Oscar Night at the 0/8 Seafood Bar and Grill

Tuesday, February 27th, 2007

Filed Under Bellevue, Northwest, Seafood

0/8 Seafood bar and grill is the new restaurant that opened at the Bellevue Hyatt Regency Hotel late last year. I was recently checking out their website, and saw the following blurb:

“Watch the Oscars in the Twisted Cork lounge. Enjoy herb buttered popcorn and Oscar night games and give-aways. February 25th starting at 5PM.”

So when I was talking to some of my girlfriends about the Oscar night plans, we thought it will be fun to go out to watch the Oscars this year. Since most of my friends are in the eastside, we picked 0/8 as the venue, and I think it was a great choice as far as the food and drink selection goes, but not so great for watching the Oscars. First of all, there weren’t many people there watching the Oscars, so it wasn’t as much fun as we thought. Secondly, the big screen was not so clear, and the sound system was even worse, we could hardly see the details of the dresses and the make-up (the best attraction of Oscar) and couldn’t hear anything, even after they turned up the volume. But we did have a lot of fun anyway. We had to fill in a sheet with our Oscar picks; those with the most number of guesses right win $75 , $50 and $25 respectively. Even though they told us there were 8 more entry forms other than ours, we really didn’t see anyone else filling any forms, so we are assuming that our table is going to get all the three prizes, if anyone from 0/8 is reading this, we are still waiting for your call, you know who we are

But apart from the fact that we couldn’t really watch the Oscar, the food was great, well most of it anyway. We were there in time for the happy hour (4-6), and ordered most of the menu items. I got their house Cosmo, which was on the happy hour list ($2 off regular price) a white cranberry Cosmo which was pretty good.

Dungeness Crab Cake With Fuji Apple and Watercress Salad, Curry Aioli - This was pretty good. Really fresh crab meat, and the Curry in the aioli was a nice twist.

Cedar Planked Salmon With Fennel Salad and Chive Vinaigrette - I liked this one too, again really fresh salmon and very mild flavors.

Seared Calamari With Lemon Grass, Ginger, Cashews - Everyone loved it, this was one of the favorites. We thought it was a little too much soy sauce though.

Tempura Prawns and Asparagus - This was a big disappointment. As you can see from the picture, this was way too oily and deep fried for our taste.

Manila Clams and Penn Cove Mussels in Steamed in Coconut-Red Curry Broth - This was not too bad, but not all that great either. Someone thought the bread wasn’t cooked enough. I thought the curry broth was missing some flavors, just a little too mild.

Seared Baja Scallop Seaweed Salad with Crispy Salmon Bacon, Balsamic Syrup - I loved it, the scallops were fresh and tender, and the wee bit seaweed salad that comes with it made a nice combo. (Below picture is half-eaten, forgot to click before :-), a plate comes with two scallops)

Pumpkin Ravioli With Browned Butter, Toasted Pumpkin Seeds - I hated this one, it was a little too “pumpkini” for me. .

Tea Smoked Duck Breast Chive Pancake, Currant Marmalade, Frisee Salad - This was really good.

Farmer’s Cheeses and Cured Meat Platter with Toasted Baguette, Marinated Vegetables - This was just a filler, nothing special about this dish.

We also had the Chicken Satay With Red Curry Dipping Sauce which I forgot to take a picture of , it was not that good either. The chicken had no flavors whatsoever.

As you can see, we ate a lot between the 4 of us, and some of these dishes we got multiples, but we were there for more than three hours. Oh, in addition to this, they gave us complimentary buttered popcorn as the Oscar special, but it was more like “popcorned butter” as someone put it, it was just dripping of butter. Anyway, we were quite full by the end of it and decided to split two desserts, and both were amazing!

The main theme for the food at 0/8 are the fresh ingredients and really mild flavors. While the mild flavors works great for some dishes, I thought it was the biggest negative in some other dishes. But overall, food is not disappointing, if you choose wisely. I’m definitely going back again to try the main courses. Also, they have weekend brunch on Saturdays and Sundays, there aren’t that many great brunch options in Bellevue, it will be definitely worth a try if you live in Bellevue. More than the food, I loved the ambiance, the Twisted Cork Wine bar is pretty spacious, and will be perfect for a big group. The happy hour deal is pretty cool, all the appetizers are half off.

Finally, here we are, the girls - Hema, Mareen, Suneeta and Sigma - three of us are going to win that contest , still waiting for that phone call. :-).