Sushi Town

This week’s AveEater: Mike

Listen, I’m a man who like’s convenient things.  I’m basically a Utilitarian, in the sense that I prefer things that are practical rather than attractive. I’m racing toward old man status with gusto, not because I feel old, but because I’m looking forward to a time when I can make the practical decisions that I enjoy with no fear of social reprisal.  I would probably wear sweatpants regularly if it were socially acceptable.  I look forward to napping whenever I please.

There is no more practical or convenient lunch spot than the conveyor belt sushi establishment.  You walk in the door, they usher you to a booth – who doesn’t love a booth? – and you just sit there and grab the food that looks tasty as it goes by.  It doesn’t get any more convenient than that.  Oh wait, it does: They color code the dish to indicate the price.  If you’re a cheap bastard like me, you load up on cucumber rolls on green plates.  If you’re fancy like Lauren, you eat Seattle rolls (what even is that?) on black plates. Everybody wins!

There is a dude busily making sushi in the open kitchen and when he’s done with said sushi, he foists it onto the aforementioned color coded dish.  So it is with great joy that watch the plates go by and evaluate my sushi moves.  It’s like chess, only your stomach is playing your wallet.  And you get to eat the pieces.

Ambiance: 

Sushi Town really went for it when they moved in.  They went full on industrial, newage-y.  It’s black walls and rusted metal chandeliers.  That doesn’t sound too good, but I find that it works for the place.  It’s in a basement, so it’s never gonna have great natural light, why not double down on the vibe?  I say kudos to Sushi Town for having a vision.

The put the sushi chefs front and center, so you can watch them work their magic.  I feel like this would make me feel a little exposed and vulnerable if I were a sushi chef, but then, maybe that’s why I’m not a sushi chef.

Cleanliness:

Perhaps it’s just because the place is relatively new, but there is a glossy sheen to Sushi Town that makes the place feel like it’s a hip club from a 1980’s film starring Andrew

McCarthy.  That’s not a bad thing.  It’s probably a good thing.

Colon Consequences:

I’ve never actually eaten a piece of sushi that I didn’t like on some level, so maybe I’m not being adventurous enough with my sushi consumption, because it does seem like things could easily take a quick turn for the disastrous if you choose poorly (it is raw fish after all), but I always find sushi to be far less hard on the ole GI tract than just about anything.  Sushi Town is no exception to that. I  walked away pleasantly satiated

Originality/Surprises:

What I particularly appreciate about S-Town is that there are a couple of friendly but not pushy younger folks at the front who are happy to take an order for anything that the house makes if you don’t see it on the conveyor.  This is a nice touch.

I kinda thought this was standard at conveyor belt places, but then I went to a shittier conveyor belt place up north (which shall remain nameless) and ordered some stuff from an overworked waiter shilling drinks to patrons and immediately felt like a pompous ass.  Such is my life.

Taste:

Listen, this isn’t Nashino or Maneki. But then, I don’t want it to be.  I want to get in, eat 6 adequately prepared crunchy tofu rolls (my fave!)

and get out.  The fish is fresh enough and the options are many.  You’re gonna find something tasty.

Ave Factor:

S-Town is not exactly brimming with Ave Factor.  Most of that is that it is just new, but the aforementioned industrial, newage-y feel doesn’t really help in this particular category. I don’t yet know if I’d call it a trend, but it seems like many of the new ave restaurants are a little better bankrolled than the last decade.  That will probably help in their staying power, but it steals a little from the plucky, slightly dingy Ave Factor.  Change is the only constant on the Ave people! Get used to it.

Value:

Here’s where Sushi Town excels.  If you know what you’re doing, you can leave brimming with sushi for less than 8 bucks, that’s a screaming deal.

I give it 8/10 Chess pieces

The Awkward Photos!

Our avid readers (Hi Tim!) will notice that Lauren has bangs, making these photos from early 2016.  Yup, that’s how far behind we are in posting.

Here’s hoping this makes you feel better about your own procrastination.  – EUTA team

#SushiTown

 

Sizzle and Crunch

 

This weeks Ave Eater: Lauren

Guys, it’s been so long since we’ve posted that I no longer have bangs. Yikes.

Some AveEater Updates: our ranks are ever smaller. Tom left his job at the UW Press for a cool new opportunity downtown. And Tim! Tim up and moved! He’s now living in Oakland, CA. Maybe we can convince him to blog from afar for us.

So for now, there are only two AveEaters remaining. Nevertheless, we will persist.

Down to Business: Sizzle & Crunch

Overview: Sizzle & Crunch is a new Ave establishment. It opened just a few months ago, replacing what was Taco del Mar. And let me you, the Ave is better for it. As you will come to learn, I’m a big S&C fan.

