Seattlest: Dishin': Passing through Chinoise

John Tynes

Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:01:39 -0800

I've worked on Queen Anne for five years and lived here for a year and a half. There is fantastic food here, but it's not served cooked: the A&J Meats butcher shop -- yes, an actual butcher shop -- with its accompanying Wild Salmon fresh seafood store are both destination-worthy places for the finest meats and seafood. And Metropolitan Market does a great job with groceries given their size. But restaurants -- ehhh. Paragon and Hilltop Ale House both do high-end pub food nicely, but neither will make you drive across town. Ditto the 5 Spot and Ototo sushi. Then there are the places that are outright bad. Vincenzo's, Pasta Bella, Queen Anne Cafe, Flame, and the latest incarnation of Firefly are all craptacular. I long for Ten Mercer and Crow down in lower Queen Anne. Even Peso's is quite tasty and fun. But up here on the hill, you're much better off cooking for yourself.

john patrick

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 20:29:37 -0800

I was going to try to resist linking to my own rant on fusion and pan-asian cuisine, but then somebody said Wild Ginger, and I couldn't stop myself.

Jay

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:17:14 -0800

Perhaps one day I'll get back to Wild Ginger for the sake of a review. But only reluctantly. I think it's terribly over-rated.

DJ

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:11:23 -0800

While it isn't quite as bland I feel the same way about Wild Ginger. It is all a lot better and cheaper in the ID.

john patrick

Fri, 06 Oct 2006 16:00:58 -0800

Us asian kids do leave the neighborhood for *good* asian restaurants... Chiang's Gourmet immediately comes to mind for Northern style Chinese food. Mmmmm