Gastropod

Wanted to go to this place because of all the great reviews… its closed. Womp womp.
You would think they would let you know its closed permanently when you called.

I wish I could give a less than stellar review. This is one of those places that I hope will stay hipster and lesser-​known. We thoroughly enjoyed parking for free on the curb out front and hope no one else will find this gem! Don’t come! It’s too good to be busy! Some of the best local-​made whisky and gluten free beer are down the street, so please, keep this neighborhood fun and stay away!
En Somme, delicious, unique food we haven’t eaten before and find it hard to describe other than complex, savory, and delicious.
Keep the parking free and don’t let this place get too busy. Please.

Great food, strong service at the bar, rich menu with lots of choices. Goat cheese gnocchi is excellent (tart and tasty) as is bratwurst with red cabbage. Strong recommendation. Enjoy! :)

A rare date night for me and baby daddy, so expectations were high — and completely surpassed. Chef Kim makes magic in his tiny kitchen pretty much flying solo (it was busy and we watched his every meticulous move from our seats at the bar). The brioche steamed bun with pineapple black garlic pesto was phenomenal — the most memorable dish I’ve had in a long time. The beers were notable, too. They had two sours on the menu — I had both. A miso one that was umami and complex and one called «PartyTime!!!» that was brighter and refreshing. So happy we picked this place for our night away from the kid.

For the past week, Guest Chef Kim Sturts has delighted Gastropod diners with his excellent one-​off menu.
We had the pleasure of dining with Chef Kim and the Gastropod crew on Saturday night. Owner Chef Travis Kukull, left the kitchen in very capable hands, while preparing his annual feast for a very lucky Alaskan town.
The first dish was an outstanding salad of endive, frisee, purple mustard greens, pickled rhubarb, grapefruit and basil.
We paired the salad with a nice miso sour by brew-​master Cody.
The next course was a Geoduck crudo, with avocado purée, radish, cucumber and a radish granite.
We paired this dish with the Ale Iain Northwest Cream Ale.
We moved down the menu and sampled the Black cod stacked on a disk of purple sticky rice cake, romesco, pea shoots, fennel and Vietnamese coriander.
Next we enjoyed the Potato gnocchi with spring onion, green garlic, pea vines, Shimeji and Maitake mushrooms, lemon and black garlic.
We paired the Crème fraîche-​coriander panna cotta, miso caramel, cayenne and smoked sea salt shortbread with the Black sesame ice cream. The Sea-​Oak 500 Oak aged Farmhouse Uberbock was the perfect finish.
This was our second dining experience with Chef Sturts. We look forward to more of his innovative dishes in the near future.

Our second stop after a recommendation from GhostFish Brewery up the street, and another win for us. Immediately you get the ‘local spot’ vibe, and we took a couple seats at the bar that overlooks the tiny ‘kitchen’.
The menu was fun and interesting, and the waitress was very helpful in suggesting dishes and making sure we were taken care of. We had a rabbit casserole as our entrée and it was insanely good.

Pretty happy with this eclectic menu. So many flavors, and combinations that are completely unheard of. At times it felt like an experiment, but all the various small dishes we had, were edible, and flavorful.
The community style seating was fun too, looking over at what our neighbors were eating, and asking them about it. Which then started other conversations. Fun times!

Can’t love this place enough on my first visit! Had the rabbit and halibut, both served in most creative fashion and paired with some really unique craft beers. Awesome ambiance and friendly service.

