transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:02] It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's Seattle Restaurant Week. Hey, I'm Brandi Fullwood, and this is Seattle Eats. It's a podcast about Seattle's food scene and the best things to eat in it. From now until May 12th, it's Seattle Restaurant Week. Restaurant Weeks, plural, really. It's the kind of food celebration where you get to try a place you've been wanting to go to for weeks or months or years or a little less money. There are over 200 restaurants participating this year, so how do you decide where to go? Seattle food writer Harry Cheadle has been crunching the numbers, and he's found Restaurant Week options with great menus, duh, and better deals. Let's get into it. Harry Cheadle, happy Seattle Restaurant Week. Thanks for doing all this restaurant week math for us.

Speaker 2:
[01:03] Yeah, happy Seattle Restaurant Week to you too, the most wonderful time of the year.

Speaker 1:
[01:06] It's a joyous time of year.

Speaker 2:
[01:08] It is, yeah, it's really fun to talk about restaurants in this way and to go out and experience the energy of it.

Speaker 1:
[01:14] You walk downstairs, your restaurant week stocking's hung up.

Speaker 2:
[01:18] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[01:19] Well, this is the first time we're talking on the show, so I kind of have to take you to Compliment City, so hang tight.

Speaker 2:
[01:24] Yeah, bring it on.

Speaker 1:
[01:26] So Harry is the kind of writer, reporter really who digs into food stories and gathers so much detail that even his own sources feel like he was there. They just have vivid flashbacks when the story comes out. He threads labor rights against mediocrity, against celebrity chef culture, and honestly applies that same investigative energy to lists about the tastiest pastries or the best shareable plates for date night. Harry is, you're thorough.

Speaker 2:
[01:57] I'm blushing, you can't see that, but I'm actually blushing. Thank you so much, that was too much.

Speaker 1:
[02:03] Okay, so Restaurant Week is a foodie holiday, and I mean that foodie in the non-derogatory way. For people who are unfamiliar with Restaurant Week, what is it? Because it's not really a week.

Speaker 2:
[02:17] It's not a week, no.

Speaker 1:
[02:19] What is it?

Speaker 2:
[02:20] It's two weeks, usually two times a year, when participating restaurants have deals. They'll have a prefix menu, usually two or three courses, and you can get it for like $20 or $35. There's different restaurants at their own prices and pick their own menus. A lot of restaurants don't serve their regular menus during that time. And that's something, even if you're like not a fan of Restaurant Week, it's good to know that Restaurant Week is happening because you might walk into a place and you want to try their usual menu, but they're doing a Restaurant Week menu instead, and you may not have the opportunity to get what you want.

Speaker 1:
[02:54] Do restaurants feel differently during this time for you?

Speaker 2:
[02:57] They do. They feel a lot more crowded. I've gone into restaurants when I've forgotten it's Restaurant Week and been surprised by the amount of people. Where there are people really come out for Restaurant Week, I found. There's a different energy. It feels like it should feel all the time. Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[03:14] Like pop it off.

Speaker 2:
[03:15] Yeah. Like you go to a restaurant and it's crowded, and there's like an energy, and it's like a little bit loud. Like I really like that, and it doesn't happen all the time here in Seattle.

Speaker 1:
[03:24] It kind of feels like Spirit Week at school.

Speaker 2:
[03:27] Yeah.

Speaker 1:
[03:27] There are over 200 restaurants participating for Restaurant Week. How do you do all this research? What's your approach?

Speaker 2:
[03:34] I feel like I'm cheating a little bit. I've been writing about restaurants in the Seattle area for long enough that I feel like I know a lot of them, so I know what looks like a good deal. It's harder to do if you're totally unfamiliar with the restaurant names that you're looking at. You might think $50 for dinner is super expensive, but then if you realize that that place is usually $100 to $150, it's a better deal. I'm always on the lookout for deals that include a drink, like wine or a cocktail or something, because it's like a $50 dinner that includes a cocktail. If you're going to order a cocktail anyway, that's a really great deal.

