Marination Columbia City — Restaurant in Seattle

Marination CC's food has been hit and miss for us but we recently gave it another try. The miso edamame was super delicious and I'd order that again any time. The kale salad is essentially a plastic box of baby leaf kale with a small container of dressing inside. I kind of thought the kale might have been shredded, or pre-dressed, or... anything? It sort of reminded me of something you'd buy when you're trapped in an airport, but to their credit the kale seemed super fresh so we just took most of it home and made it into another meal for the following day's lunch. Pork katsu sliders were pretty good though the outside of the bun was cool and kind of soggy to the touch, like it'd been microwaved and then sat out for a bit or maybe just not fully defrosted? The fried pork was tasty on its own though. The spam sliders we ordered actually showed up as spam musubi but we didn't mind the mixup and those were good. They even gave us a couple extra musubi for free to take home as it was near the end of the evening and the server mentioned they had too many on hand, which was an unexpected and very nice offer.

The service is always pleasant here and the bar is a great place to sit. It's a very cool old building and they've obviously worked hard to transform it into an inviting space. I do think the restaurant is really best suited as a place to grab a drink and a small bite rather than a full meal. It always seems busy around brunch so maybe that's more of their sweet spot? Still glad to have it in the neighborhood and I'm sure I'll meet up with friends for a drink and a snack at...

We ordered delivery - Beef Taco Salad with extra jalapeños and the "Kalbi" Beef Plate (with extra beef and only mac salad in place of the rice and slaw).

I put the "Kalbi" in quotes because it was beef, but not like any Kalbi I've cooked or been served. Real Island cooks serve the Kalbi with the bones, because the bones are an essential component of that style of ribs. The thin-sliced meat I got was dry and pretty tasteless, and the bit seasoning that was in the meat didn't have much Island flavor.

The salad was macaroni, a tiny bit of shredded carrot, and some kind of unpleasant salad dressing. I managed to doctor it so it was marginally edible, but that's just because I hate wasting food.

The taco salad was some packaged coleslaw mix with a bit of orange dressing and some more of the same cooked beef on the top. That's it. The best part of the dish was the pickled jalapeños - clearly freshly cured and pretty tasty.

But you can't save two pathetic plates with a quarter cup of pickled peppers. And, when there are great Hawaiian BBQ joints around like L&L, it seems pointless to waste money on a sad attempt at an Island cuisine. (And, yes, I am not just a Pacific Islander, but a good Island cook, too.)

No pictures cuz I don't want to be reminded...

I really wanted to like Super Six. I really did. I've had it bookmarked for a while and finally had the opportunity to go while celebrating a friend's birthday.

My eyes and stomach were definitely big that night and I wanted to order everything. Between everyone at the table, we felt like we actually did.

My boyfriend and I ordered the Pork Belly and Spam musubi, Korean Chicken Wings, Garlic Fried Rice, a side of Mac Salad, Portuguese Sausage Corndog (found only on the HH menu), and the Malasada (plain, with caramel sauce). Unfortunately for us, everything was bland; each dish had potential and decent flavors but just needed more salt. The musubi options were actually pretty good compared to the other dishes, but for the price, not something that I would be running back for.

Others at the table ordered the Char Siu Burger, Loco Moco, Aloha Fries, and Hawaiian Quesadilla. I took bites of each but can't remember much about them.

The one thing that I DID enjoy were their cocktails. The Lilikoi Super-Matic and Jungle Bird were absolutely refreshing and delicious and I would order those again without hesitation.

I've heard brunch is much better than dinner, so maybe I'll try again at some point....