Jon L.'s Profile

While Seattle has an embarrassment of top-notch Thai restaurants, high quality Chinese restaurants are less common. In some other places, Uptown China would be fine if unexceptional, but in Seattle it stands out.

The cuisine is your typical Cantonese-with-touches-of-Szechuan that I would consider standard American restaurant Chinese food. The Mongolian beef is excellent; the shrimp with garlic sauce good; and the chicken curry forgettable.

Decor is fine, but not stunning, and prices are okay but not great. The lunch specials are priced quite well, and the quality seems to be just fine on them. (If you get the lunch special, make sure to get the shrimp toast!)

For Chinese restaurants, Seattle isn't New York, and will probably never be, but Uptown China lets me forget that for a little while.

I don't eat at Rom Mai Thai much. It's not that the place isn't good; it's just that I tend to prefer Siam on Broadway, right across the street. Seattle has an embarrassment of top-notch Thai restaurants. What would be a five-star place in most other cities is considered average here.

The food is typical, for Seattle, which is to say quite good: curries are rich and pungent, larb explodes in your mouth with flavors of lime and chilis and fish sauce, and the fresh rolls are pleasantly crisp. Prices are typical too, with entrees hovering around eight or nine dollars, with prices a touch higher for seafood.

The decor is pleasant and brighter than most other Thai places in the neighborhood, with green and gold prominent. Service is both quick and friendly.

In any other city, Rom Mai Thai might be a standout. In Seattle, it's representative of an excellent "average" place.

The OK Corral has moved up the street about fifteen blocks and taken on a new name.

The barbecue is still excellent: fall-off-the-bone tender, and full of sweet and smoky goodness. (My Kentucky-raised wife approves, too.) The prices are reasonable: $13 gets you the "Hook Up," ribs and chicken and a hot link, with more beans and greens and hush puppies than you'll eat. Sodas are $1, and come with one refill.

The new digs are cavernous and nondescript: aside from the photos of bluesmen that also graced the walls at the OK Corral, the space is bare and white. A couple of video games are stuck in a corner in the back, including a Tempest machine in excellent condition. Service ranges from homey and casual to inattentive, but let's face it, you come tfor the barbecue. On that count, My Place is a winner.

The Deluxe is the neighborhood restaurant par excellance; it's a local favorite at the north end of Capitol Hill, and the wait on Burger Night can't all be people from the Hill.

If you first come to the Deluxe on burger night --- every Wednesday, when burgers are only $5 --- the first thing you'll notice is the crowd, and the wait. Wait time for a party of two can be nearly an hour on Wednesdays, though 30 minutes is more typical.

The burgers are bedecked with all manner of garnishes. My personal favorite is the BOA, with Bacon, Onions, Avocado, and Swiss Cheese. Other options include cheddar, barbecue sauce, a supposedly hot Louisiana sauce, and others. Burgers can be replaced with veggie patties or chicken breasts for a reasonable additional charge, and come with French Fries, which are out-of-the-bag but adequately prepared.

At Burger Night prices, these burgers are definite bargains. On other nights, you can get more burger for about the same money down the block at Cafe Septieme, but the Deluxe is definitely more laid-back. The food and atmosphere at the Deluxe are both miles above the Broadway Grill, its nearest competitor.

On a Wednesday, you may also notice the tasty selection of beers. The taps rotate, and frequently favor seasonal products from local microbreweries. You'll also find hipster standbys like Stella Artois. Mixed drinks range from the frightening (I've been warned off of several items by waitstaff) to the sublime. The Bloody Marys are, reportedly, very good. (I don't drink them, but everyone else seems to love them.)

If you come any night other than Wednesday, you might see a little less madness and a wider slice of the menu; an always-helpful staff, who recognize and are delighted to see regular patrons; and the best darned Macaroni and Cheese Seattle has to offer.

Appetizers are tasty if unexceptional; the only negative mark there is that the Papperdum-crusted chicken strips have recently been accompanied by so-so ranch dressing, rather than the excellent mango sauce to which I'd become accustomed. But that's the complaint of a man who keeps coming back to the same restaurant --- which is the sort of place that the Deluxe is.

Burgers are $8, give or take, on burger nights; beers are typical prices, and other entrees range from $10-$20, with more on the low end. Appetizers are around $8-10, but most are offered at half-price during happy hour.

The Palace Kitchen disappointed me in every respect except service.

Well, that's not entirely true: the White Palace salad, a combination of hazelnuts, pink lady apples, and cheddar cheese, was quite tasty. And the steamed Dungeness crab appetizer was tasty, though steamed rather longer than necessary. After appetizers, however, it was downhill.