Speaker 1:
[04:11] Well, we're grateful that you're here then.

Speaker 2:
[04:13] Just listen to the show and I'll just pick the restaurants for you.

Speaker 1:
[04:17] So tell me about your first pick. I'm thinking about the place, the price, and a little bit about the menu.

Speaker 2:
[04:22] Yeah, Gold Coast Gal Kitchen on First Hill right near all those hospitals. It is a West African restaurant that serves cuisine from Liberia and Ghana, dishes like fufu, which is almost like mashed potatoes with your hands. Fufu, like palm wine, these things aren't familiar to a lot of Seattleites. It's a great sort of entry point into that type of cuisine for people, because there's more West African food than there used to be in Seattle, but there's still not that many restaurants. Going to Gold Coast Gal is a great way to sort of experience like overview of what's happening. And it's a beautiful space as well. It's great.

Speaker 1:
[05:05] How much is their menu for restaurant week?

Speaker 2:
[05:08] So they have a lot of places will have multiple menus. They have a lunch menu for $20. That's two courses. And they have a dinner menu for three courses, which is $35. And with the dinner menu, a lot of stews, a lot of chicken, a lot of palm based ingredients. There is an optional wine pairing. And I saw there's also an optional palm wine pairing, which is definitely something to check out if you're someone who wants to try new beverages that you probably haven't tried before.

Speaker 1:
[05:35] Yeah. What's the palm wine like?

Speaker 2:
[05:37] I actually don't know. I've never had it and I don't drink. I have no idea. You should go and you should try it and let me know.

Speaker 1:
[05:45] Okay. This is me from the future because after Harry and I talked, I immediately went to Gold Coast Kitchen to try the palm wine. It's juicy and buttery. It's like rambutans or commas pears liquefied. And then there's this slight alcoholic kick, kind of like first week of kombucha or a shrub. It's kind of fab. Okay. Back to the regular conversation. What do you think about Seattle Restaurant Week as a time to try something new?

Speaker 2:
[06:21] I love it. I think that's a great thing about it. I think one of the things that going to a restaurant, and going to a restaurant, not just getting takeout, it's a great way to like experience some of a culture that you don't know about. You know, and for people who are like from other places, it can be a chance to get a taste of home, and like to get reminded of home. Restaurants can be gateways to other cultures and kind of expand your horizons.

Speaker 1:
[06:46] Yeah, it's cheaper to be cosmopolitan than ever before.

Speaker 2:
[06:49] Especially during Seattle Restaurant Week, and you can try things, and like you might not, you know, you might not like everything. That's what I tell my four-year-old, you know, just try it, try it and experience it. I always order things on a menu that I haven't seen on any other menus, because I'm like, what is that about? It'll be interesting. It'll be a new experience. I think that's what eating out is all about.

Speaker 1:
[07:07] Do you typically go into a restaurant anyway with a plan, or you go in open-minded and ask the server, like, what's working today?

Speaker 2:
[07:16] I really like asking the server and talking, having that interaction and seeing, you know, what's good on the menu, what they like, because it might not be obvious. That's like part of the experience. If you look at the menu online beforehand, and you're like, I want this, this, this, this, and this, and you go in and you order, and it's like really quick, I think that's just a bad experience. I want to be able to linger a little bit.

Speaker 1:
[07:39] I'm trying to vamp.

Speaker 2:
[07:40] Yeah, you know, you're just like, you're out. You know, you're out. Just enjoy being out. You know, like, don't order everything. Well, like, order a drink, and then when they bring you the drink, then order the food. Don't be like, I want this to drink. I want this food. Let's get out of here in half an hour. You know, like, that's not very fun, I think.

Speaker 1:
[07:54] Yeah, that's very charming. So we have Gold Coast Gal Kitchen, which is on First Hill as your first pick. What else you got?

