The Burger (8 of 10)
Sides (6 of 10): No desserts to speak of, but by all means, take a walk to the ice cream shop up the block on the other side of the street. Just pretend you're walking off a few calories . . .
Ambience (7 of 10): The Attic is a neighborhood pub that feels slightly downmarket for upscale Madison Park; as a result, it's rather more friendly than some of its neighbors. With TVs showing sports channels, and a well-used dart board, it's easy to feel right at home. It's be nice if they did something about the slight smell of old beer, though. Oh, and the menu is an entertaining read.
Service (8 of 10)
Overall (8 of 10)
Attic Alehouse and Eatery
4226 E Madison St.
Seattle, Washington 98112
(206) 323-3131
Saturday, August 25, 2007
Friday, August 17, 2007
Monday, August 13, 2007
Friday, August 10, 2007
Road Trip: Rossow's in Ellensburg, WA
The Burger (3 of 10): Bacon Cheese Deluxe. The bacon was real and well-cooked. The patty was pretty thin, and sort of grey-looking. But it was buried under enough lettuce, onion, and some sort of mustard-based sauce (oh yeah, and pickles, but I don't do pickles) that the whole thing tasted pretty good.
Other Stuff (2 of 10): Rossow's has a pretty large menu for a place of this sort. But if the fried shrimp was anything to go on, don't bother.
Sides (5 of 10): Fries were thin and commercial, and just slightly overdone, but they had a nice mix of crunchy exterior and soft interior. Having several options for sauces to put on the fries was a nice touch; too bad the ranch dressing was right out of a bottle. The chocolate milk shake was disappointing, especially after Zak's. It was a real shake, but I suspect vanilla ice cream with too much Hershey's chocolate sauce. On the other hand, Will had a blueberry shake that he really liked -- even if the blueberries got stuck in the straw!
Ambience (2 of 10): Think former gas station, complete with restrooms on the other side of the building. Cinder block walls (recently painted, though!) Walls done up in reproduction Betty Boop posters and one lonely 45 record...sort of low-budget Kidd Valley. Mind you, I suspect most everybody does takeout here.
Service (5 of 10): Customers have a choice of drive-up window or inside counter. Looked like one server was managing both, so the food took a while, but she kept track of everything on our fairly complex order and got it right.
Value (7 of 10): The Bacon Deluxe burger was just over $4. Complete with shakes and sides, the four of us ate for less than $30. Pretty good by Seattle standards.
Overall (3 of 10): Rossow's is essentially a take-out joint with a few tables. Even when you eat in, it comes packed in paper and ready to hit the road. We did eat in, and were surprised how few customers we saw at 6:30 on a Thursday night. But maybe the students from Central Washington University are still on vacation. Rossow's is the sort of place that the college crowd ought to like. As our friend Perry put it, "Not great, not too bad."
Rossow's U-Tote-Em
807 W University Way, Ellensburg
(509) 925-1500
Other Stuff (2 of 10): Rossow's has a pretty large menu for a place of this sort. But if the fried shrimp was anything to go on, don't bother.
Sides (5 of 10): Fries were thin and commercial, and just slightly overdone, but they had a nice mix of crunchy exterior and soft interior. Having several options for sauces to put on the fries was a nice touch; too bad the ranch dressing was right out of a bottle. The chocolate milk shake was disappointing, especially after Zak's. It was a real shake, but I suspect vanilla ice cream with too much Hershey's chocolate sauce. On the other hand, Will had a blueberry shake that he really liked -- even if the blueberries got stuck in the straw!
Ambience (2 of 10): Think former gas station, complete with restrooms on the other side of the building. Cinder block walls (recently painted, though!) Walls done up in reproduction Betty Boop posters and one lonely 45 record...sort of low-budget Kidd Valley. Mind you, I suspect most everybody does takeout here.
Service (5 of 10): Customers have a choice of drive-up window or inside counter. Looked like one server was managing both, so the food took a while, but she kept track of everything on our fairly complex order and got it right.
Value (7 of 10): The Bacon Deluxe burger was just over $4. Complete with shakes and sides, the four of us ate for less than $30. Pretty good by Seattle standards.
Overall (3 of 10): Rossow's is essentially a take-out joint with a few tables. Even when you eat in, it comes packed in paper and ready to hit the road. We did eat in, and were surprised how few customers we saw at 6:30 on a Thursday night. But maybe the students from Central Washington University are still on vacation. Rossow's is the sort of place that the college crowd ought to like. As our friend Perry put it, "Not great, not too bad."
Rossow's U-Tote-Em
807 W University Way, Ellensburg
(509) 925-1500
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Zak's in Ballard
The Burger (5 of 10): Brady warned us: "All I can say is get ready for a noticeable jump in cholesterol and lipid levels, have your AED charged up and on stand-by, and don’t plan to get on a scale for a week or two after eating there." Maybe this Burger Quest is raising my tolerance, but even after having a "Big Johnson," I managed to waddle out pretty well. There seems to be a class of burgers that are so full of greens, onions, and the like that the burger itself is kind of lost. The Big Johnson falls in that category. The bacon was really just a hunk of undercooked fat. The whole thing wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about. The regular burgers might make more sense. A couple of ravenous teenagers in our group were unable to finish the regular burger after having a milkshake.
Other Stuff (10 of 10): One of the gang said that the black bean veggie burger was "the best she'd ever had." (She ate my pickles, too!) Cool!
Sides (10 of 10): The fries were pretty good -- commercial but well-cooked. But the standout was the chocolate milk shake: WOW! It came in one of those metal cups directly out of the shake machine that one hardly sees any more. Not only that, it was topped with a full scoop of chocolate ice cream. I must say that I'm totally spoiled now. Even when I get a real shake someplace else, I catch the tell-tale taste of Hershey's chocolate syrup, which Zak's shake didn't have at all.
Ambience (5 of 10): Our crowd took over the long table in the middle, which could easily seat 20+. But the place didn't feel overly crowded on a sunny Sunday night. The walls are decorated with license plates and other memorabilia.
Service (6 of 10): Didn't take too long, given the big crowd. They didn't offer to split checks, so we took a while figuring out who owed what.
Overall (6 of 10)
Zak's in Ballard
2040 NW Market St., Ballard
(206) 706 9257
Other Stuff (10 of 10): One of the gang said that the black bean veggie burger was "the best she'd ever had." (She ate my pickles, too!) Cool!
Sides (10 of 10): The fries were pretty good -- commercial but well-cooked. But the standout was the chocolate milk shake: WOW! It came in one of those metal cups directly out of the shake machine that one hardly sees any more. Not only that, it was topped with a full scoop of chocolate ice cream. I must say that I'm totally spoiled now. Even when I get a real shake someplace else, I catch the tell-tale taste of Hershey's chocolate syrup, which Zak's shake didn't have at all.
Ambience (5 of 10): Our crowd took over the long table in the middle, which could easily seat 20+. But the place didn't feel overly crowded on a sunny Sunday night. The walls are decorated with license plates and other memorabilia.
Service (6 of 10): Didn't take too long, given the big crowd. They didn't offer to split checks, so we took a while figuring out who owed what.
Overall (6 of 10)
Zak's in Ballard
2040 NW Market St., Ballard
(206) 706 9257
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