Monday, March 01, 2010

Anthony's Happy Hour

Time: 3 - 6:30pm
$3 cocktails & beers
$5 glasses of wine

Food: Mostly seafood, ranging from .50 to $5.

Best bets:
.50 cents - The BBQ Oysters were amazing. The raw oysters were good too, the shrimp cocktail was ok - it was already mixed with celery & cocktail sauce. Peel & Eat shrimp were sort of bland and they don't remove the poop vein for you.

$3 - salmon sliders had teeny pieces of salmon with lots of slaw, bread & tartar sauce. But sort of good if you only eat the bottom bun.

$5 - Ahi Nachos & Crab dip were both delicious. Calamari was not good, sort of rubbery.

Did not try the beef sliders or the clams

Friday, December 15, 2006

Rocket Donuts
306 W Holly St (near Old Towne Cafe)
Website

Well my husband is officially in heaven because a donut shop finally opened up downtown. We often walk dowtown for breakfast in the summer, and he always complained that he had to eat silly things like chocolate croissants and breakfast bagels instead of some good 'ol donuts. He can't complain anymore and I can't even whine about missing Top Pot donuts in Seattle, Rocket Donuts is awesome enough for both of us.

They make the donuts fresh in the back and they are usually warm & crispy still at 9am. Everything is delicious, glazed old fashioned, maple bars, blueberry cake donuts....in october they even had a pumpkin creamcheese donut. I think the special this month is some sort of apple/pear donut.

One warning is that these donuts are incredibly rich. They cost more than a supermarket donut, but you only need one (me) or two (hubby) to fill you up. (The fact that our 20 month old son can eat one by himself scares me a little.)

The only trouble we've run into was an apple fritter that was soaked in oil. You could squeeze oil out of each bite, it was pretty gross. I have a feeling that they were still adjusting their recipe since they'd only been open a week. Then again, perhaps Apple Fritters are always this greasy, but usually the oil coagulates before you get around to eating it so you don't notice as much.

This place gets sort of busy, but we've never had a problem getting a table around 9am. The colorful rocket decor keeps little ones mildly entertained, although they don't seem to have any highchairs available so bring your own if you need one.

Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Giuseppes

Giuseppes Italian Restaurant
1414 Cornwall Ave
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 714-9100
Website

We finally wandered into Giuseppes the other night to try one of the last few Italian places in Bellingham we hadn't been to yet.

Giuseppes is newly remodeled and I LOVED the atmosphere. It was cozy and warm feeling, even when the whole place was packed by 6pm. Around that time, they started the live piano music and I was in heaven.

The food at Giuseppes was fine, but once again I just wasn't that excited by it or blown away. It was nothing I couldn't make myself at home and the prices were once again in the $16-$20 range. I had the Shrimp pesto dish. (Linguini alla Bella) It was great pesto and succulent shrimp, but honestly it needed something to cut through all that richness. I added fresh tomatoes to my dish, which helped, but it needed something tangy like lemon or artichoke hearts. My husband had a gorgonzola cream sauce which suffered from the same problem. It needed something light and acidic to balance out the richness of the sauce.

The highlight of the meal was Tiramisu for dessert that I thought was absolutely perfect. My reccomendation if you are on a budget is to eat at home and then go to Giuseppes for wine & Tiramisu on a live piano night to soak up the romantic atmosphere. Otherwise, their pasta is quite good, but for me, not worth the hefty price tag.

Jimmy's House of Orient

I have eaten at this Thai restaurant on Holly Street twice now. The first time the food seemed like decent thai food in a somewhat funky atmosphere. Honestly, I was so amused at the techno beats and tight shirts all the waiters were wearing that I barely noticed the food. It had the atmostphere of a hip gay hangout instead of an exotic thai house.

I did notice that no one I saw in the restaurant looked even faintly Thai. This was our first attempt at finding a thai place in bellingham since moving from Seattle, where all the great Thai places are obviously run by Thai people. So I overlooked the caucasian males in skin tight shirts, but wasn't thrilled enough to go back.

Fast forward to yesterday.... With a 2 inch coating of ice on the roads and a strong craving for thai food, I started calling around to see who was open. Jimmy's was the only one who answered the phones and I remembered reading that they had won "best takeout" in the one of those newspaper awards thingys.

We didn't have a menu, so I started by asking if they had "pad woonsen". WHAT? No, I don't think so" answered the guy on the phone. Ok, how about "Pad Prik King" (a thai staple) "Phad prik who?" he answered. Finally I just asked for something with meat and plenty of veggies. "Oh, you defnitely want the Holy Basil" he said. That sounded excellent to me since I love fresh basil. Yum.

