Restaurants | fabliss

Paseo | Seattle, WA

once a year we take a trip to a new football stadium! we are so lucky our friends are freaking awesome and do this with us! (oh, bryan is happy. he is just too hardcore for this picture in front of paseo) anywho, we were really excited to come to paseo since a number of locals highly recommended getting a sandwich here… actually, stella’s friend said it was his favorite thing to eat in seattle. we owe you a solid, ezra. we took a $15 uber here from our hotel at around 11:30am on a saturday hoping that we didn’t have to wait too long. best plan ever.

all sandwiches are on a toasted baguette and come with aioli, cilantro, pickled jalapeños, crisp romaine lettuce & caramelized onions. what we got:

grilled pork sandwich ($8.50) – cubed pork loin grilled over lava rocks & basted w/ paseo marinade until golden brown
caribbean roast ($8.50) – pork shoulder coated in paseo marinade & slow roasted
paseo press ($8.95) – roasted pork, sweet banana peppers, smoked ham, swiss cheese, and caramelized onions; all melted together between a hot press. (no lettuce or jalapeños)
smokin’ thighs ($8.50) – 2 marinated, skin-on, boneless chicken thighs; flash grilled & oven roasted.

tip: cash only. also, you can call in and order your sandwich ahead of time. note that if there is a huge wait at the location, they may not pick up the phone.

this place is very tiny and there were no available seats. we were warned by our friend and were prepared to eat it offsite. our initial plan was to order a sandwich and take it to gasworks park and enjoy our sandwiches along with the view of the city (per a recommendation). after we started walking, we realized we definitely weren’t going to make it there…especially with hot, saucy sandwiches. we ended up parking ourselves in a park nearby that had some benches.

stella got the grilled pork sandwich and kyle got the caribbean roast (most popular)… so. freaking. good. bread is great… crunchy on the outside, soft on the inside. the pork in both sandwiches was extremely soft. pretty much expect to be smacked in the face by flavor. yep, smacked.

i got the paseo press because #1 i love presses. #2 i love onions. #3 pork rocks and so do banana peppers. this sandwich was amazing. pretty much love at first bite. as you can see below, they do not joke around with onions.

i did not get a picture of bryan’s smokin’ thighs sandwich because he devoured it before i could get to him… but i can tell you that he loved his sandwich.

ambience: small. packed. nothing too fancy. i recommend eating offsite so that you don’t deal with the crowd.
service: quick. order your sandwich. pick up and go.
overall: this was one of my favorite sandwiches. no joke. i still think about it…and would go back to seattle for another bite. this is a must eat in seattle and will be spreading the word, fo sho. one little note: these sandwiches are very saucy (making them awesome) so it is a messy eat. also, remember to bring cash.

we were happy. thanks, ezra.

Paseo
4225 Fremont Ave N
(between 42nd St & Motor Pl)
Seattle, WA 98103
Neighborhood: Fremont

By fabliss | October 11th, 2013 | Food, Photography, Restaurants, Seattle, Travel | 4 Comments

Elliott’s Oyster House | Seattle, WA

we lucked out on our trip to seattle. out of a total of five days in seattle, it only rained 2 days! every other day was like this one (picture above)! so one thing that we found interesting in seattle (full thoughts and recommendations to come in a later post!) is that this city is huge on happy hour! we found out from the nicest lady we met (and then proceeded to get to know) while watching thursday night football game at the yardhouse! apparently she happy-hour bar hops…every day. yolo.

so we decided to go to elliott’s oyster house because of two reasons: #1. kyle felt like oysters…and wanted to pay happy hour prices. #2 we needed somewhere to watch football. important thing to note: this place only has one tv…and that one tv does not have nfl network. so, no thursday night football game. fail. onto the oysters!

so, this is the first time i have ever heard of progressive happy hour. seattle, did you make this up? we weren’t aware of this until we were seated. how it works:

the oysters are chef’s selection.
there is a limit of one dozen per person, maximum three dozen per table.
happy hour starts at 3pm and ends at 6pm.
starting at 3pm, oysters are $1 each. every hour after the hour, oyster price increases by 50 cents.

we got there at 4:30pm…so we had to pay $1.50 for our oysters instead of $1.00! we suck but still a good deal. so…we got two dozen! why not? we also ordered crispy calamari w/ garlic aioli for $3.

the calamari was small. good. not great. but for $3, we can’t really complain. the oysters took awhile to come out since they were really busy. they came with a champagne ice sauce… very different (but still a must try). we actually preferred the oysters with just lemon.

ambience: lovely patio seating on a sunny day (we did not sit outside because we wanted to football game). tons of seating. gets a little crowded during happy hour.
service: service was extremely slow in our opinion. we got seated but no one came to even acknowledge us for a solid 15 minutes. oysters took awhile to come out (they were busy). when they did come out, no one told us what kind they were! i mean, we didn’t care but it would’ve been a nice to know.
overall: our bill came out to around $50. not too cheap (we got a seasonal stout with our oysters). would we come back? yeah maybe at 3pm! we weren’t blown away by any means. but this is a very, very popular spot…so if it’s your first time in seattle, you probably want to check this place out. great view…even better when it’s sunny and clear outside. we would’ve tried to stay longer and ordered more, but we were on a mission to find the football game.

i had to snap a few pictures on our nice walk along the water to the next happy hour spot. these pictures don’t even do it justice. seattle, you are awesome. how did we get so lucky?! oh! also, i love to snap pictures of different fire trucks and stations (have you noticed)?

