kieran

I've never been there either, but it's been recommended to me by a friend who works in the area and has lunch there often. I consider him to be a reliable source of food-related information in general but without any deli-specific expertise. If you go, please post a report!

Thanks so much to everyone for all these great replies. I feel like I've really been underutilizing these places, especially considering that I only live a mile or two away from so many of them. I think it's time to undertake a detailed study.

Thanks for posting the link! Inspired by my own question, I brought the s.o. and some friends to have Ethiopian food tonight. We went to Meskel and enjoyed it, particularly the lamb dishes and the legumes. I think we'll be going back, but I'm still interested in hearing further recommendations if people have them. Tighe, as for injera bread: I'm a bread addict and it's not my favorite, either, at least not on its own. But the slight sourness and spongy texture work really well in absorbing the flavors of the rest of the food. That injera on which all the food is placed makes some seriously good eating after the rest of the food has disappeared. It definitely shouldn't be bland and flavorless. I ate Ethiopian food often when I lived in West Philadelphia, as there were lots of good options in the neighborhood, but it's one of those cuisines that I haven't found myself seeking out a whole lot since coming to Seattle. I think that needs to change.

It seems like all the threads I start concern ethnicity-specific cuisine these days, but this time I'm looking for a good Ethiopian restaurant for dinner. I know there are several places in the Central District but I don't know which ones are good. Any suggestions? Thanks! Kieran

Hard to believe, but in my two and a half years in Seattle, all in Capitol Hill, I hadn't gotten around to trying Cafe Lago until tonight. It's been on our to-try list for some time, and we were finally wooed in by the Dinner at Eight promotion going on right now. Short version: we were very happy, and plan to go back to sample other things from the menu. Long version: to start we shared the blue cheese salad and the roasted eggplant. We really enjoyed both of these and felt that the roasted eggplant was especially tasty. The blue cheese dressing was really delicious, but I would have liked it if the salad had been more evenly tossed. The dressing was really concentrated in one location and there were several leaves without any dressing at all. After some tossing at the table, however, it was really very good. For the main course we shared a Neopolitan pizza and the pappardelle. The pizza was good but the pasta was better. The pizza made me long for the pizza at Otto in NYC. The pasta dish had me totally satisfied with the dish itself. It was well sauced with exquisitely cooked ingredients and the pasta was perfectly al dente. For dessert we shared the truffle cake and the cheesecake, both of which were good but not as good as the preceding courses. We'll definitely be returning, and often.

Nadia! I am very crafty. OBfood: another thing I miss about Philadelphia is the food trucks. If there were food trucks near where I worked now they'd make an absolute fortune.

So I hear! We were staying with mrbigjas and mrsbigjas the night you went to Fuji. I heard the completely delicious detailed account. It did sound awfully good.

I have heard good things about Sagami, but I haven't been there myself. It's on our list next time we roll through town, probably around the holidays. In general it's hard for me to take time to have sushi in Philly, since I get such excellent stuff here and there's a lot of stuff there that I miss that I can't have here. So I tend to focus on that stuff when I'm in town. K.

Awesome! You have made my day. I'm seriously pumped.

Awww Mulcahy now I miss Philly eats bigtime. I love my current food city (Seattle), where I moved two and a half years ago. I love the seafood and the plethora of superb East Asian places, especially Japanese food. I've never had sushi in Philly like I get here even at mediocre places. But... the pretzels! Reading Terminal! Ethiopian food! Hole in the wall joints in South Philly! And as Katie said, the sandwiches! Koch's! What I wouldn't give for a good Jewish deli. WON'T SOMEONE PLEASE THINK OF THE JEWISH DELI? Glad to hear you had a good inaugural visit. Thanks for the recap -- nice foodie nostalgia for me.

Cedars is better than I expected it to be. I think the kitchen may suffer a little from fragmentation -- doing two cuisines makes it hard to do a really great job with either, but it's not bad. I think they're more successful with their Indian food than with their Middle Eastern food, and I enjoy their naan a great deal. It's one of those places that I would rarely think of going for a meal, but if other people want to go I have no objection to going along.

Thanks for referring me to the thread. I checked it out and now I'm excited to check out the place in Kent. One of our good friends here is Punjabi and I'm looking forward to seeing what he thinks of it. Any other good places, I'd love to hear them.

Thanks for the reply. I know and enjoy the Savoy buffet for lunch and I think it's a good buffet. I should have clarified that I'm looking more for a non-buffet dinner place. I've actually never ordered a la carte there since I've always been there for buffet lunches with co-workers. Maybe I'll give it a try. Kieran

I'm not Indian, but I grew up eating very good Indian food at the homes of friends of mine whose parents were remarkably good cooks, and it spoiled me. I've lived in Seattle for two and a half years and I work on the eastside, and I've found several places with solidly mediocre Indian food, but I have yet to discover anywhere really transcendent. My favorite place so far has been Udupi Palace, the vegetarian place on the eastside, but I'm trying to find some other options. I'm open to both North Indian and South Indian places. I just want some place where I'll get good food and if possible minimal white-girl-ifying (i.e. the automatic downgrading of my spice preference to mild... I understand why it happens, but this white girl likes it hot). So what about it? Do any of you have places in particular that you'd recommend? Kieran

Two words: split pea soup. Made with ham hock and chipotle. MMMMMMMMM.

