Cascadia

07/16/2008 Posted by foodiedad

We went to Cascadia on a vacation in Seattle. Good food and kids welcome (my son is 5). His meal was great, three courses with a fantastic dessert involving cotton candy and a chocolate Space Needle. If I could order off the kids menu I would have been happier. My wife and I each had a variation of their seasonal 3 course meal with wine pairings. First, at $25 for 3 paired wines, the half glasses were very disappointing. The wines were good, but over $8 a half glass of Reisling is not acceptable. The food sounded good, but was somewhat bland and uninspired. For my entree I had hamachi tuna paired with a pureed eggplant with miso. The eggplant "sauce" completely overwhelmed the tuna and was terrible by itself. The appetizer and dessert were fair. Service was excellent but the execution was just off. I had seen in the Sea-Times that Chef Sear was looking to sell the restaurant, probably about time.

Pros: kids menu, service

Cons: adults menu

04/10/2008 Posted by impregum

Just plain bad food, and bad experience. We eat out alot, I mean alot, all over the country and abroad. Tried Cascadia a few years ago and hated it. We decided to give it a go again. If it has been around this long we must have just gone on a bad night. Wrong. Service from door to dessert (although desert was good, but pretty hard to mess that up) was bad, and food even worse. Although I wouldn't have thought the service so bad, if the food wasn't even worse. We will never go again, and compel others not waste their money. It's not super expensive....but still not worth it.

Pros: decor

Cons: everything else

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

03/01/2008 Posted by ReviewerRestaurant

We have recently been to Cascadia twice in the past few months. The waiter was hostile to us on first occasion and the food cold and tasteless with the exception of dessert, which was very good. We again tried Cascadia and found the same waiter to be downright cold and irritated to have to be waiting on us. Almost as if we were taking up his time. All our party commented on this after the dinner. The food was very mediocre, not to mention it was stone cold. We also felt rushed throughout our meal. Cascadia is definitely resting on its laurels. It has been an outstanding restaurant in the past, but perhaps now they cater to the cruise tourists, 20 somethings buying drinks and children? Who knows, but it is not worth the money for cold tasteless food or the 2 hours of being rudely mistreated by a hostile waiter.

Pros: Good location. Once was a good restaurant

Cons: Very rude staff. Cold food.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

02/19/2008 Posted by bolsome

This place is off my list for happy hours. The $1 mini burgers are now $2.50 and god forbid if you add any extra's. For two of us the final bill was $60 and we were still hungry!!! It used to be worth your time to line up early for Happy Hour here, but save your money and try just about any other place in Belltown.

Pros: Professional Staff

Cons: Too expen$ive!

11/29/2007 Posted by elise81

So, I remember a few years back where you could go to Cascadia... during happy hour... and get 2 mini-burgers and an alpine for like 7 or 8 bucks. Our bill tonight, for 2 people, was 58 bucks... that was probably the "unhappiest hour" I have ever encountered in Belltown. Here is what happened: First we sit at the bar... it takes about 7 mins before we are even greeted... Then we order our drinks from a bartender that was not very knowledgeable. The service was slow, but we could tolerate it. It took a little longer to order food, even though we wanted to when we got our drinks, he came back and took our order a few mins later. We ordered 4 beef mini's, 2 veggie, and 1 salmon, some fries, alpines... Then our bartender asked if we wanted to add cheese, we agreed cheese would be good and he said blue cheese or cheddar... The food came out a few mins later, we ate, service was slow, etc, but the food was good and so was our drink. Here is the major problem... we get our bill and we see 4 beef minis were 18 bucks, 2 veggie were 9 bucks our salmon was the happy hour price of $2.50. So I ask the bartender why were our burgers not the happy hour price if $2.50? He is confused, and a bit rude and tells us to ask the host stand. We go there, I ask two more people at the host stand, then get a manager type and she says, oh it is because you got cheese. I said, it would have been nice had the bartender told us and then she just shrugged and that was it. So, basically, we found our that we paid $12.00 for cheese... Had the bartender told us that cheese was $2.00 an inch... we probably would have passed... It isn't even the money, it was just the principal, I suppose... What happened to happy hour being cheap and fun?

