Mucho Bueno

We went to Much Bueno on the recomendation of the Renton Hipster And, well, RO's margarita ended up having chips of glass in it. Aside from that, the food was good, plenyful and well priced.

The Fin and Bone

A very good restaurant-- seafood and steak house. We had great service.

As usual, Mark ran into martini problems. His martini came back warm. He did complain, but he saw the bartender put his old martini over old ice and a used shaker.

But... good service story... the waiter saw that Mark still wasn't happy with his Martini, so he got Mark a new Martini, and then asked why.

El Guacho vs the Melrose Grill

Let me start off by saying that I have had many great meals at the Melrose Grill. The steaks are excellent, the drinks are large and the service is friendly and efficient. I will go to the Melrose Grill again and again and I will always enjoy myself.

Then there is El Gaucho. El Gaucho is an A list restaurant in the middle of Belltown. Celebreties dine at El Gaucho and for good reason. The food and service are exceptional.

All staff are in tuxedos and they prepare your salads at your table. They bend over backwards to ensure you enjoy yourself. They have great pacing. You receive constant service without being rushed-- you feel like the table is yours for the night.

The food at El Gaucho is excellent-- large, very well prepared portions. Tasty and fresh ingredients. They end your meal with a fruit and cheese plate-- we had an excellent and large wedge of blue cheese.

So, comparing El Gaucho to the Melrose is a bit odd. But, it highlightes the dynamics of Seattle. And those dynamics have a direct effect on me-- I own a home decore in Kent-- a very nice home decore store in a city that A list Seattle would look down upon.

In Seattle, gap between rich a poor, or for that matter between rich and middle class is more prounounced than most cities. Thanks to boom in the 90's, companies like Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks have turned tens of thousands of people into millionares and a half dozen or so into billionares. The result is a vibrant and pricy city.

So then, what about those of use who aren't poor, but still have to work for our money? We have three choices. Go deeply into debt to have a nice house or Condo in Seattle. Rent. Or live in the Burbs.

And that's where Renton comes in.

more later...

The Red House

Another great restaurant. It serves tasty tapas and excellent hand made desserts.

More importantly, they sell wine at retail plus a $5.00 corking fee. Let me repeat that. They sell wine at retail plus a $5.00 corking fee. I love having a good bottle of wine with my dinner that doesn't double the bill.

The chef and owner, Gino, is very friendly. When we questioned the waiter about one of our dishes, he passed the question on to Gino. Gino came out and told us all about our food-- the ingrediants and the recipies.

Melrose Grill

The Melrose Grill is my favorite steak house. It's in a restored saloon that's been around since 1901.

The Melrose is part of the revitalizaton of Renton. All around it the buildings look run down. It's on a quiet street with no foot traffic-- if you didn't know about it, you wouldn't eat there.

But then you go in. It will be full of people and the wonderful smell of food. The steaks are excellent. The martini's are great. They have many interesting beers on tap.

Good Stuff.

Oliver's is in Seattle. Very nice. Kind of pricy. Their Martini's are $8.00 a pop and on the small side.

On the plus side everything, drinks and food, tasted great.

Casa Durango

Even though we've been going to Casa Durango for months, I didn't know the name until last night. We've always called it "The good margarita place." and it does.

It also has good simple mexican food and mexican kareoke on Friday nights.

Good stuff.

The Muckleshoot Casino

Sure it's out of the way, full of cigarette smoke and you'll loose money in the slots while you are waiting in line for dinner. But, for $17.50, the all you can eat buffet at the Muckleshoot is a great deel. It has Dungeness crab and prime rib. Enough said.

Thai on Hilands.

Sunset Blvd in Renton is odd. Much of Renton is being gentrified. Many of the crappiest streets are close to trendy coffee shops and great restaurants.

Sunset isn't there yet. It's full of run down strip malls, closed stores, plaza churches and 2nd hand stores.

Tonight on Sunset, Mark noticed a hidden plaza behind a plaza whose largest tenants are a dollar store and a closed fabric store. We drove through the hidden plaza. There was a computer and copy shop, a day care center, a plaza church, and the "VIP Spa," whose windows are covered with black garbage bags. What's that about?

