So I didn’t realize Seattle Restaurant Week happened twice a year. I was pretty surprised to receive an email about the Spring edition at the end of march. Surprised and excited, because unlike Fall when we were hampered by my under employment and hefty vet oncologist bills, we could actually afford to go out more than once in the two-week window.

We narrowed down the list of over a hundred restaurants throughout the metro area three choices: Peso’s (conveniently located near Seattle Center where my belly dancing alter ego had a festival to attend), Bar Dojo (the one place we made it to for Fall Restaurant Week), and Preservation Kitchen (which came highly recommended). Here’s how it went…

Peso’s

You may notice a lack of image for this meal. Why? Because we cancelled our order and left.

Here’s what happened. We walked down to Peso’s from Seattle Center, ready for some delicious Mexican food. We were seated with menus. No restaurant week menus. We look at the normal menus for a while, a server finally comes to take our drink orders. We ask for a couple margaritas and also the restaurant week menus. The server goes off to find them, comes back, says she has to ask her manager “if we’re still doing that.”

We were less than a week into the two-week “restaurant week” and she didn’t know if they were still doing it.

Well finally someone brings us the restaurant week menus and as we start to compare them to the main menu to get more thorough descriptions of the dishes, we realize that the “3 Courses for $33” Restaurant Week Menu actually costs more than ordering the same things a la carte. Like a lot more. And we’re sitting there staring at the King County sticker in the window that says this place only got an “Okay” food rating.

We have a while to contemplate this and to decide whether we want to order a la carte or what. I’m a bit annoyed because there were many other options we could have done for restaurant week, and this was taking up one of those spots, and also we had been sitting there a while and didn’t have drinks and no one had taken our food order.

Finally someone comes and asks if we’ve been helped, and we say no, and he asks for our drink order and we say we did place those. We order some food. Someone finally shows up with chips and salsa while we place our order.

A minute later our new server comes back and asks what our drink orders were, because that first server never put them in.

So that’s when we canceled our order and left. At that point we’d been sitting there for 20 minutes with no drinks and had enough time to eat maybe two chips and salsa each. I was pretty mad. And pretty hungry.

Bramling Cross

So there we were, 5:30 on a Sunday evening, sitting in our car, trying to decide what to do about dinner. I’m hungry and cranky. I don’t want to go home and eat at one of our usual Lynnwood or Mill Creek spots. I had my heart set on a restaurant week experience! But most places recommended recommendations. Could we get a last minute spot?

I start looking at restaurants in neighborhoods within about 15 minutes of where we were. I came across Bramling Cross in Ballard. They weren’t really on our radar before but I looked at the menu and it looked good. Most importantly, their online reservation tool said there was a table for 2 at 5:45. It was a 13 minute drive away. We had just enough time to drive over, park, and saunter in. “Drive like the wind!” I said to Chris as I finalized the reservation process.

Three minutes into our drive, we get a call. There was a glitch in the system and the computer didn’t tell them to reserve a table for us and they just sat someone at our table. I’m sitting here thinking that at this rate we’re going to just hit Ashiya on the way home and watch Netflix. But no! The kind lady on the phone said they reserved two seats for us at the bar, don’t worry, head on over.

So we get there, we get seated, we get restaurant week menus and we order cocktails. We’re starving so we decide we not only want the restaurant week deal but also that we want to order a plate of the pretzels that are on both the appetizer list for restaurant week and the happy hour menu. That’s when the bartender tells us, no no, you get ALL the appetizers for your first course.

Friends, it was amazing! We had a delicious little salad, the pretzels we wanted, shooters of cauliflower soup, and a couple of crab fritters. Along with our cocktails, because no one forgot to put our order in.

Our entrees were top-notch too. Chris had the burger and fries. I had whatever the fish was (halibut maybe?). Whatever kind of fish it was, it was delicious and came served over roasted potatoes and veggies with a dollop of creamy sauce.

Dessert was a ridiculously rich chocolate cake for me and sorbet for Chris.

The meal was a bit slow, we used every minute of our two hours of parking, but it was so yummy and such a relief after the disaster that was Peso’s.

Bar Dojo

We weren’t going to go to Bar Dojo. We wanted to use our three selections to try three new-to-us restaurants. But the menu choices looked so good, and it’s such a convenient location for us, we couldn’t resist.

Funny side note: We accidentally ordered the exact same cocktails we ordered back in the Fall. I guess we like what we like!

Appetizers were a salad for Chris (who has been in a major salad mood) and beef tartar with wonton crisps for me. I’d never had beef tartar before but I sure enjoyed it.

For entrees, Chris had a rich and delicious chorizo ramen and I had a delectable salmon with risotto and crispy kale. I know that doesn’t sound like Japanese fusion food, but the salmon had a soy glaze and the risotto had edamame in it.

Desserts were incredible, I had a pineapple chocolate mousse cake and Chris had a trio of mochi in unusual flavors.

Preservation Kitchen

This is an upscale American restaurant in an old house. We were pretty excited about the menu but a bit disappointed to discover that the menu we received was different from the one online (no mussels, no chocolate panna cotta).

Still, our meal at Preservation Kitchen was still really enjoyable. We had some nice cocktails and great food in a nice setting.

For appetizers, Chris opted for salad again (with beautiful blood oranges), and I had the roasted Brussels sprouts with a savory panna cotta on the side.

Let’s take a moment to really appreciate the photogenic beauty of the spare rib entree Chris ordered. Those rainbow carrots and asparagus spears are just gorgeous. My entree was red snapper with spaghetti and my own beautiful asparagus.

For dessert, I had a chocolate pecan torte and Chris had sorbet.

One note about this place, it’s very much not accessible for persons with disabilities. You have to go up some stairs from the parking lot to the house, and the bathrooms are upstairs in the house! So if you need a mobility aid, you will not find this place very accessible or navigable.

Conclusion

Seattle Restaurant Week is a great way to try new-to-you restaurants. Except for Peso’s, every place we attended was a fairly good deal at 3 for $33. I can definitely see us going back to Bramling Cross and obviously we like Bar Dojo since this was our second visit. I’m not sure I’d go back to Preservation Kitchen as I prefer a slightly more adventurous menu, but I could see it being a great option if we had guests who preferred high-quality American food.