Speaker 2:
[08:05] My second pick is Keelig in the Chinatown International District. This is a restaurant from Melissa Miranda, who's the owner of Moosang, which is one of the city's most famous Filipino restaurants. And Keelig, when it opened a few years ago, it was supposed to be like kind of a casual lunch spot. But I feel like it's been like really ambitious, and its menu has changed all the time, and they're always doing creative stuff, and I just really love what they're doing. It's like a really fun place. There's a lot of light, there's cocktails. Like if you're into like day drinking, it's a great day drinking spot.

Speaker 1:
[08:43] Which you famously don't drink.

Speaker 2:
[08:44] I don't drink, but if I did day drink, I would day drink at Keelig. It's cool, it's Filipino food with a kind of contemporary twist. It's probably not like traditional offerings. It's a little bit more fun and creative than your grandmother's Filipino food.

Speaker 1:
[08:58] Sure. Well, not my grandma's.

Speaker 2:
[08:59] Yeah, not my grandma either, but you know.

Speaker 1:
[09:02] I mean, I've been to Keelig. I love their pancit. When I went, there was a spring veggie version, and I loved, they have great fried chicken there. What's on their restaurant week menu now, and what's the price point?

Speaker 2:
[09:18] It is $35 for dinner, three courses. Again, not that many options. One nice thing about Keelig is it's, I think nearly all the dishes on its restaurant week menu are gluten free. I think maybe the appetizers are not gluten free, but you might be able to get a modification. If that's something that you look for, that should definitely be on your radar. There's adobo with a shishito salsa verde on the menu. I looked at that, and I was like, that's a really cool combination. They have a dessert course and so on. So I think, yeah, that's just a great option. If you're like, if you've heard about Moosang, if you've heard about Keyleg, and maybe you've been a little reticent to go because you don't want to spend that much money on a meal, I think this is a great way to see what all of us is about.

Speaker 1:
[10:04] I feel like her restaurants are super popular. What's your elevator pitch for going to a place you've been to before for Restaurant Week?

Speaker 2:
[10:12] Well, with Keyleg in particular, it's like the menu changes all the time. It's kind of annoying sometimes because you go and you're like, oh, I want to try that again. Like you're talking about the pan seat and they do different variations on that. And so you try it and then if you come back, it might not be on the menu. They do rotate.

Speaker 1:
[10:28] Yeah.

Speaker 2:
[10:29] And it's really fun seeing a place evolve because I think, I think a lot of people like aspire to be regulars at a place. And it's fun to be regular at a place where the menu changes. It's great to have that level of familiarity with a restaurant where you can be like, what's good today? What's changed? Oh, I see you took this off the menu. If you know a place that well, it's really great. And Kulig is, I think, definitely a place that rewards repeat visits.

Speaker 1:
[10:54] Yeah. Actually, will you say more about that? Like, why you like the idea or maybe the reality of being a regular?

Speaker 2:
[11:02] Because it's like, when a place becomes part of your routine, I think it feels more comfortable. I think we talk a lot about having a third place that's not work, that's not home someplace, you can go and feel comfortable. And to build that for yourself, you need to go back to a place, at least a few times and get comfortable and know the people, especially with smaller places that are small businesses, you might know the owner at a certain point. You might get the turn, the staff might send you freebies every now and then. The staff might be honest with you if something is not working that night, which happens sometimes. And being able to come in and have a sense of camaraderie is great. Because the first time you go into a restaurant, it's unfamiliar. You got that first day of school feeling. But when you're a regular, whether you're talking about a coffee shop, whether you're talking about a restaurant, you can go and hang out. And it doesn't need to be a big production to go out, to have a meal.

Speaker 1:
[12:00] Everybody knows your name.

Speaker 2:
[12:01] Everyone knows his name. Exactly. At Keyleg, you can hang out at the bar. I don't know how possible that is at Moosang, because Moosang is so popular. But Keyleg is open during the day. You can show up and have a seat, have that kind of interaction where you're just hanging out.