Sizzle & Crunch is basically a Vietnamese Chipotle – you can opt for a limited variety of bowls or sandwiches, prepared by very efficient and friendly servers who pepper you with fast-paced questions so that you can get your bowl or banh mi just right. Pro tip: go for the salad bowl with a little bit of rice. If you get the rice bowl, there’s waaaaayyyy too much rice. I found the banh mi to be too big and unwieldy and the bread was dry. There are better banh mi’s on the Ave. Go with the bowl. Oh, and put an egg on it.

Ambiance: S&C has a modern, dare I say it, chic vibe – at least for the Ave. The walls are painted a moody gray/brown and there’s some reclaimed-looking wood that boasts a large S&C sign. They have these light fixtures that look like they were trying to recreate a Design Within Reach pendant, but instead went to Loews and just bought some Edison bulbs on a cord and randomly tangled them up and hung them from the ceiling. Classy.

S&C plays the jams. Over lunch one day I heard: Phil Collins, Huey Lewis and the News and Bonnie Tyler. It was glorious. They even played that Obsession song by Animotion, which pretty much sums up my feelings for S&C.

Colon Consequences: None. I feel pretty good after eating there. And in fact, I don’t feel crazy full like I do when I wolf down a burrito from Chipotle. I think the food is delicious and if you get a fried egg on your salad bowl, it will definitely help tie you over until dinner…or your afternoon snack.

Ave Factor: while S&C isn’t grungy or dark or scuzzy, it does have this trying-to-be-fancier-than-it-really-is vibe that I find sort of charming and very “Ave.” It’s also packed with people, students, staff, faculty – I saw a four people I knew in there one day. The UW community is loving it.

Value: a salad bowl is going to run you about $9, which is pretty standard for a lunch on the Ave these days. I don’t bat an eye at the cost. I think it’s worth every penny, especially for the creamy cilantro mint sauce that the servers will add to your bowl if you ask them to. YUM.

One thing I didn’t appreciate is that they give you a plastic cover for your bowl even if you say you are dining in. So I literally take this piece of plastic off and recycle it after about 5 seconds. Ahhhhh. Talk about single use plastic. How about seconds use plastic. Next time I’m going to refuse that cover. So there.

4 thumbs up.

The Awkward Photos!

 

 

Best of Bento

This weeks AveEater: Mike

This week we delve into one of the great mysteries that has faced AveEaters the world over:  What is the Best of Bento?

For those readers outside the pacific rim, Bento is a single-portion takeout, dine in,  or home-packed meal common in Japanese cuisine. The bento shop (弁当屋 bentō-ya) is about as familiar to a Seattleite as a coffee shop, or a hipster on a dutch bike (your move Eykemans!)  In a bento box, the food is sequestered into different sections of the specialized tray, like a dream of your 10-year old self, insuring that the peas don’t touch the mashed potatoes.

Could it be that the best bento on the Ave has  been right under our noses this whole time, beckoning us with its very appellation?  Of course, you wouldn’t know that, because they’ve elected to cover their rather boastful sobriquet with a banner illuminating an immense variety of delicacies in so many fonts that you’ll think you were at a convention for the society of typographic aficionados (You think I’m making this up don’t you?).

Perhaps they are so confident in their status as the premiere bento on the Ave that further bluster would only serve to turn people away, and they may as well lure you in with as many serifs (or lack thereof) as possible, I’m not sure.

 

Ambiance: 

The Best of Bento has a warm feeling to it that I rather enjoy, some faux wood paneling and good lighting, along with the lively chatter of a place often filled with hungry people devouring compartmentalized cuisine.  But this feeling of warmth actually betrays the fact that it’s actually quite cold in there in the winter months.  (This is a theme we seem to be revisiting, which I think has mostly to do with the lack of vestibules on the ave and the cost of heating the place.  Alas, commercial rent and increasing energy costs are too much for this blog to tackle).  The BoB (I shall forever use this moniker), however, has an ingenious way of combating the cold – free tea!  I’m not a coffee drinker myself, so free tea is enough to get me in the door.

The staff is working hard to classify all those foods into their appropriate subdivisions, and serve all those hungry guests, so the service can occasionally be a little surly.  That seems a small price to pay for what might in fact be the best of bento.

Cleanliness:

There is an efficiency to the BoB that seems to contribute to its cleanliness.  People come and go and workers emerge from the kitchen area to scrub and bus tables.  All teriyaki joints seem to just feel a bit sticky – it must be all the sugar in the sauce, but the BoB has managed to survive all these years in a mostly pleasant state.

Colon Consequences:

I feel nothing but the sweet joy of satiation.

