On a sunny May evening we stopped in at Mike’s Seafood in Ocean Shores to grab dinner before heading on to Seabrook. Mike’s has a fish market up front and a restaurant around the back.

The interior of the restaurant is a little kitchy – pretty typical of a lot of places in Ocean Shores. The walls are adorned with a couple of big fish and other nautical items. Nothing too tragic.

Big fish, anyone?

Mike’s has a good breadth of options on the dinner menu, from seafood appetizers and entrees to pasta, fish & chips and even burgers. I ordered the Cioppino, which came with a side salad (my choice) or chowder and a sourdough roll. Luke ordered the Smoked Salmon Linguini with sourdough roll, to which he added chowder for two bucks. My only questionable comment about the Cioppino was that it was a little heavy on the diced tomatos and Italian seasoning. It was still good, however, and the roll was steamy hot. Luke reported the linguini to be good and he liked that the dish offered smoked salmon instead of just plain old salmon. The chowder was good and did not appear to be from a can.

Side salad & clam chowder

Cioppino & Smoked Salmon Linguini

Somebody thought the saltines rocked. ALSO – it’s a little hard to see but that lovely green bib (crafted from a Goodwilled plastic tablecloth) is embellished with a skull & crossbones. A little ghetto but I did my best… it was my first time with the “Mini-Bedazzler.”

The service at Mike’s was great – really sweet people and the food arrived pretty quickly. Prices were moderate, not dirt cheap but not expensive. Our two entrees, a cup of chowder and one drink totalled about $35. We would totally go again. Laid back atmosphere, good seafood and nice people who didn’t seem to mind a one-year-old throwing saltine crackers on the floor. Works for me!

830 Point Brown Ave NE
Ocean Shores, WA 98569
(360) 289-0532

Let me first say that I LOVE MEXICAN FOOD (ideally like it from a little palapa on the beach in Sayulita… but I’ll take what I can get).

I’d been wanting to try Las Maracas – the only Mexican joint I’ve noticed in North Beach – for some time. Finally Luke obliged (not that he doesn’t like Mexican food, I just suggest it A LOT).

Lunch at Las Maracas initially looked like a promising venture given the building’s slightly sketchy exterior and packed parking lot at noon on a Thursday. It’s a big facility, housing a sizable restaurant with plenty of banquet space as well as a shop with pottery, glassware and other imported goods.

Please ignore the guy invading the perimeter of the photo. I forgot to snap a picture of the restaurant exterior on the way in. This is the post-lunch drive by.

Sitting down in the booth I combed the menu for tortilla soup, something I assumed was a Mexican-American food staple. There was none to be found. In fact, there was no soup at all on the menu. BUMMER!

In my search for lighter fare I eventually settled on the taco salad with chicken, my partner in crime on the flautas. Upon ordering the taco salad the server asked if I would like Thousand Island or Ranch dressing, or sour cream and guacamole. I went with the latter but WOW – Thousand Island or Ranch? On a taco salad? Yikes.

Looking over the menu I noticed that only one small basket of chips and salsa is allotted for every two people, i.e. no free refills on chips and salsa. I was in SHOCK. There is a reason I often opt for smaller and/or lighter fare when eating Mexican – I LOVE CHIPS. This limit may be good for my waistline but it ain’t good for my soul! In the end it was probably just fine because – I can’t believe I have to say this – the chips and salsa were a little bland.

But I ate them all anyway.

Lots of people watching to do!

Our server was nice and our food arrived quickly – a good thing given the disappearing (and non-refillable) chips and salsa. Like the chips and salsa, the food was pretty bland. I’ve eaten a lot of chicken taco salads in my day and this was definitely the most tasteless. Luke reported the meat in the flautas to be dry, particularly on the first few bites – as he edged his way towards the middle they were marginally better.

Flautas & taco salad with chicken

In sum, we won’t be visiting Las Maracas again. The food was incredibly bland and uninspired. There were no
free bottomless chips. AND, my stomach didn’t feel super awesome afterwards. The prices were reasonable though more expensive than Taco Bell for food that was not much better.

I would, however, take a peek at the adjacent pottery shop. They had some cool stuff at decent prices.

The little shop had a cute children’s table & chair set!

The canine child feeling maligned at being excluded from lunch.

729 Point Brown Ave NW
Ocean Shores, WA 98569
(360) 289-2054

On a cold, rainy December day replete with flood watch warnings we did what any self-respecting Northwest family would do – we headed for the beach. For lunch we hit the Sand Castle Drive-In, located along the main drag in Ocean Shores. Having heard of it several times we decided to give it a go.

