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 Fish House (Seafood), Ruskin, Florida

My trip to beautiful Tampa Bay would simply not have been complete without a visit to this shack legendary for it's fresh-caught fish sandwiches. The Fish House was rumored to have, along with strange business hours, excellent food at affordable prices. The fish, or so I heard, had a perfect set of seasoning and a picture-worthy fry. Nothing here was supposed to be anything short of spectacular. And, of course, it wasn't. Every whisper proved true as this lonely wood frame of a building won my affection at first bite. I myself dined on a succulent Grouper offering crafted out of newly captured seafood, a bun, and a light fry. Basically, think of fish fillet shoved in a Po Boy in the place of shrimp or andouille. It was to die for, a far too often used phrase that I have to use to accurately describe this sandwich. If you find yourself in the vicinity of Ruskin, the long drive here and sometimes insanely
long wait would be well worth it. After one taste of the
Fish House's Grouper sandwiches,
you'll understand for yourself.

Scoma's (Seafood, Californian), San Francisco, CA

There are few restaurants in the Bay Area as fabled and adored as Scoma's. At nearly fifty years old, it is a San Francisco landmark, as steeped in history as the rocks it sits upon. As for the food, well, as the website says, let it "speak for itself". Every offering this institution doles out is delectable. For one, there's the whole crab, heated or chilled. Then, there's a delicious offering of various ravioli that would make anyone's mouth water (with types including crab and lobster). Other plates of mouth watering seafood are abound on the menu, and the haters of the sea's bounty still have options, too. Scoma's serves Lamb, Steaks, and even two types of burger. But, the beauty of Scoma's doesn't end with the food. Sweeping panoramic views of the San Francisco area greet you once inside. From your perch a mere twenty feet above the water, you can view everything from Coit Tower and the Transamerica Pyramid to Ghiradelli Square and the high-rises on the Northern tip of the peninsula. With great service, an amazing meal and even better views, how could anyone go wrong at Scoma's?