ellenbw

I need to find a nice restaurant in Seattle for a graduation luncheon next June. There will be 10-18 of us on a Sunday afternoon - may be a late lunch. Most of us do not live in Seattle and will fly or drive in for the weekend.

I would like a place where we have the possibility of a private room/area, if we have the larger crowd. We all love seafood, so that is a possibility, I would prefer somewhere that offers wild vs. farm raised fish, especially salmon. We are good with other cuisines as well. Although it would be nice to have an ocean view, I'll take great food over the view.

Also, if we have the larger group, I would like to be able to offer my guests a set menu, with a few entree options, with a special printed menu. Lots of restaurants in my area (Bay Area) offer this. Any ideas?

Gardyloo

Ten is on the small side for private dining.

Where is the graduation? U of W? Price point?

Top of the head -

Ivar's Salmon House, close to the UW, terrific view, affordable - http://www.ivars.com/group-dining/salmon-house

Chinooks - http://www.anthonys.com/restaurants/...-at-salmon-bay - they have a side room that's not private per se, but easily configured for larger groups. Use the same site to look at other Anthony's places - some have private rooms or appropriate areas.

There are numerous places downtown, in the Pike Market area, or elsewhere in town, but knowing where the graduation is located will help with transportation and logistics suggestions.

ellenbw

Thanks Gardyloo. It is Seattle U but the graduation is held at the key arena - I don't mind driving elsewhere (or using uber) but something nearby would be convenient. I am only leaning towards a private dining area if we have 15 or more.

ellenbw

And I'm not on a budget for this but also not looking to go to some super pricey "foodie dining experience" either. I should say that I have a couple of gluten free guests that make any Asian food difficult, so that is out.

suze

Icon Grill, Wild Ginger, Dahlia Lounge all have private rooms for groups that size.

Cutter's Crabhouse at the north end of the Market offers a waterfront view and a semi-private room that you can have a catered menu set (Bayroom).

Very near to Seattle U, Restaurant Zoe is a Capitol Hill favorite and while not a totally separate room, can accommodate a group of that size.

Fodorite018

Another vote for The Salmon House. We go there fairly often and have never been disappointed, even with the larger group events in their private room. Even that room has great views out over the water, so you can see the floatplanes come and go and a lot of boating traffic(some even pull right up to the dock there at the restaurant), and of course they are known for their salmon

ellenbw

I thought I would come back to this thread and let you know where we ended up. I had a really hard time with this because many of the restaurants had a Sunday brunch lasting until 2:00pm and then closed until 5:00 for dinner. The graduation was supposed to last until 1:00pm, so I really wanted a place where we could hang out for a few hours and I did not want brunch.

We ended up at the Purple Cafe and Wine Bar in downtown Seattle. They were open all day with an extensive lunch menu. They have a private room upstairs (requires a minimum charge but no charge for the room itself if you meet the minimum. We had 13 people including kids and had wonderful food. Appetizers were pre-ordered and wine was pre-selected. They had housemade sodas for the kids and an extensive beer menu. The food was excellent with gluten free options in pastas. They made a custom menu for us - I selected about 8 different entrees for my guests to select from. I dropped off party favors (chocolate) and photo placemats the day before for them to use in the set-up of the room.

I was really pleased with the quality of the food and would recommend it.

SeaF

Glad to hear it's still around. I went there twice during a trip to Seattle a few years ago. I really liked it. I thought it was a great-looking place.

Fodorite018

Thanks for letting us know how it went. We really like Purple too, but we frequent the Woodinville location.