SUMMER BRUNCH AT REVEL - SEATTLE, WA

Last weekend I went to Revel Seattle again but this time to try out their Summer Brunch menu! Last time I was here was back in November for my birthday (short review HERE ) and it has seriously been too long! As I've mentioned in a previous blog post, Revel is an Asian/Korean fusion place that is owned by Chef  Rachel Yang (along with 3 others in Seattle including, Quoin, Joule, and Trove) and has been gaining a lot of popularity, especially with Trove recently opening.

My friend and I wanted to go early to beat the crowd, but since it was Memorial Day weekend, most people were probably still hungover! We even arrived a bit after 10 but there were still plenty of spots. We ended up sitting on their outside porch area with room heaters above. 

A short and simple menu, but their Summer brunch was on point!

Here's a breakdown of what we ordered.

Bacon donuts, pickled Asian pear, condensed milk glaze: Oh em gjeeze. This was amazing! My friend unfortuneately isn't eating meat until her wedding, so I had to eat these all by myself. I know, so hard.

Smoked Tuna Salad, harissa potato, olive, pickled green bean: My friend ordered this and I didn't want to eat too much of it, but I loved the pickled green beans!

Revel Ramen Not what I typically am used to in a ramen in terms of the broth. I'm usually used to a richer, creamier broth, especially when pork is involved, but this lighter broth matched the whole dish really well! The diced up radish kimchi left a nice sour flavor to the mix, the egg was oozing to perfection, and the texture of the noodles was nice and tender. My favorite part was the long piece of pork belly! I could've done without all that ginger, but otherwise, this was a really good noodle soup, ramen dish.

Scallion biscuits w/ Jalapeno honey butter: Wow and Wow! This was a last minute on behalf of my friend (I take credit in actually choosing this over the yogurt) and boy was this frikken amazing. The scallions and bread products are always a good combo--savory but not overpowering. Plus, that honey butter was beyond delicious. There was a definite jalapeno flavor to it (with actual jalapeno bits too) and it wasn't spicy--just sweet creamy butter perfection Added with the scallion biscuit and you have the perfect combo.

Do I recommend this place? Heck yes. Would I come again for brunch? Most definitely. I really want to try the BBQ Pork Monkey Bread (crazy right?!) and you can't go wrong with the Short Ribs and Egg rice bowl. A reorder of the bacon donuts and/or scallion biscuit is a must too. Plus, this place is tucked away in Fremont, which is a cute place in general with many food destinations and darling little shops, so you can always walk and venture around after! Maybe even give the infamous Fremont Troll a stop-by... =)

Readers, have you had an Asian/Korean fusion on foods before? What are your favorite kind of new foods to try? Let me know!

BIRTHDAY WEEKEND: Revel and Schilling Cider House in Fremont.

A couple weekends ago, I was able to celebrate my birthday (super last minute) with some of my girl friends. We wanted to venture to a different area of Seattle than are usual Capitol Hill and this time we went to the Fremont neighborhood in Seattle just west to the University District.

 

 

 

Revel



We started off at the cutest Korean fusion place called Revel. None of us have been there and it is always fun to try somewhere new. The menu isn't too huge so it wasn't overwhelming and we were able to try a bit of everything.

  

 Our first dish that came was a noodle dish: Dungeness crab, seaweed noodle, spicy red curry, crème fraiche. It was definitely different than anything I've ever had before but the combo was divine! The seaweed noodles were nice and al dente, the curry wasn't too spicy, there was an overall sweetness to the dish and the crab added a nice flavor and seafood texture. The baby bok choy added a nice fresh crunch to the dish as well.

 

Next were some appetizers: pork belly, kimchi, and beansprout pancake and the short rib, pickled shallot, and scallion dumplings.  Pork belly and kimchi is just always such a nice combo and in a pajun style pancake it added an extra crunch to it. The dumplings had a crush that was reminiscent of a Mexican dessert crust and the meat inside was nice and moist.

The last item we had was a rice dish (like a bibimbap) that had an egg yolk with short rib, sambal daikon (sambal is a type of Indonesian hot sauce, and daikon is a type of raddish) with mustard greens. This was probably my favorite dish! When you mix everything all together, you get a flavor and texture medly going on. Then there are sauces on the side that you can add to your liking including, a soy sauce mixture, fish sauce, gochujang (a type of Korean pepper paste) and I think ssamjang (another type of Korean spicy paste with Korean bean paste).

 

Of course you can't end the night without dessert and since it was my friend and I's birthday month, they gave us two candles to celebrate =)

I can't remember the name of the dessert dish but it consisted of this thick pudding, salted caramel, apples, dates, and rice puffs and OOOooo it was amazingggg! Not overly sweet or rich, just the perfect amount

 

 

 Schilling Cider House 

 

The last stop was Schilling Cider House which is a place where, as you guessed it, sells hard cider drinks. We had never been there before but saw some good reviews on trusty 'ol Yelp and decided to head in. The guy helping us was a bit awkward at first, but warmed up to us when we said we had no idea what we were doing. Basically, each of those samplers you see are $2 each and a whole flight of 6 samples is $13.45 (tax included). Such an awesome deal to be able to try the drinks you wanted! We decided on trying our own flights and pick and choose the drinks. I can't remember all of the ones I had but what comes to mind is sriracha lime, baked apple, a cider with melon, blackberry cider, and a pumpkin ale cider.

