elswinger

I had a much better experience at Matador than you did I guess. There was a bit of a wait because, frankly, it's a meat market, but the Carne Asada I had was great, as was my friend's Carnitas Tacos. My steak was cooked the way I like it and the poblano mashed-potatoes were perfect. The waitress was just the right amount of friendly and I thought I got my money's worth. I will definatly go back, but I'll probably pick a Tuesday or Thursday night instead of Saturday.

I like is Gordita's in Greenwood and Ooba Tooba's in Redmond. Gordita's is "healthy" Mexican food but you couldn't tell by eating it. It's great! They have a great Carne Asada and their burritos are huge!! I've only been to Ooba's once because I don't have a car, but if it were conveniantly located in Seattle I'd eat there everyday. I had a great pork taco with pineapple salsa.

Though I have yet to find a taqueria in Seattle as good as La Taqueria in the San Francisco Mission District, Burrito Loco in U-Village is one of my favorites up here. They have a very good Carne Asada taco.

I thought Tutta Bella was very good, but it is also very small and not suited for large parties, unless you convinced the owners to rent out the whole place for a night. Do you (or anyone else) know of any other wood-fire pizza places in Seattle? I understand that both Palamino and Tulio switched to gas, so I think that leaves Tutta Bella, Cafe Lago, Pazzo's, and La Vita E' Bella (Tutta Bella and Palamino the only ones I've tried).

I'm sorry for the confusion. I'm sure it was part of the same California chain. I meant original location, before it moved to West Olympia and changed to gas (then changed to Dirty Dave's Pizza). The original location in Olympia had a wood fired oven. Whether any of the California ones did in the 1960's and 1970's I don't know. But I did love the crust. It was thin and crispy.

The original one in Olympia did until it burned down in the early 1980's. They also had a player piano and showed Road Runner cartoons on the wall.

I will finally be trying Cafe Lago for dinner tomorrow night (had they been open for lunch I would have tried them long ago). I hope their pizza is as great as I've heard. Tutta Bella is good but it's a long busride for someone who lives in Wedgewood (my present home) or Ballard (my future home). It finally dawned on me why I couldn't find any pizza as good as what I used to eat as a kid in Lacey (at Luigi's Pizzaria and Shakeys). It is the wood fired oven! You can't get a good, thin, crispy crust cooking on wire racks in a gas oven. I was hoping to check out Cafe lago's menu online before hand but for some reason the Amazon menu site doesn't have any menus anymore.

I've only eaten at Burgerville and In&Out once each, about four years ago when returning from the Rose Bowl. I thought In&Out was very good, what McDonalds used to be when I was a kid, and Burgerville was good also, but nowhere worth the raves my travelling partner said it would be. I didn't think it was that much different than Kidd Valley in Seattle. Persoanlly I like the L.A. (and now Redmond) chain Fatburger better. Their portions are Red Robin size, but cheaper, and they have steak fries too. I just wish one was in Ballard.

If I'm waiting a long time to meet up with friends I'll go to any of the Tully's because they have comfortable leather chairs. But if I want good "independent" coffee I'll head up the hill to Bauhaus or B&O (home of the best chocalate chip cookies on earth).