After a long day at the zoo, we were all starving. My brother suggested Ray’s Boathouse which is up near the Ballard Locks. I had heard of it, but never eaten there. I navigated our way there using a map my brother had. My sister-in-law called them to make sure they had room for us. They did. We arrived shortly after. We parked, and went inside. Right next door is Anthony’s Home Port which is also supposed to be very good.
I think technically we ate in Ray’s Café and Bar which is upstairs, while the fine dining Ray’s Boathouse restaurant is downstairs. I am guessing the food is the similar. Looking online, it looks like the menus are slightly different, and the prices downstairs are higher.
First, be aware, that this place isn’t cheap. Prices for entrees run from about $11 to over $20.
The five of us sat, and our waiter came over and took our drink orders. He read us the specials which sounded very good. But he came back a few minutes later and informed us that the specials he gave us were yesterday’s specials. He gave us today’s specials, but the consensus at the table was yesterday’s specials sounded better.
I always want to try nearly everything on the menu. But since I can only have one thing, I have a little trick. I will ask the waiter that if I was to have one thing on the menu that would make me remember the restaurant, what should I have? Well, our waiter suggested the Chatham Strait Sablefish in Sake Kasu (With grilled choy sum, jasmine rice, honey soy and scallion oil). My wife and niece had the Dungeness Crab & Rock Shrimp Cakes (Asparagus and roasted new potatoes, with green goddess dressing). My brother had one of the Salmon specials. And I think my sister-in-law had the Sautéed White Gulf Prawns (Coconut sticky rice cake, arugula and cilantro-ginger-lime sauce). My wife and I shared a bowl of the clam chowder.
The clam chowder was good, but not great. We have had better (most recently at Wally’s Chowder House in Des Moines, WA).
Then our entrees came. The presentation was excellent. The portions were on the smallish side for the price, but not tiny. My Sablefish was excellent. I really liked the Sake Kasu too. I tried some of my wife’s crab cakes, and they were very good. My bro’s salmon was also very good. My brother also sampled around the table, and said that he thought my Sablefish was the best. I ate my wife’s asparagus since she hates asparagus.
Often when eating, I don’t have room left for desert. But we had just enough room this night because of the portion sizes. My wife and I split a Chocolate Cherry Tango … for Two (Dark chocolate brownies with sour cherries and white chocolate chunks, bittersweet chocolate and sour cherry sauces, vanilla bean ice cream). The rest of the people at our table ordered the Sweet Heat! Chocolate Chili Lime Soufflé Cake (Warm and gooey, served with lime sauce and vanilla bean ice cream). The Chocolate Cherry Tango was great. I tried a bit of the Sweet Heat, and it was great also.
Frankly, I don’t think you can go wrong with the food here. It was all great. Well except the clam chowder which was still very good. Just be prepared when they bring you your bill.
Ray’s Boathouse is located at 6049 Seaview Avenue NW, Seattle, WA 98107. Phone: (206) 782.0094.
We came back to Washington State to visit with family. We are staying with my sister-in-law and her family. They wanted to take out to dinner. They first suggested a Chinese place. But I am not real big on Chinese. Then they suggested a fish and chips place. Now we’re talking! Being in the Seattle area, fish and chips is a great idea.
So we went off to their favorite fish and chips seafood place named Wally’s Chowder House. They were raving about the clam chowder. My wife and I both love a good clam chowder. It’s located right in the main business area of Des Moines. The parking lot was pretty full, but there were a few spots available. Inside, they were pretty busy. There was a family waiting to be seated before us. But there were seated, and we were seated pretty quickly. The menu was full of seafood choices. They have an all you can eat thing which in retrospect might have been a great deal. They have both New England clam chowde and Manhatten clam chowder. The chowder comes in cups, bowls and quarts. My wife and I shared a bowl of the New England clam chowder. The chowder is one of the best I have had. It was fantastic.
We both ordered cod fingers and chips. Apparently cod fingers are just cut smaller than the cod filets. The fish and chips themselves were good, nothing special. I don’t like tartar sauce, but I was informed by others in our group that the tartar sauce is not great. I didn’t care for the ketchup that they served.
My nephew had the steamers which was a plate full of steamed clams. He said the were very good, but I didn’t have any, but they looked good.
If you like good clam chowder and are in the area, you should give this place a try.
Wally’s Chowder House is located at 22531 Marine View Dr S Des Moines, WA 98198. Their phone number is (206) 878-8140.
I needed to find a hotel in the Buffalo area for the night before the Buffalo Marathon. The Hyatt was the hotel associated with the race, but unfortunately they were book solid. I started looking around for other hotels in the area. The closest ones were very expensive. There were some less expensive hotels, but they were quite a ways away. I looked for something that was somewhere in between. I found the Econo Lodge Buffalo South was less than 8 miles away, and cost about sixty some bucks.
