If there is one restaurant chain that is described as an institution of Seattle, it has to be Dick’s Drive In, or at least that was what I was told.

We took a short detour after the zoo trip to find a Dick’s as I wanted to see what it is all about. We were not really hungry at all, after all the food in Shari’s.

Dick’s is exactly what I had imagined it to be. It is old-fashioned, no-frills kind of place reminiscent of 1950s, the date that Dick’s first opened in Seattle. All these years, Dick had resisted changes and seems like doing a good job at it too. The owners had made a conscious decision to not open outlets outside of the Seattle area.

Almost all the Dicks are simple outlets. They do not have seatings; they are what it is described to be … a drive-in.

They have a very simple menu. I thought In-N-Out had simple menus, Dick’s menu is even simpler. They only have burgers, shakes and fries. Even that, they have have no variation … i.e. for burgers, it’s just Deluxe and Special. If you crave for stuff like chicken, tacos, curly fries, forget it.

Dick’s philosophy is simple … the food must be affordable and quickly prepared. We only got ourselves a shake which costs $2. We’ll be back someday for their burgers but that day, we were simply too full to eat.

BTW, they only accept cash.