ChauTime Season 2: Episode 5 Good Stuff in That Cup You Don’t Even Need Sprite!!!
If I Had One Wish … I wish I could Mighty Morphan Power Ranger to any body type I desire So I can consume whateva … wheneva!!!
«I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.» If My boy «Don Corleone» «The Godfather» gave me such an offer, it would make me Scheamin Up so hard, I’d be Killin Food and leaving a Buncha Bloody Red Margerita Sauce behind like ShhhMurda!!! So by the Time Clemenza says «Leave the gun. Take the Cannol» I’m a have 6 Boxes!!! After all The Don Corleone family’s story would be incomprehensible without its food and its significance such as Oranges meaning life, regeneration, and death, to the Canolios, White Wedding Cake, Bloody Red Pasta Sauce tutorial which got Michael into the MOB Life for violence, and Betrayal resemble from Antipasto Salad & Veal Marsala!!!
Breaking Bread is a Bold Sign of Trusting Someone and Building Relationships. Bread is Money and when a Hustler Earns his Money that’s a Celebration. When your Baking Bread and Your Oven is Hotter Than The «HotBoyZ» cool your «Wildfire» with Epic Ales Brews, I Love All Em all but Gastropod I Love You More!!!
Gastropod is Food Boss kinda like Buddy with his «Cake Boss» not that fake shit like Veneers that’s a waste of Stomach Space !! If you left me in Gastropod with 10 Bands Ain’t No Tellin How Much I’d Pour maybe the Gastropod itself!!! Eat X Drink Like a Godfather here cause Gastropod got that Good Stuff in That Cup You Don’t Even Need Sprite!!!
Food:
Oysters: So Fresh n So Clean!!! 6 O.G. + 6 With Wasabi both were Faboulous!!! I’m a Lil Hello Kitty when it comes to Wasabi cause it gives me a Frowny Face cause it ain’t Sweet. This pairing however was a really good it made me crave more seeing I can Down Oysters like SkittleZ!!! The O.G. ones were Sunny D cause you could taste how truely fresh these pearls were, and they were not too Briney or Sweet very Mild but Texture was Like Uni The Key To MY G Spot!!!
Foie Gras Chawanmushi: Texture was Crazy it was like Chinese New Year in My Mouth Cause it reminded me of an Egg Tart 蛋挞!!! But it had that Savory Uni Flavor Flowing thru all the Layers and Air bubbles! The Pineapple was a treat too!
Okonomiyaki: Wow in KinderGarden I was in the Play «Peter Rabit»!!! I was of Course Hopping around doing my 2 Step cause I was the Action of the Play!!! The Okonomiyaki reminded me of the Tortilla Española @Harvest Vine I was Poppin Cherries that Night cause it was my first experience with this!!! Do Order CheeseZus it’s EggStreamLy Delicious!!!
Sri Lankan Braised Lamb Shank: Everyone knows I’m all about MeatZ X SweetZ! So I had to get this dish! It was On Point Meat was Tender, Flavorful without that Wild Gameyness to Lamb, and was a great «Fun Size» snack!!! TK X ChauTime Approved!!!
Gastropod is my Newly Discovered Rock That is Shining Bright Like A Diamond kinda like something from Tiffany & Co!!! When your doing the #2 DON’T WAIT TILL THE TOILET PAPER TO RUN OUT TO FIGURE OUT THIS PLACE IS THE SHIT and not just a Poop Stain!!!

I’ve been here a few times, beginning way back before they’d officially opened and they were just doing weekend brunch upstairs with a single burner on a folding table. Their current weekly menu is excellent, but last Saturday’s valentine’s day dinner was really great.
They served a four course meal, with both meat and vegetarian options and beer pairings. Beginning with a crab salad with blood orange white chocolate sauce that was perfectly cooked and well balanced. This was followed by a «Liver and Onions» foie gras on raisin rabbit liver toast that I will confess I was a bit apprehensive about. It was so smooth and creamy and decedent. Amazing really. The main course was lamb shank with coconut grits. Again, perfect, tender, falling off the bone. For desert we had avocado chocolate mousse and «chocolate salami» (no meat in that!). There was also a miso lemon tart which I wish I’d tried, but I was in the mood for chocolate.
Really great meal. My girlfriend felt the same about the vegetarian options too. I’d say it ranks as one of my top 5 meals ever.
Mine is obviously a good review, but am I the only one who like reading the bad ones? Like the guy who goes into brewpub, a brewpub that’s known for taking on the wine culture by doing beer and food pairing instead of wine and beer pairing, and complains about the wine list? Or claims to be a well traveled foodie but doesn’t know what konbu is? «They know more than me about food, so they’re pretentious. It’s just funny.

