Kraken Congee

My boyfriend and I have been wanting to try out this place since seeing them on Restaurant Startup. The location was easy to find and the restaurant set up was nicely decorated. For food, we had the pork belly pinch buns which was so delicious we had two orders. The longanisa lumpia were tasty too. The octopus fried rice was alright, we thought it was missing something. I also had the hibiscus vodka which I also liked. Overall great experience. We even got to meet one of the owners. He was very personable and it seems like the business is doing really well. We will def be back!

I went here with a friend on a Saturday night around 6:30pm. We were able to get seated right away. We ordered their house made soda cocktails, lumpia and the duck confit congee and the pork adobo congee. The hibiscus soda cocktail was okay, for me it was a little too sweet. My friend got the 5 spice soda cocktail and his was much more flavorful.
The lumpia appetizer was out of this world. It was crunchy with a great filling and came with a sweet chili dipping sauce. We both enjoyed the congee dishes. My only critique would be I would have liked a bit more meat with my porridge. The porridge to meat ratio felt a bit uneven but overall the flavors and textures were divine. This is a great meal for a cold day and the environment is so cozy I could have stayed for a few hours.

Such an intriguing place and a wonderful find. I’m happy to add it to my ammo of delectable cuisine for newcomers in Seattle. The best part of it is that it’s a new establishment itself, and it’s quickly making an impact among restaurant goers as an elevation of home-​style Asian cuisine.
Tonight, my boyfriend and I, along with our friend came to this place for dinner. The place is trendy, dimmy lit, and can be hard to find, all the data points you need in scoping out a new place :-) We ordered the shrimp pinch buns, lumpia, three of the congees — junk boat, pork belly, and duck confit — and the ube cheesecake for dessert.
The lumpia and shrimp buns were delicious appetizers. I love the classic pork belly pinch buns but the chef recommended the shrimp to balance out the meal as we ordered pork belly and duck for the congees. The lumpia was freshly made, very savory with a good crunch. The shrimp pinch buns were a delightful surprise on my part — I did not think I would like it but it was very well made. The shrimp was fried to a crispy and toasty texture with cucumber added in for freshness and balance. Our friend says it’s one of her favorites!
Next we each had a bowl of congee — I had the pork belly. IT WAS DELICIOUS. So homey, filling, and the pork belly was cooked beautifully. The garnishes and aioli rounded out the dish and filled me up super quickly. My boyfriend says that the junk boat congee was delicious, and the seafood components (along with a huge scallop!) was above par (and his standards are high!). The duck confit was really delicious as well. During our meal, the chef came out to greet us and chatted with us for a little while. It was wonderful to hear him describe the history of the place and how one guy’s idea led to partnership which blossomed into the establishment that it is now. It was great to also hear that there are new recipes and endeavors on the way, and we’re excited to come back and try them out.
The ube cheesecake was a great way to end the meal. The cheesecake, though deceptively small in size, packs so much body and richness, yet the texture was so smooth, and the mango purée was so light and tangy (I mistaken it for passionfruit at first), balancing the dessert nicely. Interestingly though, our friend, who originally was so excited about the ube, says that the ube flavor itself was very subtle. Perhaps it could be stronger?
Other than that, the service was friendly, courteous, and attentive. It’s nice to know that among the cold winter nights, adding to the usual ramen and phở options, now there’s an awesome congee spot to hit up when you’re feeling like something from home.

Located in Pioneer Square, this restaurant serves up some tasty plates. After going down the stairs, you reach a half wall where menus are placed. Scan through and figure out what you like so you can proceed to the window at the kitchen to order. The server brings your plates, but it’s mostly self-​serve.
As for the food, the congee has always been a hit with me. The small plates and pinch buns are a hit as well. Try the duck confit and the pork belly pinch buns. The sticky icky chicken wings have a semi strong hint of fish sauce, but I find them to be delicious.

