Monday, November 21, 2005

$25 for 25 reviews: Brasa and Oceanaire.

If you've been paying attention, you'll remember that I went to Zoe for my birthday for the 25 for $25 promotion (a twice-yearly Seattle promotion where fancier restaurants offer a 3-course meal for $25).

So I can now review 2 more restaurants on that list: last Thursday I ate at Brasa, and last night I ate at Oceanaire.

Zoe gets top honors. My entree and dessert were the best of the 3 restaurants, and the service was really friendly and competent. Our waiter made sure that we knew there was a special promotion going on, and I even heard him advising the (annoying, obnoxious) businessmen next to us that it would actually save them money to order off the 25 for $25 menu. In contrast, neither the Brasa nor the Oceanaire waiters pointed out the special menu to us.

Brasa's appetizer choices were the best of the 3, I thought, but the service was pretty rude. The wine she brought us turned out to be a different year than the one on the winelist that Colin ordered, but she didn't offer any explanation when he mentioned it. (Not that I would actually know which year was better, but still.) She just really wasn't very nice--I know we were a big group of youngish people, and we were all ordering the cheaper stuff, but she could have tried a bit harder.

Oceanaire was good, but the crowd was pretty touristy/old, and there was nothing incredibly special about my meal. Perfectly tasty, but nothing I'll think about in a week or so. Plus the drinks were really expensive.

At Brasa, I ate: Penn Cove mussels with fennel broth. Harris Ranch strip steak with currant demi glace, cabrales butter, and mashed potatoes. Buttermilk panna cotta. And at Oceanaire, I ate: Peruvian ono ceviche. Blackened mahimahi with blue cheese and caramelized onions. "Warm" (quotes around that because it wasn't warm at all) spice cake with ice cream.

And lest you think my life is all fancy dinners and rockstars, tonight I'll be going to the gym and doing laundry and cooking something involving canned goods (well, organic canned goods at least--chickpeas and tomatoes).

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