Pike Place Chowder

If you think about Seattle, 2 things probably come to mind: endless rain and GREAT food.  When we decided to make a weekend trip to Seattle, I immediately started looking up places to eat.  What is good travel without good food?  That's my philosophy anyways.  I'll probably never visit a place for the sole reason of visiting unless its got something good too eat.

Pike Place Market has to be one of the main tourist attractions in Seattle.  I don't know why it's so famous exactly because it seems like any other farmer's market, fresh produce, meat, seafood, handmade goods, and ready made eats.  Maybe its the fish tossing?  Missed any of that action.  Pike Place Chowder happens to be a great little attraction in the market for its award winning chowder and crab roll.

Instead of going with just the famous New England clam chowder, I opted for the 4 chowder sampler.  Four  5 oz cups of any 4 chowders of your choosing for $10.95.   I went with all the chowders except the salmon chowder, and swapped it out for the seafood bisque instead.  All of the soups were good but nothing to write home about it.  They certainly hit the spot on the cold rainy day we were having.

Southwestern Chicken & Corn Chowder grilled chicken, corn, assorted vegetables, creamy southwestern style broth
Creamy with a great grilled chicken flavor, accented by sweet kernels of corn in every bite. 





Manhattan Clam Chowder tomatoes, onions, celery, clams
I love anything tomato tasting so of course I ate the majority of this soup.  It had a bit too much pepper for my liking. 


New England Clam Chowder 
Another creamy, clammy delicious chowder.  Pretty solid, but I didn't get any large chunks of clam or anything else really.  I didn't taste what was so special about this soup.   Don't get me wrong, it was good.


Seafood Bisque pacific cod, wild northwest salmon, calamari, oregon bay shrimp, creamy tomato-basil broth
Not a bad bisque, probably a tad too salty.  Again, I didn't taste any large hunks of all that seafood in the description.


Dungeness Crab Roll
Besides the chowder, this is what everyone goes gaga for.  Why?  I will never understand.  It was just a whole lotta crab with very little flavor or seasoning.  I appreciate that it was very light on the mayo to allow the true fresh taste of the crab to sing through.  I just wished there was more to it than just the crab.  It was served with a side of cocktail sauce which provided the much needed kick of flavor, but it was so unoriginal.  For $10.95, the roll came at an extremely steep price, but judging from the incredibly long line of people, the place is not short on people will to fork up that kinda money.


Pike Place Chowder was nothing amazing, but it's just one of those things you have to try if you visit Pike Place Market.  I can now check it off my list of places to visit and never come back.  It's overpriced and completely overrated.  If I were gonna eat here again, it would be for the chowder and not the crab roll. 


Pike Place Chowder
1530 Post Alley
Seattle, WA 98101


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