I’m not sure where to put this, since I attended a POP-​UP for Kraken with their COMFORT ROOM WINTER 2016 menu only. But it was really satisfying. I know that some of the menu items that were on the Comfort Room are also on Kraken Congee’s menu too, so that’s something to consider.
We ordered the Coconut Adobo Fried Chicken, Grilled Pinakbet, Tinolang Tulya, Bangus and the Ube Cheesecake.
The Coconut Adobo Fried Chicken is served like a traditional ginataan dish, so there didn’t seem to be a lot of adobo flavor in it, but was still good, creamy and flavorful. The grilled pinakbet was on SKEWERS! For heavens sakes stop me now. I was a little put off by it until I ate it with the crunchy salted pork bits and was instantly melting. Tinolang Tulya tasted just like moms, and the bangus had the PERFECT amount of vinegar. And who can wrong with their ube cheesecake? You can’t.

I got to hand it to the chefs of this establishment the idea for this restaurant is absolutely brilliant. It’s really hard to find decent lugaw/​congee in Seattle. My husband and I decided to come in for lunch. We got there around 12 ish and the place was packed. Luckily we were able to find a seat near the door.
My husband ordered the kare kare wagyu beef and I ordered the adobo lugaw, both of which were AMAZING! The adobo lugaw has boy bawang pieces and it added to the delicious flavor. We also ordered the pinch bun with pork belly all the components were done correct.
I definitely want to come back to try more delicious items on the menu.

I went to Kraken Congee last weekend on a Sunday night. For a new and hot establishment, it was pretty empty. My party of 4 didn’t need reservations and we were immediately seated.
The restaurant is pretty nifty. You walk into the restaurant and have head underground to into a rather playful and hip atmosphere. Theres are bar area with a good amount of seating for dining.
From its name, I had high expectations on the congee, but surprisingly enough, it was alright. I was able to try the pork belly congee. I guess that I just favor more authentic rice porridges, but that doesn’t mean that Kraken’s variation wasn’t good. It was really flavorful and something that I am not accustomed to for this comfort food. Kind of like Kogi, Revel, and pretty much any (good) Asian fusion deals that you can think of. Along with the congee, our table ordered the lumpia, bang bang shrimp buns and adobo pinch buns. I was pretty surprised, but the bang bang was the best on the appetizers! I think it was breaded and was crispy even though it was doused in delicious sweet sauce. I couldn’t leave without trying the ube cheesecake after seeing it all over Unilocal.Its a very light tasting cheesecake and you don’t really taste the ube until you get to the aftertaste.
Overall, I think this place is a great restaurant. I had a good experience and the staff was not bad at all. Our waitress mentioned the 20% happy hour discount before we left with our leftovers, so that was a pretty nice gesture.

Its really hard to find exciting congee (rice porridge) anywhere.
Tried this place for a Sunday brunch. Its a lovely renovated space in a basement near Pioneer Square.
If you have never tried congee, I recommend using this place to break you in and show you what chef creative congee is all about.
They also have a full bar!
Not much else to say as congee is a specialty food not common in the US — is usually boring at an asian restaurant, but very interesting here with the chef variants and added flavors.
Its a must try!

Tried all 3 buns — all were pretty tasty. The shrimp with tobikko needs some heat to go with the ocean-​y, briney-​yet-​sweet flavors, perhaps.
Shrimp fried rice was surprisingly light on the salt. Sous vide egg is just a garnish here, and I was hoping for a runnier egg to coat the rice. Never thought dill would match fried rice, and it works well here. Learned something new!
Longanisa lumpia is tasty but overstuffed (not a bad thing), and can get oily/​heavy. Ask for some vinegar dip to help cut the oiliness.
Will go back to try the congee and dessert. Hoping to catch either liliko’i or calamansi cheesecake one day. *crosses fingers*

Heard a lot about this place and had high expectations for it, but unfortunately was disappointed. If you’ve never had congee before, you will likely really like it, but if you have had this comfort food in traditional Asian restaurants, you will likely be very disappointed, especially when you get the bill, $ 80 for 4 bowls of congee and one drink (not 4 drinks!)
The toppings were good and made these dishes interesting, but not enough there to make this congee great. «Junk boat» is on the fishy side, so for seafood lovers only. Ours did not look like some of the pictures posted here, there was no octopus at all.
Bloody Mary was really, really fishy with oyster bits in it. They do warn you up front but still was more extreme than we thought. This is not for everybody!

