Back to Pike Place Market! Lowells Restaurant for the First and Second Time (Seattle, WA)

Some time last year I started on a 52 weeks of Pike Place Market eating project.  I’m sure I’ve been to the market more than 52 times since then, but I’m not one for rules and I do love eating at some of the same places more than once in a year.  So this project is going SLOWLY and I’m totally fine with that-I love going to Pike Place Market as much as I can anyways!  I’m even more excited now that Ellenos has its famous pumpkin pie yogurt in the market (It is NOT the same as the Ellenos pumpkin pie flavor you can buy at the grocery store; the one at  Pike Place Market has real bits of pumpkin pie chunks in it and it’s the highlight of my fall)  And if you’re trying to eat at as many Pike Place Market restaurants as possible too, there is an event in April that you might want to store in the back of your memory.  It’s called Arcade Lights and I will totally remind you WAY before then because it’s for a good cause.

A few weeks ago, I ended up going to visit Lowells restaurant for the first time.  It has a great center spot in the market and views overlooking the water.  From the outside it might be difficult to imagine how big this restaurant is, but the whole place is actually three floors high and there is a ton of seating.  I even ended up going twice in a week because it was such a great experience.

On my first visit I invited a lovely friend I met through blogging and had never met in real life!  So I gave her a list of the market places I haven’t been to yet and she chose Lowells.  We ate on the 2nd floor and it was around 11:30 and ALL the window seats were full.  It didn’t matter because we had a lot to chat about and we probably wouldn’t have focused on the view or the food but the fact that both were good made the day even better. I couldn’t believe that I hadn’t ever been to Lowells before but it’s always very lined up and I always assumed it was because it was the restaurant in the  Sleepless in Seattle movie.  It is not.  That famous restaurant is the Athenian next door!

So after babbling through my first meal at Lowells I realized I didn’t actually get any good pictures.  It’s always like that when I’m with friends.  So my dad visited the next week and I made him eat there with me too for research sake.  Of course I had the very same thing I ordered the week before.  This bread salad is AMAZING and this time I didn’t mind crunching through all the bread pieces mixed in my salad while I chatted. (Sorry dad.) We sat on the top floor this time after ordering from the counter on the first and I was surprised how quickly our food found us in the vastness of this restaurant.  There are fabulous views from the top floor and there are really clean bathrooms.  It was nice eating in Lowells with my dad-he came to visit all the way from Vancouver BC to babysit my guys for a work event.

And of course we strolled through he market post-meal and checked out all my favorite places. I made my dad pose with the dried flowers he bought for my mom.  Apparently you can’t bring fresh flowers across the border to Canada but dry ones are okay.  (As usual check customs when you visit because these things are always changing.). I love that my mom and dad recently celebrated their 40th anniversary-they are the cutest and I really look up to them.  Maybe next time we can all go to Lowells together, and if it’s still on the menu, I’ll probably order the same thing!

So have you been to Pike Place Market and had a really good meal? I’d love to hear what you ate! And if you ever revisit a restaurant where you’ve eaten loverly food-do you recreate the experience or try something totally different?

(PS. On the Lowells site it says this restaurant is nearly 100 years old and at one point in time it was a combination coffee roaster/peanut roaster and cafeteria.  I would love to see a peanut/coffee roaster return somewhere in the market wouldn’t you???!!)

(PPS. If you can get your stroller up the stairs the third floor of this restaurant seems very kid-friendly with lots of window tables, delicious food and a convenient bathroom nearby!)

Terumi

Terumi Pong is a Seattle-based family travel writer and mom of twin teenage boys.  She loves coffee and pastries, shopping local and looking for greener ways to live.  She is also known as Scout’s mom (Scout is a 5ish pound little black yorkie-poo)