Originality/Surprises:

You don’t go into the BoB expecting a lot of surprises and so your expectations are set accordingly when those surprises don’t materialize.  However, I would say that if there is a surprise to behold, it’s that the sushi isn’t half bad.  Now would probably be a good time to reveal that Lauren has an extreme distaste for Teriyaki Chicken – the staple of the bento box. She says it has something to do with the crispy/stabby bits that are left when they cook it, but to be honest I’m usually not paying attention because all I can think about is how delicious teriyaki chicken is. 

With that in mind, just getting Lauren to walk through the door of a teriyaki place is kind of a small triumph.  To her immense delight, the BoB offers a quite scrumptious and well plated array of Sushi to choose from.  She describes it as fresh and not-too-pricey.  Surprise!

 

 

 

 

Taste:

The BoB delivers.  Not in some grandiose way where you’re gonna tell your friends from out of town to visit, but there’s a reason all those people are in there every day.  It’s damn fine bento at a reasonable price. The sauce is sweet without being cloying (though I would prefer it if they had those giant squeeze bottles – I always have to ask for more sauce in a dish, and that feels shameful somehow).  Tom describes the tofu as “nice” which I take to mean satisfying and creamy.  They do have some sort of odd Italian seasoning-mixed-with-cayenne-pepper concoction in a salt shaker that I can’t say I recommend, but that’s up to you.  In general, you won’t be disappointed.

Ave Factor:

The BoB is ripe with Ave Factor.  Part of Ave Factor is just persistence. If your establishment has been around long enough, it just begins to soak up the ave and it becomes a part of the landscape that new establishments have to conform to.  The BoB fits very nicely into that landscape.  I would even say it’s “charming.”  But it’s also something to do with individuality.  There are no other BoB’s (that I know of and I don’t care to do the research) and so many different places with so much character so close to one another are what gives the Ave its unique appeal. The BoB contributes to that.  Good for the BoB.  If I’m looking to give someone a genuine Ave experience, I know that I can rely on the BoB

Value:

a filling bento box for about $7-8.  That’s a good deal in my book.

 

The awkward photos!

 

(hey, there’s that famous architect guy! He likes the BoB too!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chipotle

 

Dear Loyal Eating Up the Ave Followers, Thank you for your patience with the Eating Up the Ave-ers. We have no good excuse for our lazy lack of blog posting for the last year. Two years? But the good news is we are back! Just like Scully and Mulder! You will be pleased to know that we have been consistently Eating Up the Ave this whole time. We just haven’t been consistently writing about it. We have a lot to share with you. So follow along again, we promise it will be worth it.

This week’s Ave Eater: Lauren

Chipotle is an absolute staple of the EUTA Experience™. It’s quick, efficient, and delicious. Until recently it was incredibly popular with Ave Eaters. So popular sometimes the line was out the door and all the way in front of one of the many Ave pho restaurants next door. I’ll just say it, and it may be crass, but thank goodness for the E. Coli rumors. Getting in the front door of Chipotle is now a breeze. No line. If you don’t mind a little gastrointestinal Russian Roulette, Chipotle is a great option for any intrepid Ave Eater.

 

Ambiance: 

Chipotle is a chain restaurant with a modern, minimal interior that will make you feel like you are eating a designer burrito. There are strange art works on the walls I have yet to figure out, but mostly that because I’m not paying good attention to them. I’m either 1. jockeying for a sweet booth (no longer a problem, thanks again, E. Coli), or 2. wolfing down my burrito. I am able to eat a Chipotle burrito in 5 minutes flat. Tim has seen me do it. The one complaint I have about the Chipotle dining experience is that it is &*$#-ing FREEZING in there. The summer months are quite pleasant, but in the cold, dank, dark 9 months of PNW winter, Chipotle is an icebox. You will notice I have my heavy winter coat on in every picture. Be warned, wear your long johns to lunch.

cold but excited

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cleanliness:

Chipotle seems very cleanly to me. The food is kept in these antiseptic looking tin bins that are constantly being switched out by the incredibly efficient and friendly Chipotle staff. E. Coli notwithstanding, the place seems spotless.

efficiency!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Colon Consequences:

I have never had any unpleasant bathroom experiences as a result of eating at Chipotle. I will say I do appear about 4 months pregnant after inhaling my burrito. I am also often tempted to take a quick nap after lunch. Ah soporific sweetness.

Originality/Surprises:

Chipotle has your standard Mexican fast food fare. The food all seems very fresh to me, but maybe that’s just because of those aforementioned aesthetically appealing antiseptic bins. It’s quite easy to lure me into a false sense of security by making your product look good. Hence why I’m such a diehard fan of all products made by Apple. Except that watch. I don’t understand that.

