Local Restaurant Round Up
/It’s been a bit since I wrote about the local restaurants we’ve tried, so here it is!
The Deopbab - this is a lunchtime sub-brand of our favorite hot pot restaurant (Shaburina). They serve rice bowls originally offered during the pandemic when they could not serve their regular hot pot offering. These bowls disappeared when they reopened with their regular menu, but they figured out a way to bring the bowls back since folks loved them. My go to is the Chadol (brisket) bowl while Jeff gets the spicy pork bowl.
Lifted Taco - This is an interesting taco spot that opened in 2021, but we’re just now getting around to trying. We had the glazed shrimp, breakfast smoke, and Seoul glow tacos in addition to the chef’s corn. The glazed shrimp and bulgogi tacos were good, but the brisket wasn’t cooked to our liking (though we are fairly particular about BBQ). The chef’s corn was also a delight. We would go back to try other tacos.
Swanky Scoop - This is an ice cream shop across the street from Lifted Taco. We got a scoop of banana peanut butter party and blueberry cheesecake. The texture of the ice cream was nice, but the flavors could have been stronger.
Sam Choy’s - We have eaten at Sam Choy’s food truck quite a few times over the years in addition to the location inside SeaTac airport and typically enjoy the food. When a new location appeared in Redmond, we wanted to try it. The garlic fried chicken was as delightful as always and we enjoyed the shrimp tempura musubi as well.
La Chingona Taqueria - This taqueria has been on our list for a while. We ordered carne asada, al pastor, and carnitas tacos in addition to a pollo torta. The tacos were stuffed well, very filling, and we really liked the potatoes. The torta was one of the best we’ve had in the area - we especially liked the sauce.
Supreme Dumplings - This dumpling house has been around for a while, but we’ve been unwilling to deal with the long wait (it’s small inside) and anxiety inducing parking lot. We finally went for lunch and really enjoyed the food including tan tan noodles, xiao long bao, spicy wontons, shrimp fried rice, and pumpkin sticky rice balls. Based on this meal, we’d choose Supreme over Dough Zone as long as you have time to wait to get in.
Nana’s Green Tea - We went to the Bellevue location which offers mainly coffee and sweets (I’m told the Seattle location has a bigger menu with savory options). We had the hojicha mochi parfait, the black sesame warabimochi parfait, and the biggest matcha croissant I’ve ever seen. The parfaits came out looking beautiful (and huge) and tasted great. In the future I might choose to split one with Jeff instead of getting my own. We brought the croissant home and ate it later - it was filled with a delicious matcha crème that we would definitely eat again.
