Anthony's at Point Defiance Restaurant Review

On Labor Day, Peg and I walked along the seawall at Point Defiance Park. The next day we returned to visit the fantastic Rose Garden. Besides the glorious roses, the dahlias were blooming and beautiful.

The first few days of September here in Paradise have been looking like a compilation of our biggest hits of spring and summer 2019. After admiring the different types of dahlias and their explosions of color, Peg took me to Anthony’s at Point Defiance. Even if the weather is stormy, dining on the waterfront at Anthony’s is always enjoyable. The views are incredible: the Olympic Mountains, Vashon Island, Northeast Tacoma, the ferry landing, and pleasure boats galore.

It was a slow day at the restaurant following a three day weekend. Our appetizer, crispy clams, were indeed crispy, but slightly overcooked. We asked for lemon wedges. Normally, the clams would have been consumed quickly and completely devoured. There were left-overs, but we didn’t ask for them to be packed up for us. Peg enjoyed her rosé and I had two tall glasses of Shirley Temple (Sprite and ultra sweet cherry juice), topped with six cherries.

I ordered the “Fresh Northwest Mussels” along with a basket of sourdough bread (and butter). The mussels were absolutely perfect. They more than made up for the overcooked clams. The mussels inside their shells ranged in size from one to two inches. I could have drunk a cup of the broth, perhaps two, but instead sopped up the juices with my bread. At the end of lunch Peg had a spoonful of broth, while I made sure none was left. She thought the broth a little too salty. No, no, no. I wish I had chosen two orders of the mussels, two cups of the broth, and a glass of Pino Gris.

During the summer, the restaurant would have been full even in the early afternoon and of course the deck would have been full as well. On this day, there might have been five or six tables of diners outside and about the same inside. Boating traffic never ceased. Our view was unending.

Peg ordered the rainbow trout (see my article – thesubtimes.com/2019/08/27/smelt-rainbow-trout-salmon-steelhead-and-good-eats/). The trout was served with green beans, which were crunchy and wonderful. The meal came with jasmine rice. Peg asked about plum sauce. Our waitress, Wendy said there was a splash of it on top of the rice, but she brought us a little bowl of the sauce just in case there wasn’t enough on the rice. Under the perfectly browned and cooked trout fillet was a second perfectly browned and cooked trout fillet. The second piece of trout became Peg’s breakfast.

We visited Anthony’s at the end of their peach cobbler dessert run. We took them up on that offer as did most of the other diners we saw. Olympic Mountain ice cream blends so well with cobbler. We ate the perfect peaches. We attacked every crumb of the crust and overflow. We were well pleased. Afterward we stood and looked back at the restaurant and the wonderful setting of Puget Sound. I thought of my mussels, Peg’s trout, the peach cobbler and just smiled.