The Station Bistro

Delicious food and charm. Such a wonderful surprise! A bit off the beaten track in Ballard but such a lovely place full of charm and interest. The restaurant is in an old gas station and opens up on nice days (glass garage doors roll up). We sat out on the patio on a beautiful evening and had the most wonderful french onion soup ($8 bowl) and vegetable risotto ($10). For people who appreciate good food and an artistic location, I definitely recommend. It looked like a good place to come late, as they were setting up for some live music after we had finished our meal.…

Great, Sleeper Bistro, with foodie menu. I love this place! The food is wonderful, bright, and alive with flavor. This was my second visit, and I was happy on both occasions. The food is is reasonably priced, especially considering the kind of fare you are treated to. You experience spicy comfort food when ordering the Russian Dumplings. The steak meat inside the dumplings is good- no gristle or fatty pieces here. The salads are good, nice cuts of citrus fruit, and quality arugula. We tried the market price fish on our last visit, and found the tilapia to be perfect, tangy, tart with lemon, dense with capers, and flaky and moist. The breading on the fish was good, and the accompanying vegetables were the best I have had in a very long time. Perfectly cooked and seasoned!

The place is modest in most respects, but has a cool, European feel. The view is not to die for, because you look out at the dive bars nearby, but you are here for the food anyway. The artwork is nice, and the choice of music good. The servers leave you alone to sample your food in peace, and the chef peaks at you from the counter, hoping your face will indicate your savory satisfaction. This bistro cares about your experience, but if you can't appreciate their amazing, foodie concoctions, they are not going to repackage it for you. They are unpretentious and hopeful that you enjoy yourself, but you are left to your own thoughts, which is my favorite kind of place.…

booze in the bowl. Too much booze in the bowl that snoopylove or doggyhump or canusamorus or whatever was drinking from that is. The Station Bistro is a bistro, bistro comes from the Russian and it means quick, you can get a quick small bite at the station...by the way snoopy, since when does the size of a plate fall in and out of fashion? And hipster hell...hmmn, I don't think any of the staff at the Station could fit into a size 24 pair of black Cheap Monday jeans, and the music they play...is Wilco hipster music? I thought it was just good. Is 9 bucks a lot of money? Man snoop, sorry to hear times are so tough. Maybe you should lay off the rum and cokes ( just a guess) and save up some dough. That might also help out with the grammar and spelling, e.g. - amatures? Did you mean amateurs? I think you may be too close to this one to know.…

Nice view of traffic on Leary. If you are on a low calorie, high budget diet, this is the place to eat. Though it is named a "bistro," the food selection reflects an over-priced happy hour menu. Each item is priced at $9 and the portions are small. We ordered the chicken wings, which were actually quite tasty. Unfortunately, there were only four wings on the plate. At $2.25 per wing, not worth it. The cheese plate had a nice selection, but the portions were too microscopic to actually get a good taste of what was offered. And it would have been nice to serve the cheese with something more than four thin slices of an apple. Perhaps some bread? Our third food item was the mushroom risotto. Good flavor, but I never detected any mushrooms. They cleverly hid the small, undercooked risotto portion by topping it with lots of roasted veggies and a large sprinkling of parmesan. We also ordered two glasses of wine and were a bit surprised at our server's lack of knowlege about the wine list. The list itself was a bit shallow and could benefit from more Northwest wines. And (this is a pet peeve of mine) if you are charging $9 for a glass of wine -- put it in a decent glass! Our total bill was over $50 with the tip. I've left happy hour bars feeling more satisfied and with less impact on my pocketbook.…