Taste:

Yum. Yum. Yum. I love a Chipotle burrito. I am particularly fond of the huge dollop of guacamole that they will give me for a nominal extra charge. And every time I ask for it, they tell me that it costs extra. Yes, I know! It so kind for them to always ask, but are you kidding me? Of course I want the quasi-expensive schmear of green butter. I will always want it. Every time. Who doesn’t??? Lately I’ve been on this weird elimination diet and so I have been opting for the bowl. I can have lettuce, guac (thank the lord), chicken, veggies. But I can’t have any of the other good stuff. Red beans and rice did miss her, and by her, I mean me. The bowl is still a delicious meal and I will say it’s one of the only places I have found on the Ave that can accommodate this whackado dietary experiment. This has also meant that I have made Mike go to Chipotle every Thursday for the last month. Thanks for being such a good sport, Mike. Full disclosure, he said he would only go to Chipotle this week if I revived Eating Up the Ave. So now you know. Eating Up the Ave is back by bribery.

 

Ave Factor:

Chipotle is not rife with Ave Factor, not in the traditional sense. If you are looking for a scungey, divey, questionably edible establishment, this is not it. But with the slow but steady gentrification of the north end of the Ave (and well, all of Seattle), it was only a matter of time before the chain restaurants firmly established themselves as part of the Ave’s urban fabric. I would say this chain is a positive additional to our edible  landscape.

Value:

My burrito is on the pricey side – because I can’t live without the guacamole, as you know. It’s about $10, which is a lot for fast food. But I don’t really care. I know I’m going to enjoy my lunch, even if it only lasts 5 minutes.

Thanks to Carrie and Darielle for joining us for the Eating Up the Ave Revival Tour. Tim has decided to “take a class” on Thursdays, so he will be rejoining us in the spring. It’s not like this wasn’t on his calendar.

the awkward photos!

 

Burrito Brick

Aladdin’s Gyro-cery

This weeks AveEater: Mike

Aladdin’s Gyro-cery calls to me.  It whispers sweet-nothings to me as I amble to the post office, tempting me with its Mediterranean aromas and awkwardly assembled décor.  Perhaps no other establishment on the Ave defines the character of this street quite like Aladdin’s Gyro-cery.  It is an institution, a tradition, and an experience all in one.

Not to be confused with other gyro stands on the ave,

not affiliated with those other aladdin asshats

Aladdin’s is slinging Gyros and falafels by the dozen, and they want you to get in, order, pay (cash only), and move on back to make room for more gyro-scarfing undergrads.  “The back” is a weird and wondrous cave of treasures, sparkling and gleaming in ersatz beauty.  Imitation tapestries depicting the Ka’aba adorn the walls, along with your average camel-themed posters.

Camel Themes

There’s even a covered booth type area that is ostensibly there for loungin’  – hookah style, though I’ve never actually witnessed anyone even remotely loungin’.  Or any hookahs for that matter. It’s more of a visual aid to get you in the loungin’ head-space while you devour your sammich.

Part of the reason for the lack of loungin’ may that it is always cold as hell in the back of Aladdin’s gyro-cery.  Deal with it.

Service:  Efficient.  You take a gander at the giant menu above, then walk up to the counter and place your order. If you don’t got cash, you get the fuck out.

Dude takes your money and gives you a number.  You drop that sucker on your table and presto!  another dude comes out with your falafel on a cafeteria style tray in about 3 minutes, or however long it takes em to shave that wheel of meat.  No frills.

Ambiance:  Aladdin’s ambiance grows on you – like that fungus you’ve had for a while, but you can’t really be bothered to find the tube of ointment you need to get rid of it, and then you realize you sort of enjoy the itching.  It grows on you like that.  It’s florescent light and tile, and somewhat unkempt – but it feels comfortable somehow, like I could spend a few hours in here chatting with an old friend.  Except it’s always so damn cold.

Cleanliness: There’s a difference between cluttered, and filthy.  Aladdin’s is not Mr. Clean clean, but it’s not exactly dirty either.  It’s a weird little netherworld where you’re okay with it being slightly sticky.

Colon consequences: Personally, I’ve never had one problem.  But I have been around the office when people have retroactively cursed Aladdin’s.

Originality/surprises:  Just great Gyro type fare and Baklava if you want it.  It ain’t fancy but it’s good.

