UPDATE!

After two poor showings involving steaks I had decided not to revisit two of Chow Foods network of Seattle restaurants - Coastal Kitchen and The Hi-Life. But I realize that things change, from people to places, and that I should try, once again, to find something positive about the food from at least one of these places. Since The Hi-Life is closer to me than Capitol Hill’s Coastal Kitchen I decided upon dinner at that Chow Foods location.

First let me start by saying that, “The service, even upon entering, was far superior to that of my first review”. I was greeted immediately upon entering and shown right to a table. Within minutes my server had arrived to walk me through recent changes to the menu. Not only had the service improved but The Hi-Life was now offering tapas. Kind of strange as I had always felt their menu was more Mediterranean inspired and less Southern European/Basque-ish but I was happy to see that they were willing to mix up their offerings a bit.

So for dinner I decided to try one of their ’small bites’ as well as a menu item which I felt would be fairly easy to prepare well. I asked for both to arrive at the same time; the Prawns Adobo ($8.50) came on a small, square-ish dish and the Wild Mushroom Pizza ($10.00) on a dinner plate all to itself. I sampled one of the three presented prawns first and was immediately disappointed. Just trying to cut one in half was like sawing through a rubber chew toy. Dry and stringy the shrimp were far too over-cooked and despite coming with a smoky, spicy adobo sauce there was little that was overcoming the lack of flavor from the prawns or the silver dollar sized, polenta corn cakes. Pushing the small plate away I drew closer the dinner plate that let off a heady aroma of freshly chopped herbs and cheese. Piled with mushrooms from cremini to button and oyster I’d say the pizza was less wild and a little milder but still had good flavor. The combination of mushroom and fresh thyme, combined with a savory tomato sauce with just a hint of sweetness was just about right. My only suggestion would be to add a hint of red pepper flakes to the sauce. As for the crust, I had a love-hate affair with it. One side was nicely cooked; crispy and slightly charred on top with little black spots on the underside from where it rested in the oven but the other side was pallid and tasted of raw dough. If I had to venture a guess I’d say that my pizza had to jockey for space in the oven and didn’t get a full share of heat. This also led to part of the pizza being somewhat soggy. However, this was really the only major drawback. The sauce and mushroom toppings were good, as mentioned, and he cheese was creamy and smooth and kept to a conservative amount so as to not overpower the other flavors.

There are yet still other menu items to try at The Hi-Life but I’m still wary of the quality. ‘Chow Foods’ is really imprinting on my mind the idea of chow as low quality food; much like that from a military mess hall or some chuck wagon on the range. I understand the desire to have a network of restaurants, to have a business that caters to as many tastes as possible, in an effort to stay in business and make a profit but at what cost? So far, in my admittedly limited experiences with Chow Foods restaurants, the cost is the quality of the food and that’s a shame. Attention to detail and quality ingredients could make The Hi-Life great, but as it stands I can only suggest the pizza. Of course there are other places to get a great pizza pie aren’t there?

June 6th, 2006

After a near sleepless night I was finally able to plod my way through the day to dinner. Upon arriving home and weighing my options of darting downtown, searching for a parking spot and sitting down at one of the “hot” restaurants on my list or making a quick local jaunt to one of my stand-bys I decided on the latter. In this way, at least was my hope, I’d get a decent meal and be home in short order to get to bed and catch-up on some sleep. The stand-by in this particular instance happened to be one of the Chow Foods restaurants. Its name is The Hi-Life in Ballard.

Something should have set off alarm bells early-on when I stepped through the door and waited nearly ten minutes before I was seated. For a moment or two I actually felt a “go away” kind of vibe as many of the staff looked in my direction but none budged to help me save for a lone server who came to my rescue. Whether he was acting apologetic or it was truly his nature he put forth his best foot and provided me with friendly, courteous service. But service can be spotty in many places in Seattle and I was just thankful to be off my feet with the prospect of food on its way.

To start I ordered the House Greens Salad ($5.50) with blue cheese dressing. The greens consisted of whole leaf butter lettuce interspersed with shreds of purple cabbage and petrified brown bread croutons. I possibly could have overlooked the stone-like bread in the salad had it been made fresh and the dressing been a more subtle, less vinegary concoction. As it was most of the blue cheese flavor was hidden and the mild butter lettuce was completely overpowered.

Oh well, on to the main course, a 10 Oz. Flat Iron Steak ($17.50). “This is just what I need to help perk me up.” I thought, “Red meat!” The steak arrived dark and handsome on a generous helping of somewhat limp fries, a dab of maitre d’ butter slowly melting on its surface. I found the thick-end, made a few well-placed incisions and drooled slightly at the still red, juicy, medium-rare interior. In went the bite of steak; one, two, three chews. And then it hit me, a weird livery taste. Surely this wasn’t right. Maybe I got part of the steak that was up against something else on the grill? I repeated the above steps. To my shock that bite and all remaining bites held the same off-tasting liver flavor. Now I’ve had flat iron steaks before and I don’t remember their flavor being like this. I tried the fries, hoping maybe something splashed on the food from the kitchen. Nope, the fries didn’t taste livery - they were just stale and over-cooked. Not that any of this was totally repulsive and actually, when combined bite of fries with a bite of steak, the dish was edible enough but just not what I was expecting.

This though was not the first time that Chow Foods disappointed me with their steak offering. Those of you who’ve been with me for a while may remember a short time ago when I reviewed Coastal Kitchen and the disappointing steak during that outing. It seems like Chow Foods is missing something when it comes to their beef offerings. Perhaps it’s their supply chain; maybe the meat is just old or perhaps just poor quality. One thing I know for sure as I finish this report and prepare for bed; steak is off the menu at a Chow Foods joint!