We drove out to the front plaza and peaked into the window of the closed fabric store. The sign said "Closed, but knock if you are interested"

Some homeless looking people were milling about.

Near where we parked was Thai on Hiland. We looked in. The customers looked normal. Since it was dinner time, we decided to give it a try.

Marc noted that the place looked like a repainted 'Skippers'-- the square booths and boxy windows. Every booth had a statuette of a puppy leaning over a "Welcome" sign.

We ordered 2 stars spicy, but the food was a bit too hot for Marks taste. We had the fresh rolls, the chicken pad Thai and a grilled prawn salad. The food was good, but not great. The ambiance was nice but not outstanding. In short, I don't regret going to Thai in Hiland, but I won't rush to go back.

I have this theory that the crappier a Mexican place looks, the better the food. The peak of Mexican cuisine would come from an illegal taco stand in a broken down buss on the side of the road.

Don't laugh. These places actually exist. The illegal taco stand on Rainier here in Seattle is great. Over the next few months I will review these places, and let you know the results.

Nasai Teriyaki

Ryan and I are close to concluding our tour of Redmond Teriyaki joints. After the Nasai, we only know of one more. Nasai was a good, if dull, penultimate meal.

Ambiance: Strip mall teriyaki joint; white tile ceilings; big lanterns that hung too low-- I bonked my head on one. The place was clean. The bathroom was clean. Sigh. I long for some excitement in teriyaki ambiance.

Seating: Ample. There were about a dozen booths and tables. The place was just about full as we left.

Beverages: A full line of Snapple, and two diet Cokes. Yawn. Been there, done that.

Quantity: Large quantity. Chicken special came with four gyoza.

Price: Chicken with gyoza was $4.95; as was Ryans’ Chicken without gyoza or salad.

Presentation: Clean plate with a pattern.

Blow Out: None! Is it just me, or is my digestive system adjusting to Teriyaki. I haven’t had a teriyaki blowout is so long. I’m bitter.

Bathroom: Clean. Boring.

Biggest disappointment. The art was normal. The pink lamps were odd, although they went well with Ryan's hair. The menu contained some good engrish phrases, but my camera blurred the picture up too much to read.

Taste: "It exploded in my mouth." Nasai conforms to the generally accepted teriyaki taste. Actually, I think the vat was fresh when we were served; Nasai is conformant plus.

e-Teriyaki

With a name like e-Teriyaki, my expectations were high. How could the restaurant taste as good as it's name implied?

Ambiance: Strip mall teriyaki joint that only used the equipment of previous owners-- "Hey look, this closed Japanese Restuarent left everything behind. I've got it! We can open a Teriyaki joint!"

Seating. Ample. There were about a dozen booths and tables. We were the only ones there.

Beverages: A full line of Snapple, and two diet Cokes. Ryan had to zip next door to the 7-11 to get a bottle of real coke. To be fair, as we were leaving, they brought in several cases of pop.

Quantity. Large quantity. They did not serve goyza. Ryan ordered without the salad, and got an extra scoop of rice.

Price: A bit expensive, but well worth it, especially considering the large quantity. The #1 was $5.25. Chicken-Beef combo was $6.45

Presentation: The food was presented on overlarge white china plates. The plates dwarfed the food, and made you think you were getting less than you actually did.

Blow Out: I thought there was going to be one, but it never happened. I'm suprised-- the Teriyaki sauce was so rich and... well... whatever it is teriyaki sauce is.

Bathroom: Is home to wonderful large plastic plant, and a step stool.

Biggest dissapointment. With a name like e-Teriyaki, you'd think they'd be in touch with the whole net thing, yet I found this: "Online order is not available at this time. Please order by fax, e-mail or phone.Thanks". Bah! Another bait and switch marketing ploy.

Taste: "It exploded in my mouth." e-Teriyaki conforms to the generally accepted teriyaki taste.

Truly worthy of a re-visit.

Plaza 520 Deli.

Ambiance: The Plaza 520 is a fusion of Teriyaki, Deli, Espresso and Quickie Mart. It's a little corner store that has some wooden booths and a small restaurant.. The staff is very friendly. When we entered, the guy behind the counter shouted “Would you like the chicken teriyaki lunch special!” at us. When we left he asked us where we worked. They have extra large napkin dispensers that take up one third of your booth table.

