My name is Katherine Long, and I live on the Eastside. No matter how much I try to hide it—I didn’t tell anyone at The Stranger for fear that my unpaid internship would be rescinded—the truth always comes out. But I swear I’m a Seattleite at heart: I was born at Swedish Hospital, and I lived in Wallingford until I was one and a half! I know your buses better than you do! I’m only in Bellevue because Seattle schools suck! LAY OFF!
I’ve heard every kind of criticism about the Eastside: It’s a pretentious Republican stronghold (accurate). It’s a principality ruled by Kemper Freeman (true enough). There are more cars than people (a slight exaggeration). It’s the diarrhea of Satan (spot-on). The only stores are in malls.
Ah. This is true. But what most of you
bike-shorts-tanned, small-business-patronizing
city dwellers don’t know is that beyond the Bellevue Collection and Lincoln Square, there are even more malls—smaller malls, seedier malls. Strip malls. Tons of them. And hidden in the Eastside’s strip malls are some pretty amazing restaurants—Asian restaurants, to be precise. According to the 2010 Census, Bellevue is more diverse than Seattle; it owes that diversity, in large part, to a thriving Asian community. You have the International District—on the Eastside, we’re just international.
Seattleites: It’s time to take your mouth on a trip to the Dark Side. From me (someone who knows) to you (resenting the entire premise of this article), here are four of the best Asian eateries on the other side of the lake.
YEA’S WOK in Coal Creek Shopping Center, Newcastle: The interior of Yea’s Wok is a cross between Boeing-nerdy and pastel-cutesy. Model airplanes top the tropical aquariums; paintings of horses alternate with photographs of aerospace engineers. This is where Boeing employees come to party—why that is, nobody knows. The restaurant has one menu in English and one in Chinese (with many, many more items); if you are not Chinese, the staff will pretty much force you to order off the English menu. But even their Americanized items are damn good. The General Tso’s ($10.75), bathed in a sauce that is almost lemony, pleasantly acerbic, and absorbingly complex, is served on a mountain of fresh veg. The chilies in the Pepper Beef ($10.75) are more than just a spot of color on the plate: Smoky and overpowering, they’re meant to be devoured. You do earn mad respect if you order off the Chinese menu, although expect to run the gauntlet to get ahold of it: Your best bet is to insist that you used to live in China and you know what real Chinese food is, DAMNIT! But this is probably not a good idea if you can’t read Chinese and you are afraid of pig’s blood. (6969 Coal Creek Pkwy SE, 425-644-5546, www.yeaswok.com, $$)
NOODLE BOAT in a nameless strip mall, Issaquah: Noodle Boat, serving some of the most authentic Thai food in the area, is cozy and familial. It’s packed with Buddha statues, elephant kitsch, and banners from Thai temples; How I Met Your Mother loops in the background. Owner Kunticha Komonwanich employs her mom as head chef and friends as waiters. Their jocularity is the perfect backdrop against which to inhale the no-nonsense food: The curries are thick, citrusy, and hope-you’re-carrying-Kleenex sinus-clearing spicy. The Kow Ob! Gai Tod ($10.25) is a packed hillock of curried rice with overtones of turmeric, garlic, and coconut milk, studded with chicken katsu, cucumber, raisins, carrots, beans, and peppers—our waitress pulled up a chair and rhapsodized about it for 10 minutes. Eat at Noodle Boat and you are family, too. (700 NW Gilman Blvd, 425-391-8096,
www.noodleboat.com, $$)
FACING EAST in Belgate Plaza, Bellevue: Facing East is the antithesis of strip-mall dining. It is set away from the street and it is—there’s no other word for it—sleek. Rustic maple tables with unfinished benches are screened from one another by rice-paper-like glass; the color palette is understated. The service here is top-notch: One waiter took many patient minutes to explain the proper way to prepare oolong tea ($5.95 for a pot). But this is all superfluous. The reason you’re at Facing East is the pork burgers ($3.25), for they are divine: unabashedly fatty, supremely musky, delicately spiced. The meat falls apart at a hint of pressure; the bun, a bland distraction in lesser incarnations, puts in work here as the dish’s backbone. It is impossible to eat just one. (1075 Bellevue Way NE, 425-688-2986, $$)
SEOUL HOT POT in Overlake East, Redmond: One thing’s for sure: You’re not here for the ambience. Seoul Hot Pot resides in an avocado-green strip mall on a busy thoroughfare, and dishwater-peach walls, plastic tables, and cold-shouldered service for non-Koreans do not a welcoming setting make. It is a good thing, then, that Seoul Hot Pot makes such good seafood soon-dubu ($7.95)—the chef here used to rule the kitchen at Hosoonyi up north, and she’s brought with her all the greatness of that place. Tofu melts in the mouth and the shrimp are a delight; each bite through the tender shell is an explosion of shrimp meat and broth. O! The broth! In all its zesty marine glory, it is spiritual: evoking grim days by the seashore spent in a watertight, well-lit cabin, rain trickling down the windowsill, the gusting saltwater wind rattling shutters. Close your eyes to get away from the utilitarian space, and you might just be there. (2560 152nd Ave NE, 425-885-3355, $$)
Thai Chef in the Safeway strip mall on 140th Ave. NE between Bel-Red and Northup is also deserving of people’s business…IMO it is THE Thai restaurant to beat, Seattle included.