Taste: Aladdin’s doesn’t disappoint in the meat-wheel category.  I feel like the falafel is somewhat lacking, but that may be largely due to the fact that they substitute the tahini for the tzatziki in the falafel, and I want that Tzatziki

Ave Factor:  This may be the quintessential Ave Factor establishment.  It’s appeal is undeniable, and yet undefinable.  Aladdin’s is truly more than the sum of its parts, and will always have a special place in my heart.  I’ll give you an example of its oddness.  On occasion, if you’re lucky, they may have Shasta colas in the little fridges that line the hall.  Who has Shasta?

Shannon Shasta

This gives me a chance to also test a theory on our intrepid readers:

I have some evidence to suggest that younger siblings love fake grape flavored things and older siblings detest it.  Let your voice be heard!

Value:  Let is not omit this important category.  $5 for a sandwich, $7 for a meal deal.  That’s your best value.

9/10 Tzatzikis

lastly, Awkward photos galore:

devourin’

Loungin’

Till next time!

Thaiger Room

This week’s AveEater: Lauren

It seemed like it had been awhile since we had reviewed one of the multiplicitous (word?) Thai restaurants on the Ave, so here we go. Hold on to your butts.  I was initially intent on going to Noodle Nation. I had never been before and the sign outside the restaurant was aesthetically pleasing to me (how I make most decisions). I was excited about this new eatuptheaveadventure. However when we walked in the door, the smell was, well, repugnant. Tim, who is particularly averse to most odors, looked as though he was going to chunder and convinced us to leave. Since it was right next door, we decided to eat at the Thaiger Room.

I have a fondness for the Thaiger Room. It was the first Thai restaurant I ate at in college. I think there was a period of maybe six months my senior year where I went there…eehhhh….every other day.  Health, sweetie, health. In the subsequent years (ok, 11 years) since then, the luster has worn off a bit. It could be partly due to the fact that I’ve seen more than one cockroach stealthily scurrying about.

But no matter, insects aside! This is Eating up the Ave, dammit, and we go where the Ave takes us (until we meet again, Noodle Nation, gulp).

Service: the staff were very amiable. We were seated promptly and the woman who took our order was friendly and thorough. Part of the way through our meal she checked in with us and asked “is anything ok?” If you think about it, that’s a very different question than “is everything ok?”

Ambiance: I’ve always liked the exposed brick in the Thaiger Room, it’s so industrial chic meets we can’t be bothered to cover this and don’t give a shit. The kitchen is open and you can see what is going on behind the scenes. There was no music playing, which is sort of weird, but three of us are nothing if not talkers. We can fill that audible space just fine.

Cleanliness: It seemed cleanly this time, but maybe they have had a recent exterminator visit. Come to think of it, cockroaches are kind of hard to find in the Northwest. Maybe the Thaiger Room is doubling as a UW Entomology lab, cultivating a colony for science and stuff.

Colon Consequences: To be honest, I don’t feel great. The peanut sauce was flowing aplenty and that seemed delectable at first. As the meal progressed, it became kinda gooey and it separated. Ugh ok, that’s going in the chunder vault.

Originality/Surprises: I don’t think there is much that is original about the Thai food at the Thaiger Room. Perhaps the biggest surprise is when you first read their sign and you realize that when you thought people were saying “let’s go to the Tiger Room” it was actually Thaiger Room. Thai – ger, get it? Granddaddy Easterling would have loved this pun.

Speaking of my fun-making, pun-loving, prankster of a grandfather, I will now share a joke he enjoyed:

Two atoms are spinning around and they crash into one another. The first atom says to the second atom: “ohmygosh, I’m so sorry for running into you. Are you ok?”

Second atom: “No, I’m not. I think I’ve lost an electron.”

First atom: “Are you sure?”

Second atom: “I’m positive.”

Miss you, Granddaddy :).

Taste: Wow, that was quite a tangent. Back to business. The taste was just ok. I think my brown rice might have been the best part. Tim was particularly disappointed by the sauce on his Mongolian beef. Apparently it wasn’t “artful” enough for him. He shared with us, and I quote, “I’ve been following artful sauce up and down the Ave for years.” Eating Up the Ave just went all smutty.

Ave Factor: the digestive issues in my immediate future, the don’t-give-a-shit exposed brick wall, the UW Entomology Lab, the heavy peanut sauce that is going in my chunder vault, these are all super Ave-y. I’d recommend this Thai option if you looking for a true Ave Experience™. Go get ‘em Thaiger!

I give it 3 out of 10 dollops of peanut sauce.

Mod Pizza

This week’s AveEater: Mike

A fairly recent addition to the Ave, Mod Pizza is certainly a welcome one.  While the the Ave abounds with the strange and often tasty delights of unique restaurants that can be found no where else, it is also peppered with its share of 7-elevens, Subways and Chipotles – wedged into various strange corners, often in the space left empty when someone’s last attempt at a lego/soup shop failed (Good Morning Store?  what the heck is that thing? It’s a soup store, it’s a lego shop –  stop. you’re both right!…?)

