Birthday Dinner #1: Waterfront Seafood Grill

There are a few yearly events that I look forward to every year, for example: the day of my fantasy basketball draft, Christmas and the holidays, Husky Football Season, when the weather in Seattle finally turns nice for the summer, and of course my anniversary. However the event or month of events that trumps them all is March. March is great for a number of reasons from March Madness to the beginning of the M's Spring Training. Most importantly March is my birthday month.

I'll admit it, growing up as an only child I was pretty spoiled, but I do appreciate everything my friends and family have done for me over the years. A big part of my "birthday month" included numerous celebrations and they always revolved around food. This year was no different and I wanted to document some of those great meals I enjoyed.

Before Emi and I left for Hawaii my parents wanted to treat me and Emi to a nice dinner to celebrate my birthday. We weren't really sure where to go until we remembered that both Emi and my parents had a Passport Unlimited card. Those unfamiliar with the Passport Unlimited card, it gets you a 2 for 1 entree deal at a number of amazing Seattle restaurants.

We decided on the Waterfront Seafood Grill, which is one of the nicer restaurants in all of Seattle. Again this is a must for either a fancy meal for two or a great place to take out of town guests who want a true Seattle seafood experience.

Emi got the Stuffed Wild Baja Prawns - dungeness crab, shrimp, basil, green onion, piquillo pepper coulis. Emi said they were really good, unfortunately I'll have to take her word for it since the crab made this dish off limits for me. She probably ordered it because she knew I wouldn't mooch off her.

Grilled Local Halibut - sauteed spinach, capers, toasted almonds, lemon butter sauce. This was my main course. I love me some fresh, flaky, tender, juicy halibut and this was a great meal because it was somewhat healthy too. That is until we added in our side dishes....

Thai Seafood Stew - fresh fish, shellfish, jasmine rice, red thai curry, coconut ginger broth

Now on to one of the highlights of the meal, the Macaroni and Cheese shareable dish with black truffle and parmigiano reggiano. What an amazing side dish. This is one of those dishes you have to savor, chew it slowly and breathe it in, eat it to fast and you haven't taken the time to truly appreciate this dish.

Our waiter "Asian Matt Damon", who says he hears that a lot, recommended the Sweet Roasted Yellow Corn with chipotle lime butter. He said it was "life changing". I won't mislead you like A.M.D., but this wasn't really a life changing dish. Decent, but not great.

Probably the most decadent item on the menu, the Emerald City Volcano - baked Alaska, double chocolate and bordeaux cherry, ice cream, vanilla genoise, flamed tableside after sunset. AMD made a whole show out of flaming up the alcohol for us before pouring it over the baked Alaska volcano. The four of us shared the small dessert which was meant for two people and it ended up being the perfect size. A word of warning the small is $25 and the large is $45!

The four of us after an amazing meal.

I tried to upload the video of AMD flaming up our Emerald City Volcano, but was having problems posting it. So keep an eye out for it in a future post.

- Kyle