I know I've mentioned countless times since moving to Seattle that we haven't been able to find restaurants that we truly like. Franchised places are oddly rare, and the countless independent places we've been to, dozens of them by this point, have proven to be somewhere between mediocre and bad. For all of the snobbery people exude around here for their restaurants, you'd think the odds would be better that more places wouldn't suck.
Diana scored a Groupon or Living Social deal for a place not closer to downtown, but further away, in North Bend. So a couple of weeks ago, we tried Boxley's.
The live jazz was nice, but the food rocked out. We started with garlic fries as an appetizer, and they were covered in fresh garlic, and not greasy at all. For dinner, I had a chicken and Alfredo linguini that rocked my world. It's striking how infrequently good this common dish is... you end up with bland and tasteless chicken and a shitty cream sauce. Diana had some kind of pasta and prawns in some cheesy cream sauce, and it was also awesome.
Today we stopped in for lunch. I had a buffalo chicken sandwich that was just awesome. Again, not greasy at all. Real lettuce. Excellent buffalo sauce. Toasted bun. You know, lots of little things go a long way. Diana had tortelinni with a gorgonzola cream sauce. Again, awesome.
If that weren't enough, there's the live music for dinner and excellent service. The building has an old charm, and there's a big old fireplace in the bar room. It really is the whole package. Everything not steak is more or less under $20. Oh, and they use iPads to take your order, which is kinda neat.
We're pretty excited about this place. While not pitched as an Italian place, their pasta dishes are far and away better than the dozens of places we've gone out here. The only other place that we've been to that was above average was 520 Grill in Bellevue. Two restaurants in two years.
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