SeaStar - Girls Night Out

Saturday, February 10th, 2007

Filed Under Bellevue, Northwest, Seafood

Seastar restaurant and raw bar in Bellevue is in my opinion the best place to hang out on the east side- amazing drinks, great ambiance and not so bad food. It is one of our favorite girls night out spots, somehow it has become the place where a lot of career decisions have been made… So this Thursday, when the three of us , Maya, Mareen and I (we three have been friends for an awfully long time, we were college roommates) all needed a night out - to get over a bad day at work, to think more about a career decision, and to just unwind, the first place that came to mind was of course Seastar.

The bar was filled with the after work crowd and groups of women, but we found three seats at the shared table pretty quick. The cocktail and spirits menu is at least 5 pages long, and there are some interesting mixes. Among the three of us, we had a mix and match of Mango Caipirinha, Peach Cosmopolitan , Pomegranate Mojito and some kind of a Lemon Drop. Except for the lemon drop (a little too sweet), all the drinks were amazing.

We didn’t get any dinner this time, just appetizers from the bar. Maya is vegetarian, and she went for the only veg option in the menu- Cedar Plank Roasted Mushrooms - Mushrooms seasoned with some herbs and roasted on a red cedar plank , came with a side of arugula salad with lemon vinaigrette dressing. This is a delicious dish, the mushrooms are full of flavor. Apparently the SeaStar chef John Howie is the expert on the plank roasting cooking technique, check out his website at http://www.plankcooking.com/

For us carnivores, we ordered the Crispy Calamari Poppers , Deep fried calamari stuffed with spicy ahi tuna, served with a mixed slaw and grapes! When I ordered this dish, our waitress warned me that it is really spicy, but I never expected it to be this spicy! It was so good, we went for seconds.

Since Maya also eat eggs, we decided to order the deviled eggs, I have never had deviled eggs in a restaurant before, these were so creamy delicious! Since we couldn’t decide between the Truffled Ahi Tartare or Citrus Salmon Gravlox for the topping, we went for half and half, and both were equally good.

Mareen and I shared a plate of oysters, 6 in a plate 3 different types, 2 served with a pomegranate relish, two with Wasabi a d two more with caviar and creme fraiche. The pomegranate relish combination was the best of the three.

Oh, and we also got the sweet five spice cashews , it had such a great sweet smoky taste mixed with some amazing spicy flavor, it was the best bar nuts I have ever had!

There is nothing like a great night out with your girlfriends ,some good drinks and great conversation to forget any kind of problems! By the time we were done, all three of us were feeling lot better about our situations…

http://www.seastarrestaurant.com/

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