Pros: alpines are yummy

Cons: prices are crazy

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

11/27/2007 Posted by hotpink23n

I have been for the mini burgers (dragged my suburban mother to a belltown HH and thought it was the most approachable*) and loved them. But somehow on that excursion I did not see the inside and my view of the bar tricked me. My roommate and I went yesterday for the Dine in Seattle promotion as a treat to meeting a goal. It was in the top probably 5 restaurants from the promotion that I wanted to try but... we really only went because that was my dining partners top pick and I compromised after seeing they had sticky toffee pudding. As we were led to our seats I realized the restaurant reminds me of 1990's decor- muted and sharp pastels, medium grain woods, floral arrangements, etc. There is even a waterfall over frosted glass(in the shape of a mountain) in the back of the room. The table was lovely though and I realized I wasn't sure I even cared about my trip back in time. Our waiter was unpretentious and quietly enthusiastic. Ohhing and ahhing after I selected from the limited menu- describing in detail the flavor combinations and his thoughts. I ordered- black chicken bisque, pheasant and smoked sausage with savory cabbage and lentils, and the pudding. My roommate ordered vodka tarragon salmon garlax, scallops and black cod, and quince tarte. She also added a wine flight for about $20. Both our entrees were delicious. Cascadia is a great place for many things- sitting on the sidewalk with truffle covered mini burgers during HH, having the drink the giada did on food network when she visited, and having good solid food with courteous service. I read so many mixed reviews before I went- VERY love/hate- with the exception of HH. I am leaning towards the love. I met the head chef and he was very present on the floor. I didn't feel any unneeded vibes from the waitstaff and they were wonderful in quietly working around us as we enjoyed the meal. I liked my food. All of this equals a thumbs up from me.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

11/13/2007 Posted by limonata

I'm basing this on happy hour alone, but I think that's why most people go to Cascadia. IT used to be a great deal--$1 mini-burgers--but now the price is upped to $2.50, the service isn't good (it took us more than 20 minutes to get our check, and we were given salmon burgers instead of meat burgers, then they didnt apologize and just took them away) and the drinks aren't that discounted at all. A major disappointment when I went, and they are so busy all the time. I'm definitely going to take my happy hour business elsewhere.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

08/05/2007 Posted by brooksjt

My wife and I were recommended this restaurant and attended with great anticipation. The ambiance is attractive yet somehow cold. Our waiter was friendly but appeared to be overworked for we waited several times for additional service. The food represented everything I hate about northwest cuisine. It was very expensive and pretentious. The signature dishes were bland, small portions prepared with more flash than substance. The presentation by our waiter was done in manner intended to awe us with the beauty on the plate. It was attractive but uninspired. For some reason they are fascinated by the tasteless flatbread they make for it was incorporated in several ways during our meal. Their tomato/mozzarella salad was bland and the prawn appetizer did not taste fresh. The salmon main course was cold. The soufflé desert was attractive but mushy in the middle. Prices were bordering on the absurd for the quality of the food provided. Finally in spite of many reviews there was simply no creativity or originality in the preparation of the food. Bland is the term that keeps coming up when describing the food. It was almost as though the tastes were intentionally subdued for fear of having actual flavor.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful

06/02/2007 Posted by mfuntanilla

With high expectations of this restaurant, my husband and I had wonderful evening. The atmosphere was sophisticated without being pretentious. It was nice to see people not wearing jeans. The service was great. The food was fantastic. The crispy frog legs and grilled prawns were delicious. The crab ravioli was outstanding. The salmon with lobster mashed potatoes was one of the best salmon dishes I have ever had. Dessert, however, was a little disappointing. For $9, we would have expected more. The trio of pineapple sorbet, caramel and vanilla ice creams with assorted cookies all lacked flavor. The sorbet tasted watered-down and the two ice creams tasted exactly the same. The dry cookies did not save this dessert. Aside from a lackluster dessert, we will be back again!

Cons: parking

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful

05/16/2007 Posted by kipvan

This review comes from a well traveled business person so I am constantly looking for decent local places to frequent on my trips to the area. Decent crowd for a Tuesday, not to crowded with a good mix of gals and guys. Scene was congenial with a mix of locals in suits as well as jeans, friendly chatter good discussions. The bartender was up beat and the service was excellent. Ended up hanging at the bar to eat dinner and found the food fresh, tasty and perfectly cooked(The locals recommended the local Salmon) Prices are a little steep for the location and ambiance, but no complaints about the place.

Pros: Good service, good food

Cons: expensive

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful