by CO » Tue Mar 04, 2008 4:37 pm
If there's one thing that makes me homesick for Rochester NY, it's the food situation here. So far, almost everything related to eating or eating out has been a disappointment:
- Waterfront dining: The first night here we ate at a seafood restaurant on the Seattle waterfront, Ivar's house of clams. If the service wasn't bad enough, the food was worse. The fish and chips was like out of a box and the girlfriend's salmon was dried out. I worked in restaurants years ago and as such have tolerance and try not to return entrees. For the first time in my life I sent both entrees back and asked them to be taken off the bill.
- Neighborhood bistros: We tried a fine dining bistro around the corner from our house. I hate these pretentious restaurants with only six things on the menu with no sides and no substitutions. Her scampi was good if expensive but I could have made pasta better than mine at home. Add salads that are too small for their prices and overly expensive wines, that makes for a big waste of almost a hundred bucks.
- Fish frys: Man, how I miss Rochester's fish frys. A full piece of fish lightly breaded. Here, there seems to be nothing like that anywhere. Every place I've tried here has the fish cut up in pieces and breading that is too heavy or too seasoned.
- Submarine Sandwiches: I had no idea how nice it was to have sub places all over the city like in Rochester. There's nothing like that here. I guess subs are kind of an East coast thing so that's their excuse. What I wouldn't give for a dibellas sub right now. . .
- Late night: I can't figure out what's going on on with a city that has bars and clubs all over but almost no late night restaurants. I knew there wouldn't be garbage plates here but I thought there would be somewhere like marks or gitsis to get some late night drunk food. Everything seems to close early here.
- Chinese food: How come this city is crawling with asians but the chinese food situation is so bad? There's a neighborhood with what must be 50 or more chinese restaurants so I've obviously not tried them all. Out of the ten I've tried, none are as good as the worst I tried in Rochester.
- Supermarkets: I really took Wegmans for granted. It takes trips to Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and others to equal the selection at Wegmans. Still, no supermarket has a deli with nearly as many choices as wegmans. To find real deli selection, I have to go to the downtown pikes place market, pay for parking, walk a couple of blocks, walk upstairs, and pay way too much at the boutique italian deli.
- Prices in general: I expected prices higher than rochester but it still pisses me off to pay 1.5X to 2X for some of the same things as in Rochester. I'm so glad I paid for a sams club membership, otherwise I'd never eat meat here.
It's kind of sad that people here don't even seem to know how bad the food situation is. I've had people thrilled to recommend their favorite place only to find that it completely sucks.
If there's one thing that makes me homesick for Rochester NY, it's the food situation here. So far, almost everything related to eating or eating out has been a disappointment:
- Waterfront dining: The first night here we ate at a seafood restaurant on the Seattle waterfront, Ivar's house of clams. If the service wasn't bad enough, the food was worse. The fish and chips was like out of a box and the girlfriend's salmon was dried out. I worked in restaurants years ago and as such have tolerance and try not to return entrees. For the first time in my life I sent both entrees back and asked them to be taken off the bill.
- Neighborhood bistros: We tried a fine dining bistro around the corner from our house. I hate these pretentious restaurants with only six things on the menu with no sides and no substitutions. Her scampi was good if expensive but I could have made pasta better than mine at home. Add salads that are too small for their prices and overly expensive wines, that makes for a big waste of almost a hundred bucks.
- Fish frys: Man, how I miss Rochester's fish frys. A full piece of fish lightly breaded. Here, there seems to be nothing like that anywhere. Every place I've tried here has the fish cut up in pieces and breading that is too heavy or too seasoned.
- Submarine Sandwiches: I had no idea how nice it was to have sub places all over the city like in Rochester. There's nothing like that here. I guess subs are kind of an East coast thing so that's their excuse. What I wouldn't give for a dibellas sub right now. . .
- Late night: I can't figure out what's going on on with a city that has bars and clubs all over but almost no late night restaurants. I knew there wouldn't be garbage plates here but I thought there would be somewhere like marks or gitsis to get some late night drunk food. Everything seems to close early here.
- Chinese food: How come this city is crawling with asians but the chinese food situation is so bad? There's a neighborhood with what must be 50 or more chinese restaurants so I've obviously not tried them all. Out of the ten I've tried, none are as good as the worst I tried in Rochester.
- Supermarkets: I really took Wegmans for granted. It takes trips to Safeway, Albertsons, QFC, and others to equal the selection at Wegmans. Still, no supermarket has a deli with nearly as many choices as wegmans. To find real deli selection, I have to go to the downtown pikes place market, pay for parking, walk a couple of blocks, walk upstairs, and pay way too much at the boutique italian deli.
- Prices in general: I expected prices higher than rochester but it still pisses me off to pay 1.5X to 2X for some of the same things as in Rochester. I'm so glad I paid for a sams club membership, otherwise I'd never eat meat here.
It's kind of sad that people here don't even seem to know how bad the food situation is. I've had people thrilled to recommend their favorite place only to find that it completely sucks.