Love their congee especially the hanger steak congee! Duck confit bun and their fried rice is ok. Next time we visit surely will try the other congee on their menu. Feel so
warm and cozy to eat congee during winter.

I’ve been trying to eat at Kraken Congee since they were a pop-​up restaurant. For whatever reason, I wasn’t able to get there until tonight.
To be honest, I was a little skeptical about a white dude cooking my people’s food comfort food, but after the meal tonight, Chef Garrett and the friendly staff did not disappoint. We ordered for dishes total.
Two small plates: Longanisa Sausage Lumpia and Stick Icky Fish Sauce Chicken Wings. Both were super tasty and lived up to their names. The lumpia was crispy on the outside and full of meat on the inside. It was more of a giant lumpia shanghai than a traditional, sweet, red, Filipino longanisa filling — you know, the one that makes you burp longanisa for hours after eating — but still delicious. The chicken wings were sticky on the outside, but still had a crispy skin and juicy meat and a perfect balance of sweet with the fish sauce.
We also ordered Octopus & Kimchi Fried Rice that had plenty of tender piece of octopus and a great kimchi flavor. The congee we got was The Junk Boat. It was the most expensive thing on the menu at a whopping $ 19 (for a bowl of congee!) but sometimes you gotta go big oe go home. And in a place like this, you are gonna get your moneys worth. The congee, or juk if you’re Cantonese, was full of seafood: mussel, clam, scallop, octopus and a seasonal fish. Today it was salmon, which I normally don’t like in soup, but somehow it worked here. It was all topped with thai basil and bonito flakes. As I ate it, I danced like the bonito flakes, it was so good.
The staff was friendly and attentive. Chef Garrett was awesome and checked on our table to make sure were enjoying our food. #whitemenCANcookasianfood It was a great dinner and I’ll definitely be back with more friends. There are so many more things I want to try on the menu.
Tl;dr — Food is good and worth the price. Chef Garrett is awesome. Eat here. Be happy.

Most options for Filipino food in Seattle cater to those looking for a «taste of home». The Philippines has 7,107 islands so unfortunately, most don’t agree on what that «taste of home» tastes like.
If you ask Filipinos where the best Filipino food is in Seattle, you’ll either get, «My mom’s!» or a list of restaurants you should avoid. To many, «best» tastes like home and anything that isn’t that is immediately bad.
This place, however, doesn’t promise tradition. They put corn crunch (cornic in Tagalog) in lugaw. *record scratches* In the words of Stanley from The Office, «Boy, have you lost your mind? Cuz I’ll help you find it.»
But then I was like, okay… This isn’t my mom’s homecooking. They’re taking traditional flavors and using culinary school techniques to prepare something new. Okay, I can MAYBE get behind that. That’s actually how I cook at home (except I didn’t go to culinary school so ya know) BUT the proof is still in the pudding.
I’ve been here a couple of times now. And man is it good!
I’ve had the pork belly lugaw, the lumpia, the kare kare noodles and the shrimp buns.
The lugaw has been my favorite. It is so damn good. The rice is such a great, velvety consistency. The tangy pork belly adobo melts in your mouth without being too greasy. The corn crunch adds texture to what otherwise would be just porridge. Mixed together, it’s divine.
The kare kare is also so delicious. Kare kare is traditionally stewed oxtail, tripe and/​or beef in a rich peanut sauce served with a side of shrimp paste. The kare kare here isn’t made with oxtail, but it’s still NOT kare kare LITE. That’d be like trying to make beef bourguignon not rich. It’s rich and comforting and wonderful. Maybe I’m going crazy but I got a hint of nuttiness from what tasted like coconut in the sauce. Regardless, I loved it and am looking forward to eating the inevitable leftovers.
You can really taste the care, creativity and the nod (instead of bowing down) to the tradition of Filipino cuisine. It’s unapologetically Filipino where I think some would be more inclined to tone it down (shrimp paste yo!).
Price wise? They use quality ingredients and skilled techniques. We’re so quick to fork over $ 17 on a plate of glorified spaghetti at Italian restaurants but are insulted when Asian food is glorified and sold at similar prices. What gives?
2 critiques: I wish their menu was more descriptive. I know what pork adobo and kare kare are but some friends don’t. They tried them & were unsure about the novelty. After we talked about what was what, they were able to appreciate things for what they are instead of «This should taste like the SE Asian cuisine I know.» It’s like drinking a glass of water when you thought you had reached for a soda.
ALSO. I have mixed feelings about having both vinegar (in the adobo) and calamansi (in the aioli) in the same bowl. I LOVE calamansi in my lugaw but I’ve never eaten it with pork belly adobo. I could do without the extra sourness and would appreciate either a garlic aioli or even a drizzle of garlic confit oil. Maybe it’s just me but all I could think of eating the the bowl was how much I missed the fried garlic on top of either goto or arroz caldo or lugaw.
TL;DR I’m Filipino and reviewing this with that background. It’s not traditional but it’s the shit. Just come eat it.

