New restaurants in the neighborhood

Posted by Geeky Swedes on January 20th, 2008

There are quite a few new restaurants in Ballard. The first is the Ballard Loft, a very cool restaurant and sports bar that opened a couple weeks ago in Old Ballard, at 5105 Ballard Ave. We haven’t eaten there yet — I just poked my head in and looked around — but the ambience is one my favorites in the area. Plus, there’s a rolling door that opens up to a patio for summer…

Adds Elttaes in comments: “Went to the Loft this weekend. Food consists of $8-9 ‘gourmet’ hot dogs. Hopefully this is fare is just for the opening. Decent service, decent beer prices (25oz Stella available!). Met the owner, seemed really nice.” Elttaes was nice enough to take a shot of the menu, here.

On Market, right across from The Old Pequliar, is The Monkey Bridge, a new Vietnamese restaurant that has yet to open.

On Market and 8th, the Ballard Mandarin Chinese restaurant is gearing up to open. And bonus points: it has a good-sized parking lot along the side.

Tags: Ballard Facebook

jansplanet

I saw a couple of negative comments on another post, but I just heard about this, and I'm really happy about it. Greenwood Mandarin is one of my favorites. They have the best potstickers in the city imo. And I love their garlic chicken. (I tried the Inn Bin once and was less than impressed.)

Christina

Inn Bin was good in it's hey day, but not so much leading up to it's closing. The "atmosphere" was thick with grease, recycled too long and in the air due to an aged, broken-down ventilation system, which was obvious even in the bathroom, eww. Here's hoping the new place had redone the ENTIRE restaurant, top to bottom. And, did you know that Tigertail up at 65th has the old Inn Bin dishes? They have moved on to chinese restaurant nirvana.

Duncan

The parking lot might be nice for folks who don't live quite as close as you, ironymaiden. And it's not like the parking lot is somehow an obstacle to you walking there.

ironymaiden

one of the things i like about living in Ballard is that i don't need a car. why the praise for the parking lot?

Sam

I drive by there everyday and people are busy working on the interior (YAY). I tried the phone number that's on the sign and it says it's disconnected. Maybe I'll stop by one of these days to find out when they're going to open.

I'm craving Chinese.

Duncan

The Inn Bin (or "nn Bin," as it was known in its later years) had a terrible atmosphere, but the food was great. Whoever said otherwise obviously didn't know what they were talking about.

Geeky Swedes

Ben, yep it was Inn Bin, and we hope this restaurant is under new ownership. We hear the last one wasn't that good.

And thanks Elttaes for the menu photo!

Elttaes

Went to the loft this weekend. Food consists of 8-9.00 "gourmet" hot dogs. Hopefully this is fare is just for the opening. Decent service, decent beer prices (25oz Stella available!). Met the owner, seemed really nice.

http://www.treemo.com/files/treemo.elttaes.2611...

Ben

There used to be another Mandarin Chinese restaurant in the same spot as the "Ballard Mandarin Chinese Restaurant" called the Inn Bin, does anyone know if this one is run by the same people?