 

Sriracha lime tasted like pho without the beef stock and was a bit weird. Not gonna lie, and it definitely did have a kick. I'd recommend anyone to try it at least once since it is so unique and different. Baked apple cider was delicious and tasted like a better version of Martinelli's apple cider since there was alcohol in it. It wasn't overly sweet and the apple flavor was nice and crisp.

The cider with melon was my least favorite. I could barely taste any melon flavor and it was lacking in fullness and flavor. I don't recommend that one. The blackberry cider  was absolutely delicious! The berry flavor was present and it added a nice sweetness to the cider. Again, it wasn't overly sweet and is another favorite. The last cider I can remember and probably my favorite of the bunch is the pumpkin ale cider. If you love pumpkin flavored things, this is one too try. There was a definite pumpkin tone to the cider without it being overly pumpkin like pumpkin pie. It had a mellow sweetness to it that matched the pumpkin flavor just right. I highly recommend this one!

 

That's it for my quick little Birthday weekend post =) I hope you enjoyed it and enjoyed all the food posts. If you live in the Seattle area or ever come to visit, I definitely recommend checking these places out and the Fremont area in general (plus, you can see one of the major tourist attractions, the Fremont Troll!)

 

Readers, do you enjoy Korean food or Korean fusion? How about ciders (alcohol and non alcohol!) Let me know in the comments!

Rockcreek Seafood & Spirits: Restaurant Review

My family and I always like to try new places to eat so a few weeks ago, we went to the Fremont area of Seattle to a newer placed called Rockcreek Seafood & Spirits.

This place had a very open feel to it, with it's high ceilings and long glass windows making it feel less stuffy and more welcoming. The seating is spaced out well, except for the weird part where the higher bar stool seating is right above a dining table (yea it was weird because it feels like they can see you eat). Other than that, the graphic imaging of a natural landscape stands right by the entrane and gives the entire place an outdoorsy vibe. Now on to the food!...

First were are small plates and appetizers. We had this calamari "kari out' where it was an asian inspired calamari dish served in an actual take out box with chopsticks.

I like that these were whole baby squid that was deep fried. It was served with a salad that was in a sort of sweet and sour dressing, that tasted like a Chinese chicken salad or something of the sort. I thought it was a cute presentation and the flavor was really nice.

Next we tried the grilled ocotopus with kidney beans and tomato. Some of this was better than the other.

I say that because a few of the octopus pieces were very tender, but then some of them were tough and chewy. It had a smoked flavor to it that complimented teh freshmness of the tomato and beans.

Next was a sardine salad that I actually really enjoyed.

It was a bit fishy, so if you are not into that type of tase or if you aren't used to fishier fishes, then I would stay away from it. I loved it however. There was an eggplant puree as a base for the fish along with pickled veggies and some fresh herbs and fried onion/shallot pieces. I loved the freshness of everything blended with the sardines.

We also had fresh oysters on the half-shell. I am such a lover of raw oysters and these did not disappoint. Sorry though, I can't remember the names of all of them, but we did try 4 different kinds from around the Pacific NW.

My beverage of choice was this infused dandelion wine with raw egg white served in this mini vase looking glass. It was very refreshing and light, but not overly sweet. The egg white is basically cooked from the alcohol so it added a nice layer of texture to the drink.

Now for my main dish. I had the hawaiian seared tuna with pickled onions, celery, sliced potatoes, olives and Italian flat leaf parsley over a tomato vinaigrette. I liked how raw the center of the tuna was, but honestly wished for even less cook time on the tuna than it had because it left some parts a bit tough. I also wish the tomato vinaigrette had more flavor to it, or perhaps with something else added. I know you don't want to overpower the tuna so you can taste it's flavor, but there was something about the sauce that just didn't quite match up to the tuna and pickled vegetables. Overall though, I did like this dish but would probably not re-order it. My brother had the black cod dish and I think I would opt for that instead. It was just more pleasing to the palette and had a nice variety of complex flavor without being overpowering.

And lastly, the dessert! Whenever we try a new restaurant, it is almost inevitable that we try the dessert as well! This time we opted for 2 dishes.

This first one was a ricotta apple beignet with a caramel anglaise, topped with powdered sugar. This was a really delicious treat. I liked that they were nice and bite sized and were not overly sweet. I wish there was a bit more ricotta to them and a stronger apple flavor. I was expecting a bolder apple flavor when I read the dessert menu, but didn't really notice it.

The last thing we tried was the RockCreek S'mores which consisted of a Valrhona chocolate mousse, smoked meringue, caramel, sea salt, and a graham tuille (cookie cracker thing). I loveeeed this dish, I think mainly because of the salted caramel flavor melded with that smoked meringue on top. It balanced out the creamy sweetness of the chocolate pudding below. The graham tuille was a nice touch too because there was a bit of saltiness to it as well.

Overall, I am highly pleased I was able to try this place and would definitely want to check out their brunch and happy hour items. This place in the mid-range when it comes to pricing--not overly cheap, but not over-the-top pricing either. Items ranged anywhere from $10 to around $24 with dessert and oysters being less than $10. If you are looking for a new restaurant to try in Seattle, and you love seafood, I would recommend this place!

Do you like seafood? What is your favorite seafood dish?!