When I was in middle or high school, my family used to drive over to Coastal Kitchen for brunch as an occasional Sunday treat. My memories heavily focus on three things: that it was always busy, the huge pancakes, and the fake ‘how to learn a language’ tapes they played in the bathroom.

So when Charles Koh announced a trek over with Google Places, I was excited to see how much had changed and if the breakfasts were still giant. We were there early on a Saturday, so service was fast and friendly even for our large group. When you walk in you’re greeted by their kitchen and bar to your right and seating to the left. If I was visiting by myself, I’d definitely grab a spot at the bar, where the obvious regulars were sitting and chatting with the kitchen staff. This place has a following.The ambiance is diner style, with influences from the Carribbean on the walls and bolts of colorful fabric on the ceiling. You can find Carnaval masks sharing space on the walls with sombreros and small monkey toys. There’s a nice outside seating area, though it was too cold during this venture to take advantage of the space. The diner style heavily influences the food presentation, though, from the tea service with its cute metal teapot and lemon to the no-frills, giant portions with breakfast.
One of my friends ordered the Pumpkin zeppoles with his meal, so I tried one. The plate came with three dark brown zeppoles, lightly dusted with powdered sugar, each placed on top of a schmear of spiced pumpkin cream. As pretty as it looked, it was disappointing – the exterior was almost burnt, with the insides being heavy instead of creamy. The pumpkin cream was heavy on the cloves and spice mix, with very little pumpkin shining through.
The portions, though, were as huge as I remembered. I ordered the gingerbread waffles ($6) with a small fruit plate ($4) instead of the eggs and bacon. The waffle was nicely heavy on the ginger, though a bit dense - I found myself wishing it had more airyness (maybe a Belgian variation would rock?). The orange honey compound butter was a nice complement to the waffle, and helped mellow out the flavors. The fruit was fine, though I admit I was weirded out that they were serving strawberries, as their website talks about serving only sustainable seafood, so I thought that belief might extend to their whole menu.
I did try the spicy hash browns, which were definitely spicy. I wished they made a lighter spiced option for us less inclined towards a heavy hand on the black pepper, but the potatoes had a nice balance of crispy and fluffy. Chris got the ham scramble, which came with hash browns, eggs, and an english muffin. He felt the scramble was underspiced and the hash browns overspiced, and mixing the two together worked out well.As for the bathrooms, the translation tapes are a mp3 series that they call “Potty Humor,” which involves really random English phrases and a translation (e.g., “It was an Apple versus Microsoft thing.”). You can download mp3s from their website if you’re so inclined, and learn more fake things about places from Venice to Chile.

So, Coastal Kitchen matched my memories fairly well. Silly mp3s in the bathroom, huge portions, and a busy, yet friendly, atmosphere. I think this is a great place to bring friends with huge appetites before you hit the town, and I will continue my hunt for the best waffles in Seattle.

429 15th Avenue E
Seattle, WA 98112