****½ (4.5/5)

Do you love eating meat? If you answered yes, and if you’re around Kirkland, WA, you should definitely visit Secret Garden Restaurant. Secret Garden Restaurant is an all you can eat Korean BBQ house. It is located in a semi-remote place, and it looks like a Mexican restaurant on the outside.

We visited Secret Garden on a Sunday for lunch. The restaurant was really empty at lunch time. We were the only ones in there the whole time (appearntly it gets really busy for dinner), but we didn’t really mind we were the only ones there. There was no menu, the waitress/owner came and asked what kind of meats we wanted, we simply answered: everything. A minute later, the waitress was out with 8 different kinds of appetizers included kimchi, sprouts, potatoes, lotus root, etc. And then about 5 minutes later, she came back with a plate with a mountain of meat on it. I think that plate weights about 5-6 pounds. She also brought out some lettuce leaves and a peanut sauce.

The lady started putting all the meet on the grill, and I thought that was it, but she stood there the whole time cooking the first batch of meat for us. After it was cooked, she took a lettuce wrap, put some meat dipped in sesame sauce, rice, some appetizers, and peanut sauce, and wrapped everything up, and told us this is how to eat it. It was pretty cool, I’ve never had Korean BBQ and eat it as lettuce wraps before. After the demonstration, she left us to do our own thing.

The meats were really tasty. Even though they were all piled up together, each of them had their own marinade, and unique taste. They were all really tender, my favorite were the short ribs, those were mega delicious.

Between the 4 of us, we barely finished the plate of meat she brought out. There were a lot of meat there, meat lovers, you will definitely be satisfied with this place. I really liked this place, because it was one of those non pretentious places that serves good food. They didn’t have the fanciest decor, and they used free mugs they got from other companies for our tea. I really liked how the lady cooked for us in the beginning, kind of weird having her standing there the whole time first, but wasn’t awkward at all; not sure if she does the same thing for other diners at dinner though.  And the damage, $15 dollars per person.

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Secret Garden Restaurant
21025 Hwy 99
Lynnwood, WA 98036
(425) 771-5546

****~ (4/5)

A few weeks ago I went to visit Wheel in Kirkland. I asked him to take me to Brown Bag Cafe, the place he discovered recently and raved so much about. He told me about the portion size here, and it was only described as gigantic. Breafkast/brunch is my favorite meal, gigantic breakfast/brunch, I had to see it myself.

My friends got the California Breakfast Sandwich, Garden Skillet, Corned Beef Hash, with a side of Apple Cinnamon Sausage.  I decided to tackle The Big Mike.

When the food hit our table, it literalyl looked like mountains and mountains of food. It was kind of ridiculous, in a funny and good way.

I ordered The Big Mike with pit ham and banana pecan pancakes. It also had 2 eggs, and hash browns. It was really kind of hard to know where to start when you got that much food. The slice of ham was so giant, it covered half of the plate. I was glad the ham wasn’t dry. My eggs were cooked perfectly. The part that made the breakfast really stand out was the hash browns. They were so yummy. They were sort of in scallop potato shapes, they had a great crust on the outside, and it was so buttery and creamy on the inside. It was one of the best hash browns I’ve had.

The Banana and Pecan Pancakes it came with were giant. They were really thick, about an inch thick for 2 pancakes stacked on top of each other, and really fluffy. They were topped with bananas, icing sugar and pecans, they were delicious, and almost impossible to finish. Actually, it was impossible for me to finish.

I also had parts of my friend’s breakfasts, and they were all really good. The California Breakfast Sandwich had eggs, avocado, sausages and cheddar cheese. It also came with a mountain of their awesome hash browns and fruits. The sandwich was giant, the in-house made bread was toasted perfectly. There was a lot of everything in that one sandwich, I especially loved the avocados.

The Garden Skillet had eggs, mushrooms, zucchinis, onions, tomatoes, green peppers, with melted mozzarella on top. One thing I liked about this dish was the vegetables weren’t cut in tiny little cubes, you can actually see, and really taste them. It was really yummy, really nice with the cheese on top, and it had hash browns at the bottom of the skillet. Another giant dish.

We did end up packing most of our food home. Our theory for the restaurant name was that because they give you so much food, that you have to ‘brown bag’ it home. Sometimes giant food portions for restaurants could just be a gimmick, so I was really glad that the food actually taste great too. They’ve definitely lived up to their slogan: No Sissy Food Here.

Note: Opens until 3pm daily. Unlimited Toast.

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Brown Bag Cafe
12217 NE 116th St
Kirkland, WA 98034
www.brownbagcafes.com

***½~ (3.5/5)

George’s Place is a busy restaurant in downtown Kirkland, Washington. I walked into this place because the restaurant that I was originally going to go for brunch was closed that day.

This place is pretty big, and busy. Once I got seated (almost right away after I walked in), I noticed there’s always people walking around, in and out the restaurant. That’s a good sign I guess, to have a active crowd in a restaurant.

I ordered the Corinthian Omelet ($11.99) with fresh fruits, while my friends ordered the Chicken Fried Steak and Eggs($11.99), and Lumber Jack Plate ($10.99).

My omelet has gryo meat, roma tomatoes, onions, bell peppers and feta cheese in it; not the typical ingredients you’d find in a typical omelet, and it was tasty. And best of all, I didn’t even eat it with ketchup because it came with tzatziki sauce, yum! The toasts it came with had a fair amount of butter on them, but it didn’t taste too greasy, it was good. I also really liked my fresh fruits. I thought they were going to be one of those typical pre-made fruit salads, but they weren’t. There were grapes, strawberries and oranges, all were very fresh and sweet. They gave a really refreshing taste to my breakfast.

The one thing I didn’t like was their coffee. It was watered down, pretty bad, and the cup was sticky. It was probably from the waiter’s hand. The table were still a little dirty from previous customers. It didn’t give me a complete feeling of cleanliness for the restaurant.

This place seemed like a local favorite. There were quite a few families out for breakfast here. One guy who sat at the bar near our booth gave a big praise for the restaurant to our waiter saying how much he loved the place when he’s just about to leave. The waiter took it rather nonchalantly, like he hears it all the time. A little cocky perhaps? Yah, the waiter didn’t give me a good impression, with his sticky hands and all.

This is a good place to go if you want something a little different from the traditional breakfast foods. The portions are big, and the environment is relaxing, good place to visit on Sunday mornings.

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George’s Place
108 Kirkland Ave
Kirkland, WA 98033
(425) 242-4894
http://www.georgeskirkland.com/