I for one, am a big believer in these occasional chain restaurants.  You can’t always be up for food adventure – sometimes you just need a cheap and good burrito.  Mod Pizza is doubly welcome, as it fits into the kind of streamlined, well-priced, sleek that you find at a corporate restaurant and yet it’s homegrown here in a Seattle, with just a handful of stores dotted around Lake Washington.

Tim abandoned Lauren and I to our own devices on this one – he may have been having a root canal, I’m not sure.

I have a weird penchant for barbecue sauce on Pizza, which I know is sort of gross, but I can’t help myself.  As such, I elected to get the “Caspian”  – which is apparently a Russian inspired gorgonzola pizza with BBQ sauce and sliced red onions (Does this make sense to anyone? Russian barbecue? Is that a thing, I should explore).

Lauren got the “Sienna” – a garlic, red onion, mushroom concoction.  We also split a salad, because why not?

Service:  Mod Pizza is nothing if not efficient.  We’re not talking Chipotle assembly line efficient (more on that when we get to Chipotle), but they have a system.  And it works.  One dude takes your order, writes it right there on your wax paper tray thing, another dude makes the pie, and a third dude shoves it in the brick oven.  Then you buy a ding dong and a beer and find yourself a seat and wait for them to yell your name – which is why I’m always tempted to use a name like “Dingle McCringleberry”.  Yes, they actually have ding dongs.

Ambiance: There is a distinct sleekness to the ambiance at Mod that feels a bit over-produced, but they make up for it with some great music.  The Jam, Elvis Costello, and Small Faces all made appearances during our meal.  That’s a welcome side dish in my book.

Cleanliness:  Sometimes that ambiance comes across as too sleek, but it certainly feels clean.  If my ding dong rolled across the floor, I’d probably dust it off and eat it.  But I’m that kind of guy.

Colon consequences:  smooth sailing!

Originality/surprises:  While there may not be much original going on with the pies, there ain’t nothing wrong with made-to-order pizza, baked to perfection in a speedy fashion for like $7.  Did I mention that you can get whatever you want on that pizza?  still $7.  Plus, ding dongs.

Taste:  Does bad pizza actually exist? This isn’t revelatory pizza or anything, but it does the job and is mighty tasty.  The fact that you can really get whatever you like for the same price pretty much means it’s your fault if it don’t taste good.

Ave Factor:  Some places are born with Ave Factor – MOD pizza is not one of those places.  However, I get a sense that they will be here for a while, and may earn their Ave Factor the hard way.  With cheap beer, and fast, decent food.

MOD reminds me a little of one of my favorite haunts from my Gonzaga days – David’s Pizza.  which has sadly been demolished, but I understand will rise again like a phoenix from the ashes of that old gas station/bowling alley that it seemed to occupy.  So it goes.

I give it 8/10 ding dongs!

Village Sushi

Apparently the only way we can actually get anything written is to have someone else do it – behold! another guest AveEater!

Mark Stewart is a childhood friend of Mike’s from the Olympic Peninsula.  More accurately, Mark is Mike’s older brother Joe’s childhood friend.  But instead of the usual torture of wedgies and arm-punching, Mark was always nice to Mike while playing sandlot baseball – so he earned his guest appearance with honor. 

Mark is an ave-eating expert who owns many peculiar, often whimsical T-shirts.  Mark has two precocious boys who have taken just a little of the color out of his hair.  But they are cool enough that it seems worth it. 

This weeks Guest AveEater: Mark

Some places just have you at konnichiwa. Tucked between the old-school University Motel and a 2000s-era condo building, Village Sushi is a few blocks off the Ave but feels like it could be much farther away. Maybe a cafe where some brooding protagonist in a Haruki Murakami novel hangs out. Murakami’s characters tend to belong in the fringes and have a taste for jazz, whiskey, Western culture and the absurd.

There were no signs of whiskey, but other than that, Village Sushi nails it. The decor looks like they won the thrift store lottery — vintage record and tape players, old jazz records, cameras and eerie large-scale paintings (including a fascinating portrait of a little boy sleeping on the floor with a car and action figures that may or may not be alive). Straight out of The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

Lauren, Mike and I put our chopstick together and chose a bunch of rolls plus agadashi tofu as a starter. We got two big rolls –  the Dragon (apparently a California roll with eel on top = fiery beast) and Hanabi (a very Seattle concoction of tempura shrimp, avocado and cream cheese) -along with a tuna and cucumber roll.

Fiery!

