10/6/2001

The Pike St. Cafe is one of the restaurants inside the Seattle Sheraton. It bills itself as sort of an "upscale casual" dining atmosphere - casual for the type of person staying in a Sheraton. The menu is mostly American fare. The hallmark of this restaurant is it's huge dessert buffet, but unfortunately the buffet was closed from not enough patronage in the aftermath of Sept. 11. Too bad. It sounded a lot better than the food we ended up with.

We tried the Lamb Shank with Polenta, which was a greasy lamb shank in a bowl of what seemed like Cream of Wheat. We also had the Bottomless Mussels and Clams, which had far more mussels than clams and wasn't seasoned very well. On top of the blandness, each new bowl would take a long time to prepare, so we spent more time here than we wanted to. We also had a small ceaser salad, which was fine. The decor was typical for an upscale hotel, and the view was a simple street view. Unless you're actually staying in the Sheraton for some reason, I wouldn't recommend this restaurant. There are better ones within walking distance.

Bottom Line: Bland, pricy food.