Tag Archives: restaurant

Mandolin Cafe

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The Mandolin Cafe at 3923 South 12th Street near the intersection of South 12th & Proctor provides an occasional respite for us.  It doesn’t have an extensive menu, but what it has is delicious. They do have a large selection of teas, quality coffee and wines.  What keeps me keeping coming back to the Mandolin is the atmosphere, comfortable, warm, art filled and often eclectic live music.

http://www.themandolincafe.com/

Sadly the Mandolin Cafe closed in July 2012. It wasn’t because of their business, but instead a problem with the lease. I’m hopeful they will reopen in a new location at some point.

 

Pacific Grill

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The Pacific Grill, located at 1502 Pacific Avenue in downtown Tacoma, has a splendid happy hour which extends fro 11:30 – 10 Monday through Thursday, 11:30 – 11 on Friday and 5 – 11 on Saturday.  Besides the normal drink specials, most of the food on the bar menu is half price and delightful food it is! An appetizer handily makes a meal.

http://www.pacificgrilltacoma.com/

The restaurant occupies the lower level of the 1890 Waddell Building which was substantially renovated and incorporated into new Courtyard by Marriott Hotel in 2004. The building is listed on the historic register. A photo of the building as it appeared in 1979, prior to renovation, can be found here:

http://search.tacomapubliclibrary.org/images/dt6n.asp?un=5&pg=1&krequest=subjects+contains+Waddell+Building+and+Tacoma+&stemming=&phonic=&fuzzy=&maxfiles=

 

A great deal for lunch@St. Joes

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I can think of four Tacoma places off hand to have a tasty, healthy lunch on the cheap.

  1. The culinary school at Bates College
  2. The Neighborhood Bistro at Goodwill
  3. The cafeteria in the Utilities Building off Union Ave
  4. St. Joe’s Hospital

Friday’s new place is #4 the Cafeteria at St. Joes (1717 South J Street, Tacoma). I needed to be there to see a patient and it was around lunchtime. So I went down to the lower level (not the snack bar) and had a lightly breaded fish sandwich.  It was huge and delicious and came with a mountain of fries and a soda! All for under $5.00!  There was plenty of seating both inside and outside.  Parking is also free and not that hard to find.  Really, nobody says “let’s go to the hospital and have lunch!”, but they should. 😀

 

 

One of the best views around

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As we dip into the second half of August, I find myself trying to squeeze in as much summer as possible before the rain and cool weather returns. Today dear daughter and I took the loop trail around the Chambers Bay Golf Course. The loop consists of two trails, the 1.25 mile Grandview Trail and the 2 mile Soundview Trail. The Grandview Trail is pretty much flat and looks out over over the Chambers Bay Golf Course and Bay. We were pretty happy to see a quick little Garter snake slipping through the grass on the upper level! The Soundview Trail is pretty level along the railroad tracks and water, but rather steep going up and down! Going counter clockwise, facing the bay, the Soundview Trail starts in a lovely forested area and then goes along the railroad track. Further on there are the remains of the industrial use of the property and then there is the open and extra steep hill going back up. Where the trails meet there is the clubhouse restaurant, where we had a lovely lunch before heading back to the car.

  

Summer Reading = Free food

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I signed up for the adult summer reading program at the library and have completed my first five books, so I qualified for a prize! Yippee! It is a darling, red snack sack and inside was a reading notebook, a coupon for 3 free games of bowling with shoe rental and a free appetizer from the Harmon Brewing Company at 1938 Pacific Avenue, Tacoma!  Wow, that’s cool! So off we went.  Dear daughter and I split the crab cake appetizer, which was delicious and also shared the very rich mac n cheese.  We brought some of that home with us in a doggie bag.  The service was grand and the food wonderful. What more could we want?  The website for the Harmon is here: http://harmonbrewingco.com/brewery_eatery.html

 

Cascade Bagel

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This morning we were looking for a place to eat breakfast. We didn’t want to take the time and spend the money for a nice, sit down restaurant, I didn’t want fast food and dear husband didn’t want Starbucks or donuts. And then we had a brain storm! Cascade Bagel at 6115 Motor Avenue in Lakewood. We each got a toasted sesame seed bagel with cream cheese, his plain and mine garlic. They were delicious with a cup of coffee. While we were there, we also picked up a couple of bags of day old bagels. My only regret is that I didn’t ask for a tour of the cooking area, which apparently they will happily do for customers. Oh well, next time!

http://www.cascadebagel.com/

Vien Dong in Tacoma’s Lincoln District

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Wow! Vien Dong at 3801 Yakima Avenue in Tacoma’s Lincoln District has some tasty Vietnamese food and so reasonably priced. I was delighted (delighted, I tell you!) to meet a dear friend here for the first time. We both had the #11 (pho) with a fresh spring roll. It was the best pho I’d ever had and there was so very much of it that I had enough for lunch today. It says a lot for a restaurant when it is still very busy at 2 in the afternoon. The restaurant itself isn’t fancy, but the food makes it worth the trip.
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C.I. Shenanigan

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C.I. Shenanigan

Originally uploaded by Gexydaf

A few at a time, our group arrived at Shenanigan’s at 3017 Ruston Way
Tacoma, WA 98402. Just about the time we thought everyone had made it, another showed up! And to his credit, our wait person took it all in stride! My only complaint about the restaurant is that so much of the menu looked so good. And judging by our group of 13, it was all as good as it sounded! For me this is a once in a while kind of treat, but it was a great way to kick off the summer season (even though it was too chilly to sit on the deck!).

Shenanigan’s has been around since 1983 and there are two other locations, one in Spokane and the other in Boise, ID.

http://www.cishenanigans.com/

Engine House No. 9

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We went back to the 6th Avenue Farmer’s Market today, but I had already used that as my place of the day.  When I looked around, I realized the market was right smack in front of Engine House No. 9 (E9) .  I love E9!  It is a restaurant/brew pub situated in a beautifully restored 1907 fire station.  The Engine House moved out of the building in 1965 and it was remodeled as a tavern in 1973.  The property was placed on the national historic register in 1975. Microbrew beer was served here as of 1984 and it became the first non-smoking tavern in Pierce County in 1992.

http://www.ehouse9.com/index.php

 

Mt. Rainier Railroad Dining

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We go to Mt. Rainier a couple of times a year and always go past the Mt. Rainier Dining Co. Restaurant, which is situated in a train. Today we decided to give it a whirl for a late lunch. I love the idea of eating in a rail-car, but lunch itself was only alright. The bright notes were the desert (bread pudding) and the waitress.

It was a great day to be out and about and a real treat to see the Elbe steam train. On the way home we saw the most unusual peacock walking around in the middle of the street!