May 8th, 2009:
The Crab Pot and Seattle Waterfront Arcade
We had date night on Friday this week, since Brett had to work late on Thursday... We thought it'd be fun to hit up the waterfront for dinner, since it was a beeeautiful sunny evening (that’s two sunny date nights in a row now! Lucky!) …
So off to The Crab Pot we went (I mean, who doesn’t love a place where you have to use a mallet on your food in order to eat it?!)… We parked a ways away, so we moseyed along Alaskan Way, taking in the beautiful sights.
He said...With Mandy pulling out a ripper for our
first published date night, (how can you beat golf, beer and pizza!), I decided on something uniquely American for my first shot. Having heard nothing but good reviews, we headed to Seattle’s waterfront and the iconic
Crab Pot.
Greeted with wall to wall to floor wood and wooden decorations, we headed to the bar for a warm up beer and appetizers and to wait for a table to open. The restaurant is HUGE and as it was the first real Seattle summer day - packed.
Hailing down a clearly overworked, stressed and rude waitress (Elizabeth), Mandy ordered a prawn (shrimp) cocktail for us to share. I really hate using the term shrimp but in this case it really was. Served in a milkshake glass and covered in a red sauce, the tiny prawn dish looked more like a maggot and blood prop from a scary movie! Getting over its looks, it didn’t taste too bad.
Now for those that know me, there is one thing almost above all that I hate in restaurants. Getting the bill before we’re finished. Our friend Elizabeth was kind enough to give me a price update after 2 beers and the prawns. Big thumbs down.
Finishing our second Sam Adams lager, Mandy’s name was called and we moved into the general seating area for dinner. With the Crab Pot being as famous as it is, a menu wasn’t required and we ordered a signature seafood bowl for two.
The seafood bowls consist of a variety of different crabs, prawns, muscles, clams, corn, sausage and potatoes steamed perfectly in an assortment of herbs and spices. Bloody beautiful in other words!
With a few moments to spare we sat back and took in the ambiance of the Crab Pot and people watched the other patrons.
A family orientated restaurant, it really was a mixing bowl of people from locals to cruise ship travelers to the odd date thrown in. We were even blessed with the acquaintance of a hooker and her 80 year old customer. Mandy had the pleasure of catching her powder her nose in the bathroom.
After 10 minutes or so, we were presented with a bib, mallet, butchers paper and huge bowl of seafood.
The bowl was literally strewn across our table and we went at it (we also ate the seafood). For all of the negative comments above, the Crab Pot came back with flying colors with this meal. The seafood was fresh, cooked to perfection, seasoned brilliantly and had enough to feed four people. Really superb!
As for the scales, it was 2 on the romance scale. While the views were great, having children inches away and hookers merely feet away, it dragged the score down. I give it a $$ on cost. Whilst it was $22 per head, there was enough to feed four people so unless my calculator deceives me, that makes it $11. Service gets a mixed bag. The general seating was perfect, quick and efficient; Elizabeth (or as I like to call her Lizzy), however, really let the team down. 3 points.
Would I recommend it? I’m going to have to give it a 3.5. I think it was a typical night for the Crab Pot, but really only a once a year thing. Definitely do it once though! You won’t regret it.
Cheers,
Brett
After dinner, it was still pretty early, and it being Friday night, we decided to head further down the pier and hit up the Waterfront Arcade (located in the same building as the restaurant) to spend some hard-earned laundry money quarters on some video games and skee-ball!!
We'd been there before, and it's always a kick.
I mean, where else can you play basketball, indie-500, shoot-em-up underwater aliens AND skee ball in exchange for tickets that you can eventually trade in for 7-year-old candy (seriously. they had bubble tape in there.)?! Not many places, i'll tell you that!
So we were happy... played about $10 in quarters (The machine actually spits out quarters, not tokens, so if you don't use them all up, you can actually use them for laundry (for those of you living in the ghetto like us, and have coin-op laundry in your apartment building!)!)
The arcade closes at 10, and we were there to shut the place down. Not gonna lie, we love ourselves an arcade, and they practically had to kick us out ... not before we traded in all our 152 hard-earned tickets (which got us 2 Airheads, a deck of cards, 6 swizzy candies, and a packet of pixie stix)! Loot in hand, we headed home to enjoy our winnings.
(ps, this is the quote on their website regarding their candy counter: "Dedicated In Our Pursuit To Ensure That Everyone Who Visits Our Prize Counter Leaves It With A Smile On Their Face...")
And we did.
All in all, a perfect way to end another successful Date Night!
[full moon!]
RATING:
The Crab Pot
Romance: 2
Cool Ambiance/Interior: 3
All Around Service: 3
Cost: $$
Would we recommend it? 3.5: Maybe Lizzy was having a rough night...
