Monday - Harmon's Brewery and Restaurant, Tacoma. This place is below where I get my hair cut and I've always wanted to try it but I'm not much for dining alone and parking in this part of town is limited so I've never had time to check it out. We went for a late lunch so parking wasn't too bad and we ended up sharing an Ortega Turkey Melt and Parmesan Fries. I don't usually love fries but these were exceptional. Miles had a burger, tater tots and Oreos. This would be a great place to go with a group especially during happy hour when some of their large appetizers (including a pizza, burger, a giant hummus platter) are $5. (Mon 3 to close and T-Fri 3-6)
Tuesday - The Bread Peddler, Olympia. We always drive by this place on the way to the farmer's market and it is always full. When Sunset magazine featured it it only made me want to try it that much more. The place had more patrons than seating and when you did get a seat the tables were teeny tiny. I might try it again when I am not third-trimester huge. We got a croque monsieur and clam chowder. The food was tasty. It just wasn't an altogether pleasant experience.
That evening Ben got in on the gluttony fest when he and I escaped for a quick date which took us back to downtown Tacoma and landed us at El Gaucho steakhouse. A place he had heard good things about. The atmosphere is very cool - dark and fancyish - with live piano music and meat and desserts being flambed all around. Luckily we arrived during happy hour which gave us the chance to order off of the "bar bites" menu which was half price. And when a sandwich is $28 you can definitely appreciate the discount. We ordered the steak sandwich and the scallops and prawn linguine. I would get the sandwich again but not the pasta - it was just okay - but I forgot all about it when we ordered the most delicious banana bread pudding.
Wednesday - As masculine and swarthy as El Gaucho was, the place we tried today was all sugar and spice and I don't think Ben would dare enter Steeped in Comfort - "a quaint tea room and gift shop", although he might want me to bring him home a scone - they were super light and delicious with devonshire cream, fresh lemoncurd and raspberry jam served along side it - not dry at all. My mom noticed that Miles became much more "male" when we went here. An involuntary reaction to the flowers and lace I guess. I had soup and a sandwich and a pot of tea complete with a cozy and although I wasn't blown away it was a very satisfying and comforting meal that I would enjoy experiencing again. It would be a fun place to take a group of girls (young or old) for a proper tea experience.
Thursday - On a recommendation from my dental hygienist we headed to Marcia's Silver Spoon cafe for breakfast - a diner known for it's ultra large portions. I'm pretty sure they used an entire bag of potatoes for our hashbrowns. Because I was feeling brave and wanted to try their special, I ordered the oyster omelet. It was good. If you like oysters. We also got a side of biscuits and gravy, one of my favorite things. They were decent. I would go here again once my appetite returns, if it ever returns. Service was great especially considering there was one waitress for the entire diner.
Thurday evening we took the kids to the Burke museum at UW. It was a toss up between the Museum of Flight and Burke as both are free on the first Thursday of the month. If we went to the Boeing museum I was hoping to try Randy's restaurant - and I still want to - but I just couldn't do two diners in one day after the giant breakfast at Marcia's. So instead we just took the kids to Beechers at Pike Place for some mac n cheese.
Friday - This is the day I had been waiting for all week. I woke up at 4:45am and couldn't get back to sleep in anticipation. The restlessness probably had more to do with needing to study for my real estate exam but I was very excited for the burger I was going to have at Lunchbox Laboratory in Ballard. I was so glad it wasn't a disappointment. I ended up ordering the Dork (duck, pork and I read somewhere a little pepperoni) 101 which had grilled onions, gruyere and I'm not sure really what else. It may have been the best burger I have ever had (and for $14 it had better be right?) but I'm not going to claim that until I have tried it again. I also had a smores shake which was pretty good but mostly I got it for Miles. Here's a fun photo collection someone has of each of their visits to the restaurant. Don't go there if you are hungry though. It is tortuous.
Photo by Drew McKenzie, The StrangerSaturday - We finished off the week with a trip to Mama Stortini's and where we have had a couple of good meals before and unfortunately this time we just simply ordered wrong. We did the family feast for four intending to taste a variety of pastas and entrees. The salads that came with it were probably the best part but the rest was not up to par with what we had had before. Miles ate his weight in bread and butter though so it was worth it. Plus we had leftovers.
3 comments:
wow! i'm surprised you want to eat anything when we came over on sunday!
i didn't realize you were taking the real estate exam...now you can help us buy a house :)
i'm still sad i didn't win the contest, but i'll get up there somehow.
sounds like you're in the middle of food heaven! wish i was:)
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