Seattle Press on Line - Three Squares

Three Squares

By Unknown Writer #5

Feb 08, 2001 -- Breakfast in the U. District

Good Morning Healing Earth Vegetarian Restaurant is the kind of place I expect to find more often in Seattle: a good, basic vegan restaurant. The focus is on health and nutrition, with tasty, balanced meals that please both the palate and the colon. The atmosphere is cozy and relaxed. For breakfast, we had the Peto and the Tofu Scramble. Peto is a thin hominy pudding of Colombian origin, with raisins, maple syrup and coconut milk. It is wonderfully sweet and yummy. The Tofu Scramble, accompanied by brown rice and corn chips, was seasoned the way you wish your hippie group-house friends would do it: just right. Indeed, the seasonings and veggies were a perfect balance to the sweetness of the Peto. The menu also features waffles and pancakes, oatmeal, and a variety of lunch and dinner options, available all day long. Ingredients are usually organic.

Good Morning Healing Earth, 901 NE 55th St, 523-8025.
Open Tues-Thurs 11 a.m.-8 p.m., Fri-Sat 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Sunday 8 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Closed Mondays.

Lunch Downtown

Nikko is the Japanese restaurant hidden away in the bottom of the Westin Hotel. It's infamous for its power lunches and dinners, and is always full of "suits." So Nikko really doesn't need our help. (After all, the Westin is where the President stays when he's in Seattle.) But Nikko has a secret that will please those of us without private jets and $100 meal allowances: every weekday, they offer all-you-can-eat sushi between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.!

You heard me right. For $13.75, you can chow down on as much sushi as you can pack away in three hours. There's a limited selection, and while it's not their best sushi, it's very good--mostly tunas, salmon and various rolls, with a daily special thrown in. Though you may find yourself surrounded by captains of industry, you can comfortably chow down in a sweater and jeans. And if our server, Heidi, is the norm at Nikko, you'll get the same good service as the big-bucks boys.

Nikko, 1900 5th Ave, 322-4641.
Open for All-You-Can-Eat Sushi, Mon-Fri 11 a.m.-2 p.m.

Dinner on Capitol Hill

Machiavelli Ristorante is one of Seattle's hidden jewels. Nestled on the corner of Pine and Melrose, on the climb to Capitol Hill, Machiavelli consistently makes really good Italian food. They cook up some of the best, most authentic Italian sauces around, with nothing trendy added. Their carbonara and puttanesca sauces offer delicious comfort, while the gnocchi and ravioli always please, and the spinach lasagna is a yummy traditional recipe with chicken liver. Meat and poultry dishes are great, and daily specials often add seafood. Salads and starters are ... well, I'll save space and say, "It's all good!"

Having been to Machiavelli numerous times with numerous people ordering numerous dishes, the end result has always been the same: Everyone loves Machiavelli. It's so popular that you may wait up to an hour for a table on weekends. But the wait is worth it, and you can always enjoy a drink in their cozy little bar in the meantime. But whatever you do, save a little room for dessert. Machiavelli's Diplomatico, a twist on Tiramisu, will have you skipping all the way home.

Machiavelli Ristorante,1215 Pine St, 621-7941.
Open seven days, 5-11 p.m.

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