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type: northwest, seafood
atmosphere: romantic, cozy
rate: 4/5
price: $$$ (30+)/person

94th stewart is located on 94 stewart street. its location is really interesting because the restaurant is implanted into the seattle’s signature slopes. its sort of dug half way into the hill, creating a really dark, mysterious like atmosphere inside, which by all means is not a bad thing.

it wasnt my fave restaurant of the whole seattle experience, because it wasnt that outstanding. they have a very very VERY impressive wine selection. they also have a fairly large cheese selection, and are apparently famous for their dessert pies which ill talk more about below.

YUM: my party of 3 and i each ordered an entree, a bottle of wine and a pie to share. on top of that i also ordered a cheese sampler for myself, which consists of 3 types o cheese samples for that day. unfortunately i forgot which is which and the names of them 

3 Cheese Sampler

all i remember is that they top one is some kind of blue cheese? no idea about the middle one, but the bottom one is some kinda smoked applewood cheddar? or something. i normally detest blue cheese, i cant stand the pungent smell and the extreme saltiness of it. this one however was not too bad. the taste is not as strong as the average blue cheese, but it wasnt my favourite out of the three. ill move on to the bottom piece since i completely forgot what the second piece tastes like. lol.

the bottom last piece was my favourite. it had this really nice smokey flavour to it. it was a cheese that wasnt very moist, which im normally fine with, but it did cause some problems while trying to cut off the sides of it because of how dry it is. i kind of wished the restaurant provided me which crackers to pair with the cheeses. the cheeses alone where enjoyable, but the flavours were too strong for me.

i like my cheese with crackers

on to the entree:
me – Alaskan Salmon
friend 1 – Shellfish
friend 2 + 3 – Tenderloins Medallions with Garlic

Alaskan Salmon with fire roasted tomato laced with salsa cruda, lacinato kale and parmigiano risotto

fish is usually not my first choice when it comes to choosing an entree, but i thought i should go for some seafood since i was in seattle, you know, near the water and such. the whole dish was good. the flavours wasnt extremely memorable, but everything was pretty well cooked, particularly the salmon. it was tender and juicy but quite bland. the salsa didnt play a large role in giving it a boost too. i thought the risotto was the best part. it was well done, not too mushy nor too grainy. i loved the combination of vegetables and herbs in it, particularly the small brown thing mushrooms that were added to it. it gave it a very interesting texture to munch on.

Shellfish. seared scallops, gulf prawns, dungeness crab, calamari basil cream, asparagus and rice

i tried some of my friends shellfish dish and it was delicious.

i had a piece of scallop with the cream sauce and it was spectacular. the scallop was cooked just right, a little raw at the centre, but cooked and tender all around; seafood should never be overcooked and tough when chewed. i wanted to be polite, so i didnt ask to pick off some of everything on her plate. haha. but she told me overall she liked the dish too.

the last is the tenderloin medallions

Tenderloin Medallions with Garlic. lean medallions of beef tenderloin with bourbon braised garlic and bacon scented green beans with a side of mashed potatoes

i only got to try a slice of the tenderloin. the sauce was wonderful. it was this sort of sweetened and simmered dark sauce, heavy in flavour, but was great with the tenderloin.again, being polite, i didnt go poking in my friends food. they didnt have any complaints about it though, so i guess it was good.

after our entrees we were presented with a plate of 8 different types of pies. the waiter explained that the chef is famous for his pies….so we picked one and gave it a try.
i thought the pie honestly was nothing that special. i didnt really enjoy the crust either. on top of that the pie was cold, sorta gave you the feeling that it had been sitting out on the table for 2 days kinda feeling.

KA CHING: no doubt the prices are at the higher end of the spectrum. the food is good quality, but for me, paying a price this much for flavours that are commonly found elsewhere, meh, i dont know…not SO worth it.

Hallway to the bathroom. all the sticky notes are customer comments.

THE END: the restaurant is not bad for a special occasion. i has a really nice candle light atmosphere and the waiters are really professional. the wine and cheese list is outstanding too. but if you are looking for some place to try something new and hoping to find food that will leave you a deep impression, 94th stewart is probably not your first choice. overall though i had a pleasant time. the service was very professional and the food was fairly well presented and made.

happy eating!

kamkamO

ill do these by chronological order, not that it really affects anything, but yeah…anyways.
*note that the prices are in american, too lazy to do the conversions.

SEATTLE – 707 Pike Street (its under the famous arch on 7th and pike)

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type: french
atmosphere: street food, casual
rate: 3.5/5
price: $ (~7)/person

actually finding the place wasnt that easy. its not super hidden, but i guess in my mind i thought it was a sit-down place, when it was more like a take out window like location just right beside the street. i dont mind this in any bad terms, but i did kind of wish it wasnt RIGHT beside one of seattles busiest streets, and the outdoor tables werent set 2-3 feet just off the curb edge.

*just did some research and learned that creperie is a crepe stall or takeaway street food. my bad.