Okay, got around to trying Lola last night. All four of us were a bit disappointed. Summary: little was really wrong, but little was really right. It was... okay. We started with the spread sampler where we found quality to be mixed. We generally liked the creamy feta, the tsatsiki, and the eggplant, and we found we roasted red pepper and especially the carrot to be lackluster. The griddled pita was great -- too bad there wasn't nearly enough of it to go with the (not particularly generous) portions of spreads. Just charge me more and throw in more pita, for goodness sake (instead of making me order more later). We moved on Jackie's Greek salad, dolmades, pork kebobs with harissa and honey, and mushroom kebobs. I liked the meze more than I liked the kebobs. I thought the dolmades were particularly good -- the hint of coriander worked well. The much vaunted Greek salad was good, the feta topping it was creamy and delicious, and it looked beautiful. For $9 I would have liked a little more of it. The pork kebobs were okay, but the mushroom kebobs were very disappointing. The mushrooms were very dry and not very flavorful. For our main meal we shared the mixed seafood tagine and the roast rabbit, complemented by the horta (escarole and chard) and the fried garlic potatoes. Everyone agreed that the potatoes were superb and the mixed seafood tagine was also very good -- excellent seafood simply prepared. The horta was okay but not very interesting. Our group was split on the rabbit, with one person really liking it and the rest of us disappointed. I thought the rabbit itself was very dry, but the broth it was in was light and flavorful. At the behest of one of our party we tried some of their house wine that is apparently made especially for them. Both white and red were drinkable but unremarkable, so I don't have much more to say about the wine. The wine list looked reasonably interesting. For dessert we shared the doughnuts and the goat's milk pie. Doughnuts were okay and goat's milk pie was wonderful (but again, at $7 a pop it would have been nice to have a little bit more). We didn't have the service problems that everyone else is talking about, although we did have a very long gap between our meze/kebob course and our main course. The place was way too noisy, as everyone has said. All in all I thought it was okay, but for the same money we could have had a truly fabulous meal at several other places around town. I'd go along on group expeditions in the future, but otherwise I don't plan on returning any time soon. There are too many better places to eat.

I've lived in Philadelphia and London and spent a lot of time in NYC (grew up right outside it). I've lived in Seattle now for just over two years, and I'd say that it's about on par with Philadelphia as far as foodieness goes: really good at some stuff, with some glaring holes (as pointed out, pizza and a good Jewish deli are two big lacks here in Seattle -- and that makes this east coast girl sad). What you don't have so much in a place like New York are the glaring holes: for most cuisines and styles of food, you can get some of it done well and some of it done *really* well. I like living here, culinarily. I like that I can get some form of fresh regional produce almost all the time, and I like the good fish. I like the proliferation of Asian restaurants, and I like the great values that other people have cited. I like that most everywhere here is laid back and informal, especially compared to New York or San Francisco or London. All in all it's a very good place to live and eat.

After all this chitchat about taquerias I went and tried Rinconsito for lunch today (the one on the eastside). It was good, but I think I ordered the wrong thing (pollo ranchero platter). Both of my lunch partners got more standard taco/sopes taco truck fare, and I think I'll go with that next time. Always nice to expand my workday lunch options for days I don't bring from home!

Hi Mario, love your restaurants and your show. I'm currently living in Seattle, which I know is near where you grew up. It's a great food town. I'm wondering if you have any local favorites, Italian or otherwise. (I already know about and love Salumi!) Thanks for the great recipes and inspiring approach to fresh, regionally oriented cooking! Kieran

We went and checked it out yesterday. It was a very pleasant shopping experience even though the place was swarmed. I was very impressed with the knowledgeable staff and the organization of the store, and the selection and quality of ingredients were about on par with other WFs I've been to before. One feature they don't have that I wish they did: many other WF stores I've shopped at have a sample cheese basket in the cheese section, with small (1-2 oz) servings of a variety of cheeses for sale. I often enjoy trying new cheeses this way without having to spend a ton to figure out what I'll like. The traffic flow in the parking lot yesterday was also pretty unintuitive and poorly organized, but that should level off with time. I live in Seattle, so I suspect that when I want to shop at WF I'll probably stick with the Roosevelt store most of the time, but since I work on the eastside I may visit the Bellevue store while -- you said it! -- waiting out the bridge traffic.

I can't wait to try this place. I live less than a mile away so I have no real excuse for not having given it a shot so far. If I may ask, what time were you there? I'd like to go at an offbeat time if it's packed during conventional lunch hours... and I'd like to go before I start a job on the eastside in a week and a half.

That's pretty much how I feel. It's a different kind of brunch with solid food that's a few blocks from where I live. I'm all about the Mexican breakfast. You inviting us over?

Galeria's on Broadway does a nice Sunday brunch. There's a range of good entrees and it's served with Mexican pastries and fruit. At $7.25, it's a great deal. We like Glo's in Capitol Hill for a very tasty diner breakfast/brunch, but if you go on the weekend, expect to wait a while unless you go very early or very late. It's worth calling ahead to put your name on the list if you're going during normal brunch hours.

I'm glad you liked it. I think the Savoy is very good for a buffet. Of course, at the end of the day, a buffet is still a buffet, and if what you're after is truly exquisite Indian food there are better ways to get it. But sometimes a good Indian buffet really hits the spot!

I lived in Philadelphia for ten years before moving to Seattle and every so often I develop an insatiable longing for a good hot soft pretzel from Reading Terminal market. MANOMANOMAN they are delicious. Fortunately I go back to Philly to visit friends a couple of times a year so I can get my pretzel fix on. If you haven't tasted them you just can't imagine how good they are. That said, I agree with Kiliki's observation that there is something wonderful about regional variation in available food choices.