Fish and Chips! St. Helens Cafe Opens ( 5. February 2007, 16:44 by Derek Young) ~ Mmm... Fish
The long anticipated St. Helens Cafe has opened its doors to customers. With a location immediately above Stadium Bistro and Doyle’s, we suddenly have ourselves a little restaurant block where there was very little a year ago. I can’t wait to check it out. Welcome to the neighborhood! (Thanks, Erik)
Link to The Spew
UPDATE : St. Helens Cafe is closed.
More information on what’s next can be found here.
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FINALLY!!! My gosh I’ve been waiting for them to open up since there was that article in the Tribune almost a year ago.
1 | Posted by Chris from North Slope | Feb 5, 05:28 PM
Great news – What a great addition to the neighborhood menu! Sounds affordable, too. I might have to do several tests to see how it compares to Meconi’s Wednesday fish-n-chip special. Thanks for posting this before I left work, Derek.
2 | Posted by Dave L. | Feb 5, 07:03 PM
Went there for dinner. It was good, and I can’t wait for the summer when they’ll have the front opened up. The beer and wine haven’t arrived yet, but they said they should have both in a couple of weeks.
3 | Posted by Daniel | Feb 5, 08:51 PM
Wow. More than a restaurant block, it’s a block-in-a-building!
Grab three books at King’s have three good meals.
4 | Posted by NEAL | Feb 6, 02:01 PM
Sorry to bump this thread, but I just thought this was funny:
When I walked into the St. Helens Cafe on that same opening night, I ran into Daniel, who posted above. Then last night I took the kids there for burgers and fish and the waiter asked where I had heard about it. I told him I had seen the construction but read about the opening on the Exit 133 blog, yadda-yadda. Then I heard the table behind me saying they read about it on Exit 133, which they had just discovered. Then the waiter pointed and said the table over-there was also from Exit 133. Sure enough, it was another frequent commenter that I hadn’t met before. I can’t seem to go anywhere these days without running into us.
5 | Posted by Dave L. | Feb 10, 02:49 PM
Exit133ers are everywhere! Maybe we should get t-shirts or funny hats so we can recognize each other.
Kind of awkward when I ran into Dave last night and he asked my name – the anyonymity of this format is hard to leave.
Notes about St. Helen’s Cafe:
The waiter kept referring to this blog as “Exit33” which I think puts us somewhere near Kalama.
The fish and chips were good and not very expensive. And everyone who worked there seemed so pleased and proud of being a part of the place. It was very sweet and refreshing.
6 | Posted by heather | Feb 10, 05:50 PM
Just tried the place out with my mother and sister. Burger was pretty good, Fish n chips were good. My sister thought there was not enough seafood on the large crab and shrimp salad ($15). She did mention it to one of the employees who came over and one of the chefs/cooks brought over more shrimp and crab.
New places usually like the constructive criticism. They took it and fixed the problem which was great.
The place is big. It will be interesting to see what they have up their sleeve for the summer. Music? Dancing?
I thought a small produce stand, retail space or maybe coffee might be nice in the summer in the front section if they can’t fill the whole place up (because it is a very big place). Just an idea.. Lots of options with the large garage doors in front.
7 | Posted by Jake | Feb 10, 07:42 PM
I just had lunch there. I was expecting to be shown to a table and to have a waitperson take our order. However, we readily adapted to ordering at the counter, paying, getting our own drinks, silverware, ketchup, etc., and choosing our own table—similar to Steamer’s and Katie Down’s. I thought the fish and chips were very good and the surroundings pleasant. I definitely plan to make return visits.
8 | Posted by Christy | Feb 12, 03:39 PM
_for you cross-posters out there:
Ed’s blog over at the TNT_
Ed’s diner discusses some of the struggles that St. Helens Cafe is experiencing.
I like the place and I thought the food was good. Pretty casual place where you order your food, pay for it and have it delivered to your table. Certainly a good addition to the area.
As many have noted, having such a large open dining floor can have some issues. For whatever reason, diners seem adverse to large empty spaces.
I see they are applying for their liquor license. That might do the trick. Beer and Fish and Chips.
The restaurant has lot going for it but it needs some sort of art or something to break up the space into sections and and give it some more character.
Since I finally made it here, I had to drop a post with some thoughts:
-“St. Helens Cafe”, but you can’t get there from St. Helens. After scouting out the St. Helens side of the building I was ready to give up & move on – except I parked down the block and noticed there was an entrance on Tacoma Ave from my car. They need a big sign on the north side of the building pointing towards their entrance.
-Good size place for a wedding reception size party, not so much for the two other people I saw inside. Might change once they get their partial liquor lic. Otherwise they’ll need to create an event room or something to shrink the space. I can’t wait until they can open the doors & connect to Tacoma Ave.
-Quick and friendly service at the counter. No gratuity line on their credit receipt.
-Go with newsprint or butcher paper to wrap the fish. Same for the chips. They could use some miscellaneous magazines or something to keep people’s attention while waiting for a takeaway order.
-It felt a little pricey based on the menu. But I guess I’m used to a bit more hole-in-the-wall type places for fish&chips.
-The fish was fantastic. I’m not sure what’s in their batter, but it’s some of the best I’ve had. Chips were good & salted perfectly for me. Wish I could’ve had more for my $10.
All in all it’s a good place that I hope can keep things going until summer kicks in.
11 | Posted by DavidS | Feb 14, 10:14 AM
We tried out SHC last night. At 6:30 I counted 20 customers – not bad for a Tuesday (that would have filled the Spar Cafe). The fish & chips might be the best I’ve had in town, and they even made a grilled cheese for my 3-year-old even though it wasn’t on the menu. Looking forward to summer days when the taps are running and the garage doors are open. By the way, how many spots does that make now for this garage door trend? I count E9, Asado, Masa, and now St. Helens. Keep them coming!
12 | Posted by Bryan | Feb 14, 04:30 PM
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