Hey friends, it has been awhile, I know. For several years I have reviewed The Bite of Seattle. Covid hit, so they didn't have this event for a few years. It came back last year, and my dad and I were so excited until we found out we were going to have to download an app in order to order and pay for our food. It didn't even sound like The Alley (which is the main reason we have been going all these years) was going to be there. It also sounded like there were upgrades for the entertainment if you wanted to pay extra. It just didn't sound like what we thought of as The Bite of Seattle that we had come to know and love. So, we did our own version of Bite of Seattle last year. There were a couple of really interesting foods we really wanted to try advertised for 2023, so we actually took ourselves to two different restaraunts and ordered those things instead of heading down to the busy Seattle Center that year. It actually worked out pretty nice.
Anyway, since they did away with the cashless app only thing this year, and they advertised The Alley coming back, we decided to give it another go. Unfortunately, my dad now has some health restrictions, so we were not able to stay as long as I would have liked, and I missed out on some photo opportunities I would have liked to have shared with you. Anyway, I know the event is almost over for this year, but here is my review.
The first thing that happened once we got to Seattle was that our normal parking garage was completely full. That actually turned out to be okay, because we found another parking garage that worked better for our needs this year. We arrived hungry, and were anxious to find The Alley. There did not appear to be any sort of paper maps around, so I tried to find a map online. That map was usless, as it was too small, and when you tried to make it bigger, to see the letters, it just got blurry. Useless.
I went to the first area I thought it could be. Hmm. It wasn't there. We went almost clear over to the other side of the event.... not where it used to be.... only to find the first area was about right, but we were standing just above it.
Usually The Alley has a long line. The rest of the vendors had long lines, it was overly crowded everywhere else. More crowded then we ever remember it being. At The Alley, this year, it was the first time we saw that there was absolutely no line at all. We paid for our food, and it was efficiently loaded onto a plate. An ice cream cookie was handed to us in addition to the plate full of food.
As soon as we exited The Alley, we had a bit of trouble finding a place to sit. There only appeared to be one long table towards the beginning, that already was full of people. We wound up sitting next to some steps on some terraced concrete in the blazing sun.
It was pretty warm out, so I decided the first thing I should try was the Ice Cream Sandwich (Snoqualmie Ice Cream). It was solid as a rock, which was a great idea, because it gave me time to enjoy the rest of my food first. What I tried of the cookie at that point, was really good.
The next thing I tried was the Kalua Pork Rice Bowl with Cabbage and Cilantro Lime Sauce (Good Vibes Concessions). I really liked that. Especially with the Cilantro Lime Sauce. There was a good portion of it, so it was quite filling.
The next three items were fine. However, I felt they all tasted way too similar to each other. All deep fried, most likely in the same vat of oil, and kind of ... bland?
The Shrimp Skewer (Potato Hut) was cooked nice, not to much or too little. On it's own, I think it would have done well.
The Hush Puppies (True Cajun) were all right, too. I dipped them in some spicy sauce that I don't remember if it was for them or the Shrimp Skewer, but they went well with it.
The Lobster & Crab Umami Cheese Fries were probably the biggest disappointment. The cheese had been melted, then solidified into a big clump, making the fries difficult to separate and eat. I could not really even taste the crab or lobster meat. It wound up being very messy.
My main thought was, "this all tastes the same!" Except for the rice dish and the ice cream cookie sandwich, which wound up being my two favorite things, especially the cookie.
One thing I did notice about the advertising of the Ice Cream Sandwich was there were two options (we only had one option) one being a Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookie with Vanilla Ice Cream, the other being a Cranberry Cookie with Mountain Berry Ice Cream. Ours was definitely a chocolate chip cookie with Mountain Berry Ice Cream, and it had chocolate sprinkled on the outside. It was incredibly good, but I found it odd it wasn't exactly what appeared as advertised.
In past years, we had found The Alley to be an exceptional experience. It started with John Hintenberger, a food critic, who had access to several fancy restaraunts willing to donate some of their best dishes to taste. Then, a couple of different chefs were in charge after that (Kathy Casey and Tom Douglas). This year, I believe that a few vendors from the rest of The Bite were picked, and it just didn't work as well this year. We did leave the The Alley with our bellies full, but I am not sure we were all that satisfied.
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