My husband brought the food home and imagine my dismay when I opened up my Holy Basil and found absolutely no basil whatsoever. Oh no wait, are those little green flecks dried basil? Apparently so.

WHO THE HECK PUTS DRIED BASIL IN A DISH CALLED "HOLY BASIL"??????

Second of all, if they were out of basil, why on earth did he recommend that dish to me? The sauce tasted like chicken broth, soy sauce and red chili flakes. Boring Boring Boring.

Jimmy's, you get a huge, giant thumbsdown. (second only to Blue Fin Sushi)

Callaloo

Callaloo Carribean Kitchen
1212 N State St
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 676-5375

We ate at the new Carribean restaurant downtown a few weeks ago with some friends. I was quite excited to try it since I generally love that sort of exotic thing, but we ended up being underwhelmed. I ordered the house soup special which contained Okra, coconut milk and some other green stuff. Somehow it sounded yummy and healthy on the menu, despite the okra, but in person it just tasted green, like cooked okra. No spices to liven it up and only the faint taste of the coconut milk. I could barely get it down, maybe it was authentic, but it definitely was not what I expected.

Everyone else ordered a pasta special that had prawns, andouille sausage and veggies in a cajun cream sauce. It was pricey, around $16 if I remember right. The taste was fine, the prawns were beautiful, but it was loaded with eggplant which is definitely an acquired taste. Nobody loved it, although it was "ok".

I could see going back to try some of the more standard fair like jerk chicken, but the dishes we had that night didn't do much to make us want to go back again.

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Bad Bad Blue Fin Sushi

Update: March 2008 - Apparently Blue Fin has had new owners since January 2007, so please disregard the review below.

Blue Fin Sushi
102 S Samish Way # 105
Bellingham, WA 98225
(360) 752-2583

I just had the worst restaurant experience ever. Please, if you live in Bellingham, don't ever go to Blue Fin Sushi on Samish way.

1. I order Ebi & seared tuna on the $1 happy hour special to go with my tempura roll, my friend is having a hard time deciding, so asks the waitress to come back.

2. Waitress never comes back to take my friend's order, my friend has to go find her in the back somewhere to place her order.

3. Waitress gives me raw tuna instead of seared, but I eat it anyways because it took so long I didn't want to wait any longer

4. Waitress forgets our miso soup

5. My friend's food arrives 25 minutes after my food, 35 minutes she chased down the waitress to actually get it ordered. In a restaurant that has five tables of couples which apparently completely overwhelmed the staff.

5. I get the bill and instead of ordering me the $1 sushi special, she put in two orders for each one. I tell her I only wanted one $1 piece and she gets all huffy and tells me I shouldn't have eaten it. Except there was no possible way for me to know that the $1 special came with just one piece of sushi! I just said "I'll take the $1 special for the ebi & tuna". How does that then cost me $2 each???

6. As she walks away I say "this is ridiculous, I am never coming back here again"

7. The waitress comes back and tells ME that I am being rude and disrespectful. If I don't want to eat there, that is my decision, but no need to tell her that.

8. I then point out how long our food took and she says "well you're the one who brought your kids and that's why we give you salad & miso."

9. We leave and for the first time in my life I leave no tip.

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Nimbus Update

We've been to Nimbus twice in the last two months. The first time we had an awful experience with a group of noisy folks from the bar squeezing into the tiny table next to us (in a nearly empty restaurant) so that they could watch the sunset. It pretty much blew the romantic part of the evening, and one guy was so annoying, he even stood for a while between our two tables, just talking loudly & blocking my view of the sunset. So I wrote a letter to Nimbus explaining that I would expect waitstaff to not let a noisy group like that crowd in next to a romantic couple who've ordered wine & a nice dinner, and they actually apologized and sent us a gift certificate.

The first visit, we had filet mignon and spot prawns. Both dishes were great, although the cumin in the spot prawn dish was a little overpowering. I do have to note that as a commenter pointed out, Nimbus has pretty small portions. This rarely bothers me at a nice restaurant, I would rather have a small delectable portion any day over a huge less tasty one. But I know many many people who disagree with me on that point. So you are warned.

The last time we went, the food was spectacular and nasty, depending on the dish. My ribeye steak was great. It came with an odd cauliflower "hash" which was basically cauliflower with a creamy sauce on top. Not bad, and I thought I hated cauliflower. I thought it was a rather generous sized steak as well, definitely filled me up.