Speaker 1:
[12:14] On the same thread of popularity, do you usually make reservations for this time, or you just wing it and walk in?

Speaker 2:
[12:22] If I'm eating alone, I'll just walk in. But I think two or more people, you should try to make reservations if a restaurant does that just to be safe, especially during restaurant week when it can be very busy. I think if you are walking in, have a backup plan, because you don't want to be in a situation where you're planning to go out to eat, and there's a really long wait time, and you can't deal with that.

Speaker 1:
[12:46] Yeah. Well, on having a backup plan, we could jump into your third pick because that could be an option.

Speaker 2:
[12:53] Yeah. My third pick is Kokaku. It's in Wallingford on 45th Street. It is not quite a hole in the wall, but you could miss it easily. I don't know if it's an underrated steakhouse. It's a Japanese steakhouse. I think a lot of people say it's underrated.

Speaker 1:
[13:09] Why?

Speaker 2:
[13:09] It's because it's very low key. When you hear steakhouse, I think a lot of people think of the Metropolitan Grill, where there's a uniform for the staff, and it's real fancy, and there's a certain vibe. Let's have client dinner, wearing suits, ordering martinis. And Kokaku is a much lower key spot than that. You don't need to feel like you have to dress up for this. You could just go out.

Speaker 1:
[13:34] You can tuck your hiking boots under the bar.

Speaker 2:
[13:36] Yeah, I think in Seattle, you can wear hiking boots anywhere. You can wear hiking boots with a canvas, probably.

Speaker 1:
[13:43] So what's the Restaurant Week menu for Kokaku?

Speaker 2:
[13:47] Their Restaurant Week menu, it's not online at the moment. Like, I got a weird 404 message when I tried to check it. So the menu might change. And that's maybe one thing we should say somewhere, is that it might be slightly different than what you see online.

Speaker 1:
[14:02] It's seasonal. It might change.

Speaker 2:
[14:03] Yeah. Kokaku has some, I think this is the most expensive restaurant we're going to talk about, because it has on the high end of its menu, it's $75 for a 14-ounce ribeye. And that's probably enough for like two people. So it's not super expensive.

Speaker 1:
[14:21] It's a deal compared to the other times you might go in the year.

Speaker 2:
[14:24] Right. Yeah. And I think be aware of that. If you're scrolling down the list of restaurants, don't get like turned off necessarily, unless you truly can't afford that. But you can find some really good deals in that range, too.

Speaker 1:
[14:36] So we're climbing in price. I know that you're a parent, and I hear a lot of parents say they couldn't even fathom going out because they would bankrupt themselves, whether it's restaurant week or not. Do you think Seattle Restaurant Week is a good option for them, or is it just solely like a dink hobby? Dual income, no kids.

Speaker 2:
[14:55] Right. No, you can do it. And I think it's a good excuse. As a parent, I know going out to eat requires extra planning. You need to secure a babysitter. You need to get dressed up. It's a big time commitment for parents. We need to actually push ourselves to plan a night out.

Speaker 1:
[15:14] Well, how do you plan it?

Speaker 2:
[15:15] We message my mom, hey, can you babysit? Probably spend a lot more time thinking about where we would go. Because if you're a dink, you can pop into four or five places during the course of restaurant week. But, or even a single person who has a high income and a lot of free time, can go to a lot of different restaurants. But for parents, you probably need to be more selective.

Speaker 1:
[15:38] Yeah, I can dig it. So that's Kokaku in Wallingford. Menu subject to change. So we should do one more maybe as like an honorable mention.

Speaker 2:
[15:50] Yeah, I've got one that's purely a good deal. Like if you're someone who is just bargain hunting. So Jude's Old Town in Rainier Beach, they're a worker owned co-op. They're a cocktail bar that also serves a lot of Cajun food. And right next door, they have like a non-alcoholic and low ABV bar. Jude's has a $65 meal, but it's for two people. So for that, you get two entrees and your choice of an app or dessert and a bottle of wine or two cocktails.