Tim, striking his own path, got a salmon teriyaki bento box. Unlike your typical U-District teriyaki, the portion size was somewhere south of mammoth.

Tim tries to fit chopsticks in his mouth

Service: This vibe extends to the service as well. All the staff are laid-back, friendly and attentive.

Ambience: Three thumbs up. 6 stars. Love it. And I haven’t even mentioned the framed white sheet of paper signed by Bill Murray?

Yes, that piece of paper by the light switch does say ‘Mr. Cho, Happy New Year — Bill Murray

Cleanliness: Solid. What you’d expect from a Japanese spot. Clean enough for all five of the Jacksons (and you know Michael would be picky, RIP).

Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael approve of this meal

Colon consequences: None. Quality sushi is a super food. Good for teeth and bones and hair and your stomach. Polar opposite from most Ave spots.

Originality/surprises: Solid but nothing too far outside the Seattle sushi mainstream. There are a few fancier and more expensive rolls that sound intriguing. They have a penchant for topping California rolls. Presentation is as nice as you’d expect. Plus where else can you get sashimi while new-in-box Cheech and Chong action figures watch over your meal? Far out, man.

Taste: Village Sushi on par with your quality sushi restaurant. I mean that as a compliment. When you’re rolling the dice of consuming raw fish, you want something a step up from the usual cheap Ave spot. In our rolls, the the fish was fresh and well-prepared. The agadashi tofu was nicely fried and super smooth on the inside.

Mike is sad that the sushi is gone 😦

According to Tim, the salmon teriyaki taste matched the lovely presentation. It avoided those little charred bits that haunt Lauren’s dreams (and call to her like sirens as she passes the 47 teriyaki spots on the Ave). Surrounding the salmon was the usual bento medley including rice, miso soup and some pretty delicious pickled vegetables.

“Ave factor”: No sketch. A couple blocks off the Ave, this place exists on a plane all its own.

I can’t emphasize how awesome this place is. When you need a break from the Ave, come here. Bring your friends. Or curl up with Hard-boiled Wonderland and the End of the World and a Godzilla roll. Even if you don’t stumble through a painting to an alternate world, at least you wont’ stuff yourself silly with a shitty burrito.

Awkward photo!

What, we have to go back to work?!

U:DON

Sorry for our hiatus, we’ve just been so busy basking in the glory of one of the best Seattle summers we can collectively remember.  Rest assured, we continue to eat up the ave, we just haven’t gotten around to posting about it.  We’ll fill the backlog we promise.

This week’s AveEater: Tim

There are so many places to get a bowl of noodles on the Ave!  It’s mind boggling.  I can think of 4 Phở places right off the top of my head.  But moving from Vietnamese northeastward to Japanese cuisine, the options traditionally have been a bit sparser on the Ave.  But now there’s a good (newish) spot for udon.  It’s even called U:Don! It’s a local “fresh Japanese noodle station” and it’s pretty darn good!

Service: the whole operation is very orderly, organized and streamlined. At the start, when you line up to order, it felt a bit like a cafeteria but only in habit, not in its form.  You pick things à la carte to go with your soup and choose which kind of noodle etc.  Then they ring you up at the end of the counter and you sit.  I think we bused our own table at the end.

Ambiance: It’s perfunctory, austere – in that Japanese stark, no-fuss way.  We sat on minimalistic backless cubes.  There were lots of lines and right angles.  I don’t remember any music.

Cleanliness:  Crazy clean.  Both looking and feeling.  Prolly due to the fact that it’s fairly new and designed to be pristine and spare.

Colon Consequences:  None.  Just good soup.

just good soup

Originality/Surprises:  The hot soup is hotter than the hoochie coochie.   Beware!

Hot!

Taste:  I was disappointed that there wasn’t something to make the regular soup offerings hotter.  Sriracha or some other hot sauce would have been nice.  There was only one spicy soup on the menu.  The rest of the options were pretty tame.  I would have like the option to spice my soup up a bit but not have my eyes and nose run.

Ave Factor: Zero.  This feels like a restaurant that would be in Wallingford.

I give it 8.5 out of 10 noodles!

lastly, one of the best awkward photos ever!

awkward

Chili’s South Indian Deli and Mart

Another very special guest this week for our readers – another guest blogger!

This week’s guest AveEater is Kristi. 

Kristi is AveEater Mike’s wife of more than 10 years.  Which is a feat in and of itself if you know Mike.  Kristi is a sophisticated modern woman, as well as mother – who enjoys potty humor, swearing like a drunken sailor, and occasional dick jokes after a few glasses of wine.  She’s always up for an adventure. She has many pairs of boots.

