Michael D.
Yelp
TL;DR -- convenient and solid location to eat dinner before a Seattle Center show, if a bit pricey. Solid vegan options; no non-alcoholic beer.
We do a fair number of shows at McCaw Hall and SIFF (both Uptown and Film Center). What has been disappointing is the relative paucity of decent restaurants to grab a bite to eat beforehand.
For whatever reason, even though we walk by McMenamins all the time, we've never been until recently. We finally decided to give it a go.
The place is deceptively larger than it looks. I imagine that it fills up pretty quickly post-Kraken games, but for pre-ballet on a Thursday evening at 5:30 PM, seating was easy to come by (although the place was about half full).
We're both vegan, and I stopped drinking a while ago. There are a number of clearly marked vegan options (while their menu changes from time-to-time, there's always a vegan burger option, and when we went there were three rice bowl options). No non-alcoholic options, which is a bit disappointing.
Service was prompt, friendly, and attentive. The bartender handled our booth. Nice guy. The whole place, including the bartender, had a very suburban, Midwestern vibe FWIW.
Food was good/very good. Portions are on the large size. I was pleased with the rice bowl I had, as was my partner. I don't think this is the type of place where you are going to have a dish where you're raving about it for days afterwards -- and I don't think they market themselves as such.
Basically, you're going for location, and want food that you'll like. Compared to comparable-style places (dare I say chains like Chili's and Yard House?), the food here is better.
The elephant in the room is that the prices are a bit higher than I would expect, even for Seattle. I'm guessing that this is due to its location -- convenient for post- and pre-event at the Seattle Center. The "nice" thing about price is you know what they are going in -- unlike service or food, you can't really be surprised by how much it'll cost if you look at the menu online ahead of time.
We will be back. Particularly when the weather is icky on a day we have a show at McCaw Hall, and don't want to walk or Uber farther away, this is a nice place to go.