West Seattle Offers a World of Tastes

By Ronald Holden

Out and about in West Seattle. We've all been to Salty's, it seems, where Gerry Kingen refreshes the menu periodically as the view of the Seattle skyline just gets better and better. They don't charge extra for the view on weekends, either, where the popular $60 Sunday brunch, with unlimited seafood (oysters, crab) is actually a good deal, the sort of thing you should show off to your visiting in-laws. If you can be happy with a bowl of clam chowder, a couple of fish tacos or a Caesar salad, by all means indulge in the Happy Hour at the bar; the "bazillion-dollar" view is almost as good as from the window tables and you'll be happy for under 20 bucks.

As we come up from the bridge, on Fauntleroy, there's a bright red BBQ spot, Pecos Pit. It's the first expansion of the Pecos Pit in SoDo since the Kingen family acquired franchise rights from Debra Wise, who continues to run the original. We can see why the concept was so appealing: a limited menu, relatively simple preparation, easy-to-franchise. The "Best Potato Salad Ever," though, demonstrates the perils of the pack-em-in school of sides on a to-go menu: densely smashed, dry bits of undercooked, under-seasoned spuds (like the lumps in the mashed potatoes) enlivened with a few bits of bacon fighting a losing battle against the potatoes. Don't waste food, we're told, but I tossed my $3 offering into the compost bin without feeling guilty. The slider, on the other hand, was delicious, moist, and went down in two bites. Note that the entire menu is studded with trademark names; the potato salad isn't one of them. Want real Texas barbecue? Try Jack's, on Airport Way S. in Sodo.

Now, to work. We're going to check out a few of the new Asian-themed places in West Seattle.

The undisputed master of fried chicken in Seattle is chef Mark Fuller, who has been dazzling local palates since 2005 at Spring Hill on California Ave. SW, the spine of West Seattle. It was renamed Ma'Ono a couple of years back to honor Fuller's Hawaiian heritage. Now he has worked his wonders again, a mile south. The place is called New Luck Toy, a mashup of a 1950s amusement park (there's an authentic Skee Ball machine just inside the door) and a Chinese dive bar. The conceit at New Luck Toy is that all the food is served in to-go containers, except that you can't actually order take-out. Bizarre, right?

The place looks downright cheesy, with a pagoda roof, fake-stone front, and a garish neon sign. For many years, it really was a Chinese restaurant, presided over (until its demise ten years ago) by China Gate owner Alan Louie. It's been resurrected by Fuller and his longtime buddy and occasional business partner Patrick Gabre-Kidan (Book Bindery, Rhino Room, Dahlia Lounge, How to Cook a Wolf). The kitchen is in the hands of Khampaeng Panyathong, while Brendan McAuliffe presides over the bar.

That's where the real action is. It features tasseled Chinese paper lanterns hanging from the ceiling and ceramic mugs for its tiki drinks. The menu is full of self-deprecating, faux-racist references: Barbecued Half Lucky Ducky; General Oh-Tso Good Fried Chicken. You fill out a paper slip with check-boxes to place your order, and pretty soon a take-out container sitting atop a real plate arrives with your $11 order of chicken, which is, of course, delicious. Want to take your leftovers home? They just hand you a lid. Drinks (some of them) come out of a pair of Slurpee machines, but you can't take them home.

More Asian, now. Japanese. Kukai means poop in Hawaiian, so the name had to be changed when a chain of Japanese ramen shops opened in Seattle. They skirted the issue of Kookai fashions, but poop was over the line. Easy to go wrong with ramen, but Kukai gets it right, especially the yuzu shio ramen.

You can't discuss Japanese food in Seattle without paying homage to Hajime Sato (photo) at Mashiko, which since 2009 has been the first sustainable sushi bar in Seattle. Four omakase dinners are now offered, alongside à la carte offerings of sashimi, an assortment of rolls, and a panoply of cooked items from the kitchen (run by Mariah Kmitta and two more female staffers).

But Mashiko has been around so long it's no longer news. New is a takeout window near the Junction called Dumplings of Fury. Gyoza, won tons, hum bao, shrimp and chive in a tapioca wrapper, all blazingly hot and handed over in a paper barquette. You can eat at one of the counter stands or take your prize to the sidewalk, but speed is of the essence. Beer and wine are available, as is sake.

The default dinner in West Seattle (in neighborhoods across Seattle, truth be told) is pizza. Someday we'll develop a Universal Pizza App to evaluate and rank them all. Meantime, a few places you might consider, even though they've been around for a while. Blackboard Bistro, where Chef Jacob Wiegner continues to prepare well-calibrated plates. Fresh Bistro for Thai curry mussels and seafood cioppino; Ma'Ono for the fried chicken, obviously. Ephesus for exotic Middle Eastern, newcomer Marée for Mediterranean, The Swinery for meaty sandwiches, and two interesting seafood concepts, West Seattle Fish (counter service), and Westcity Sardine Kitchen (casual dine-in). Newcomers eagerly awaited: a bar called The Nook, and another called Alchemy, alongside its sister restaurant, Vine and Spoon.

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