Kevin "kevinseattle" B.'s Profile

Seattle Paragliding is simply disorganized and rude to their customers.

We booked a Sunday afternoon to go paragliding. We were both really excited for our tandem flights. When we booked the trip with Marc, we confirmed that we could reschedule if the weather wasn't great. Our two tandem flights were $400 and since it was likely a once in a lifetime experience, we wanted to be able to be able see Mt. Rainier and all the mountains from our flight. Marc ensured it was no problem if we wanted to reschedule due to bad weather.

In the many calls we had with Marc to confirm and ask questions beforehand he always seemed confused about when our flight was scheduled and each time mixed us up with another customer.

Three hours before our flight, the clouds rolled in and we decided to reschedule. We called Marc to let him know and he completely lost his temper and scummed us out:  "You don't feel bad, this is completely inconsiderate. Take this as a life lesson, find someone else to go Paragliding with..." After that call, he even sent an attacking text messaging.

We were both completely shocked at being treated this way. 10 minutes later, Marc called and apologized extensively for losing his temper. He further explained how he got us mixed up with another customer that had an earlier appointment and told us we were in fact welcomed to fly with Seattle Paragliding in the future. No thanks! Any company that would ever treat a customer with such disrespect will never see a cent of our money.

We waited 40 minutes for a soup, salad & sandwich.  I'm almost certain the soup & salad dressing were store-bought. The chicken in the sandwich was undercooked in the center; I would have sent it back but we were on our way back to Seattle & didn't want to wait another 40 minutes... The sandwich also really lacked in the flavor department; it was so boring and the bread was greasy/over-buttered.

Our waitress was moderately friendly... but friendly service won't be enough to save this place...

I'm born and raised in Montreal and grew up on this style of bagel. When I heard Eltana was opening, I was very excited. Every time a family member comes to visit me in Seattle from home they bring dozens of bagels from St. Viateur. I would freeze them and they would last a month or so. The good news is, I will no longer need to settle for frozen Montreal bagels (which I'll add were still 1 million times better than any Seattle bagel). I will no longer need to ask ask my family to schlep bagels across the continent to Seattle anymore! The Eltana bagel is pretty damn close the real deal and short of importing Montreal tap water, it's may very well be  as close as possible. One noticeable difference is that the sesame seeds on the Eltana bagel are more toasted than a traditional Montreal bagel (not better, not worse- just a little different).

I was disappointed with Capitol Hill Handyman for a few reasons.

I was upset at an unexpected parking charge that was never mentioned in the quote which included just materials/labor/tax. Norm didn't mention he was billing for parking at the beginning of our appointment or at the end, he just added it to the bill without saying anything.

While Norm did a good job at all the projects, he didn't provide the guidance or advice we expected from an experienced handyman. For example for our under cabinet lights, Norm asked us where to position them (front/middle/back). We weren't sure what was best, so we asked him for his opinion. Norm did not provide any guidance for the best position; it seemed like he didn't really care and just wanted to get it done.

Norm arrived at our door at 12:45pm. At 2:37pm, we asked him to hang one small painting- literally banging two nails into the wall since we thought we had 8 minutes left on the 2 hours. It would have taken him less than 2 minutes to hang. Norm said he would have to bill us for another 15 minutes ($20 w/ tax) because he began billing us when he started started looking for parking. I'm not sure how standard this is- but either way, it would have been nice if we had been informed when the clock started since it wasn't obvious.

We decided to use Capitol Hill Handyman despite the higher-than-average rate because of the peace of mind the great reviews provided. But, given our experience we cannot recommend your service to others. The total worked out to $171.92 which included the unexpected "parking" charge.

Update: John refunded the my credit card for the parking. Show owner comment »

Food was amazing. Porky Belly Sandwich special was totally worth standing in the pouring rain. It'd be nice if they had a canopy to keep customers dry while waiting but the lady working the register informed me that the city of seattle wouldn't allow it. Bummer, but worth getting wet in the rain. Beef Fat Fries were also to die for. Prices were very reasonable too! Watch out Skillet, the Swinery has arrived!.

Pics of  the counter and food @
http://post.ly/CFKV

After months of buzz & hype, Tavern Law finally opened and I decided to check it out with my friends. The place is straight up awesome; great vibe! The décor is really cool- great bookshelf, a TV hidden behind a mirror and super-cool secret upstairs lunge (accessible only by picking up the phone and getting buzzed in). I can go on and on about the space- but you should just check out these professional photos at http://bit.ly/TavernLaw to get the idea.

