Yum and Ick

We spent the weekend entertaining friends from out of town (as well as friends from in.) This naturally involved lots of eating and drinking, most of it done at sports bars. In summary, we had a wide variety and sucky and good food this weekend, which leaves me feeling a bit bipolar on this rainy Monday.

As for sports bars, thumbs up on Sport by the Seattle Space Needle. They served a Kobe beef burger (what is up with me and the Kobe these days? Must be all the rain driving me to seek comfort in beef) weighing in at 10 ounces, so I smartly shared this with my husband. It was delish, juicy and wonderful. Top it off with perfectly golden crispy onion rings and HDTV screens everywhere you look to watch both the Cowboys and Bears' game, and we were set. Quite a bit more swanky, but less yummy was Fox Grill in downtown Seattle. Large plasma screens, a plush lobby with cushy chairs and panes of glass awash in waterfalls made for nice ambiance but the food was bland and boring. Can everyone just supply their spicy buffalo wings from Bw3 and be done with it, please? Life would taste so much zestier. Although redeeming itself with a Build Your Own Bloody Mary bar sponsored by Pearl Vodka did soften the disappointment a tad. Can't say that simple solution can soothe the broken heart of the Buckeye State, however.

Evening adventures brought us to Wild Ginger, a favorite of one of our guests, a former Tacoma resident. The Pacific Rim meets Northwest inspired menu was full of diverse selections and the decor and service were very upscale. I enjoyed everything I ate, from the Mongolian Noodles to the Princess Prawns (my pick, naturally) to the Seven Flavors Beef to the potstickers. Their signature duck with sticky buns was our guest's favorite, but I'm not a duck fan so I opted out. We also had an excellent Pinot Noir from Dundee Hills, an appellation of Oregon's Willamette Valley.

And then there was Sunday, which was one of the saddest disappointments of my dining experience in a long time. I had been dying to try a local neigborhood trattoria and being Italian, long for good "old country" food within walking distance when I'm too lazy to cook it myself. We took our guests to Sorrentino at the top of Queen Anne. Oh, but how I wanted to love this restaurant. It was festively decorated, we were greeted warmly at the door and they could seat us immediately. This should have been our first sign. The place was deserted. But hey, everyone has bad days. They were even chatting in Italian at the bar! I found my people! But net-net: the Caesar salad was drenched in dressing, the Bufalo Mozzarella pizza was soggy and wet (yes, as the waiter pointed out this is the finest mozzarella and holds more water. But last time I checked, pizza is not supposed to be wet, so here's a hint: USE LESS!) and my friend's ravioli was so much an overly salty, slathering sauce mess that she couldn't eat it. And she had skipped lunch so she was very hungry. Yikes. I have to say my prawn and fettucine entree was very good, but when all your dining companions are unhappy, it is hard to love a place. I was so, so sad this place turned out to be so bad. I hope they can turn things around, I really do. One way they could do this: when a guest takes the care and time to tell you they didn't like something, don't try to justify it. Learn from it. Sigh.....oh, and lose the Italian hip-hop you have playing: it ruins the ambience you've worked so hard to create with the decor. Sigh again.....is Gordon Ramsay free for some tough love? The UK not the US version, FYI.