I met up with an old colleague in Bellevue to grab a bite and some refreshment. Bellevue is a big ass city on its own, it hardly seems like a suburb. There’s a huge shopping area called Bellevue Square so we headed there and ended up at Earls. I remember running around this area earlier this year, literally, because we had to do this scavenger hunt for work, and we ran our asses off in bellevue. Man, did my feet hurt. So anyway, Earls! It’s a canadian chain. The Bellevue location is ginormous. The bar is ginormous and square. That’s where we sat. There are tons of high-tops, booths, and countless tables. It boggled my mind. We were there for happy hour so we had the white peach bellini, which was the special cocktail. It was made with appleton estate vx rum, natural peach syrup, peach liqueur, and sparkling white wine. This thing was big and strong! A good value!
As for my proper dinner, I got the West Coast Prawn Salad. There was a lot going on in this! So we have organic greens, spinach, avocado, strawberries, quinoa, julienne carrots, candied pecans, and warm sauteed prawns in a citrus honey vinaigrette. There was supposed to be feta cheese but I had them leave it out. This was a decent salad! The ingredients, for the most part, were fresh. It wasn’t like mindblowingly awesome or anything, but I enjoyed it. The prawns were big and well cooked but see how they look so plain? That’s how they tasted. I think if they’d grilled them it would have been even better. We sat at the bar so the service was ok. They were nice enough but not that attentive. It’s one of those places where if I’d worn a tight low-cut top, they would have probably been nicer to me. So the scene at Earls isn’t exactly my type of thing, but for what it was, it served its purpose. But I think it’s a bit too big and showy for me. I prefer my spots to be a bit more intimate and less big and shiny. It’s affordable though, so that’s a plus.

My company isn’t located in Seattle proper, sadly, we’re way up north in the burbs. Some of my colleagues wanted to go eat at Bonefish Grill, but I was not interested. I mean really though, there’s nothing wrong with Bonefish Grill, I have eaten there and liked it, but I’m in Seattle. I’m not going to go eat somewhere I can go to at home. So I roamed around a little bit and drove to nearby Mill Creek to N’Joy Sushi & Roll. It’s in one of those newer fancy stripmalls. The place is pretty sizeable and has a big sushi bar in the middle. It’s also a korean-run sushi spot.
I started with a sunomono salad. I don’t know why I love this so much, but I just do. It’s just thinly sliced cucumbers with a little vinegar based marinade along with some imitation crab meat and a shrimp. It’s just one of my favorite things to order. I like vinegary things and this sunomono was particularly good. And I love how sesame seeds add that little bit of nuttiness. Having a good fresh cucumber helps. There’s nothing worse than an old soggy mushy cucumber, or one with a thick waxy peel. This cucumber was just perfect.
Even though it was fairly hot out, I was still wanting some noodles. So I got the nabeyaki udon, which is served in this nabe, or metal cauldron like thing. It had some random seafood and veggies inside. I was so surprised by the excellent broth. The broth is key and sometimes you get really bland broth and sometimes you just get ok broth. This broth was great! It had enough flavor and I could tell it was made from scratch. I actually found some bonito flakes inside the broth so I was happy to know it wasn’t powdered. Overall, the udon was surprisingly good.
This seems like a place where crazy rolls rule the joint. Their menu has an extensive list, complete with pictures, of the many wacky and creative sushi rolls they serve. I wanted to at least try one so I got the mango roll, which was a special of the day. This thing was just way too much. I think it had shrimp tempura and avocado on the inside, and was topped with salmon, mango, mango sauce, tobiko, poppy seeds (!?!?), and a bunch of squirts of random sauces. Whoa. It was actually too sweet and there was just way too much going on. I think if they just left the mango sauce out and just went with the slice mango, it would have been much more tolerable. But all of the stuff slopped on top was just overkill. Sweet, sweet, overkill. Service was good and everyone was friendly. I didn’t have to wait very long for my food at all. The proprietors are quite friendly and it seems like there are lots of regulars here. I think it’s a nice spot in the northern burbs for some affordable japanese fare.

We had a company wide dinner my last night in Seattle at the Purple Cafe in Bellevue.  It’s a fancy schmancy local chain. We had a little party room over to the side and there was a special menu for us on little clipboards. It was freakin adorable. There was wine and some signature cocktails and a few appetizers – some mini crab cakes and a variety of dips, like hummus and white bean dip.

We had a choice of house or caesar salad and I went with the house green salad. It came with an apple cider vinaigrette and this salad was amazing! Everyone agreed that this salad was delicious. I mean it was just greens and a few cherry tomatoes and barely a slice of cucumber, but I just loved it.

We had a few entree choices, and as you may have guessed, I picked the seared mediterranean sea bass. It was served in a saffron broth with fingerling potatoes, olive oil poached fennel, and white and purple pearl onions. Um… I can’t even get into how good this damn dish was. Like seriously, it was too damn good. It was a huge, perfect, and flaky hunk of sea bass, perfectly seared. I mean it was so fresh and cooked just right that it would have been amazing without any seasoning or sauce of any kind. The fennel and the little onions were perfect complements. I literally left nothing on the plate. As if I hadn’t eaten in days. And I could have eaten it all over again.

If you give me a dessert menu, I will most likely pick creme brulee.  They actually had a pumpkin variety, but I went with my plain and boring vanilla. It was so teeny and cute and good. All in all, a surprisingly delicious meal! The service was quite fine considering how many people they were dealing with. And the wait for the food wasn’t super excruciating, but we did have to wait a bit. They treated us very well!