The space is nothing special; it's a typical cavernous space, noisy and virtually undivided. The bar in the center makes navigation difficult, especially when the place is as crowded as it was on the Thursday night I ate there.

The wait was about forty minutes: long for a Thursday night at a place that doesn't take reservations, but not unbearably so. During that time, we sat at the extremely crowded bar. The beer selection was all right, but barely adequate by local standards: about six taps, with no truly great options.

After the decent if uncomplicated appetizers came the main course. My braised rabbit was okay: a bit chewier than I would have thought, for a braised dish, and not particularly excitingly seasoned. They must have run out of kholrabi, as my portion was served with carrots, also minimally seasoned. It wasn't bad, just not exceptional or exciting.

My dining companion's applewood-grilled rib steak, however, was disappointing: extremely fatty, rare rather than medium-rare, and just not all that great.  She complained, and the server graciously took it off our check.

Desserts were fairly tasty, though also short of exceptional: the chocolate mousse cake with Meyer lemon wasn't bad; the lavender Panna Cotta was also okay, but neither was particularly memorable.

If the steak hadn't been taken off of our check, it would have come out to $60 per person with tip, but with no wine. I'm willing to write off the steak as a fluke, the product of bad luck and a very busy kitchen, but even so I wouldn't plan on returning: the atmosphere is poor, the food is bland, and there are better options in that price range.

The Old Town Alehouse is both friendly and quiet, with helpful staff and a competent kitchen.

Beers on tap are largely local; expect to find Manny's Pale Ale, along with beers from Dick's, LaConner, Elysian, and other local breweries. The bottled selection contains a short but well-curated list of Belgian imports. While the only lambic on the list is the too-sweet Lindemans, it's a wise decision not to stock beer that will go stale before it is purchased.

The sandwiches are good, though nothing special. The onion rings are tremendous and crisp, with a nice herbed dipping sauce, and the house-made cole slaw is peppery and vinegary.

The Old Town Ale House achieves what it sets out to do, with grace. It's one of my regular haunts, and enough reason to trek out to Ballard.

After only two visits, Lark has become my favorite restaurant in Seattle for a nice night out, and without a doubt has the best food I've had since moving here.

As an East Coast emigre, I admit to my confusion regarding "nice" restaurants in Seattle. I show up in my business-casual work clothes, and nobody's dressed better than I am: no jackets, no ties. People in t-shirts and polo shirts. I don't think it's wrong, but it makes me a little uneasy.

Lark made it easier: the cozy rustic decor and extremely friendly staff brought about a very California sort of enforced casualness.

I definitely found the menu complex to navigate the first time I arrived, but our waitress happily answered all of our questions without any disdain or frustration.

And, oh yeah, the food? It's stellar. Small plates, meant to be shared, but don't get the cheese platter unless there are at least three or four of you; it gets in the way of trying other dishes.

Start, perhaps, with the blood orange and endive salad. It's a visually stunning piece of work, with the deep red of the oranges on the outside of an endive pyramid. It's beautiful, and the sweetness of the oranges nicely balances the bitterness of the endive. The awesome presentation and complex flavors set the tone for the rest of Lark's food.

Don't miss the rosti potatoes: a crispy, tasty potato pancake, like if your Jewish grandmother made latkes after studying nouvelle cuisine in Paris, or your morning short-order cook decided to make his hash browns a work of art.

The fish and meat plates are spectacular: the pork rillettes are rich flavorful, the sea scallops are well-prepared, and the elk is great. The braised beef shortribs balance homey pot roast flavors with restaurant flair, managing to be both comforting and extravagant at the same time.

Do save room for dessert: the frozen Meyer lemon parfait stands out as the choice to make. The other desserts fade from memory, but this sharp and fragrant concoction is unshakeable. Get at least one for your table, no matter how many other desserts you decide upon.

All told, expect to order five or six small plates for two people, not including dessert. Add in a glass or two of wine each, and you're talking sixty-five to seventy-five dollars per person, after tax and tip.

One last word: the menu is definitely carnivore-centric; dedicated vegetarians may be disappointed. Those tasty rosti potatoes are fried in duck fat.

The meal began and ended perfectly: the prosciutto and buffalo mozzarella was just right, and the chocolate gelato with espresso and vanilla brooked no dissent.

Perhaps my hopes were raised too high by the prosciutto and mozzarella, but the Quattro Stagioni and Marinara pizzas were only pretty fair. The mushrooms on the former were delicious, but juicy enough to make the pizza crust dissolve; and the tomato sauce on the latter was adequate, but could have used a little more zing, a little more acidity to make the flavors stand out.

Perhaps on a busy Friday night, Via Tribunali's pizza cooks are a bit rushed. I'll definitely give them another chance, though likely on a different night of the week.