Jealous of all of Mike’s AveEating, Kristi has been eager to guest blog with the eating up the ave crew at one of her favorite restaurants in the city – Chili’s South Indian Deli and Mart.     

Guest AveEater: Kristi

Before I jump right into the food and experience, a little background…

For those who don’t know, Mike and I spent a year traveling the world – with a large stint of time spent in India. To be completely honest, we didn’t initially go to India for the culture, people or history: we went for the food. Touring the western portion of the continent from tip to toe, we essentially ate our way up and down the coast indulging ourselves in a ridiculous adventure in dining.

Before our trip, my experience with Indian food was similar to the majority of people in the states who have had Indian food. Plates filled primarily with dishes focused on the northern style fare influenced by the British featuring tandoori type cooked meats, naans, tika masalas and curries. While these familiar dishes are still extremely tasty, southern Indian food differs greatly from its northern cousin and since our trip, has become my comfort food.

Fortunately for me, Chili’s Deli and Mart, at 5002 University Way NE, is a close refuge when craving thali, dosha, idily, sambar or the coveted delicate flakiness of a Kerala parotta. Sadly however, these items are pretty much absent from the majority of Indian restaurants in Seattle so I’m lucky to have found this place.

Now onto the food!

• Service: The quiet and extremely friendly staff at Chili’s go out of their way to make your experience a good one. Our severs warm smile and forthcoming coaching on certain menu items were both welcome and greatly appreciated.
• Ambiance: Despite the plastic tables I’m pretty sure they purchased at Costco and the funky blue walls decorated with European castles taken from old calendars, I give the place a “C” for effort. I did however appreciate the absence of the typical Ganesh carving nailed to the wall like most other Indian restaurants trying to convince you of their authenticity so that was refreshing.
• Music: A small TV mounted in the corner was playing music videos from MTV India. Fun fact, MTV India was launched in 1996 and features fresh music, the latest in Bollywood news, exciting television, and get this… it has actual music videos! And, according to Wikipedia, MTV India happens to be one of the most popular channels across the Indian subcontinent. Just look at what can happen when you actually play music on MTV, but I digress.

•  Cleanliness:  Would pass a health inspection. I also appreciated the Jasmine scented car freshener in the bathroom.

• Colon consequences: Nothing to report here. All is well.

• Originality/surprises:  If you haven’t had Southern Indian food before then it’s quite a delight and surprise. Pretty much everything on the menu is delicious. I’m a vegetarian and since much of India is veg as well they have a very generous selection of items to sample. For the meat lovers, everyone at the table was raving about Tim’s mutton dosa, so apparently that’s a must-have. The mango lassi was refreshing as well.

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  Dosas and Mango Lassis. Yes please!

• Taste:  I got the veg platter after having been told the veg thali was not available for some unknown reason. I was pretty heartbroken at first as I had my heart set on a thali, but after my plate arrived I was not disappointed. The veg platter was similar to a thali, but with a few small differences, so in the end it was close enough.  For those not in the know, thali is a typical meal made up of a selection of little side dishes. Placed on a large round tray the sides are placed in a number of small little cups positioned around the outside of the tray and in the center is your blob of rice and some type of parotta, nan, puris, chapatis, rotis or other Indian type tortilla thingy depending on the region. My favorite little side is and always has been the cabbage thorin. In this case it was great and probably my favorite thing on the plate. The other star of this meal was of course is the Kerala parotta. Flakey, sweet and salty, this little guy is a specialty to Southern India. We’ve been known on occasion to whip up a batch of egg curry on the weekend and then place a special order of just Kerela parotta for pick-up from Chili’s cuz it’s just that good. On a side note, one thing I do have to mention is that I can’t seem to find is double boiled rice in any of the other Southern Indian restaurants in Seattle, so if any of you readers out there have any leads, pass them my way.
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Note: The only thing I didn’t like was the okra side. Done right okra can be tasty but in most cases it’s just slimy and gross, as was in this case, but I don’t hold that against them.

• “Ave factor:”  Chili’s has ave factor in spades.  It looks like a place where you used to buy cigarettes before they were $20 a pack or whatever, and the new owners have poured their hearts into the food, and worried less about the décor.  I appreciate that.  Given that it’s a hole in the wall, not flashy and extremely low key and unassuming, I’m giving this place an “A” for fitting in with the majority of other establishments on the Ave.   
• Value: I don’t ever remember paying this much for a hotel, let alone a meal while in India, but the market dictates I suppose and my US $ got me a full belly at a decent price. By the look on everyone else’s faces (and bellies) I can only assume they were satiated as well.

I give it 10 out of 10 cabbage thorins – even urbanspooners love it!

Lastly– the awkward photos:

a bib is necessary occasionally.