St. Clouds

Holy Hell! There goes 2007. Sorry for the extended delay. I know everyone has been holding their breath for a new hashtastic review, and let me just say, it will be well worth the wait. After being out of town for the holidays, I finally had a chance to check out another hash purveyor around Seattle. This past weekend I visited St. Clouds in Madrona, a neighborhood I affectionately call "the Breakfast District." Between St. Clouds, the Hi-Spot, Cupcake Royale/Verite Coffee and that one other restaurant on the corner whose name I can never remember (Cafe Soleil?), tiny little downtown Madrona is truly a breakfast Mecca.

Generally, if you go on a weekend for breakfast in Madrona, there will be a wait at Hi-Spot and St. Clouds, so I like to put my name in at both, just to hedge my bets. They're both great restaurants, so I usually take whichever comes up first, and often grab a cup of coffee to go at Cafe Verite to kill time. This time around, however, there was no wait at St. Clouds.

St. Clouds's corned beef hash is of the "rustic" variety. The corned beef itself was discernible as once having been a nice hunk of flesh, and the veggies (onions and peppers) and potatoes were also delightfully chunky. The corned beef was flavorful and not too mushy (as boiled meats are wont to be). The veggies were crispy on the outside without being overcooked and the potatoes were well seasoned.

Aesthetically speaking, this was a lovely dish. I liked the interplay of the colors and as you can see in the photos, the meat had a pleasant glisten. Mmmmm, glisten.

Kelly P gave the dish a 4, adding "Is it supposed to be this stringy?" To which I say "Sometimes, honey. Sometimes."

The only complaint I had was that the pear slice on the side was not quite ripe enough for me to enjoy. Picky picky. I know.

Anyhow, St. Clouds, I hereby award you


Bravo!