Ivar’s appears to be steeped in history in Seattle. For one, we have heard that Ivar’s had been sponsoring the Seattle’s 4th of July fireworks display for over 40 years without fail. Since even before World War II, Ivar had been known for their award winning fish-and-chips in Seattle’s waterfront.
We had some time after the Aquarium before we get on the harbor cruise and decided that we go get a little something to eat. We did not want to take a full meal for sure because we had planned for a seafood lunch. So, we headed to the Ivar’s Fish Bar.
I find it unique that Ivar had food outlets to cater for all people. For instance, they have 25 seafood bars like these ones above which is largely a takeout place. They also have fast food like outlets peppered all over the city. Morever, they also have very established full service restaurants like Acres of Clams, the Salmon House and Mukilteo Landing.
On a previous visit to Seattle we had visited another Ivar’s Seafood Bar and blogged about it here.
We decided to get one of their award winning chowder. I remembered very clearly how much we enjoyed the Boudin’s chowder in Sourdough bowl and wanted to see how Ivar’s line up to it. Frankly, at the risk of offending Seattlelites (that’s what you call Seattle folks, right?) I must say that SF’s Boudin wins hands down — Ivar’s sourdough bread is so bad, we did not even finish it.
The Chowder in Sourdough Bread Bowl costs $6.29. The bread bowl is extremely dry and does taste stale. We were wondering if they had served us yesterday’s leftover bread. Moreover, the bowl was so badly formed that the chowders flowed over the top and made quite a mess. It actually looked quite gross … we were quite disappointed.
Maybe it’s the hour of the day. It was still early and maybe they did not have a fresh supply of bread. I can’t believe that for a place with the reputation like Ivar, we ended with food like this.
Related Articles
2 users responded in this post
It’s too bad you had a bad bread bowl. How was the chowder, though? We always buy the Ivar chowder from our Costco. It’s really nice tasting with chunks of clam. I still think the best clam chowder I had was from Legal Seafoods in Boston. I even brought back some with me for my wife (BIG Clam chowder fan) and she still raves about it!
I remember going to Ivar’s (on the Seattle waterfront) a number of years ago and being quite disappointed.
Leave A Reply
Please Note: Comment moderation maybe active so there is no need to resubmit your comments