Restaurant Reviews

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For a casual sit-down or quick take-out breakfast on a weekday, try City Cafe, 4459 Fremont Ave. N. This neighborhood favorite is an espresso bar with a lot of extras, including their own homemade Breakfast Biscuits. Far better than anything a fast food place can offer, these come with an assortment of baked-inside fillings: egg, potato, veggie sausage, pepper jack or swiss cheese and bacon. All the combinations they offer are delicious. One of these is just right to go with a morning cup. Two would make a good breakfast. City Cafe also offers the usual muffins, cookies and coffee cakes and serves Ballard-made Morning Glory Chai as well as coffee and tea. Try City Cafe for lunch, too--they make sandwiches to order, hot or cold.

Open Monday - Friday, 6:30 a.m. - 5 p.m., Saturday 8 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Lunch in Blue Ridge

For gardeners who lunch, Festivities Cafe at Swanson's Nursery & Greenhouse, 9701 15th Ave NW, makes this plant purveyor a destination shopping spot. Fountains of water rush and tinkle, just part of the distinct, effervescent charm of the place. Come here when you need a calm moment in a garden off the beaten rut coupled with a bite to eat. Try the Wild Mushroom Polenta Pie or the Torta Rustica, a tasty ham and turkey omelette that includes gruyere and provolone cheeses, spinach, red peppers and artichokes. If you haven't succumbed to bloat at this point--the portions are generous and not geared to gardeners who diet--order the fresh fruit crisp. Made of pear, apple, cranberry, golden raisins and currants, the crisp is discreetly spiced, served warm and topped with fresh whipped cream.

Open every day from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Dinner in Ballard

Most people not in the know think of Hattie's Hat, 5231 Ballard Ave. NW, as a hard drinker's haven, a remnant of Old Ballard's rougher days. Hattie's has changed. Nowadays, it's a hip hangout for the club crowd and, earlier in the evening, a good place to eat. The atmosphere in the front room is still that of a well-loved, boisterous bar (and one of the knives on our table appeared to have saved someone's life in a gunfight), but in the rear is Aunt Harriet's Room, where cozy booths and candles invite quieter conversation.

Oh, they still have the standard bar food: great burgers and tasty fries. But now vegetarians can try the Portabello Mushroom Burger instead. It's a treat: a single huge mushroom on a roll with tomato, lettuce and roasted red bell peppers that perfectly complement the earthy mushroom flavor. The specials on the night we came featured a beautifully done penne pasta with a chicken, lemon, sun-dried tomato and cream sauce.

Also on the menu are classic comfort foods and side dishes. Here you will find smoked pork chops, New York strip steak, grilled catfish and chicken-fried chicken dipped in buttermilk batter. The sides include roasted garlic mashed potatoes, greens braised in balsamic vinegar, rice and beans. Some menu items are better than others, but the hits will keep bringing us back to try again.

Open from 3 p.m. to 2 a.m. every day; dinner menu served from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. Bar menu available 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 10 p.m. to midnight.

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