SEAReview
Whenever we’re hosting out-of-town guests or catching up with a friend and it isn’t raining, you can find us walking or jogging around Green Lake. But we’ve always wished that there was a place near the perimeter of the pedestrian loop to have a nice, sit-down dinner after exercising. That’s why we had high hopes for Eight Row - an upscale, farm-to-table restaurant that instantly became the fanciest spot in the neighborhood when it opened.
However, Eight Row fails at being that reliable Green Lake go-to. The gorgeous dining room feels weirdly uncomfortable, and besides one standout dish, the food is pretty underwhelming across the board.
The menu is made up of a bunch of random, overpriced dishes with ingredients that sound good on paper, like $14 grilled broccoli with currants and tarragon aioli, $14 rockfish ceviche with carrot aguachile and crushed corn nuts, and $24 carrot cavatelli with duck confit. But when you eat these plates together, there are too many conflicting flavors to have an enjoyable meal. Plus, a lot of the bites here are either under-seasoned (like all of the pastas) or there’s too much of a good thing (like the aggressive pile of herbs on top of the already-herby broccoli). The portions are small too, which forces you to fill your table with what feels like a hodgepodge of light appetizers - you can practically blink and end up with a $200 check for three people. Having a post-jog dinner here isn’t worth it, unless you order the barbacoa.
This terrific pork shoulder is Eight Row’s only saving grace. It’s a $55 DIY taco operation that feeds two hungry people, and the whole thing is excellent despite the price tag. The dish comes with a bunch of individual elements, including tender smoked pork, tortillas grilled in beef fat, and toppings like cumin cream, roasted-red-pepper puree, kale-serrano salsa, and tangy pickled vegetables. A couple of these tacos with a glass of wine makes for a perfectly tasty meal. The frustrating part is that we’d have to come to Eight Row to eat it.
The disappointing food isn’t the only reason we’re not a fan of this place. Despite looking like a project featured on Fixer Upper with a lot of plants and dramatic wall moldings, the dining room at Eight Row feels just about as lively as an 8am philosophy seminar. It’s so massive that it often feels like there’s nobody else here - which leads to smothering service and people swooping in with a water pitcher for a sixth refill you didn’t need.
Ultimately, your decision on whether or not to eat at Eight Row comes down to how badly you want a slab of pork that will cost you more than a train ticket to Vancouver. Not to mention that while the barbacoa is still great, there are still plenty of tacos in Seattle that are much better. Eight Row could have been a great addition to the neighborhood, but it looks like we’ll keep jogging around the lake (and hitting up one of these spots) until something better comes along.