There’s something compelling about comfort food. It gives us a warm feeling that takes us back to our childhood. While there are restaurants that offer such favorites, many of them have only an entree or two to offer. It was with much excitement that I found the Blue Onion Bistro. One look at their menu and I was well aware that they were trying to cater to my comfort food fix.

The first major event of the night was my driving right past the place. If you’re not paying attention the non-descript facade will fade into the other buildings along Roosevelt Ave. A quick spin around the block though set us right out front. The converted ex-gas station offered open air seating so my companion and I choose to sit out in the warm Seattle evening.

After placing our drink orders a basket of bread came out to us. The state of the bread should have been my first warning of the meal to come. In most instances bread with dipping oil comes with a hearty, crusty loaf but what we received were slices of dense bread almost reminiscent of white bread. Soon after, our drinks arrive and our orders are placed.

My beef stroganoff ($16.00) arrived on a large plate surrounding a small mound of mashed potatoes, dotted with broccoli flowerets. It has been years and years since I had beef stroganoff, back when I was but a circuit board living with my parent-bots. My memories were of large pieces of beef, hearty chucks of mushroom and a slightly spicy gravy bonding them all together. What I got from the blue onion bistro was far from that memory. The pieces of meat were small and lacking any browned bits that would have provided flavor. The mushrooms; small, shriveled and reminiscent of canned were few and far between. My overall impression of my meal was that the chef was appealing to the greater masses by refusing to add any flavor elements to the dish. The one aside I will give is the herbed sour cream dollops. While not as creamy as I would have wanted they added a nice punch to the blandness of the sauce. Add to this the potatoes that ran a little on the dry side but had some nice lumpiness to them. A’s meal of the blue onion tuna casserole ($14.00) was evenly seasoned and delicious.

My overall opinion of the Blue Onion Bistro was of a new-ish restaurant that is trying really hard to please everyone, this I believe is their downfall. Instead of a long list of potential options it would be better to scale-down and offer a few favorites and do them well, proper seasoning being the key.