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306 South F Street Aberdeen, WA 98520 360-532-5693 I love seafood. My favorite is razor clams—if done the way my mom did them when I was growing up. And the way that the now defunct Alexander Young School did on clam feed nights. Cracker meal. That’s the key. Harborites love seafood in general, and the one restaurant that is the hands-down local choice for deep fried goodies from the briny deep is Breakwater. On one wall they have 10 awards given to them by the Daily World for best of seafood in the Twin Harbors (Grays Harbor and Pacific Counties). The paper asks people to submit choices and, just to demonstrate how constant support for Breakwater Seafoods has been, they received the 10 awards from the 13 years that award has been offered. [updated 8.21.11: a new player on the harbor has received the award for 2011! I do love competition] The restaurant is situated on the Wishkah, just north of Breakwater’s old storefront. Though the food is popular, they continue the original fish shop orientation: they sell fresh fish, shellfish, pickled fish, smoked fish and other seafood accompaniments. Their smoked sockeye deserves (and will receive) a review of its own. They have outside seating for those folks that want to be close to nature as they can while eating the sea’s bounty. While dining and lunching there I’ve seen otter, heron and the errant harbor seal (which, surprisingly, explore pretty far up the Wishkah on their quest for finned prey).
The outside of the business is as attractive as the inside. It looks exactly like a seafood and chowder place should. There is a bank of bar chairs facing the Wishkah River and several tables for two to four people in the alcove that serves as the dining room. You order at the counter, receive a number and wait for the food to be delivered to your table. Sodas and ice tea is available (you fill them yourself). Beer is available, too. They have malt vinegar at each table. 
Their housemade clam chowder is satisfyingly bacon-y. It goes as far towards smoky bacon-ness as a chowder can while still remaining true to the clam flavor that should dominate. Additionally, it is thick without being cloyingly thick. Chowder at some fish houses resembles a thick béchamel/white sauce with some clam bits suspended in it. Not so here. It is thick enough, but not too thick. My wife and I have eaten around the entire menu, and we both agree that the deep fried offerings are the most outstanding. My mother, though, loves the crab salad, and I can understand why: the ration of crab to greens is quite generous. My wife has had the taco salad as an experiment to see if they are consistent, and she reports that the taco salad, while not exceptional, is more than adequate. 
My personal favorite is the deep fried oyster plate. Occasionally, they have yearlings on special. The last time we visited the oysters were the perfect blend of juicy, creamy and briny and came with a serving of coleslaw. They fry to order, so expect everything to come super hot and super crisp. Ketcup and tartar sauce is available at the register via a couple of pumps. Oysters come with cocktail sauce, but, if you want it with other offerings, you need to request it with your order.
The dish that my wife and I order most consistently is the deep fried calamari and chips. It is her favorite. Originally, they called it squid and chips, but, I guess, “calamari” is the most saleable version of that product. It comes in long strips (it is not baby squid as served to those who really don’t like the flavor of squid), and is almost always very, very tender. Of the many times I have had the squid, it has been overcooked exactly two times and crispy on the outside every time. The other several dozen times the squid has been perfect, moist and tender. 
Nutshell: Fresh deep fried seafood cooked to order at a good price in large quantities. What more could you ask for? They’ve got fresh fish and seafood available for the home chef. They have the best smoked salmon (sockeye, in-house smoked) that I’ve had thus far on the harbor. Canned goods, rubs, sauces, batter bases and cookbooks are available there.
422 W. Wishkah St.
Aberdeen, WA 98520
360-532-8747
Don’t get me wrong: I love Americanized Mexican and Latino cuisine. I grew up on nachos with fake cheese, pickled jalepenos and ground “meat.” As a youth, eating “Mexican” food meant that at least one item on my plate would be coated in cheddar cheese. Even after learning how delicious regional Mexican home cooking was, I still have the occasional hankering for sour cream and guacamole topped deep fried goodness that I grew up eating.
Pasteles with curtido
Nonetheless, as I got older I found some “authentic” restaurants. I’ve always loved to try new things, and the newness of something that I thought I knew made me want to try more and more. The flavors were unexpected. The lettuce and the tomato garnishes weren’t the only fresh ingredients involved in these meals. Overtime, my experience with eating good quality Mexican and Latino food impacted my cooking at home. I learned that the herbal note missing from some of my dishes was Mexican oregano. I learned to buy the darkest plantains I could find and to add epazote to make my black beans. Cajeta became our preferred ice cream topper. With access to well stocked tiendas, I became more than comfortable cooking Latino and Mexican cuisine. These foods became part of my family’s everyday meals.
