Ocean Shores dining - Bennetts Fish Shack and Alecs By the Sea

Typically I have had some of the worst meals in my life on the Washington Coast....

We arrived Saturday ready for lunch. I went to my old favorite, Mikes Fish Market. We pulled up to it, it looked exactly the same as it did two years ago, only with 2 years of Ocean weathering.. It looked run down and no one was there. It wasn't closed, just not popular obviously. Caddilac Jacks next door is closed.

I turned the car around and headed back to a new place I saw on the way. Bennets Fish Shack. We walked in, and there was a big paper menu on the wall behind the counter. You order at the counter, and the bring your food to you. Like a fast food place, except that there is a bar also.   Kelsey ordered a Dungeness Crab Caeser ($15.99) and I ordered a Halibut Sandwich ($12.99) after inquiring if it was frozen Halibut. The counterperson told me it was fresh.

We sat at a small table, the boothes were full. I could see the bar and the TV in the bar from my angle. I watched two bartenders tending an empty bar, while the two counter girls were running around like crazy with a full lunch crowd. I realized they were new and lacked experience. Soon though, the bartenders did come out and run food.

The bar began to fill up, the UW Huskies were playing Colorado. The bar tvs were on King of Queens. sigh... The bar customers asked for the game and the bar tender went to find it. He had no idea where to look for a UW Husky game. He started searching by title.. UGH,I just wanted to scream, 627! But I watched him fiddle with the remote for close to 5 minutes before finding the game.

The food came. My sandwich was HUGE. The fillet must have been at least 8 ounces. It was topped with a quality kaiser style roll, Romaine lettuce, red onions, tomatoes, cheese and tartar. It was fantastic!  It didn't really need the cheese, but it didn't hurt. The fish was fresh and cooked to perfection. Kelseys Crab Caesar was also great, topped with a generous helping of Crab meat.  We both ate every bite.

For dinner, we went to Alecs by the Sea. I have been meaning to try this place for years. We had to wait 20 minutes for a dinner table, it is a popular place.

I was torn, I really wanted the Captains platter, but do I really need a plate of deep fried fish? No. I ordered the Lytle Oysters. Locally harvested. They were fantastic. I think there was a dozen oysters on my plate!
Kelsey gambled on the Razor Clams, lightly breaded and grilled. She was not pleased by the fact that you need to use a steak knife to cut them! They were tough. I tried them. I didn't care for them that much either.
Overall, this place is average at best. It did not live up to the hype. This "Chef" wouldn't make it far in the city, but it's good enough for the coast. I watched droves of people turned away from the bar, Reserved signs at most the tables. No one ever did come sit in those Reserved tables.

Breakfast at Shilo. It was good! I was shocked. A man was complaining loudly at the hostess station when we got there. As we were being taken to our table, we passed by a 6 top, 4 of 6 plates were untouched, and the party was gone. I don't know what happened there, but we had good food and service.

Food trucks

Why the sudden craze about food trucks? They are all over the news recently, new ones popping up daily.

My earliest experience with food from a truck was the "roach coach" that would show up at the docks at lunch and break.  Cheap, greasy food. These new trucks are anything but that.

I tried Maximus Minimus a few years ago, AKA, the flying pig. http://maximus-minimus.com/. It was decent, but expensive. They have a nice veggie bbq sandwich though. You don't see that very often.

Today I tried Curry Now, http://www.iwantcurrynow.com/index.html today. I had veggie curry tacos. $6 for 2.  They were small, but very satisfying. The curry had a really good flavor and had a good kick to it. The veggies, potatoes, onions and tomatoes, were good.  I see on the website they have Samosas. The truck didn't list them on the menu today though. I love Samosas. I'll probably try this truck again.

Next to Curry Now was a truck called Here, There and Everywhere. http://www.hereandtheregrill.com/.  Now this was a fancy food truck. I don't think they had anything below $10 on the very limited menu. One sandwich was going for $12.95! from a truck no less! wow.  I don't know if I can spend that much on truck food. If I was going to spend over $10 for lunch, I'd probably go sit down somewhere, most likely Wild Ginger, and have good service, clean napkin, water glass, the whole bit, for the same price as getting a sandwich handed to you from the window of a truck.
For the record, no one was at either of these trucks, today or yesterday when I walked by. I think these trucks do most of the business catering to the bar crowds after dark.

In other news, Pot Belly Sandwiches opened to much fanfare on 4th ave today. It is a Midwest chain and I guess there are a lot of Midwesterner people here because for the last two days, the line has been around the block. PEOPLE, when a restaurant is that crowded and busy, the workers are too. What do we do when we have too much work to do? Typically quality goes out the window.   Or, maybe they think its only going to be open for a week? I dunno. I did grab a menu and it is really reasonably priced. Less than $6 for a sandwich! wow. Take that you dumb trucks.

The Burrito Experience - Chipotles

I finally was able to go to Chipotles yesterday.  It opened at least 6 months ago and has a line out the door since. Why? There are two other Burritos places within 500 feet of Chipotles.  I saw the SouthPark episode.. why would everyone line up for exploding diarrhea?

I actually made an earlier attempt at  Chipotles a few months ago.  When I opened the door, the fire alarm went off! I thought I had done something at first.. but then closed the till and kicked everyone out. No burrito today.

This visit, there were no alarms. The menu is basic,  Chicken, Beef, Pork or Veggie burritos and rice bowls. Soft tacos. Chips and 4 salsas. Soda, beer and margaritas.

I ordered the Veggie burrito of course.  It comes with white rice, grilled peppers and onions, cheese, guacamole (free for veggie burrito),  lettuce and salsa.  I ordered a side of chips and hot salsa just to try the salsa by itself. $8.15 with tax.

The burrito was rolled into a football shape, not really burrito shape. More short and fat. It was pretty good, the thing that really impressed me was the guacamole. It was fabulous!

The chips and salsa were very good. The chips had a light lime salt on them and the salsa was very hot and flavorful. It also had the most beautiful red color I've ever seen in a salsa.

All in all a good experience, with no Southpark 'ending'!

But, why does this place rise above Qdoba, Blue Water, and Taco Del Mar?  Excluding Qdoba, the ingredients are better.

Del Mar sold it's soul a few years back. When it started, it was a quirky SoCal Fish taco place (founded in Everett!). The fish was a good quality cod. They abandonded that model, replaced the Cod with Pollock and focused on traditional America palettes which like ground beef over a good piece of fish.

I still haven't figured out Qdoba yet. I went when they opened a year ago (6 months before Chipotle and kitty corner from it). I wasn't overly impressed because they just put too much stuff on my burrito. Grilled squash was just a bit much, Even though I like squash, it didnt work for me on my burrito. Theyt are definatelt looking for the high end burrito market.

Blue Water has been around the longest in Downtown Seattle. I have been going there for a decade. It is cheap, quick and has a lot of convenient locations all over town. I am especially impressed by the new BlueWater on 6th and Union. It appears to be more Cantina style, offering buckets of beer during happy hour.

While I welcome Chipotle to Seattle, I wish that the other Colorado taco chain, Wahoo, had come here instead. Wahoo and the SoCal chain Baja Fresh are still my tops. There is a new Baja Fresh in the Seattle area now, I guess the Fremont location opened and closed already. Bummer