Pacific Cafe (aka Hong Kong Kitchen)

Pacific Cafe

(Hong Kong Kitchen)

416 5th Ave S.
Seattle, WA 98104-2918
(206) 682-0908

http://www.pacifichkcafe.com

The food: We were looking for some good Chinese food prior to a night at the symphony so we sauntered into the Pacific Cafe.  Not to surprisingly there are many Hong Kong style dishes on the menu, which by the way is extensive so either check it out online first or plan on spending some time looking at it.  We had four dishes, including dessert, which left us with leftovers.  Everything was good to excellent.(not to Americanized)

The service:  Our waiter was very helpful in selecting our dishes and answered all of our questions as best as he could.  My water glass was filled all through dinner.  The food, once we were able to sort through the many temptations and actually order, came quickly.  Especially after we had mentioned we were in somewhat of a hurry, symphony remember??

Ambiance:  Clean, modern like appearance.  Very small and can get quite noisy if it starts to fill up.

Price point:  I thought the prices were very reasonable, especially based on the selection available and of course the taste!!
Miscellaneous:  the one glaring drawback to this spot is the availability of parking, (in the International District?? Go figure!!!)  Be prepared to either park and pay, park and walk or get lucky.  Or you could take the new light rail which will drop you right on top of the restaurant!!   I will say, however it is in what I would call a somewhat “sketchy” area, meaning it is right next to a bar, and across from the bus/light rail underground area.  Nothing horrendous mind you but just an FYI.

Purple Dot anyone??

Purple Dot Cafe

515 Maynard Ave S
Seattle, WA 98104-2918
(206) 622-0288

The food: We are fairly particular about our dim sum and this place delivered!!  They had a great variety of dishes, we had 6, all of which had excellent flavor and were hot and fresh.

The service:  This appeared initially to the a weak point at the Purple Dot, as it took a while to get going.  One of my personal gauges for service is how well my water glass is kept filled, and in the beginning it was not.  However, about half way through the meal, someone threw a switch or something, because it remained full for the rest of the meal!!!

Ambiance:  Very clean, new feel to this restaurant with a nice fish tank to stare at, if that is your thing.   Seating in some areas is a bit tight but there is definitely enough room to maneuver the carts around without banging knees and shins.

Price point:  I thought the prices were very reasonable, especially based on the selection available and of course the taste!!
Miscellaneous:  the one glaring drawback to this spot is the availability of parking, (in the International District?? Go figure!!!)  Be prepared to either park and pay, park and walk or get lucky.  Or you could take the new light rail which will let you out about two blocks from the restaurant!!   One other factoid is this place stays open late!!, like 2-3am.  If you are a fan of good dim sum, I would highly recommend checking this place out.  Enjoy!!

Heart’s Delight—–Dim Sum at Tea Palace

Tea Palace

2828 Sunset Ln NE
(between 10th St & N Kirkland Ave)
Renton, WA 98056

(425) 228-9393

The food: My wife and I hesitated to try this place based on many of the reviews out there.  However, we always want to give it a shot ourselves and see.  Honestly, we were glad we did.  The dim sum was very good, fresh, with a wide selection and we thought the quality was comparable to many “good” places touted downtown, without the drive and other associated hassles.

The service:  We had excellent service.  When we got there,(at 11:00am maybe a little earlier), there was not a ton of people, but the place filled up quickly and my water glass stayed full.  Also, even though there doesn’t appear to be as many food carts as we have seen in other places, we were never left wanting food.  Also, my wife asked one of the staff about a particular dish we were fond of, she politely told us the kitchen had not yet fixed it.   However,  about 15 mins later she made a trip back to us to let us know that it was now available and asked if we still wanted it.
Ambiance:  The restaurant is huge and nicely decorated, it also doubles as a karaoke bar on Thursdays(be warned  🙂  ).
Price point:  Honestly we had eight dishes ( we were hungry and took home a doggy bag), and thought the bill was extremely reasonable, under $40(easily) dollars with tip.
Miscellaneous: Lots of good close parking, with some other interesting shops to browse in the area, especially one of our favorite Asian grocery stores.

All in all a very worthwhile endeavor and one which we will be repeating in the near future.  One note:  if you are used to your dim sum places having a dozen or so carts running around at once you won’t see it here, but we definitely had no issues getting food.