San Fernando Roasted Chicken

One evening rather late (9 pm), my wife and I decided to try San Fernando Roasted Chicken.  As you can see, it's well liked on Yelp, though under-reviewed for Seattle (PS - Not Beacon Hill, Central District).  It's a Peruvian-style pollo a la brasa joint.  Well, sadly, one hour before closing there was no more pollo (a la brasa)!  So, rather than that, I ordered a arroz con pollo and lomo saltado.

Pollo

The arroz con pollo was good, nice flavors, nice little onion salad (it can't be called a regular salad), slightly dry pollo.  I felt gypped that there were no beans with the rice though.  The lomo was also ok, though a little dry, the fries were thick and delicious (though a little undersalted).  I thought it was good enough to give another shot, my wife declared she had enough and thought they didn't measure up.  We were sad to have missed the roasted chicken, but it is curious that with an hour of service left they had none available.


We might give them a redo, we might not, but since their prices are high for this style of restaurant, we certainly won't be running back.

Lomo

San Fernando Roasted Chicken
900 Rainier Avenue S.
Seattle, WA 98144
(206) 331-3763
2.5 of 5

Square Lotus

Square Lotus in Bellevue, Washington was an average Vietnamese place that seemed to cater to vegetarians.  It had a Four Star rating on Yelp (but in our opinion was not deserving).  The place had a very strip-mally decor down to faux brick wall paper, wobbly tables, and plates with the Square Lotus logo.

We ordered a few things, summer rolls, tropic rolls, stir fried soft egg noodles with beef (spicy style), and  super pho bowl (pho tai bo).  

Summer Rolls

Summer Rolls: They were a few herbs on the inside away from perfection, but they were very well done here. I prefer the fried wonton to be rolled in the middle, but to their credit they did include them flattened and in small pieces in the center.

Tropic Rolls

Tropic Rolls. We loved the combination of flavors and grilled chicken, but this roll was also missing a few herbs.  It was a nice variation from the classic summer roll, but was a little bland.

Stir Fried Noodles with Beef

Stir Fried Soft Egg Noodles with Beef - Spicy.  The portion was very small compared to other noodle or Chinese places.  The flavors were subtle, they don't jump out and slap you and "very very spicy" turned into barely spicy when it hit the tablet.  That was a tremendous disappointment.  The dish was good, in an average sort of way, but at over $9 I would not order them again.

Super Pho Bowl. Pho Tai (Bo).  The Pho broth was light, flavorful, and meaty, and the bowl is spacious (a personal preference I have come to view as vital).  The dish was very meaty when ordering the "super," but we can't comment on the regular (and judging by the noodles I suspect it may be very different).  The broth to noodles to meat ration was, therefore, quite on point if you order the Super Pho.  On the dig side, the broth was quite cloudy, which my wife assumed was due to not pre-boiling the beef bones before adding them to the pot with the other components (a quick was to make cloudy Pho broth at home).   

The biggest problem was really the poor, poor service.  Although we appeared to catch them during their lunch, the staff was not attentive at all.  We also got no hoisin sauce, crushed red pepper, or anything else out on the table (nor was it brought to us for quite some time after we had our food).  It was average, but with so many Vietnamese places in the Seattle area, there is no reason to overpay for noodles and get good (but not great) Pho with bad service.  I suspect if you are a vegetarian, you like this restaurant more  because they clearly cater to you with a large portion of the menu highlighted as Vegetarian.  If I were you though, I'd keep looking, because there are better places out there that also have vegetarian fare...



Square Lotus Fine Vietnamese & Vegetarian Cuisine
3540 Factoria Blvd SE # A
Bellevue, WA 98006
(425) 679-0680

2.5 of 5