So today we arrived at the hotel. It’s just down the street from a mall. Check in went smoothly. The rooms all have exterior entrances. Our room was on the second floor. So we parked out front and drug our stuff up the stairs to our room. The area doesn’t looked great so I tried to bring in anything valuable from the car. There is a safe in the room to lock up valuables. The room is not very big, and the bed is only a double.
A couple of the wall mounted lights didn’t work. I thought the bulbs were burnt out. Later when we stopped by the office, I told them about the lights not working, and they gave me a couple new bulbs. When I got back to the room, I replaced one of the bulbs, and the light still didn’t work. I had turned on the switches, nothing. Then I found the light was unplugged back behind the nightstand. I pulled out the nightstand, and plugged it in. Then out of curiosity, I put the old light bulb in and it worked. I checked out the other light, and found it was only unplugged too. With effort I managed to reach behind the dresser and plugged it back in. Then that light worked too.
We found a dirty wash cloth hung over the shower rod.
I also just noticed that there is a deadbolt on the door, but it won’t engage into the doorframe for some reason. Like the slot in the door frame is too small, or located in the wrong spot so they don’t align right.
I kind of wish we had maybe tried one of the more expensive places.
Econo Lodge Buffalo South is located at 4344 Milestrip Road, Buffalo, NY. (716) 825-7530.
Since we were going to be starting at Gloucester, MA, driving to Mystic, CT, and then heading for Buffalo, NY it was going to be a long drive. We were looking for a place to stay somewhere between Mystic, CT, and Buffalo, NY. We decided Albany, NY might a good place to stop. I got online and looked for a hotel for a reasonable price, and booked a room at the Clarion Hotel in Albany, NY.
Today we arrived, and check in went smoothly. Our room was clean and in good repair. I was happy to find that they had free WIFI. I don’t remember if that was mentioned in the write up.
We were hungry after a long drive, so we headed down to Scenarios, the hotel’s restaurant. They were empty except for us, though a few more people eventually showed up. The presentation of the food was great, but taste-wise, it was just okay.
After dinner, we head out to the car, and brought in some more stuff. I grabbed some Diet Pepsi out of the car, and brought it back to the room and put it into the hotel supplied refrigerator.
I changed into my running gear, and headed down to the fitness room. They had a treadmill, a stepper machine, and couple recumbent exercise bikes, and a weight machine. The treadmill was a Precor. It needed a little maintenance as the belt was rubbing on one side, and needed to be centered. Nonetheless it worked for my 20 minute jog.
After my jog, I headed back to the room, and talked m wife into going swimming. We changed and headed down to the pools. They have an indoor pool and an outdoor pool. We stuck our toes in and found the water was kind of on the cold side. I couldn’t talk my wife into putting anything more than her feet into the water. I managed to get all the way in. I swam for a little bit, but it was just too cold. So we abandoned the pool, and head back to the room. The TV has cable, and has a ton of channels. But we were only looking for CBS.
Since it has been very hot here, we have had the air conditioner going. The fan is kind of loud. Every once in a while we would hear a click, and then a loud deep rumble. I thought it was semi starting it’s engine outside. But we finally figured out it was the air conditioner.
I also noticed the little neon night light in the bathroom flickers and would sometimes go out.
I guess all these things are why this is a $61 a night hotel and not a $100+ a night hotel.
The Clarion Hotel Albany is located at 3 Watervliet Ave, Albany, NY 12206. (518) 438-8431.
Having been driving all day, once we checked into our room at the Clarion Hotel in Albany, NY, we didn’t really want to go out anywhere for dinner. So we decided to check out the restaurant at the hotel. The name of the restaurant is Scenarios.
The menu is impressive and has a lot of interesting looking things. But they had a separate sheet with specials, and one of the dishes sounded interesting. It was called Honolulu Dreamin’ Surf And Turf which included an 8oz sirloin steak topped with coconut shrimp. My wife ordered the small cut of prime rib.
We got a bowl of rolls that were good and warm, and came with a cup of whipped butter. Yummy. Then came our salads. What can I say? They were salads. Then our entrees came. I tried the coconut shrimp, and they were okay. Not great. The streak was just okay as well. My wife’s prime rib was pretty good sized considering it was the smallest cut. But I thought it is was maybe just a touch overcooked for medium-rare. It was also not a great cut of meat. I would compare it to the prime ribs I get out in Las Vegas for $6.95.
Not that we will be in the area again anytime soon, but I would probably go out and look for a different restaurant next time.
Scenarios is located in the Clarion Hotel at 3 Watervliet Ave, Albany, NY 12206. (518) 438-8431.