Onto the food! We decided to try each dish on the menu; there are eight, ranging in price from $7 to $15, making Tavern Law great for a little snack or a full dinner (on a empty stomach, I'd probably need 3-4 dishes). The food gets full stars for creativity, originality, presentation & taste. Simply put, the food is amazing.

"Lolla Rossa Lettuces"- Chevre. Cucumber. Picholine Olive ($7) Pic: http://twitpic.com/eshgd
Simple and nice salad.

"Fried Pacific Oysters"- Horseradish Aioli. Beefsteak Tomato ($9) Pic: http://twitpic.com/eskdp
Cooked perfectly. Nice and crunchy on the outside but not overcooked! Love the horseradish aioli.

"Foie Gras Terrine"- Angostura Bitter Gelee ($15) Pic: http://twitpic.com/eshni
Very good- the angostura bitter jelly top was amazing and complemented the foie gras very well. My only complaint is that the ratio of toasted baguette to foie gras was way off; they need 3x as much baguette.

"Grilled Padron Peppers"- Goat Cheese Vinaigrette. Parsley ($9) Pic: http://twitpic.com/esibw
I loved this dish, but, I love very spicy food. Others in the group found it way too spicy. I don't think it was the actual padron peppers that were hot, but rather some chopped peppers garnished on top (jalapeno, perhaps). The dressing really worked with the spice!

"Carnaroli Risotto"- Summer Squash. Parmesan. Basil ($12) Pic: http://twitpic.com/esmoc
Nice! As far as risottos go, this is on the less rich side!

"Poached Sockeye Salmon" - Escarole. Arugula Pesto. Radish ($14) Pic: http://twitpic.com/esioa
Cooked to perfection, subtle flavors let you fully enjoy the wonderful salmon taste.

"Braised Pork Belly"- Cabbage. Granny Smith Apple. Mustard ($14) Pic: http://twitpic.com/eshwg
Yum- tender!

"Grilled Chicken Leg & Thigh"- New Potato. English Pees. Granache Vinegar ($15) Pic: http://twitpic.com/esj3n
I hardly ever order chicken in restaurants! This chicken was by far my favorite dish on the menu: cooked to perfection, seasoned brilliantly and so MOIST!

Ok- so at this point you might be wondering why I didn't give all 5 stars given my RAVE review: the mixology was really lacking, I was VERY disappointed with the drinks. My first drink was at the bar while I was waiting for my friends to arrive. Before I browsed the comprehensive list of cocktails, I first looked at their liquor list: a bad gin selection could be a dealbreaker for me. I was pretty excited to see that the gin selection was awesome (more gins than vodka- take that vodka drinkers!), they even had my favorite Martin Miller's (including the hard-to-find, Westbourne strength edition). So to start, I order a gin martini up with a twist. Yep- they did twist right, but FUCK- I think the bartender put more vermouth than gin. Normally, I would have said something- but the bar had just opened for the first time and they were already quite busy, so I was nice.

For the rest of the evening, I ordered drinks from the cocktail menu and and sampled some of my friends'. Tavern Law is one of only about 4 places in Seattle to have a Kold Draft Ice machine (http://www.kold-draft....). The menu is comprehensive with a table of contents & glossary! Drinks divided into the following categories:
-Cocktails
-Sours
-Flips
-From Highballs to Fizzes
-Juleps, Slings & Toddies
-Punches, Cups & Swizzles
-Champagne
-Vodka
-Teetotalers

Most of the drinks were underwhelming. The "Bourbon Swizzle" (bourbon, lemon, falernum, yellow chartreuse) tasted like straight bourbon on ice in a Collins glass. The "Dover Tea" was a hot drink, but arrived at room temperature. One drink, the name escapes my memory, was supposed to have gin, rosemary, mint- the drink came with no rosemary, and I'm convinced it was made with rum, it tasted like a mojito (yuk!). One of my friends ordered the "Boston Milk Punch" (rum, bourbon, nutmeg, milk)- the waitress came back a few minutes later and told us they were out of milk. Weird- the bar had been open no longer than an hour, why not just have one of the staff members run a block away and pick up a gallon! Due to the so-so drinks, I remove 1 star.

