Seattle Restaurant Week

My recent Seattle trip happened to coincide with the first part of Seattle Restaurant Week (SRW), where local restaurants entice diners out of their normal routines with 3-course dinners for $30.

SRW goes through Thursday, October 29, so if you’re in Seattle, you can still join in!

1. Check out the full list of 165 participating restaurants on the SRW site. You can sort by neighborhood, dietary restrictions, etc. Click on your restaurant of choice for location and menu information (subject to change).
2. Ask for the SRW menu at the restaurant. It may only be available by request and may differ from what’s listed online.
3. Look for lunch. Many (but not all) SRW restaurants also offer lunch menus with 2 courses for $15.

Elliott’s

SRW recommended Elliott’s Oyster House, located right on the Seattle Waterfront, near Pike Place Market.

Really, it felt like a bit more of a touristy joint than I may have chosen on my own. But (a) I do like to eat seafood when I’m actually on a coast, (b) sometimes even the touristy locations can surprise you, and (c) SRW offered to pick up the tab.

So I thought it was worth a shot. And it was. The food was good and so was the view. You can see Puget Sound from just about any table inside or out on the patio.

Phillip’s sister Liz (along with her two boys) braved the traffic/parking to drive us. I think both situations are currently worse than usual, due to some city project that has put a gaping canyon of construction directly in front of the restaurant. (Don’t worry, there’s a bridge.)

Oysters

When you walk into Elliott’s, you see bins and bins of different varieties of oysters. So many. And they change up the selection seasonally.

The oysters remain intact and unshucked until ordered. Fortunately, the staff includes some fast shuckers.

Menu

Oysters are not on Elliott’s Restaurant Week menu. Maybe it’s a cost thing. Maybe they just want people to branch out and try some of their other offerings.

Their SRW menu included other types of seafood that aren’t in the name of the restaurant, as well as beef and vegetarian dishes. The day we were there the offerings varied a bit from what was online. So Phillip, Liz, and I perused our options, while the boys set to work coloring their sea-life-themed kids’ menus with those cool triangular crayons that don’t roll off the table.

One nephew decided to color the fish and everything around them blue.

I asked him “Is it all blue because they’re underwater?”

He looked exasperated and simply said, “no.” Then went back to coloring.

Sometimes it’s better not to question art.

The kids’, plates piled high with fish and chips, were served at the same time as our first course, which we all appreciated. (Bringing us food and not the boys would’ve been fun for no. one.)

Liz had a delicious New England style white clam chowder made with a good dose of bacon. I had coconut prawns on top of a mango salsa. The prawns were crispy and coconutty yet kind of needed the accompanying Thai chili sauce to complete them.

For the second course, I ordered the blackened trout salad. While the fish wasn’t cooked the way I’d expected, it wasn’t bad. It was served under a salad of mixed greens, walnuts, and apples, so that (literally) covered any minor flaws.

Phillip thoroughly enjoyed his salmon reuben, and Liz had a really good steak sandwich.

Lunch is not a contest. But I think Liz won.

Near to Elliott’s:

• Argosy Sightseeing Cruises is actually in the same building.
• Seattle Aquarium is a short walk. If you’re visiting both, you can get a combo Argosy/Aquarium ticket. They’re also both part of the Seattle CityPass.
• Seattle Great Wheel
• Pike Place Market
• Seattle Art Museum
• Olympic Sculpture Park (about 1.1 mile away)

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Thank you to Seattle Restaurant Week for the Elliott’s gift card. We also received CityPasses from Visit Seattle.