Now I was really looking forward to trying out this place because of the great reviews and because it was featured on Eater! I have to say… I was a little disappointed in this place. Granted, I probably should have ordered congee since the place is called «Kraken Congee», but I just couldn’t justify paying $ 13 for congee when I can get legit congee back at home for under $ 6. So I ended up getting Kare Kare Wagyu Beef Noodles in the «Wok» section. The noodles were drenched in the peanut sauce, which was way too rich for me. I couldn’t eat the whole thing because it was so rich. I even took the leftovers home and added more noodles myself to balance out the sauce! Usually I usually love noodles with a lot of sauce, but I thought it was overwhelming for this dish.
I really like the interior and the service was okay. They don’t have happy hour or anything here, so the food prices are always gonna be pretty high. My friend and I also tried the Ube Cheesecake which was good, but not amazing. And for $ 8 for a smallish piece… I thought it was kind of steep. Overall, I thought this place was okay but I’m not sure if I’d come again just because of the price. Might come back to try to congee, but even then it’s debatable.

Came here for a couple of the pop-​up events and then once for a lunch with a buddy.
Kind of a grungy feel as the place feels like a basement when you walk down their stairs, but vibe is pretty warm as you are greeted by their employees.
At first I was appalled when I heard about a poor Asian person’s food like congee became bastardized and sold for $ 14, but the fusion idea is AMAZING! I got the congee with pork adobo. The meat was tender, and the calamansi sauce complemented like no other. Not to mention that the flavor of the congee was strong but by no means salty. Whoever came up with this combo is GENIUS!
I also tried the fish sauce chicken wings! Fish sauce flavor was not too powering, and my friend, who is white, loved it, so that says a lot LOL. Chicken itself was fried well.
This place is located in the heart of Pioneer Square and has a bar area, so I would definitely hit it up again for drinks. Good job, Kraken Congee!

11÷04÷15 Decided to treat myself for my birthday (yesterday). The setting and accomodation was excellent. I haven’t had «lugaw» in a while, so coming here and having their pork belly adobo lugaw with CALAMANSI AIOLI was a stomach-​warming blessing and a callback to good food from back home.
The food was top quality as was the service from the ever helpful and friendly staff. One of the best spots in Seattle Right now to serve some good South East Asian Congee, or «lugaw» for us Filipinos. Congee is a rice based porridge, but the add-​in items make it superbly unique.
None seem too spicy (there’s chili sauce on every table which is fine for me). Menu is not just congee. They offer asian fusion including a menu of stir fried and small bite items.
Kraken Congee is hiding in plain sight right near one of the busiest tourist corridors in the city. You might have a hard time spotting this place, but it has a window sign. You descend into a funky brick basement area that has cool art, sort of like a modern beatnik basement if that’s possible.
Nice underground vibe in there. As much as I’d selfishly like this to be my secret spot. This may not be the place for you if you don’t enjoy food adventures but go for a drink or dessert. if you want to visit the underground. A nice addition to the Pioneer Square restaurant scene.
All that being said, GO VISIT THIS PLACE IF YOU ARE A TRUE FOODIE, you will not be disappointed. I would highly recommend this place.
*CONGEE: Pork Belly Adobo Lugaw $ 13: The crunch of the corn nuts and the texture of the chinese broccoli added another layer to every bite. The perfect comfort food I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner on the same day. Smooth and flavorful, very filling.
*Pork Belly Adobo Pinch Buns $ 8: You cannot get better pork belly pinch buns (three for $ 8) in Seattle; soft, savory pork, pillowy dough – and a brilliant sour-​tart calamondin aioli, made from the sour citrus fruit often found in Filipino food.
*Hood Famous Bakery’s Ube Cheesecake $ 8: In fact The Ube cheesecake from Hood Famous Bakery is absolutely scrumptious and a must have while it lasts at this restaurant.
*Rum Typhoon: Sailor Jerry Rum, thai Basil, Ginger Beer