I live right by Yea’s, and yes it is really good! I especially love getting a few families together to chip in and order a bunch of entrees to take to the park.
Thanks for giving the Eastside some love. It’d be awesome to see more reviews around here.
Asian restaurants run by actual Asian people? Not cool. Everyone knows that the only good Asian restaurants are owned and staffed by white kids with tattoos.
I don’t know if it’s still there – I can’t remember its name – but there was a great Thai restaurant near Factoria Mall. It was in an ugly parking lot that it shared with a 7-11, but the building was a standalone. They planted bamboo in front of all the windows, so when you were inside it was possible to pretend that the restaurant was located someplace that was nice. That was about 12 years ago, and I hope it’s still in business. It certainly deserved to be covered by this article if it is.
Izumis up in Totem Lake off of 124th fits this bill quite nicely. Most likely the best Japanese comfort food outside of Maneki.
Unless you have a craving for something that reminds you of your childhood in Hong Kong (the best Cantonese places are still in the ID), Bellevue is a much better place to go for Chinese and Taiwanese food than Seattle.
I don’t know why this is such a big secret given how readily people will admit that you need to go north (Lynnwood) or south (Federal Way) to get good Korean food. Bellevue even has a Salvadoran restaurant now.
Seattle does beat the rest of the region for Vietnamese food, though.
Additionally, the best Indian food around is found nowhere near Seattle proper, but rather in East Bellevue, Bothell, and Redmond.
@6, I second that. It may be in an ugly strip mall, but this is where we take Japanese executives who are tired of eating steak and want some comfort food.
Izumi kicks Maneki’s ass.
Zenyai Noodle House in Bellevue (Overlake area, right by the Trader Joes) is one of my absolute favorite restaurants. The people who work there are hella nice, it has a great atmosphere, the food is delicious, and totally reasonably priced. The Red Sea Tofu is my favorite – a spicy sea-vegetable laden soup that I just can’t get enough of.
Agreed that Izumi is the shiznit.
I will say it’s a bit unfair to paint the entire Eastside as a “Republican stronghold.” Newcastle, Clyde Hill, Medina and parts of Sammamish, maybe, but most of the rest is pretty apt to be split with even a few solidly blue sections in the north end towards the county line and over to Lake Forest Park.
I agree about Izumi and I love Facing East. I’d like to add a vote for Spicy Talk Bistro in Redmond for really good schezuan food.
Not worth it, not even close.
@5 The restaurant you speak of is a Thai Ginger, it’s part of a chain. There’s one in Downtown Seattle in Pacific Place as well as in Redmond, Issaquah and Madison Park. I don’t know if it used to be something else at the Factoria location, but that’s what it has been for the past 4 years that I have worked in the area. It is quite tasty. My coworkers and I end up there a lot at lunchtime.
Schezuan Chef is amazing. Located in a strip mall in the old K-Mart Plaza – corner of 148th and Main St in Bellevue. Full of Asian familes, the staff is friendly and helpful to the non-Asians who venture into some of the more obscure dishes. Their smoked pork belly is especially delicious.
@16
Schezuan Chef closed awhile, back but the good news is that the chef from that place went on to open Spicy Talk Bistro, which has been mentioned a few time above.
OMG how could you leave out Spiced? Hard core Szechwan place in Crossroads area? The red chiles and the numbing black pepper are addictive!
Get over the fact that your from the eastside, most young people on capitol hill are . Be comfortable in your own skin. Seattle sucks too.
@18
100% correct! It’s the best Chinese around. Super authentic, super spicy!
Wow. Once you get thru the whining and BS of the first few paragraphs, the article is fairly informative. Lingering thought: Why not just move to Seattle proper, put your children in school there and find them a tutor from the East side? Living in “hell”? Sounds like you have made it your own.
Sushi teriyaki (I think that’s its name) located in Renton in a strip mall on the corner of Duvall & Sunset has absolutely amazing sushi (I haven’t tried their teriyaki). The prices are reasonable and the quality & freshness can’t be beat. Thx for the interesting review. I agree w/ another comment stating that the article got much better after the eastside bashing stopped. Perhaps we can all start to agree that there is good and bad wherever you live and travel, in and out of Seattle.
@pretentious hipster white kids from the midwest/rural-parts-unknown who now live on the Hill : please don’t go to Bellevue. The wait for a table at Facing East is unbearable enough. Plus, I already ate all the Gua Bao [pork burgers].
A few doors down from Facing East is Boiling Point, also an amazing place to eat.
Spicy Talk didn’t impress me. The food wasn’t spicy.
Noodle Land in Downtown Redmond has some really good Thai soups that I have not found anywhere else.
Hey: you were too hard on yourself for being from the Eastside. My guess is you’re about 20 which means you were born before Starbuck’s was a household name and we still had good rock that wasn’t yet called “grunge.” So you’re righteously grandfathered in. At least you’re not a transplant!