Elliott’s Oyster House
1201 Alaskan Way, Pier 56
(between Seneca St & University St)
Seattle, WA 98101
Neighborhood: Downtown

By fabliss | October 10th, 2013 | Food, Restaurants, Seattle, Travel | 1 Comment

Piroshky Piroshky | Seattle, WA

say hello to a small russian bakery in pike place market! i owe this little delight to kyle since he was the one who found it! i am not going to lie, i was not looking forward to this place. the sound of a pie after i just had a pink doughnut at top pot doughtnuts did not sound too great let alone a meat pie. so, what is a piroshky? a handheld pie…sweet or savory.

piroshky’s most famous item is the meat and cheese piroshky…but they have a huge selection of other flavors. our little piroshky came out hot and fresh.

verdict: totally worth the wait. it was delicious! think buttery, flakey, cheesey, and beefy…all things great, right? and only $5! we shared one since we were in between meals. the piroshky is pretty sizeable so share if you are snacking…get your own if this will be a meal. next time, i want to try the potato mushroom and beef mushroom!

service: efficient and helpful!
atmosphere: small bakery so there may be a line. nothing too fancy inside. no seating. we took our piroshky and ate it while walking around pike place.

Piroshky Piroshky
1908 Pike Pl
(between Western Ave & Virginia St)
Seattle, WA 98101
Neighborhood: Downtown

By fabliss | October 8th, 2013 | Food, Restaurants, Seattle, Travel | 3 Comments

Best Breakfast: Los Angeles

there’s some about lists…i love them. kyle thinks i’m a nerd for making a list for everything. anywho, that favorite burger list of mine got me thinking. what are my favorite breakfast places? so i decided to compile another list of my favorite a.m. spot. here we go. top 5…err 6:

bea bea’s – best overall breakfast spot. huge menu. favorite dish: the mk.
blu jam cafe – crunchy french toast. the bomb.
lucky boy drive-in – best cheap breakfast burrito
julienne – best cute breakfast joint with creme brulee french toast.
huckleberry – best gourmet breakfast burrito
zengo – best all you can eat and drink (for 3 hours) sunday brunch

bea bea’s: the mk

lucky boy’s breakfast burrito

for a complete list of my favorite breakfast places, please click here.

happy tuesday!

By fabliss | October 8th, 2013 | Food, Photography, Restaurants | 2 Comments

Pike Place Chowder | Seattle, WA

a must visit seattle eatery is pike place chowder. it is reviewed by a million people and loved by even more. so naturally this was top on our list. i mean, how good can it be?

this small shop is tucked away in post alley. what is post alley? an insanely cute little alley near pike’s market place with small shops and restaurants. pike place chowder will be the shop with a huge line out in front. and by huge i mean wraps around the building. good thing we came here on a thursday morning to get our chow on because the line wasn’t too bad (less than 30 minute wait).

this place opens up every day at 11am and apparently they are seattle’s original dungeness crab roll sandwich! we obviously had to see what the rave and this big sign was all about. oh, and they have a wall of all the awards they have won (looks like they have won first place… a lot). we ordered:

combo #2: 8 oz. chowder of your choice with a half sandwich of the original dungeness crab roll and drink for $12.95. i chose the seafood bisque!
medium new england clam chowder

this is the huge menu that you need to study well in advance of order or else you will get lost. oh, and this place is serious about their chowder. they all have chowder shirts.

the dungeness crab roll was good. the roll that it was on was a little hard (i like my seafood rolls to be soft so that it can melt in my mouth). the crab itself was very fresh but i wish it had a little more of a kick. it was nice to have half a sandwich with my seafood bisque. i definitely think the combo is the way to go.

i almost didn’t order the seafood bisque since it sounds extremely heavy and i didn’t want to start my day off feeling heavy. good thing kyle made me sample it along with the southwestern chicken and corn chowder. i loved the seafood bisque way more than the southwestern chowder. not too heavy (it was actually a lot more watery than you would think by just looking at it). lots of flavor. i really liked it.

the new england chowder was good. kyle actually didnt let me have too much of it since he inhaled it. his thoughts: good chowder. hits the spot on a nice cold day. the best chowder he has ever had? no (he loves the chowder at lure and stands by his choice). but this one is pretty dang good and worth a try.

Pike Place Chowder
1530 Post Alley
(between Pike Pl & Pine St)
Seattle, WA 98101
Neighborhood: Downtown

By fabliss | October 7th, 2013 | Food, Photography, Restaurants, Seattle, Travel | 1 Comment

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