Seating: 4 wooden booths. Each booth comes with an extra large napkin dispenser that takes about one quarter of the table

Bathroom: The bathroom was the expected bathroom/storage closet combo. The toilet paper dispenser broke, so they tied the toilet paper rolls to a hand railing next to the toilet.

Beverages: Hey, it’s also a corner store. They had many beverages, including a full line of Snapple’s.. They also had fountain pop.

Quantity: They did not server goyza. The salad had a heap of dressing that was a meal unto its self..

Price: A bit expensive, the chicken lunch special was $5.99

Presentation: The food was presented on a tasteful disposable tray.

Blow Out*: No. It felt like it was going to happen, but it didn’t foment.

Taste: The chicken tasted different that conformant teriyaki chicken. We couldn't decide if it was good chicken or bad chicken, just that it was different. This joint isn't your regular vat teriyaki spot. Plaza 520 Deli puts an interesting new spin on "Conforming Teriyaki."
Comments: No beef/chicken combo.

Ryan said it best. "This spot is the underdog that you want to root for."

Yummy Teriyaki.

Seating: About a dozen clean comfy spots.

Beverages: A full line of Snapple’s and fountain pop.

Quantity: Acceptable. No Goyza. Ryan got extra rice when he said he didn’t want a side salad.

Ambiance: Clean, suburban, strip mall fast food. Some of the server people were not Asian. The difference between this Teriyaki restaurant and a regular Teriyaki spot is like the difference between Mc Donald’s and Dicks.

Bathroom: Clean, suburban, strip mall bathroom.

Price: Average.

Presentation: Nice plates.

Taste. The salad was shredded into hair like strips. There as no dressing.

Tokyo Oh!

Seating: More than a dozen tables.

Quantity: Below Average. Only 2 pot stickers.

Beverages: Full line of Snapple’s. Fountain Pop.

Ambiance: Well Lit. Clean.

Price: The Beef/Chicken Combo was $5.95

Presentation: Bland. All food was on a white, large plate.

Taste: Tokyo Oh! teriyaki conforms to the generally accepted teriyaki taste.

Blow Out*: Yes. 20 minutes.

Acacia Teriyaki

Seating: 4 tables plus a window bar

Quantity Average: 3 pot stickers

Beverages: Snapple. Canned Pop. Fruit Juices.

Ambiance: Well Lit. Clean.

Price: Average The Beef/Chicken Combo was 5.50

Taste: Acacia Teriyaki conforms to the generally accepted teriyaki taste.

Blow Out: Yes. 90 minutes

Niko Teriyaki

Niko Teriyaki is the original Redmond-Teriyaki-that-makes-you-go-for-a-shit. Ryan and Jason have been talking (raving? bitching?) about it for years. Ryan and Jen actually buy their teriyaki sauce from Niko. That last time they bought a bottle, the waitress, grabbed a half empty bottle from a table, filled it up, and then gave it to my favourite teriyaki loving couple.

Seating: 4 tables.

Ambiance: A storage closet with tables. Shelf paper substitutes for wall paper. The bathroom actually is a storage closet. Ryan insists that in the past Niko has stored food in the the bathroom. Unfortunalty none was there during our visit. Instead the toilet was bunkmates with crates of "Puppy Love 2000" calendars.

Beverages: Full line of Snapple’s and bottled pop.

Quantity: Above Average. Pot stikers were not included. Niko loses brownie points for that. The lunch special included goyza. Perhaps a revisit is waranted.

Price: The chicken was $4.59

Presentation: Ruined by the lack of seating. Ryan and I had to order take out. Fortunatly some people were leaving just as we received our food. So we got to eat in Niko, but from foam take-out boxes.

Taste: Niko Teriyaki conforms to the generally accepted teriyaki taste.

Blow Out: Double. Once at 30 minutes once at 60 minutes.


* Teriyaki is high in salt. This concentrated salt affects your digestive system. One other product that contains salt and that produces a similar affect to Teriyaki is Ex-lax.