Skillet Diner – Capitol Hill

November 11, 2012 by aubri | 2 Comments

Skillet | 1400 East Union Street

Most brunch places in Seattle are good, but Skillet is in a league of it’s own! I’ve been hearing so much buzz around how good their diner is, I was really worried it wouldn’t live up to the hype. I’m glad I had nothing to worry about.

Judging from the number of people congregated by the front door, I expected a long wait to get seated. But because there were only two of us, we didn’t have to wait that long for our table—only about 10 minutes. Unfortunately, some of the larger groups were not so lucky and ended up waiting a lot longer. The dining room is good sized, with a long counter seating area. Next time, I think we’ll try to snag a seat at the counter. The place was packed, but surprisingly not that noisy.

Our waiter was fantastic! He was entertaining, funny, and very attentive to all of his tables. I haven’t had that great of customer service for a while, not in Seattle anyway. Their brunch, or “breaky” as it’s call on their menu, offers fun takes on home-style cooking like “the little rob” made up of bacon, cheese, and 1 egg sandwiched between two griddle cakes, “deconstructed corned beef hash” consisting of potatoes, herbs, roasted onions, carrots, fennel, and fried eggs, and on the healthier side there’s “barb’s granola” a mixture of seasonal fruit and greek yogurt. Sounds delicious, right!

At the enthusiastic recommendation of our waiter, I opted for their “pork belly & cornmeal waffle.” Oh, it was a-mazing. The cornmeal waffle was wonderfully dense topped with two eggs over easy and a square of pork belly, which was a great change from the usual bacon, sausage or ham, meat options. But don’t fret bacon lovers—they make their own famed bacon jam spread!

My husband ordered the “house-made biscuits & sage gravy” which was huge! I snuck in a quick bite before I was completely full. I tasted a true biscuits and gravy with just a hint of sage. After a valiant effort on his part, my husband could only make a small dent before he was stuffed. Of course if you’re not a brunch fan, they do offer the full lunch and dinner menu as well. But if you are a brunch fan, the best thing is—you can eat “breaky” all day, from 7am until 11pm.