Menu

the menus consists of two main categories of crepes, savory versus sweet ones. they give you side options to add stuff like banana for another buck more. im my opinion you should really add it because most of the choices are just sauces, like chocolate sauce, and the crepe and whipped cream…so pay that extra buck and add the extras.

YUM: i ordered a Dulce De Leche Caramel sweet crepe and i thought it honestly was not that good. i thought the batter was much too thick and was not cooked thoroughly enough. i was hoping it’ll have like a crunchy type of feel, but it was just all soft and had a rubberly type texture. this made it actually quite hard to cut with a knife because it just sort of stuck together like glue, yeah, not that wonderful.

i felt the dulce de leche was wayyy to sweet. my crepe was basically drowned in caramel. not too happy about that.

Dulce De Leche Caramel

a few of my friends ordered the savory ones. they thought it was ok. nothing that special. i think their crepe looked and tasted much better than mine though.

Did not finish...

KA-CHING: price was fair, nothing more to say

THE END: i was quite disappointed because i did some research on foods of seattle and this popped up as one of the dessert choices. meh. i think that the (franchise?) Cafe Crepe is much better than here. although it takes awhile for them to make the crepe, i prefer their batter recipe over La Creperie Voila.

i wanted to give this review a 3/5, but because my friends thought the savory ones were ok, so i sorta gave it a .5 more. i dont recommend the place as a ‘must-try’ when you head over to seattle, but its gross.

perhaps it was just the way the two girls made the crepes. maybe if it was left on the hot plate longer it wouldve been better?

anyways that concludes the first out of five or six seattle food entries. thanks for reading!

happy eating!

kamkamO

type: southern barbeque
atmosphere: casual, with friends,
rate: 3.5/5
price: $ (10)/person

if you are a meat lover this is the right place for you.
they have ALL kinds of meat: pulled pork, chicken wings, rotisserie chicken, ribs etc etc. im not a huge huge meat lover but i heard about this place through a friend before and decided to try it out.

its was a very very casual dining experience, we were seated but the way things work is that when you are ready you have to go up to the counter to order, much like places like Fatburger.

they have a very flexible menu where there are individual meal orders, but you can also combine two meats and pay about $20ish for a combination plate.

me and my party wanted to try the large platters, but unfortunately we got there at 8pm on a sunday night and everything was almost sold out. apparently the waitress informed me that if you want the meat on a weekend, you should come before 5pm. all there was left was wings and ribs, which was a real bummer. they had like practically NOTHING left. we were only able to order the only two remaining types of meat they had left.

YUM: the taste was ok. i found the rib to be quite dry. Im not a huge fan of the dry types of ribs, so i took points off there. I also wish the ribs were infused with more flavor. it sorta felt like just sauce slapped on the ribs and roasted for awhile. not really juicy. not really flavourful. i found myself pouring extra bbq sauce on the ribs just to give it some taste.

Full Slab of Ribs Meal

each meal also comes with a potato side, coleslaw and cornbread. the cornbread was absolutely tasteless, i had to give it some flavour by putting some baked beans on it. the coleslaw was a little sour, but i guess the fries were alright. cant go wrong with fries.

Pork Sausage Meal

i dont have much to say about the sausage. its decent, not special.

my and my party also ordered a side of wet chicken wings and oysters. DO NOT get the oysters. they are COMPLETELY not worth it and they dont even taste good. for the price and the  amount, you get 3 oysters for 9 bucks. thats $3/oysters, which is a total ripoff AND they are deep fried to the point that you cant even taste the oyster. trust me, dont get it.

the wings were probably the best part of the dinner. they werent the best wings ive ever had, but they werent bad. we ordered the wet type, since i have a fear of dry wings being really really dry. the flavour was good, a bit too fried though.

KA CHING: despite the lack of quality in the food, the price was fair. Ordered 3 main meals and 2 appetizers, the breakdown came out to be $12/person out of a party of 6. half, which are boys who love to eat. so its not too bad. i guess for the price we paid, we let the food quality slip by. again dont order the oysters

THE END: if you love a good deal for southern barbeque, memphis is the place to go. but dont expect any high quality service or food. the waitresses look as if their mind is always off in space or something and the food was just fair. for the price you pay though it is enough to satisfy a man’s appetite, but im not sure if the place is worth a revisit. i am greatly disappointed at their lack of food quantity. it is kind of ridiculous for a dining place to run out of so many types of food, such as their rotisserie chicken, pulled pork and brisket (the pulled pork is suppose to be a customer favourite too).

there is also another location at w. broadway if you are interested. apparently i heard there is a difference. in what i dont know. maybe they have more meat supply.

anywho thanks for reading!
and as always

happy eating!

kamkamO

type: japanese tapa
atmosphere: casual, with friends,
rate: 3.5/5
price: $$$ (25-30)/person

i absolutely love tapas.

i love being able to order small dishes and try out various flavours and be captivated by the delicate plating designs. i love the idea of sharing a dish with others; friends having the opportunity to taste something together and just enjoy the gift of food.

this is not the first time i’ve been to manzo at capstan before (*side note: there are two, one is at 8391 Alexandra Road, with different dishes). on that note, this means that its not a bad restrauant. so why a 3.5/5?