My husband opted for a sampler of starters. The "corn essence" soup was phenomenal. It was a bowl with fresh corn kernels, popcorn, kosher salt and a pile of roasted pepper mousse in the center. Then the waitress poured a sweet creamed corn soup over the top of it. Yum! The play of salty & sweet was amazing.

The disappointment of the evening was his "crab sliders". For $12, we were expecting some pretty tasty crab cakes, even if they were supposed to look like burgers of some sort. Instead, they were teeny tiny little 1 1/2 inch diameter rounds of what seemed like mostly bread with a few little bits of crab in them. They were super dense patties, not light flaky crab cakes. They were very dry, and there was just a tiny bit of sauce spread on a burnt bun of sorts. Practically inedible and we sent them back.

We decided to have dessert and I ordered a dense chocolate cake thingy, which my waitress informed me was like chocolate decadence in a coconut cream sauce. Kyle ordered the chevre cheesecake after the waitress assured him that you wouldn't even know it had goat cheese if you didn't already know.

First of all, my chocolate cake was SPICY. Apparently it had cayenne pepper. Which is fine, but for goodness sakes, that needs to be clear on the menu! Or my waitress should have told me. What if I hated spice?? The coconut sauce was awful. I don't know what was in it, or if it had gone bad, but it was tangy and made my tongue tingle, almost like buttermilk. Not at all what I expected.

We both agreed Kyle's cheesecake was nasty. The waitress still swears she loves it, but the texture was super grainy, like a floury paste and the taste.... like lukewarm milk sitting out a couple hours with a goaty aftertaste. Not tangy or sweet. Luckily it had a peach sauce & Kyle choked it down since we'd already returned one dish that evening.

So I officially have to NOT reccomend Nimbus. Some things are great & innovative, but their consistency has to be top notch if you are paying top notch prices. I would only go for drinks & maybe an appetizer or two to enjoy the view. I still love the view. Just be sure to send dishes back if you don't like them. And watch out for the noisy bar, if you are trying to be romantic ask to sit away from the bar.

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

Old Town Cafe

Location: 316 W Holly St
(360) 671-4431

Summary: A child friendly place for breakfast with local food & plenty of organic & vegetarian options.

What's not to love about the Old Town Cafe? It's like a local Denny's, but with all the comforts of the hipster dufus world. To translate: A plethora of breakfast options with all the little details like organic eggs, local produce, buckwheat in your pancakes & tofu scrambles that launch the hippy sophistacates into heaven. Not sure if that made it clearer or not. For us parents, the kids play area is a huge draw. You can see it from most of the tables, so when your little demon child starts screaming in the middle of the meal, you just send him off to play & savor your coffee in silence. Why on earth don't more restaurants have this? This place gets quite busy on weekend mornings, but they turn tables quickly and also have wonderful "community tables" where the put 3-4 couples/small groups on one big table. Conversing with your neighbors is optional. The french toast I had here is the best I ever remember having. Everyone else we've eaten here with seems to have enjoyed their food as well.

Coppa Mediterranian Bistro

Update 2008: This restaurant is now closed

Location: 1224 Harris Ave
(360) 312-5050
Website

Summary: Try Coppa if you're looking for a medium priced option that serves tasty, unique food in a nice atmosphere.

Located in Fairhaven at the top of the hill, this cute bistro serves delicious mediterranian food in a cozy colorful atmosphere. If you're looking for something a little different, this is the place to go. They have everything from hummus to pasta, featuring unique food from all over the mediterranian region. On our visit, I had kebabs of spiced ground lamb that were tasty & flavorful. The only let down for us was that the prices had gone up recently, the menu we looked at outside the restaurant was significantly cheaper than the one we ordered from. If the old prices had been in effect still, this place would have landed on my "favorite restaurant" list. Entrees ranged from about $12 to $20, making it just a bit too expensive for our everyday eating out. My kebabs were about $14 and although it wasn't a huge meal, it fit my appetite perfectly. Coppa also features a wine list that has 10 bottles in three price categories - $13.50, $16.00 & $19.50. This seems like a great deal, but the $16 bottle the waitress recommended is one I recognized from the grocery store that sells for $4-$5. So the markup isn't any less, the wine is just cheaper & our bottle wasn't that great. The service was very friendly & good here, the hostess washed our sons highchair for us & helped keep him entertained throughout the meal.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Bellingham Trader Joes, part 2

This just in:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060710/BUSINESS08/607100317/1005/BUSINESS

Ok, it doesn't really confirm anything, but it is interesting that it comes up again right after that guy at the store told me it was happening.