After our day in at Nintendo, we went back to the hotel for a little R&R (playing games all day is exhausting!) before heading out to dinner in Seattle. A few weeks ago we were given a list of restaurants to choose where we wanted to dine. I was lucky enough to get my first choice, Anthony’s Pier 66. I thought that the descriptions of this restaurant made it seem like a “Seattle experience.” Seafood, a view, etc. I wasn’t sure if it was absolutely the best food choice, but it seemed like it would be a good experience.

Anthony’s was a really nice restaurant inside. Big comfortable seats. Nice warm tones. We were presented with a limited prix fixe menu because there were a lot of people in our group. For a salad I chose the Northwest Seasonal Salad – Seasonal greens tossed with citrus shallot dressing and finished with Danish blue cheese, candied pecans, and red flame grapes. One of my favorite savory/sweet salads.

For my entree I was debating. We could choose Pacific King Salmon, Alaska Red King Crab Legs, or Double R Ranch Filet Mignon with Garlic Prawns. I didn’t think I wanted the steak.. so salmon or crab? Salmon or crab? Robyn, who was sitting across from me, made the point that salmon was more of an every day food and you could get it anywhere. So, king crab it was! She and her husband Rigo and Gretchen, who was seated next to me, and I all got the crab.

When the crab was served… wow… the legs were so big! I couldn’t even wrap my hand around one of the joints. And when I pulled the meat out? I don’t think I’ve ever seen a piece of crab meat that big. Out of curiosity, I asked our waiter how many ounces of crab meat each serving was and he said “15 ounces, just under a pound.” Holy crap!

The king crab legs were served with garlic mashed potatoes that were topped with fried onions (omg) and asparagus. This was all soooooo good. And so much crab.. I am so ashamed to say that I couldn’t eat it all. I was so stuffed! Normally you order crab and it’s so much work and not a lot of payoff. This time the payoff was so huge, I wasn’t even up to it!

For dessert I got the Dark Chocolate Victory Cake – Flourless bittersweet chocolate with homemade caramel sauce, Olympic Mountain dulce de leche ice cream, peppercorn pecans, and seat salt around the rim of the plate. Wow. Again with the savory/sweet that I love! This dessert was so delicious. Too bad I was so full of crab, I could not even manage to eat half of it!

Finally, Robyn used Gretchen‘s camera to take this photo of Gretchen and I at dinner. I thought it turned out cute and Gretchen was kind enough to let me post it here for prosperity’s sake. She was obviously rigged up with a better camera and better flash than me!

Even though it was cold and rainy outside, a few of my fellow diners and I could not resist stepping outside on a back deck to get a better view from Anthony’s. So pretty. I wished I could stay in Seattle longer. I’d only visited once before (with Kelly and Jeff in 2003. WHOA! 2003!) and it would have been nice to see it again. Oh well! There’s always a next time.

As for Anthony’s Pier 66, it really exceeded my expectations. For some reason I thought it was going to be some kind of cheesy, touristy place that rides on it’s view and location. But it really was a classy place. Our waiter was really great and the food was so delicious.

Disclosure: This meal was part of the Nintendo 3DS Summit weekend. For this trip, Nintendo provided the airfare, accommodations, meals, a Nintendo World gift certificate, and Nintendo 3DS. I was not paid, or even asked, to write this post.

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