Union Square Grill

On the drive down, I proceed to tell the hubby that I’m not going to get steak. Probably chicken, or pork, something different. Also no dessert. I don’t want to overdo it.
But dang it, it just reads too beautiful on the menu:
*St Helens grilled tenderloin: Brandy-​peppercorn cream, Yukon Gold mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus.
Also ended up getting a salad, too:
USG House Salad: Seasonal field greens, pears, Rogue River blue cheese, candied walnuts, pear vinaigrette.
After gorging myself, everyone at the table wanted dessert, and dang if the desserts sound like a must have:
Fallen Chocolate Soufflé: Served warm, dark chocolate center, Madagascar vanilla ice cream.
I also had half a cup of the french press coffee which was so strong, my brother grew 35 hairs on his chest just by smelling it. I ate about a third of the dessert (it was HUGE), and would have shared had I not been sick with a cold.
I did not get anything to drink on this most recent trip… you know… because THAT would be overdoing it.
I love this place.

They have a progressive happy hour here, from 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm all happy hour food and drinks are $ 3.00 from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm it goes up to $ 4.00 and from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm it goes up to $ 5.00. Oh and get this after 9:00 pm daily all happy hour food is only $ 4.00, evening eats on the cheap I tell you.
Their happy hour cocktails are made with Finlandia and Pearl vodka’s so well worth their price even between 5:00 pm and 6:00 pm if you ask me. I can tell you their mango berry martini, pomikazi and their white cosmopolitan are all delicious and are not made with weak pours for happy hour. For happy hour food their hummus plate is rather filling as is their crisp calamari.
Their bar menu also has some interesting menu items that aren’t included in the happy hour price but are worth checking out. Their wild mushroom strudel is very tasty. And get this they also have gourmet white trash food (I’m white I can use that term) in the form of king crab tater tots and prawn corn dogs, I tried the king crab tater tots and was a bit disappointed they were more like king crab nuggets and sounded more intriguing than they were. I’m tempted to try the prawn corn dogs maybe one day I will but I think I need a partner in crime to try them with me.
This place does get packed so get their early or make friends with people only using half a table and sit with them. It’s now one of my favorite happy hour spots since I get off work at 4:00 pm most days.

I don’t know how you define a great bartender, but one thing is, they know who the other great bartenders are.
Robert K, as we sit at the USG bar: «I can’t remember his name but there used to be this great bartender downtown…»
Jason, our bartender: «Murray.»
Robert K. (taken aback): «Yeah. Murray. I don’t now where he is now.»
Jason: «Oh, he’s over at ZigZag. I was just there last week. Great guy; amazing bartender.»
Besides being totally plugged into the Seattle bar scene and pouring generous cocktails, Jason has some kind of prescient knowledge of what you were ALMOST thinking. I’ve seen him blow in from the kitchen and, without a glance at the bar patrons, pour a precisely timed replacement for that IPA you were just about to finish.
He’ll also tell you what he thinks are the dishes to order and — frankly, what you should just avoid. The guy has been at USG for 13 years (this by his own accounting) and pretty much rocks the house. His counterpart on cocktail service is Rachel and the two of them will keep a person fed, refreshed and entertained for a whole evening if you’re inclined to hang out.
I know there’s a restaurant here someplace but I’ve only seen the bar and although the menu offers such delights as fresh caught halibut in a miso glaze, I’ve only ever partaken of the happy hour menu. I’m a fan of the sliders trio for $ 4. Well ²⁄₃ of it anyway. There’s a kobe and gruyère burger, a pulled pork sandwich and some cheese and bacon dryness I could care less about. The ‘crispy calamari’ we can agree should be called ‘not very crispy and actually somewhat chewy calamari.‘
Some times you might want a gastronomical adventure; other times you might like a raucous and extremely casual eatery. This place isn’t either of those. But when I was just in the mood for a good beer, some decent food, friendly faces and the Mariners game on close-​caption, I knew I’d get all that at Union Square.

Usually, I do not like a chatty waiter. I was a little worried last night that it was going to be a party of 3 last night instead of a party of me and Mr Betsey S when our waiter started talking in a way which made me know that he had a lot to say.
But then I realized he was saying really, like, useful stuff!
Did you know that Union Square gets most of its ingredients locally? I did not, but Brian the waiter told me all about it, and I really love local food so I listened up.
Later on, he also told us about the Washington wines by the bottle (for which we had a half off coupon) and recommended a really wonderful blend. This guy knew a lot about wine, including which ones are the most delicious with the things we were having for dinner. And when I tasted it, of course I needed to know where I could obtain a full case for my very own stash. Naturally, our waiter knew where I could make that happen.
Mr Betsey S had steak (sourced from St Helens ranch right here in little ol’ Washington State) with a blue cheese croquette and I had scallops with lentils and crab bisque (also all from here). I love any restaurant that has lentils on the menu and makes them delicious! And everyone loves a restaurant that will bread and fry blue cheese to put on top of a steak. «Croquette», by the way, is French for «hells yeah.»
In a place like Seattle, lots of restaurants can turn out delicious and creative food for a pretty serious price tag. But it takes something more to turn out a dinner experience as good as the one we had last night. All I can say is: croquette.