Speaker 1:
[16:20] That's wild.

Speaker 2:
[16:21] And this is something to actually look out for for Seattle Restaurant Week menu. Sometimes the listed prefix menu serves two. Their entrees are like pretty simple stuff like Cajun shrimp po boys and maybe a burger. The cocktails are pretty sophisticated. If you're like a cocktail person and you want to like eat while you drink, check that out.

Speaker 1:
[16:42] When does the deal feel like good math for the restaurant versus just being good for a diner? Because it feels like if you focus your menu, you can kind of calculate how much you need to spend per plate, per person, and that might be great for the restaurant. But does that make that a perfect dining experience for someone going to it?

Speaker 2:
[17:01] It's definitely a trade-off, I think, because as a diner, you want more selection and you also might want bigger portions, because sometimes for a prefixed menu, that's three courses, you're not getting a lot of each course. As a diner, you might want a big portion of one thing instead. So it is a trade-off, but hopefully there's a midpoint where it's a good deal for the restaurant. They have to be able to make money off of this. And then for the diner, hopefully, it's a good experience. They don't feel like they got cheated or like they didn't get enough food for $20 or $35 or it is.

Speaker 1:
[17:35] The tasting menu curse of having to go to Dick's immediately after.

Speaker 2:
[17:40] Yeah, this is something I was thinking about. There's like a critic versus regular diner divide when it comes to like portion sizes. Like a lot of people who are on like Yelp or whatever talk about like, oh, how much food did you get for the money? How many portions did you get? And it's like if you're going out to eat, especially you're spending a lot of money, I want like a really unique thing. I want like some unique flavors or something really interesting, even if I'm not like full. Because if you want like a lot of food for the price, like you should go to a teriyaki place and you can still get like two meals basically for like 15 bucks. It's not going to be like something you've never had before. Or just like cook at home, you know, you can. I may be in the minority, I may get hate mail, but I don't really care too much about like...

Speaker 1:
[18:24] Don't be mean to him.

Speaker 2:
[18:25] No, be mean to me, I can take it.

Speaker 1:
[18:27] He's being vulnerable.

Speaker 2:
[18:28] Most places give you a pretty good amount of food. I think Seattle is a very expensive city to eat in. And I think that does discourage people. And I think at Seattle Restaurant Week can like push more people to eat out, to get out there, prove all the doubters and haters wrong.

Speaker 1:
[18:45] Yeah, took that, haters. All right, so there are a lot of restaurants participating for Restaurant Week. How do you think regular people, diners, how do they make this decision for which restaurant to go to? What are your best tips, tricks, hacks for approaching the overwhelming holiday that is Seattle Restaurant Week?

Speaker 2:
[19:07] Reduce the scope of your search somehow. Find a place like New Year House. You might walk by a restaurant a thousand times and you're like, I don't know what that place is like, we'll just like go in. And if they're participating in a restaurant, we can go in for like 20 or 30 bucks.

Speaker 1:
[19:20] Take it easy this restaurant week. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for doing all this restaurant week math for us.

Speaker 2:
[19:27] You're welcome. This is a pleasure. I love looking at restaurant menus online. So like that is, I do this for fun.

Speaker 1:
[19:34] That is it for today. We have a list of all the restaurants we talked about in the description of this episode. Seattle Eats is hosted by me, Brandi Fullwood, and you can get in touch with me at seattleeats.kuow.org. And also, you can leave me a voicemail. Tell me about your go-to spot or gush about what you love or want more of in the food scene. The phone lines are open. We have a voicemail box set up for you to call us at 206-543-8510. The show is produced by me and edited by Jim Gates. Lucy Soucek actually helped produce and edit this episode. Thanks, Lucy. Seattle Eats is a proud member of the NPR network. You can find more and support the show at kow.org/eats. And all of this information is in the description of the show. If you like the show, give us a rating. It really helps. All right. Talk soon.