Tips for Dining, Eating, and Food Shopping in Washington, Oregon and Alaska (exc. Seattle and Portland)
Start New ThreadWho has the best rueben in Seattle? Where is your favorite place to order it? Is the Hilltop Alehouses any good? Is I love NY Deli? I am having a craving- thanks for the help!
By natalie.warner
on Dec 30, 2008 08:24 AM
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My favorite Reuben is from Three Girls Bakery in the Pike Place Market, across from Jack's Fish Spot. They use their own lean pastrami, build it with light or dark rye toasted to perfection on their sandwich press, with sauerkraut, swiss cheese, and thousand island dressing. Very generous portion of meat!
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I second Three Girls. Also just love the market vibe in there.
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Three Girls is my current favorite: no nonsense, plenty of meat, served in a paper tray, and fresh from the press to your seat at the bar. Recently, I stole a bite from a friend's Reuben at the Tangletown Elysian Brewing Company (south Green Lake/Wallingford), and it was pretty amazing, but that might be the layer of bacon influencing me.
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Another vote for Three Girls!
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I really like the one at I Love NY Deli. Another favorite is at The Other Coast Cafe. Surprisingly, I had a very good rueben-ish sandwich at Purple a few weeks ago. The pastrami was very smoky and it had roasted and lightly pickled fennel in place of the sauerkraut.
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Second I Love NY Deli. It's in the Market, near the Daily Dozen donut stand.
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I would recommend Goldberg's Deli in Factoria. It can be hit or miss but I haven't found a better place for corned beef in Seattle or the Eastside. I've been to the I Love NY Deli twice and found their corned beef to be extremely fatty and having an oversteamed taste. The Hilltop Alehouse reuben was tasty but not memorable.
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I agree about I Love NY. The meat in the Reuben is a wad the size of a baseball, with the bread vainly attempting to straddle it, and getting soaked in the process. I understand the generosity of large portions, but I Love NY takes it past appropriate proportionality so that the qualities of the other ingredients are overwhelmed. And the sauce reminded me of cheez-whiz.
(I used to get their breakfast sandwiches often, and I like them; the Reuben breakfast sandwich is much more worth a try than the traditional Reuben but might not be everyone's cup of tea.)
As Mrnelso mentioned, I really enjoy the Rueben at Pacific Inn Pub.
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74th St Alehouse - handsdown the winner.
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74th Street Alehouse is a sister restaurant to the Hilltop Alehouse- I believe*
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Yes, as well as the Columbia City Ale House. All three feature the Red Reuben Sandwich. Excellent!
http://www.seattlealehouses.com/index...
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74th St. Alehouse is the best I've had. It's also quite a unique interpretation
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what's their 'unique interpretation' of it?
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The corned beef is braised in hard cider and they use red pickled cabbage instead of sauerkraut.
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when Lunchbox Laboratory first opened they served a 'killer' reuben. I think they should return it to their menu and have more options other than burgers.
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One more thing to note about Goldbergs is that they make their own corned beef brisket on the premises daily. They do not use Boars Head or other precooked deli brands and their corned beef is brisket, not round, which makes a huge difference in the taste. It's too bad they don't have a location in Seattle, although a 10 minute drive from downtown isn't a big deal.
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I learn something new every day. A favorite stop has been Pacific Inn for F&C, but last night my love got the Reuben. It's not a particularly complicated sandwich, but the bits all came together in that rare way; Wow. Definitely high on the pub-grub honors list.
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In Seattle proper I dig the Reuben at Pike Brewing more than the others I see mentioned here. (I'm not down with the 74th/hilltop/Columbia version. If there's no sauerkraut, it's not a Reuben.)
Out where I live now in Issaquah, The Front Street Cafe has a fine Reuben, razor thin sliced meat and enough of it. I'll have to check out Goldberg's.
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Kevin, do yourself a favor, you may not consider the 74th Street Alehouse's effort a Reuben, but i'll bet it's one of the best sandwiches you'll have had in a long time.
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It's O.K. I lived at 82nd and 3rd for about 2 years so I know the place and the menu very well. I always figure if you're going to re-interpret a classic it better be a big improvement or it's not really worth doing.
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Oh, yeah, I forgot to mention it's grilled (it's all about the buttah, baby...). And served with crisp-creamy fries - very nice.
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Have you tried the Ruben @ Met market in W seattle? Yummmmmmyyy!!
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The best Ruben I've had is Gilberts on Main Street in Bellevue
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Maybe not the BEST rueben in Seattle, but I have great affection for the one from Essential Bakery, probably because the bread is great, and the saurkraut is made with red cabbage.
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Try the mini-reuben appetizer at Pies & Pints in Ravenna. Our table snarfed them up last night so fast. They're delicious!
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Take the train to Portland and go to Kenny and Zukes if you want a delicious Reuben. In order to justify the train fare get a dozen bagels, some whitefish salad and a pound of corned beef to bring home.
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Other Coast Cafe in either Ballard or in the Two Union Square Building downtown has an amazing Reuben! Hot filled with delicious Pastrami!!
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