Under normal circumstances I would have knocked off another star (making it a 3-star review) for a few quirks and annoyances (bathroom locked with nobody inside it for half hour, slow service, forgotten drink orders, etc...) But I truly believe that these were just symptomatic of it being opening night- I have no doubt that Tavern Law will strike it's groove. This bar has full 5-star potential I just really hope they nail the drinks!

We tried Plum Vegan Bistro for Sunday brunch. While the service was a little awkward and slow, overall we thought the food was pretty decent.

For starters- let me preface this review by saying that I am a meat-eating carnivore (with an open mind but concerns of leaving hungry) and my girlfriend is a pescatarian.  We sat down at about 11AM just as they opened; the restaurant was pretty empty- just our table and two others.

The waitress poured us water and dropped off the menus. Something was horrible wrong with the water; it had way too much lemon but also had a really bad taste that I can't describe, maybe they just need a better water filter... We ended up ordered two DRY Sodas (cucumber and juniperberry). It was my first time trying DRY; both flavors were kick ass - not too sweet, very subtle and delicate!

We then began studying the menu (I uploaded pictures of the menu since at this point they don't seem to have a website)

Sandwich Menu: http://bit.ly/PlumBistro1
Salads & Small Plates Menu: http://bit.ly/PlumBistro2

I ended up going with the "BBQ Po'Boy- with seitan, pickled onions on a crunchy French roll w/ garlicky yam fries" (picture at http://twitpic.com/bq6m6). And my girlfriend ordered the "Quinoa sliders- w/ sloppy Joe millet/quinoa blend chopped jalapeños and cilantro aioli" (picture at http://twitpic.com/bq4rh).

The food took a really long time, probably over 40 minutes. While waiting for the food I watched one of the chefs decorate cupcakes or muffins. They looked great, but I was kind of surprised to see them using Hershey's Dark Syrup; yes- I know it's vegan but I just assumed they would use better quality ingredients.

Both meals were very tasty & delicious but very heavy and greasy. My po'boy also came with the Mac n 'Yeast - a bonus since it wasn't supposed to come with this! How do they get it so cheesy without cheese? When the food arrived at the table, the waitress said the garlicky yam fries would be right up... but they actually came 15 minutes later. The fries looked oh so good and crunchy but were actually VERY greasy with no crunch factor (picture at http://twitpic.com/bq71k).

The waitress brought the check a few minutes after bringing the fries. She did not ask if we wanted coffee or dessert or anything else. Very weird! I was actually planning on ordering a Stumptown French press. Oh well! I gave her my credit card to pay the check when she told me they do not accept credit card yet. While this is totally understandable for a new place, I do feel that I should have been informed prior to being served. Luckily I had some cash on me and just gave her the cash. Rather than taking the cash back and bringing me my change, she asked me how much change I wanted. What's up with that? She stood awkwardly over me as I attempted to do the mental math under pressure on the spot...

That concluded our visit to Plum Vegan Bistro. Maybe I was wrong in assuming VEGAN=HEALTHY; Plum Bistro was like delicious greasy diner food (minus the milk, eggs, meat & fish). I left feeling as if I had gobbled down two McDonald's Big Macs!

As promised, I went back to the Lookout and give it a second chance over a month after visiting the first time on opening night. Let me very blunt, this place straight up SUCKS - it is not cool, the service sucks and the food is vile. I want this place to kick ass since it's so close to my place.

So my girlfriend and I popped in on a Friday night around 7ish after a beautiful sail on Lake Union. We sat out on the back patio- a great view when standing up (but hard to see when you're sitting down)... Ok - so I order 2 drinks to start: a jalapeno margarita extra spicy and a regular jalapeno margarita... As it turns out they didn't have enough jalapeno! What's up with that? They only have 5 cocktails on the menu (4 if you exclude the whiskey/tallboy) so the fact that they were missing ingredients was pretty lame. Anyway... halfway through our drinks we decide to split an oyster po'boy sandwich. So I go to the bar and order... It's quite unfortunate that you need to order drinks from the bar (especially since someone brings the food to your table, busses empties, etc...

