Where to Grab a Delicious and Affordable Midweek Meal

Local culinary schools are introducing the city’s next top chefs while offering a bargain meal in the process. While service is often adorably awkward, the payoff comes in the form of delicious food. Here, we highlight some of the best places to grab a midweek meal.

Cafe Alki and Alhadeff Grill
Culinary Arts Department at South Seattle College
South Seattle, 6000 16th Ave. SW; 206.934.6756 (café), 206.934.5817 (grill); southseattle.edu

January 6–March 25: Lunch, Mon.–Fri., 11 a.m.–12:50 p.m. (last seating)

Here, students operate and cook at one of a couple of lunch spots, as well as in a cafeteria for students and a retail pastry shop (where a show-stopping praline cake can be had for $16). Cafe Alki, the more casual of the two restaurants, serves a short menu of sandwiches and burgers, along with a plated entrée, while also offering an occasional buffet for $11.95. Alhadeff Grill is more formal. White linens cloak tables, and students act as front-of-the-house staff, while others prepare à la carte formal meals off a menu that is meant to teach classic cooking skills, such as making sauces. Salmon fillets are accented with poivron rouge, a red pepper sauce, or with crème d’aneth et pernod, a creamy sauce spiked with anise-scented spirit.

Extra: Be on the lookout for “Connoisseur Luncheons,” which are hosted approximately four times each quarter ($17.95). At these reservations-required lunches, students work with the Northwest Wine Academy to pair wine ($4.95 additional charge) with the three-course prix fixe lunch menu.

FareStart
Downtown, 700 Virginia St., 206.267.7601; farestart.org

Lunch, Mon.–Fri., 11 a.m.–2 p.m.; guest chef dinners, weekly on Thursdays, 5:30–8 p.m.

FareStart supports a student body of homeless and disadvantaged men and women of all ages (and some of their families) who go through a 16-week, rapid-fire training program focused on readying them for immediate entry into the workforce. Ninety percent of graduates are employed in Seattle’s innovative kitchens within three months of graduating. The program highlights social enterprise, catering and life-skill classes, and provides counseling support while students round out their training by working side by side with chef instructors on the busy line at the FareStart restaurant. Revenue from lunch supports the program. Seasonal choices and American favorites include a beef burger made from grass-fed, house-ground beef and served on toasted brioche ($10.95), and a plate of fish and chips with horseradish slaw ($11.95). Prices for most entrées hover around $12, while a plate of perfectly cooked steak frites, served with a fancy side of Aleppo pepper butter, is considered a splurge at $15.95. Service is proficient and quick, making FareStart a great choice for business lunches or a pit stop during shopping or errands.

One World and Square One Bistro
Seattle Culinary Academy
Capitol Hill, 1701 Broadway; 206.934.5424; seattlecentral.edu

January 15–March 25: Lunch, Tue.–Fri., 11:15 a.m.–12:45 p.m.

Like those in many culinary programs, the students at Seattle Culinary Academy at Seattle Central Community College cook their way through various types of kitchens—from casual (Square One) to formal (One World)—and are required to work as front-of-house staff, too. Thanks to the focus on sustainability that One World chef instructor Kären Jurgensen has led over the past several years, students also cook at a wood-fired pizza oven; the ingredients at One World are GMO-free; students harvest herbs, garnishes and vegetables from an on-campus urban farm; and they serve cuts of meat from a whole-animal butchery course that is required to graduate from the program. These cuts show up on the quarterly Beast Feast menu at One World restaurant, where the sustainably driven options can be paired with a glass of wine—a rare treat at some schools. While service can be slightly awkward and formal (they are learning, after all), dishes such as pork belly (from Methow Valley farm Crown S Ranch) and a poached egg ($11.95), served over crisp potato, sunchoke and lovage hash, make the occasionally off-tempo experience worth it.