I really loved their congee even though it was a bit overpriced for what it is. You can find $ 6 congee in the ID, but Kraken Congee serves up congee with a fusion twist. I really liked the five spice duck congee for lunch. It was flavorful and the rice was nice and mushy, not too watery and not too dry. I’ll definitely be back to try some of their other dishes.
The restaurant is located next to Faerie Queene and it’s downstairs so watch out for it.

With a $ 13 price tag, Kraken Congee isn’t your typical neighborhood congee shop. Descend below the depths (literally, this place is underground) for a fun, modern take on mom’s cooking. :P
Coming here for lunch, it was interesting to see the layout of the restaurant. You’ve got your order counter at the back of the restaurant, the dining area and then this sizeable bar area to the right. I’d like to come back at a later time to see the bar come alive! ;)
Like most restaurants these days, Kraken Congee is self-​serve with utensils and such at the back near the order counter. The space is pretty good for groups if you go a little before the lunch rush — we saw a group of about 6 or 7 seated next to us.
I tried the Pork Belly Adobo Congee this time around — YUM. The pork belly was very flavorful and tender and worked well with the congee. I think what stood out were the corn nuts sprinkled on top — they added a fun texture to the dish. :)
If it wasn’t for the price, I could see myself coming to Kraken Congee more often than I should. :P

Kraken Congee is a cute, somewhat hard-​to-​find Pioneer Square restaurant with tasty Asian fusion food and spendy small-​plate prices. If you’re used to under-​$ 5 congee at dim sum joints, be prepared to pay several times as much here for their premium version!
It’s a little off the main tourist drag and located in a basement, so look for the sidewalk sign and be prepared to walk down a flight of steps to get inside. Downstairs is a large bar and table seating. They have large tables to show sportsball games, with bamboo shades that fold down to hide the screens — clever! It looks very modern and minimalist, but my God, those metal chairs are miserable to sit on.
We tried all three of the pinch bun flavors on offer (duck, pork belly adobo, bang bang shrimp, $ 8 for 3). They look small, but are generously filled and more substantial than you’d think; the shrimp ones were our favorite. We had the daily special, a roasted pork fried rice ($ 15), which came in a large portion for sharing, and was flavorful and tasty. I sampled the salmon and pork belly congee flavors, and both were good, but I still probably wouldn’t pay $ 14 for a bowl. Cocktails were expensive, around $ 11 for their specialty drinks, but they do have house-​made basil lemonade and Vietnamese iced coffee.
The atmosphere seems more about looking cool than comfort. The music was loud reggae and we had to raise our voices to hear each other over it. Service was slow, especially when we were trying to get our check, and they didn’t call our attention to the fact that they added an automatic gratuity. It wasn’t busy when we were there on a weeknight, and we were part of a pretty large party (about 16 people), so I would have expected more attentive service to merit that auto-​tip.
Overall, an elegant-​looking place for a date or special occasion, tasty food with pretty presentation, and high prices. Maybe it’s faster and cheaper at lunch?

It’s at the old little uncle location! New paint, different décor but still the same ordering flow, where you order at the window on the left.
Came here for lunch and the food was brought out pretty fast! The food was also really good. Everyone in our party was happy! The portions are large and so worth the price. When I had gone for lunch, it wasn’t busy, so perfect for when you need to grab a quick meal.