Chinook's At Salmon Bay — Restaurant in Seattle

We have eaten here several times with great pleasure. Today we started with steamed clams and mussels in garlic butter sauce with fresh lemon. The mussels were tasty and tender, the best ever. About $16.00 and plenty for two of us. The garlic bread was already on the table and our drinks had been delivered promptly. Mine was Pinot Grigio $8 and hers was Fresh Berry Lemonade $5 -- tasted like lemonade and had fresh blueberries and raspberries with free refills.

You could order a steak or a burger or chicken burger. I was also tempted by the fresh pan fried trout and the crab Louie $37. We may go back for that!

She ordered crab and shrimp fettuccine, OMG --light sauce, chunks of crab leg meat, and plenty of tiny tasty shrimp with chunks of fresh zucchini and mushroom. It was a generous portion without being the full 16-inch platter for which 13 Coins is famous at about $50

I had garlic baked prawns scampi $21 which came with potatoes O'Brian and sauteed snow peas in the pod. Again, a generous portion, delicious and satisfying. Of course we shared both plates.

It's fun to sit adjacent to the marina and we did have a window seat. Between the rows of boats, a duck was swimming. We usually go for a walk there afterwards. This time, instead, we drove about 10 minutes to the Ballard Locks, Stayed to see boats going both in to Lake Washington and out to Puget Sound and then toured the adjacent Botanical Garden.

The food service at Chinook's was admirable. We were seated promptly, arriving before 5:00 on a Saturday when the place was already busy.

We noted two things on the menu. As an Anthony's restaurant, Chinook's maintains its own sea food farm, not sure that I'm saying that exactly right. Thus they always have access to the freshest possible sea food.

Second, there is a 4% surcharge to benefit the back house,which I think includes support for continuing education. I like this a lot as someone who spent a lot of years making fantastic money from tips as a waiter. It is the cooks who create the wonderful experience under pressure in the heat of the kitchen and the pantry guys and the dishwashers who help make it all work. Kudos to Anthony's.

Taylor, thanks for your response!

Having spent Saturday crabbing at Redondo Pier in Des Moines, we had an appetite for the Crab Louis salad seen on the menu last time at Chinooks. Since it's $39.00, we were going to split it. But once again, we were tempted -- and glad to be so tempted!

We started with a Mai Tai and a glass of Pinot Grigio. I am not a Mai Tai fan, but this one tasted good and was plenty strong. The Pinot is delightful, light and not too fruity.

The deep fried calamari arrived pretty quickly, especially considering that the house was full at about 6:30 Sunday. Next time we'll try the patio dining which you can see behind my wife in the picture.

The crab meat was fresh, plentiful and delicious. The generous portion of avocado was an unusual bonus, not standard for a Louis as far as I know. My wife had to help me eat the salad even though she had ordered a big bowl of cioppino. The soup was spicy, thick and tomatoey, delicious! Besides the usual shellfish it had fresh salmon and cod, she said. I enjoyed a few bites of the cod, succulent and tasty.

The server was really attentive, though he had a full station and a big party as well. As an afterthought, we asked him to request low salt wherever possible. We knew that our request might be too late, but he was able to get it to the chef in time. At Chinook's they work as a team, so sometimes it's another person who actually delivers the food. This person tracked down the waiter and ordered me a second glass of wine. Great service!

After dinner at Chinook's we always enjoy a stroll among the boats moored at Fisherman's Terminal. Chinook's provided a great way to wrap up a quintessential...

I’ve eaten here several times, service always good, nice atmosphere, and the food is good. The reason my rating is not five stars is this: if you feature an item on the menu claiming it to be “New Orleans Style”, and it doesn’t come close, doesn’t even bare a resemblance to what it claims to be, you will lose a bit of credibility, thusly less stars in ratings. At least from a customer originally from New Orleans. Even if I didn’t have almost 25 years of experience in the restaurant industry, I know the difference between authentic BBQ shrimp (unpeeled prawns sautéed primarily in butter, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, black pepper) and peeled shrimp (prawns) warmed in olive oil barely hinting of garlic flavor served atop diced potatoes, which is clearly stated on the menu. Traditionally, New Orleans restaurants serve this dish with a side of rice and crunchy bread, usually French bread. It’s not that this appetizer didn’t taste good, I ate it with no complaints—I was just disappointed that a restaurant with such a good reputation would falsely advertise a food item as a New Orleans style dish. It brought back my first disappointment upon moving to Seattle from N.O. and was served fried oysters on a hamburger bun when the menu said “New Orleans style Oyster Po’Boy”. In all honesty I can say that no New Orleans restaurant will claim to feature food as “Pacific Northwest style”. In fact, a word of warning: If you visit N.O., & you see salmon, of any variety, on the menu, don’t order it. Unless you want dry, salty,...

For starters, the focaccia bread they provide at the beginning is phenomenal! Delicious, buttery, and warm. It's a homemade recipe and we're glad they provided us a second serving. This is also great for dipping into any sauces you get with dishes (more on that later).

We got the crab cakes and shrimp scampi. Our friends got the salmon and cod and fish and chips.

The crab cakes were so tender. The breading was soft and moist and it really helped highlight the tenderness of the Dungeness crab. The shrimp scampi was perfectly cooked and the garlic butter sauce was fantastic. The potatoes that came with this were some of the best potatoes I've ever had! My potatoes were slightly over cooked compared to everyone else's which made them a slight bit mushier which was perfect for me. Lastly, we saved some of the focaccia bread so I was able to dip this in the scampi sauce. It was soooo delicious! It just added more butter and garlic to the bread which I thoroughly enjoyed.

Our friend had some tougher cod but the manager was super nice, explained that their process made the cod a slight different texture but allowed them to order something else that they'd love more. Service overall was super friendly and welcoming and I'd be happy to recommend this...