Nijo’s was initially tough to find, as it’s tucked away below 1st Ave next to an alley. At busy times, that would make parking pretty tough, but for a weeknight dinner there was plenty of parking within a 1-block radius.

The interior is small, dark and intimate. There’s a bar area with a giant tv playing anime, and then a more formal dining area with small tables. We got a nice window seat, but unfortunately there’s not much outside to look at besides pedestrians.

Given that there weren’t many other diners, the service was quick and attentive, and the waiter was good at refilling our waters before things got empty. Food quality was quite good – they have a great selection of varied and unique rolls, as well as some solid main entrees and appetizers. You’re gonna pay a decent amount for the food though, so be prepared.

Overall, I’d come back her again in the future to try out some of their other rolls, probably once every 2-3 months.

Ok I admit it, my knowledge of Chinese restaurants in the International District isn’t as good as it should be. Good Japanese or Vietnamese restaurants in the I-District are easy to find, but for some reason I’d always felt that the Chinese restaurants on the Eastside were better than their I-District counterparts.

Dining at Shanghai Garden was a solid first step in redeeming the local Chinese restaurants, IMO. I wasn’t expecting much, and the decor inside is typical for such a restaurant – a large fish tank and some pretty bare walls save for some unappealing pictures of food. Points to them for being cleaner than most other restaurants in the area.

But the main attraction here are the noodles, especially the hand shaved ones. There’s a large selection of different kinds of noodles, and seeing that I really liked what I tried, I’ll definitely be coming back to try the others.

All in all, Shanghai Garden is a solid pick to satisfy your noodle cravings.

We dropped in for a late lunch on a weekend, and I was impressed by the sparse and clean dining room on the main floor. Djan’s is housed in an old house, with all the associated charm and quirks. Service was quick and responsive.

I was less impressed with the food than I was with the service and ambiance. Their dishes tend to range on the spicier side, but the one I had was excessively saucy. Kudos to them for not skimping on the meat, though, and portions in general were sizable. Not sure if I’d come back regularly, but it’d work for a decent thai bite in a nice setting.

I’ve walked past the signs outside advertising their ”$1 happy hour” many times, so I had to drop in and see for myself. My verdict is that it pays to be picky at Maharaja.

The restaurant is divided into two sections: a standard-looking Indian restaurant in front, and a dim, dark lounge in the rear, where no Indian employees were to be found. The lounge’s decor is straight hipster dive bar.

The Happy Hour specials were indeed cheap: $1 for your choice of naan, veggie samosa, some sort of pakora, and tandoori chicken ($2 well drink purchase required). Given the decor and the exceedingly low prices, conventional wisdom dictates choosing the well-fried options, but we didn’t, and the chicken came out undercooked. Lesson learned – don’t expect a lot from $1 happy hour food.

I’m done with this place and its horrible service.

The fact that Purple Dot’s open really late makes them popular among the post-clubbing crowd and a destination for a quick bite of mediocre Hong Kong-style diner food. But the management should realize that long, late hours are no substitute for good food quality and decent service, none of which they currently have.

I’ve experienced a number of poor dining experiences at Purple Dot, so the latest should have been no surprise to me. This time around, a busboy dropped a cup of soda on the floor behind us, spraying some members of the party with liquid. Barely an apology registered.

Service speed is consistently poor, always rushing you to order, but post-ordering always slow to refill water, tea, etc. To top it off, we had a waiter accept a $20 bill to get change, only to hand it back and ask us to go to the front counter to get change, saying “I can’t help you”. Our entire table was just staring, stunned.

Given the consistently poor service and food, I’m not coming back. If you care at all about having a reasonable dining experience, you might not want to either.

I was glad to finally check out this new noodle spot on Capitol Hill that was opened by the creators of Blue C Sushi. Similar to Blue C, the interior of Boom Noodle is attractively modern with a very high ceiling. The use of large dark wood tables helped add a warm feeling to the space.

Service was good, but the portions were smaller than what I’d have hoped for, especially given the prices ($10+ on average).

All in all, not a bad place to soak in the decor, but if I’m hungry I’ll go to Samurai Noodle instead.

I’d been wanting to try The Hi-Life for some time now, and I’m happy to say that it’s a place I’d readily return to whenever I’m in or around Ballard.

The location is ideal for stopping in for a bit when walking around the core of the neighborhood, and the decor within this old firehouse is casual enough for most any group, but is still spaciously and artfully decorated enough to make you feel like it’s not just another regular meal.

We were seated by the window which turned out to be pretty chilly. The service was prompt and friendly, and overall the small taste of the food we had was tasty. There were a lot of things on the menu that looked good, so I’ll definitely be returning in the future.

Craving sushi in Belltown, I dropped into Shiro’s for dinner one Sunday night, and was reminded of why I both liked the place and also why I hadn’t come back in a long time – the food quality is high, the prices are high, but the service is unfortunately spotty.

Though I didn’t have sashimi this time around, I was quite pleased with the selection of small plates that we ordered – each was well prepared and quite tasty. Part of the reason we got small dishes instead of full meals was the price – 20 bucks is a steep price to pay for a chicken teriyaki dinner in my opinion, regardless of where you’re having it.

The service was the most troubling part of the meal. Our waitress was either hot or cold, coming by far too often to check on us, or totally ignoring our empty tea and water glasses. Worst of all, she let out a giant sigh of exasperation when asked for more wasabi. I understand that being a waitress is a tough job, but I’d expect more professionalism in a higher-tier establishment such as Shiro’s.

Overall, the experience was mixed. I’d come back next time if I felt a craving for high quality Japanese food, and wasn’t expecting matching service.

I was really happy to have stumbled across this izakaya on a late-night jaunt through Belltown this past weekend. The quiet, chill ambiance of Wann on 2nd was the perfect remedy to the raucous scenes at the bars on 1st.

The interior of Wann was a nice blend of traditional japanese-style dark wood seating and booths with a more modern touch of upbeat music and old-school anime playing on the TV at the bar. The place was surprisingly empty for a Saturday night – apparently location matters a huge amount in Belltown, as if Wann was on 1st I’d expect it to be packed every night til closing.

The quieter location explains why Wann offers what sealed the deal for me: happy hour til 2am on the weekends. With a good selection of tasty food and beverages, Wann offers a tough to beat combination of ambiance, location and value for late-night lounging. I’ll definitely be back here often.

Back when Blue Fish was called Sake House, my friends and I gushed over how we had discovered another fine choice for Eastside sushi (as there are never enough). Perhaps we were more naive about sushi back then, or perhaps the change of name/management really has affected things.

In any case, the quality of the food is pretty poor now, and the service was very slow for our meal (a Thursday evening dinner). Most every dish that we ordered was overpriced and underflavored. The ambiance is still nice, with some open street seating and a direct sunlight in the evenings.

I’m terribly disappointed in Blue Fish, and it’s now off my list of sushi options for the area.

This is a follow-up review for this restaurant. Read my previous review for this restaurant here