The Sand Castle Drive-In, in All its Glory (on a rainy winter day)

The Sand Castle is a classic fried-food joint. Burgers, fries, fish & chips, onion rings… you get the idea. And shakes – don’t you worry, they have SHAKES!

The menu

The shakes!

After looking at the menu for long enough to annoy Luke (not a new thing) and allow another couple to pass by us in line, I settled on one of the Sandcastle Specials – the chicken chipotle ciabatta sandwich, small fry and medium soda. Luke copied me and also went with a special – the fish, chips and chowder. We were in and out for under $20.

I am special! You are special!

YUM.

The food was good, a solid meal on a rainy winter day at the beach. The ciabatta sandwich was a nice slightly healthier option (though the “healthy” may have been negated by the french fries I had with it and the creamy chipotle sauce that I said “yes please” to). The homemade clam chowder was good, especially after coming in from the cold. Aside from the six-month-old who kept trying to dip her fingers in my ketchup, it was just what we were looking for.

One thing that bears mentioning about our trip to the Sand Castle – the service was really quite wonderful, particularly for a fast food-ish joint. The gal running the front counter was very friendly and sweet. When another customer mentioned to her that his shake wasn’t mixed the way he liked it she graciously re-made it for him, all the while chatting him up. She clearly wanted to get it right and send him away happy.

The Sand Castle scores a decent number of reviews on Yelp, with most of these being pretty darn good. Some folks say there can be a bit of a wait but we didn’t experience this at all (other than waiting for me to decide what I wanted to eat). Customers appear to have a love-hate relationship with the fried bread but are consistently pleased with the burgers, fish and fries. The people that take the Sand Castle for what it is seem pleased.

788 Point Brown Ave NE
Ocean Shores, WA 98569
(360) 289-2777

This we dig!

Located on Pacific Beach’s Main Street, Paddie’s Perch is a local joint offering inexpensive home cooked food for breakfast and lunch. Based on info we found online it appears that dinner is also offered at other times of the year.

Paddie’s Perch, at 41 Main Street in Pacific Beach

In a word Paddie’s Perch is classic. The interior is decorated with old photos of the North Beach area. Seating options include orange vinyl barstools alongside a classic counter as well as booths and tables.

Walking in at 9:00 o’clock on a Friday morning we were greeted by an older gentleman customer seated atop a bar stool, hands wrapped around a cup of coffee. Out popped Paddie who offered for us to sit wherever we’d like – we chose a booth by the window where we could keep an eye on the vicious wiener dog we abandoned (according to her, anyway) in the car.

Orange vinyl… LOVE IT.

The menu at Paddie’s is decidedly brief – there were about four breakfast entree choices, a few side items and the special (pancakes). If you like your options it’s important to note that you can order either breakfast OR lunch at 9:00 am.

Luke ordered the “three eggs and ham” – three eggs cooked to your liking, a slice o’ ham, hash browns and toast. I ordered the pancakes and a side of eggs. We both had the yummy hot chocolate topped with whipped cream.

One “Three Eggs and Ham” Comin’ Up!

Hot chocolate – YUMMERS.

The pancake was giant and it was good. Almost an inch thick and taking up the entire plate, it was moist and perfect.

THE pancake.

Also very good were the hash browns and the ham. Paddie’s served us well as a classic breakfast joint – just what we were looking for before heading home.

Online reviews of Paddie’s point to good food and awesome pies which one reviewer said are “to die for.”

We say – if you’re looking for a classic breakfast joint, look no further!

41 Main Street
Pacific Beach, WA 98571
(360) 276-8144

We headed out to Seabrook for the weekend not realizing it was the second of two winter clam digs on the coast. Despite a tsunami warning following the earthquake in Chile, clam fanatics littered the beaches from Ocean Shores on up.

It was Saturday night and we’d worked hard doing absolutely nothing all afternoon so we decided to head to Seabrook’s Front Street Cafe for the full meal deal – appetizers to dessert. Just for the record there were not two, but three of us (Luke’s mom tagged along for the trip). I figure this helps to reduce the ill effects of gorging on lots of food because we did share the appetizer and dessert. Read More →

We trekked down to Ocean Shores for dinner on a Saturday evening in late January. Things were hoppin’ for a winter night on the coast – it was clam dig time! We ended up at Red Genie Pizza where we have eaten once before. Read More →

Lunch today – a remarkably nice one for mid-January – took us to Falcon’s Nest in Pacific Beach. They offer a wide selection of good ol’ American food, from burgers and fries to pizza and (let’s not forget one of the most important food groups) ICE CREAM. Prices are totally reasonable – a few bucks for a burger, likewise for a shake or fries. We ordered two burgers, two orders of fries and two shakes for a little over $20. Read More →