Thus when I would drive in from SeaTac to visit my folks over the last year or so, my eye was caught by a little blue gem of a restaurant that I saw as I headed towards my folks’ place: La Salvedorena. I tried to figure out how my wife and I might surreptitiously sneak over for a bite during one of the visits, but that wasn’t in the cards.
After driving out here from Columbus and after we had unpacked enough, we wanted to dine out for the first time. We decided upon this restaurant. We ate. After a few days, we came back. And then again. I think it is proper that it is the first restaurant that I review here.
La Salvadorena is an unpretentious restaurant. The interior of the restaurant is a placid blue that compliments the exterior. Happily, the restaurant is not decorated with the cultural tourist in mind. There are a few wall hangings that teach visitors basic facts about El Salvador, but, like many really good ethnic restaurants, they do not exoticize their own culture for gastronomic tourists. Tables for larger parties are set against laced curtained windows. Tables for two are in the center of the room.
A menu board above the counter has the specials and some of the regular menu. The fold-out menus next to the register have the restaurant’s entire offerings. After looking at the menus at the counter, you order. My stumbling, bumbling attempts at Spanish have been met with patience and good humor, and they have never mixed up a single order we’ve placed.
Carne Asada Torta
I’m slightly obsessed with the tortas (sandwiches), which sell for $5.50 each. The bread used for the tortas is like a light ciabatta. It is toasted inside AND outside. That’s right, double toastiness, which is a big deal to me. The picture here is of a carne asada (chopped steak) torta. It comes with a creamy, salty sauce and fresh lettuce and tomato. The mixture of textures in these sandwiches is simply amazing. One would likely make a good lunch by itself, but I seem to always have room for at least one pupusa. Or two. Maybe three if I’m feeling gluttonous.
Pupusas are the specialty of the house and very reasonable: $1.50 per. Pupusas start as balls of corn dough that are filled and patted into a disk. After you order them, you can hear them being slapped flat fresh in the kitchen. That disk is then fried on a griddle until the outside darkens, but the interior stays moist.
All dishes are served with a semi-spicy green sauce and a bit-more-spicy red sauce. All pupusas are served with a house made spicy cabbage slaw called curtido (also in the pupusa picture). The curtido is fresh rather than fully pickled and is the perfect salty, pungent, crunchy counter to the creamy pupusas. It has a kick.
The pupusas come with a variety of fillings. Our favorite is revuelta (pork), but loroco, a plant native to El Salvador and Guatemala is a close second.
Traditionally, they are eaten by hand after some curtido and red sauce is placed on top of them. I ate mine with a fork. Sue me.
Revuelta (pork) pupusa on left, bean & C=cheese pupusa on right
The tamales ($1.50 each) are made in banana leaves, and the masa they use is seasoned–corn is still the prominent flavor, but the savory and spicy red seasonings added to the dough keep the tamales from ever being bland. The tamales de pollo are filled with big chunks of tender chicken and potatoes.
The pastels de carne (top picture) are crispy, fried pastries filled with the same chopped carne asada as the tortas ($5.50 for 5 with curtido). They meat is highly seasoned–it’s salty (in a good way) and garlicky. They come out rocket hot, so break the first couple in two and let them cool to avoid mouth cauterization.
I also recommend the Horchata. It is Salvadoran style, so it contains some cocoa and spices that Mexican style Horchata does not.
Horchata at La Salvadorena
They have some combination dinners that include rice, beans, tortillas and salad. Most of these are the usual suspects: fajitas, grilled chicken and beef, and spicy shrimp (a la Diabola). I have yet to try fish plate, grilled spare ribs or chicken enchiladas in mole, but that will change soon (expect a part two to this review).
I haven’t put up pictures of the tacos yet, but those are good as well $1.50 each, and they come with curtido as well. They come in four to five inch corn tortillas that are grilled until pliable and slightly crisped around the edges. The toppings mirror those available for the pupusas but also include tongue (served in small dice). They are always topped with fresh cilantro.
Nutshell: Go to La Salvadorena. The food is extremely good and a great value. The service is very, very good. The cooks take care to make sure everything leaving the kitchen tastes and looks good. Thus far, they have always been successful. I highly recommend this restaurant to locals and tourists alike.
Around Grays Harbor 