Po'boy arrives in about 15 minutes. Cut-in half - perfect! We each take a bite at the same time and both have the same reaction. Vile, disgusting, YUK. The oysters were covered in uncooked batter - did the chef forget to fry them or something...? The bus boy notices we're not eating, so I told him what was up. He awkwardly said "Weird" and took it away, no "I'm so sorry this happen", NADA... We quickly finish our margaritas so I can go home to vomit (just kidding- but it was NASTY)... I go to the bar to close my tab- 2 issues here:

1) He charges me for the uneaten/uncooked travesty of sandwich
2) the po'boy is billed at $10.95 even though  the menu lists it at $10

First- I question the price... Bartender says the menus are just placeholders and the prices listed aren't right... WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN? Then- I go on to question why I am even charged for it... Turns out the bus boy did not mention it to the bartender... He ended up taking it off the bill..

$14 bucks for two mediocre margaritas + tip, and I'm outta there never to return again! This place seriously blows and doesn't stand a chance- I bet it won't survive more than a couple of months before going under.

I need to chime in given all the stellar reviews. I tried this place yesterday and was very disappointed. I ordered a roll to-go, so I can't comment on the waitstaff service, etc.. Everyone there was very friendly and I was excited to try this new sushi place. The roll was not great at all. It was poorly wrapped, the fish didn't strike me as being very fresh and for $10, I was hoping it would have more fish. Sushi Maki on Bellevue E kicks this places ass in all dimensions (freshness, value, deliciousness, etc..)

The girlfriend and I decided to try Anchovies & Olives on Friday night (day after opening day). I had heard about the restaurant on some local blogs and decided to give it a try. I had no expectations, had no clue if it was expensive/cheap or even what was on the menu.

The restaurant is small- a rough estimate would around 30 seats. The kitchen is absolutely amazing and brings a whole new meaning to "open kitchen". The kitchen is literally in the restaurant and you can see the chef and sous-chef preparing all the dishes on the large wood-topped island.

The menu is divided into 4 sections Crudo (raw items), Appetizers, Pastas (all with fish or shellfish) and Entrees (or main courses, I don't remember what it was named). Overall the menu is small in terms of the number of items, but I actually like this. There were enough options and I prefer a smaller menu where the chef can perfect each item rather than an overwhelmingly large menu. The dishes are intended to be served family style.

Bread is not included- they have a Columbia City bakery focaccia with olives and olive oil for $2 on the appetizer menu. At other establishments paying for bread would bother me- but here it did not bother me one bit given the price and how the whole menu is constructed. The olives and olive oil were top notch and the focaccia was kick ass (Columbia City, of course). This $2 bread plate is definitely enough for 4 people.

I started with 3 different oysters from the Crudo menu. (I forget what they were called). All the oysters were served in the half shell and had different sauces or seasonings directly in the shell (I loved this). They were all fresh, delicious and served ready-to-slurp. One of the oysters was served with meyer lemon ice shavings- a cool idea in theory but a guaranteed brain freeze in practice.

For our appetizers we shared the Octopus and Squid dishes. Both were awesome and could not have been prepared any better. The octopus had a brilliant charred taste and was not over-seasoned. The squid (calamari but not deep fried and breaded, yay!) was served with chickpeas and was scrumptious.

For our main courses we shared the kampachi. I've never had this type of fish before but our very helpful waiter told us that kampachi is a sustainably raised Hawaiian yellowtail. It was beautifully seared; nice and undercooked at the very center, but crispy and browned on the outside. We also had the linguini with dungeness crab. This pasta actually had a lot of kick, was delightfully herbed and was very yummy. There was a lot of crab (mostly, smaller pieces, but expected for Dungeness) and the dish just had the most amazing and intense crab aroma.

Our waiter was extremely attentive and knowledgeable. This was the second night the restaurant was open and the hostess came by a few times to make sure we were enjoying (and we were!).

We were very stuffed at the end of the meal but split a serving of pink grapefruit sorbet which was made fresh at Tavolata in Belltown (another Ethan Stowell resto). It was perfect pallet cleanser to end our wonderful experience at Anchovies & Olives.

All in with a martini, a glass of prosecco and tax and tip the bill was $125- not cheap, but very well worth it.

A few suggestions (hopefully Ethan is reading this review!)

The background music did not match the atmosphere of the restaurant at all. Jack Johnson, John Mayer, Dispatch, etc... do better please!

I love the minimalistic décor, etc... But, I do think a really big painting behind the bar would really lively up the vibe. Hopefully one is on the way.

It felt as if the restaurant had been open for a while and we experienced none of the expected just-opened-restaurant issues. We will definitely be back soon