YUM. the flavour was ok. me and my friend ordered about, 5-6 dishes. i think only pumpkin croquette was my favourite. i’ve had other pumpkin croquettes at other japanese tapa places that took a different approach to this dish. the other japanese tapa places usually create a l

arge pumpkin ball with a cooked quail egg inside, smothered with something like a thousand island sauce on top. manzo creates 4 small pumpkin balls with a side dipping sauce.

Pumpkin Croquette

it had a warm hearty pumpkin inside,  lightly battered fried coating. the other pumpkin croquette are good too, just that this one from manzo has a lighter taste to it. not as heavy in flavour as the other ones, which arent bad too.

next up is the okonomiyaki:

Okomiyaki

this one didnt quite reach the ‘memorable dish’ list. i’ve had much better okonomiyaki in other places which i will mention later on. it lacked the original essence of it, a little too thick in my opinion.

Pork Neck (forgot the japanese name)

Saba Battera

pork neck was a bit too thick and a little hard to chew. the nature of pork neck is not suppose to be super juicy and succulent, but it does have strips of fat which would make it a little softer. i found manzos’ though, a bit difficult to chew.

manzo created a modified version of the saba battera. im not quite sure if the modification was a good one. the chefs placed a layer of jelly like seaweed on the fish, then the fish on a layer a rice, split the rice layer into two, and placed an unidentifiable piece of herb inbetween. when i had the first piece i was kind of confused by what i was tasting. i wasnt able to pin point what i was exactly eating. the herb had a very overwhelming taste that did not do the mackerel justice. i found the seaweed to be an acceptable addition, but leaving the herb out wouldve made the dish even better.

KA-CHING: on the pricey side for japanese tapa. for me the point of it is to be able to order small dishes, try a variety of them and seeing an acceptable price when the bill comes. the price for the ‘specialty’ of the food was not really worth it. on the top of my head i can already name a hand full of places that have more special tapas with a better price.

THE END: so to summarize. food is ok, price is a bit too much. other comparable jap tapa places are Guu (the one on Thurlow and Gastown are my favourites, they all serve a different menu) and Hapa Izakaya (Robson). both of these places i find are better in quality, taste and specialty. also they have japanese chefs there (im picky about these kinda things). also they atmosphere at those places are much better because of the constant loud greeting and shouting of orders, making the place really lively and fun. reason why i went to manzo again was because it was one of the few japanese tapas richmond that i go to. its not bad, just not that great.

happy eating,

kamkamo

http://www.andrewmcconnell.com/index.html

kamkamo

but i promise i will do one soon!

thanks.
o merry late christmas and have a wonderful new years

kamkamo

type: african (ethiopian)
atmosphere: casual, romantic
rate: 4/5
price: $$ (20+)/person(kinda pricey for the style..)
well this was a new experience for me. i’ve never tried african food before and i thought it wasnt bad for a first time.

to begin, the place was not the most well decorated restaurant. if you walked by it and gave it a peak at the windows, you’d probably choose not to go in, unless you wanted to be adventurous and give african food a try
HOWEVER
i do believe it was worth given the place a shot.
i found it to be more romantic, than casual/with friends sort of dining. you basically dined with candlelight, and in the back they had a musician play the piano all night. which, was kinda weird, considering its an african restaurant…playing lovely, yet out of place melodies…

the food was good i would say.
we ordered a calamari like appy and a claypot lamb shank

the calamari had a different sauce accompanying it rather than the usual tzaziki sauce. they also had this flatbread stuff with it. i thought it was pretty good. the squid was fresh and the batter isnt too thick

next up we had a lamb entree. i really really LOVED the rice that came with the claypot lamb.
to begin this set includes your choice of 2 types of salad. we wanted to try this other 3rd type so the waitress was kind enough to give up a trio try.
salad: lentil salad
couscous salad
beet and potato salad
they used many different types of spices in the rice mixture. it was so hearty and overwhelming (in a goodway) at the same time. i loved how they placed raisins in there, which reminded me of portugese chicken rice. the lamb was superbly soft since it was slow cooked in the claypot. they also give you this sorta hole-y soft pita bread like thing to pick up and wrap the rice in to eat. yumyuM!

the only thing about dining here is that you have to be patient with them. the food tends to come out fairly slow. the appy came out pretty fast, but i think we waited for maybe more than 30mins+ for the entree. maybe because it was slow cooked but yeah. i also found the prices for the appy to be fairly expensive…
the owner and waitress were very sincere though and explained thoroughly how to enjoy the food.

i say if you feel like getting away from the usual sushi or westcoast type of dining i do recommend coming here.
you’ll be delighted to discover the different in taste of the culture!

happy eating!
kamkamo

kamkamo

to take a moment and click on this link below.

http://www.chinahush.com/2009/10/21/amazing-pictures-pollution-in-china/

thank you.
kamkamO