The Kingfish Cafe: Restaurant Review

On Saturday, my family and I went out to do some errands and then went to the Kingfish Cafe for breakfast. I've always seen this place since it was so close to my old high school, but have never tried it! Finally, I was able to fulfill my curiosities !

Located in a slightly quiet area of Capitol Hill, this restaurant is on the corner of 19th and E Mercer St. and is placed in a nice little neighborhood. They serve Southern style cuisine and have been in business for a little over 10 years.

I have always seen this place on the outside as I either have walked/bussed/or driven by and was excited to finally be able to sit inside. I didn't get to see the entirety of the place since we were seated pretty close up front to the windows but it had a relaxing atmosphere. The seats by the windows are actually very nice when it's sunny out because it is just nice and bright.

They had a paper menu with a breakfast and brunch option and most of us opted for the brunch side (except my brother who is in love with buttermilk pancakes).



My parents both got the same thing, the crab and catfish cakes eggs benedicts style and I have to say those cakes were really good! It was a little crispier than what I usually prefer to in a crab cake, but the crunch was a nice added texture. The crab and catfish were flavorful too and added with the poached egg and hollandaise on top made for a nice bite.

I had the grits topped with gravy, chicken and onions that came with scrambled eggs and a hot biscuit.

I kind of wished the gravy sauce was a little more 'savory'--it felt like it was lacking in something--but I liked the chicken and onion throughout. I had to give it a little kick so I added their habanero (I think) hot sauce to it and it made the dish a whole lot tastier.

 I don't care too much for scrambled eggs so I gave that to my brother. I did really like the hot biscuit though since it was freshly made and the jam that came with it was really perfect. I think it was raspberry, but that jam with the butter melted onto the biscuit was comfort.

I highly recommend checking this place out especially if you love or want to try Southern style food. I would definitely go back (I  want to try that bread pudding!) and also see their menus for what they serve for lunch and dinner. I think it is a good place for families, a friend get together, and even a date since the area is so quaint. The staff was nice and friendly and so very easy to work with. This is a definitely a place to check out.

Do you like Southern food? What's your favorite dish??

Birthday Celebrations w/ Food !

My birthday was the other day and I just wnated to share the family celebration I had that, of course, centered around food!

Last Sunday, we had a larger family dinner to celebrate my birthday and I decided to eat Korean BBQ!

If you haven't had K-BBQ before and you love meat, then you should definitely try it! We went to Palace BBQ in Bellevue (there's another one in Federal Way). To check out their menu and site click HERE)

I love the fact that you cook everything yourself and can watch it sizzle and smoke  >.< There's a large selection of meats and seafood and my personal favorites are the pork belly (pictured above--its like bacon), Kalbi (pictured above-marinated short ribs), shrimp and bulgolgi (marinated thinly sliced beef).

I also love the banchan (small side dishes) that they will keep refilling for you as well. My favorites are the cucumber kimchi and potato salad that they make. The dipping sauces for the unmarinated meat are so simple but good as well. There's sesame oil that I like to add dopanjang (fermented bean paste) and garlic. Then I like the citrus-y soy sauce with jalapeno to dip the pork belly in. It's all just so tasty!

If I have to be honest though, I think I do like the Federal Way restaurant slightly better than the Bellevue one, but they both make me happy =P

And of course, for some reason, I have to have beer (Korean beer of course) with my bbq. I'm not a beer drinker, but I realllly love OB--its not too heavy but isn't too watery. It has a nice lager flavor and I love the carbonation. It's good for washing down the grease haha. 

Just for kicks, but I did like it. It's a baby octopus (like calmari).



Then on my actual birthday day (yesterday the 21st ^^), my brother treated me out to Ramen at Kukai Ramen & Izakaya. I've been here before but don't think I've written a review on it. Anyways, in Chinese tradition, you are usually supposed to eat noodles on you birthday to represent a long life/longevity. I was feeling for some Japanese ramen so this is where we went!

We started off with some appetizers: their yaki onigiri (grilled rice balls) and their house salad. I wish their onigiri was less mushy and more hard/crunchy. The rice was too mushy for my taste and it was barely crispy on the outside--like it was too wet. The flavor of it was good though and there was some sake (salmon) bits in it I believe and I like it when it's wrapped in the nori (seaweed).

I didn't try the salad but it was just a simple one with tofu, chicken, nori, and a miso dressing.

Oh yea, and we also had agedashi tofu, which is basically a deep fried tofu in a dashi broth topped in bonito dried tuna fish) flakes and shredded daikon (a type of radish).

Now the best part--the actual ramen! I really like their Tsukemen (dipping noodles) with a tonkotsu (thick pork broth) dipping stock.  I like dipping ramen sometimes because I can control the amount of flavor and bits of what I eat since I don't always like mixing everything together. I choose the regular broth (they have a lighter portion) so I could enjoy the full flavor of the pork broth. It was very rich, thick and savory and slightly intense in flavor but it's exactly how I like it. The pork slices were also very flavorful and tender so it wasn't chewy at all.

One of my favorite parts to the dish is the half boiled tamago (egg) and how the outside was nice and cook but the inside yolk was nice and runny--having none of it cooked at all! They must have their timing down to be so consistent. Anyways, I definitely loved that and always love my yolks in eggs extra runny.

Of course to top off the night (even though the weather was basically freezing!) I picked up a mini treat of Menchie's frozen yogurt which was basically only one store over!

I picked the mango sorbet (hella bomb), blueberry pomegranate (I wanted to keep in the same tart theme) and of the plain original flavor. I topped it off with some mochi (chewy rice cakes), popping boba in mango, cheesecake chunks, cookie dough, pomegrante seeds, kiwi and strawberries and I was very content for the night.

Hope you guys enjoyed the food post! I love sharing good meals with photos =P