Pike Place Chowder (Seafood), Seattle, WA

Pike Place Chowder, in the heart of beautiful Seattle, serves (easily) the best seafood soup I have ever sampled. This comes from me, a guy who has dined at "national-award winning" chowder joints in Monterey, San Francisco, and Newport (Oregon). Pike Place Chowder, founded in 1993, blows all other competitors out of the water with local, organic vegetables, delicious bread, hot soups, and, of course, the freshest seafood possible.

My favorite offering here is the traditional New England Clam Chowder. This stew, a soup inducted into the Great Chowder Cook-Off Hall of Fame just five years ago, is crammed to the rim with boiled potatoes, bacon bits, and delicious clams. The cream broth itself is flavored with a secret blend of divine herbs and spices that takes the soup to a whole new level. It is not too thick or thin - Pike's New England is spoon after spoon of savory seafood perfection. This isn't the only soup on the menu; Pike Place serves a well-loved quintet of other chowders; the Manhattan (a tomato-based soup), the Chicken and Corn, the Market Chowder (a chef's special involving the "fresh fish of the day"), a Scallop Chowder, and the stunningly tasty Smoked Salmon Chowder. All five are, in their own ways, on par with the New England version Pike Place is best known for.

This restaurant, though, is often erroneously thought of as 'chowder-only'. Don't be fooled and miss out - Pike Place Chowder offers a wide variety of fresh seafood baskets, along with a slew of bisques, salads, and sandwiches. For fish and chips, customers can choose fried coconut prawns, fresh oysters, cod, or salmon to go along with their fries. As for sandwiches, Pike Place pumps out dozens a day. The most popular is the Crab Roll, a sourdough bun topped with heaps of fresh crab meat, mayo, lemon, and secret seasoning. A close second is the smoked salmon sandwich, where pieces of salmon are tossed in a roasted corn salsa and served cold on a bun. Speaking of buns, this little shop uses some of the best bread I've had the pleasure of eating. The sourdough that comes with each cup of soup is flaky yet firm. It holds up when dunked and requires a good bit of chewing when consumed before immersion.

Pike Place Chowder is a gem in a city filled with stunningly-good establishments. From coffee shops to Asian markets, Seattle has it all, especially seafood. If you are in the "Emerald City" and have a hankering for a tasty chowder, crab roll or box of fish an chips, drive on over to Pike Street and hit this place up; you will not be disappointed.

The Return

Taste. food blog has, finally, after a 6-month hiatus, returned. Over the break, we were featured in numerous articles both online and in print. Thank you to everyone who gave us a shout-out! Now, with this added boost, regular blogging will begin. In other news, we just received our 10,000th individual, world-wide hit! Thank you for the continued support; we left with only 6,000 last October.


Here's the truly big news:

In the half a year seen we last typed out our love for cuisine, Taste.'s dedicated foodies have visited and toured a half-dozen regions of the U.S. Along with the already planned (extensive) coverage of SF and Northern California, new delicious additions are here. I am proud to announce the official expansion of "Taste." into Seattle, Denver, Portland, Western Oregon, and the sunny Los Angeles Metro Area! To maintain our sanity while writing dozens of articles, we have decided to drop Tampa Bay and nix our upcoming addition Houston. Don't worry; we'll add the Eastern U.S. back in the next year. Look forward to expansion into New York City, Boston, and New Orleans!

Below is a catalogue of upcoming reviews and specials for our territories, both new and old. (This list is for the next three months - yeah, that's a ton of content!) Which one are you most excited for?!?!

San Francisco:
-Special: Pier 39: A Treatise on Tourism and Cuisine
-Special: Neighborhoods: Eating in a Diverse City
-Boccalone (Restaurant Review)
-Chez Panisse (Restaurant Review)
-Ike's Place (Restaurant Review)

San Jose:
-Special: The Resurgence of a City
-Falafel Drive-In (Restaurant Review)
-Souvlaki Skewers (Restaurant Review)

Los Angeles:
-Special: Eating in the Happiest Place on Earth
-Special: SoCal Food Trucks
-El Patio Drive-In (Restaurant Review)

Seattle:
-Special: Emerald City Eats
-Special: Pike's Place Market
-Special: Seattle's Sandwich Shops
-Pike Place Chowder (Restaurant Review)
-Piroshky Piroshky (Restaurant Review)
-Ezell's Chicken (Restaurant Review)

Portland:
-Voodoo Doughnut (Restaurant Review)
-Bijou Cafe (Restaurant Review)
-Michael's Beef (Restaurant Review)
-Special: Our "Weirdest" City

Western Oregon:
-Local Ocean (Newport) (Restaurant Review)
-Sweet Life Patisserie (Eugene) (Restaurant Review)
-Noodle Cafe (Newport) Restaurant Review)
-Big Stuff BBQ (Cottage Grove) (Restaurant Review)
-Wiley's World Pasta Shoppe (Ashland) (Restaurant Review)

Denver/Boulder:
-Illegal Pete's (Restaurant Review)
-Arlene's Bistro and Creperie (Restaurant Review)
-Special: Mile High Eats