So, full disclosure: I only ate dinner at the Union Square Grill because they comped it. Normally you wouldn’t catch me anywhere near a $ 30-​a-​plate joint (well, not if I was paying, anyway). But their website claims that they’re «Don’t-Miss Delicious,» and with a catchy slogan like that, how could I resist?
I’d been here previously for a Unilocal event, and liked the warm, ambient Art-​Deco-​hotel interior — lots of burgundy, gold, and brown, and very cozy-​feeling. They’re really pushing the dinner-​and-​theater theme — our waiter asked if we had just come from a show or were going to a show, and seemed puzzled when we said no, we were just eating. They even have a «Young Frankenstein”-themed dessert on the menu, if you didn’t get the hint loud and clear.
I had the Chatham Strait Smoked Black Cod, which came with poached Penn Cove mussels, sweet potato-​carrot mash, and spicy crab crema sauce ($ 28). The presentation was attractive — a chunk of tender, flaky fish perched atop a small mountain of mashed sweet potatoes, with mussels arranged at each of the four corners of my square plate. It does seem like a bit of overload, and the combination of flavors and colors doesn’t always seem that harmonious (I don’t know why it needed a garnish of bright-​red pickled ginger atop the fish, for example). However, the fish was nicely prepared and generously portioned, and the sweet potato mash was very good. Much to my amusement, though, a typo in the menu announced that the sea scallops came with «crab cream,» which, as my dining companion noted, sounds more like something you’d get down the block at Rite-​Aid.
We didn’t have dessert, but I had the Blackberry Milkshake drink (Bailey’s, Kahlua, half-​and-​half, blackberry syrup, $ 9), which the bartender had to borrow my menu to make, and which was so overwhelmingly sweet that it might as well have been dessert. Previously, I’d had the blackberry mojitos and cherry lemonade, both of which are tasty. But none of the dessert options struck us as all that «don’t-miss delicious.»
Overall, this is a swanky place with nice ambience and friendly service. Entrees run from $ 19 – 30, and portions are generous, so it’s not as overpriced as I had thought, but it’s still not exactly a bargain. They do offer a progressive happy hour ($ 3 appetizers from 3 – 4 pm, $ 4 until 4, etc., though 6 pm), and a late-​night $ 4 happy hour, so that might be a more affordable time to try them out. You know, if you’re spending your own money.

Quite a bit of change has taken place over the last year or two at USG, and it is back on my short list of stops to make during the nightly rounds in Seattle. The menu now consists of a mix of old and new. The Delmonico will show up on specials and the New York is not to be missed, but don’t ignore the Diver Scallops or fin fish selections.
Pre and post meetups for 5^th Ave and Paramount Theatres will fill the place within minutes, so beware.
Word has it they might bring back the Caesar Salad tableside cart! Divine!

I wanted to like Union Square Grill. I’d experienced the residual goodwill from Unilocalers who enjoyed the Elite event here, even though I don’t think I even knew what Unilocal was at the time. I was disappointed.
First, USG needs some help with the concept of a reservation. We had a reservation for 6:30. We arrived around 6:20 and they told us it would be «closer to 6:30» and that we could wait in the lounge which we declined. We waited as more and more people piled up, all with reservations. A bunch of people actually left due to no one being seated; thankfully we did not have a show to get to like other patrons, so we decided to wait it out. We didn’t get seated until 7:30. To be fair, they did at least comp us appetizers for this (which is why this review isn’t 1 star), but the fact that 5+ parties were waiting and no real explanation beyond an apology would more indicate incompetence/​overbooking as opposed to unlucky coincidence.
This started off on the wrong foot and the food did not help matters. The seared tuna appetizer (~$ 15), a special for the cacao dinner month, failed to sway me from thinking wistfully about Mashiko’s fish. The same unfortunately was true for the salmon (~$ 29) — it was unremarkable, which should be an insult at a locale like this. The chocolate soufflé with vanilla ice cream (~$ 8) was actually not too sweet nor rich; I wasn’t blown away, but it was the highlight of the meal.
For these prices I expect to be in food bliss which did not happen — perhaps I chose unwisely, but that’s still no excuse. While I’m not that big of a steakhouse person and it is a bit pricier, Metropolitan Grill (also owned by CRI) achieves such bliss and thus has a much better dinner value proposition.