Pike Place Chowder

Even though my family goes on semi-annual road trips to America, we never really find the effort to go try new food. We've developed this one-meal-a-day schedule making it rather difficult to convince everyone to try a new restaurant when all cravings are for Sweet Tomatoes (which is one of my favourite restaurants ever, but still.) So finally, after pestering my father year after year, he finally promised to drive through downtown Seattle so we could have some clam chowder. The good stuff.

Pike Place Chowder @ Pike Place Market

Parking at Pike Place Market isn't free, but thankfully it isn't outrageous. Between 0 and 1 hour is $3 and between 1 and 2 hours is $6. Payment is made via a machine by the elevator on the Main floor. My tip is to keep your eye on the time and set aside at least 15 minutes to get back to the garage to avoid missing your desired time deadline. I believe it is only around $8 for all day parking if you enter before 9am.

Pike Place Chowder @ Pike Place Market

So finally, we are at Pike Place! Surprisingly, even on a Monday, there were so. many. people. everywhere. I understand that it's a tourist area but even when I visited in the summer, there weren't that many people bustling about. As a reference, the line up for the original Starbucks was out the door and down to the corner of the street. It was insane.  

Looking at the Post Alley sign on Pine Street

The famed Pike Place Chowder is located on a street called 'Post Alley'. It isn't accessible by car and there is only a street sign at one end. Just so happens we completely missed that end and made a gigantic circle around the block just to find it was a 200 metre walk from where the parking elevator was. It really is an alley that is a back lane turned business area. 

The fastest way to get to Pike Place Chowder is to walk from the tulip shop (under the giant Public Market sign on top of the roof outside) down Pine Street about 100 metres. The entrance to Post Alley is directly across the street from Sur La Table, a home good store. 

Pike Place Chowder Menu

We arrived just before noon, and juuuuust before the mad lunch rush of both tourists and office workers. The line up was just barely around the corner when we got there and the wait wasn't too long. There is one employee ladling the soup and another one ringing up the cashier, making the line of hungry customers chug along smoothly. Both employees were very patient and generous with us indecisive first-timers, even if their stiff facial expressions look otherwise. At first, we were going to order four large bowls of soup but then we saw a quart size of soup available (which is equivalent to two larges). He already poured soup into one of the large bowls but simply dumped it out and scooped us a quart size. Even though the menu board is already full of writing, I think they need to indicate the price of the quart to let customers know that it is an option.

A quart (32 oz) of Clam Chowder ($13.95), large (16 oz) Seafood Bisque and Market Chowder ($8.45 each)

After all the lengthy talk about everything other than food, it's time to talk about the soup!

Bon Vivant Fashion Cafe

Having nothing in particular to do on this Victoria Day holiday, my best friend went to find ourselves a place to sit down and chat over lunch. She brought me to Bon Vivant Fashion Cafe inside Henderson Mall. They serve simple foods for lunch, extravagant waffles, a wide range of bubble tea, and supposedly desserts. 

Clam Chowder

For lunch, we both ordered a soup and sandwich combo, plus a cold drink. Out of the four soups available today, we both chose a small clam chowder. A small soup (8 oz.) with sandwich is about $4, plus an extra $0.50 for clam chowder or chilli. This clam chowder is not your usual white, creamy, New England version. Instead I believe it is the Manhattan version. One serving is quite a bit, despite not looking like much. Also, there are a lot of clams in this small bowl. I enjoyed it more than I prepared myself to, so I'm glad it was a worth the money.