin Binuya. I want to go back to creamy ART at downtown’s high-end Four Seasons Hotel and find out exactly chef Kerry Sear has tweaked the dining program.

If I feel like driving I’ll head east to Snoqualmie’s Salish Lodge & Spa Dining Room to see what the new team out there is cooking up. (That new team includes Matthew Mina, the hotshot who won the coveted top toque post at The Hunt Club only to leave about 15 minutes later.)

Or maybe I’ll stick closer to home, casting my gimlet eye upon joints whose owners are distracted at the moment building new projects. Tom Douglas is busy completing his ownership of downtown, with new restaurants to work on in Pike Place Market and South Lake Union, so I want to make sure Lola and Dahlia Lounge and Etta’s Seafood aren’t feeling the inattention.

Ditto Steelhead Diner, that local Northwest comfort-food spot in Pike Place Market, whose owners Kevin and Terresa Davis are currently morphing the burnished husk of Oceanaire into another seafood destination called Blueacre.

Where I’ll go the other 14 nights? Good thing I have another 19 spots to choose from.

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Tags: New Seattle Restaurants, Bargain Bites, Promotions, Dine Around Seattle

Happy Birthday, Seastar

South Lake Union branch turns one.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jan 18, 2010 at 07:00AM 0 Comments

John Howie

A year ago this month, John Howie became the first headline chef to colonize South Lake Union with his Seattle outpost of Bellevue’s creamy Seastar.

(Look what he started. Tom Douglas of Dahlia Lounge et al. just announced that he’ll be opening a place in that nabe, followed by Christine Keff’s announcement that she’ll relocate her terrific Flying Fish there this May.)

So starting this Thursday, Howie lays out a full week of birthday festivities, including gifts for his patrons. All week from 1/21 through 1/27, drop your business card in the fishbowl for a chance to win a Seastar dinner for eight on your birthday.

The rest of the fun:
Thursday 1/21: $1.27 Sushi all night long, featuring Howie’s Washington Roll (smoked salmon, Dungeness crab, and Granny Smith apples), shiro maguro ngiri, ebi ngiri, vegetarian futomaki roll, kappa maki, and maguro roll.

Friday 1/22: Every couple that comes in and orders two entrees at lunch or dinner will receive a $27.09 dinner gift certificate. (Get it? The birthdate?)

Saturday 1/23: Enjoy a glass of Krug and finish dinner with a one-ounce pour of Louis XIII Cognac for $127.09 (Valued at $200.00).

Sunday 1/24: $1.27 Happy Hour beer, wine, and cocktails all night.

Monday 1/25: “Choose Your Charity” evening. Choose Food Lifeline, Muscular Dystrophy Association, or Bailey-Boushay House and 12.7% of your bill will be donated there.

Tuesday 1/26: The first 127 dinner guests will receive a glass of bubbles and a dessert trio with the purchase of their entree.

Wednesday 1/27: On the actual birthday, a six-course (with wine pairings) “Happy Birthday Seastar” dinner will include seared ahi, sushi, diver scallops with local black truffles, pear panna cotta, and plenty of chocolate—for $127.09 per couple (tax and gratuity not included).

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Tags: Bargain Bites, Promotions, South Lake Union

Free Dinners at Grand Cru Continue. Yes…Free

Plus: Have Dinner On Us is back at Metropolitan Grill and Elliott’s.

Posted by: Kathryn Robinson on Jan 12, 2010 at 09:00AM 0 Comments

You were floored when we first told you about the free dinners offered Wednesday and Saturday nights at Grand Cru Wine Bar in Bellevue.

Well, hold onto your champagne flutes: They’re extending the offer indefinitely. That means from 5pm on, Wednesdays and Saturdays, you can come to this elegant spot in the heart of Bellevue and choose among a couple starters and entrees and pay only the gratuity.

And, on Saturdays after 7pm, hear live music.

And park for free.

Also, just got word the annual Have Dinner On Us is back as of Monday. Order two dinner entrées at Metropolitan Grill or Elliott’s Oyster House and receive a certificate equal to the value of those dishes. All you need to do is register here. The offer ends April 17.

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Tags: Bargain Bites, Bellevue, Downtown, Promotions