I am so in love with the overall atmosphere, service, and craftsmanship that clearly went into Gastropod. From the moment you walk in, you can actually sense, through all the fibers of your nosey, eyebally, tastebuddy being, that this intimate little corner of SoDo is extremely loved and cared for… and it really shows through in all aspects of the restaurant, especially the local food and craft beer.
FOOD & DRINKS
Superb! The menu is small and lovely and the seasonal ingredients and flavors are the freshest and also in quite original combinations. The beers on tap are frankly some of the best I’ve ever had. A lot of places claim they have «craft» beer, but very few have that «just-​brewed,» NOT force-​filtered taste that is so lacking in mass produced beers and is unique to hand-​crafted beers (I would know — I’ve cauldron brewed my own beer a few times… like a witch).
I loved all the menu items we tried here and especially loved being able to watch the chef confidently assemble and cook everything (we sat at the copper counter), but I particularly enjoyed and recommend the baked oysters with miso and orange aioli. They were so light and slightly sweet — but also savory and fatty. The ghost of their miso-​y memory still lingers upon my sad little mouth and every moment I spend not eating these is agony.
I also adored the pie. I am not much of a dessert person, but the cranberry pie with whip was an exemplary specimen — and most certainly hand-​made. The crust was flakey, but not too dry (or too moist), and the whip cream was definitely made by a tiny elf in the back room.
The beet salad was just a beet salad, but it really exhibited that at Gastropod, fresh ingredients come first. Every salad thing was lush and colorful… and the greenery was very aromatic and delicious. Approve!
Here’s a sad thing that happened to me though: we ordered the clams and pork and, while the flavor profile was great and the pork and clams themselves tasted excellent, sadly there was a texture issue in that there was still some sand in the clams. Not a pleasant feeling in your teeth. But still, 5 stars because I could actually see the chef making and examining every dish by hand… and my God, that guy clearly gave a damn. He actually combed through all the clams by tong-​hand and picked out the ghastly ones. Yup. I saw it.
SERVICE
Excellent! This place is very intimate and we received attentive and friendly service. Once seated, we were offered samples of beers immediately and our orders were taking swiftly. The conversation, food and drinks flowed freely and came forth at a good pace.
ATMOSPHERE
In the grand tradition of Seattle, the décor and atmosphere is hipster-​cute and down-​to-​earth. Being in SoDo, the restaurant could have easily gone full-​blown industrial, but there was a distinctly home-​y feel to everything with a dash of industrial through the raw-​materials like the wood and copper details.
The clientele of the place all looked like nice people and there wasn’t really a pretentious bone in the place — despite the food being awesome.
LOCATION
It’s in SoDo which may be slightly inconvenient distance-​wise if you live in Seattle proper and also if you’re planning on drinking a few. However, the remote location makes it more convenient, as parking is in abundance and you won’t be competing with the Seattle crowd for a table. I also have great faith that this and some other boutique eateries and breweries are making Sodo the next hottest neighborhood… so 5 stars for that.
VALUE
The prices were very reasonable (especially considering the wonderful ingredients and expertise it takes to assemble them) and 2 or 3 plates per person is reasonable. Overall, I would consider our bill on the smaller side here so I will definitely be back.
CONCLUSION
I’m such a fan of the fresh, local ingredients and inventive dishes here! Will be back for sure… But for the sake of my oyster cravings, I hope it’s sooner rather than later!

Undoubtedly one of the best places to eat in Seattle. We usually come for their $ 1 menu on Wednesdays. Came yesterday for their Le Garbage pre fixe menu since they’re closing shop over the Thanksgiving holidays.
On the 3 (5 for early birds) menu:
Beet kale and nutella dressing salad
Turkey plate
Ice cream
My mouth and stomach are on the verge of exploding as I type this.
As always, Arcel and team do an amazing job feeding our party.
Great job Gastropod!

The beet beer is so interesting! It’s just beer with beet syrup added. I asked for the lighter side of sweetness cause it can be over powering.
This place is far from anything else so it’s not a great spot for bar hopping but it’s definitely a great spot to check out! Parking is plentiful and free.
Food was yummy. We ordered pasta which was super yummy, creative and fresh. We also ordered a steak which was only a few slices so don’t expect large portions. Definitely more nibble type dishes than fill your belly up until you can’t walk kind of meal.
Place is super small so be warned. Definitely worth checking out at least once. I hear this is the Starbucks employee hot spot. Oh and no happy hour… beers are about $ 5 so not terribly expensive.

If you like beer and a foodie, this is an ideal spot.
The menu apparently rotates, as does the (guest) beer list.
Excellent food quality and ingredients (meat, fish, veggies). Steak dish was made to perfection. See pic.
The ramen cheesehead was the only food disappointment. It sounded really interesting, but it didn’t taste or look (think pale, congealed patty of barf) that good.
The chill vibe and service was excellent. Sit at the counter and enjoy the chefs create their tasty magic in front of you.

Some extremely inventive dishes are coming out of this cramped kitchen. Some I would consider definite hits and others are almost there or had one too many additions. Regardless, I appreciate the new take on food and would recommend trying it out.
My friend and I grabbed a spot at one of the tables and marveled at some of the dishes offered on the menu. Things from sous vide wagyu steak, okonomiyaki with spot prawns, porcini and morel mushrooms on a buckwheat flatbread, duck breast prosciutto coffee bread pudding with maple syrup. Seriously? Seriously!
The sauce that drenched the porcini and morel mushrooms on the flatbread was phenomenal. Unfortunately the buckwheat flatbread, while inventive, didn’t do much other than get the mushrooms and sauce into my mouth. It was pretty dry and I didn’t enjoy the buckwheat flavor like I do in soba noodles.
This was my first experience eating sous vide cooked steak and I have to say I enjoyed it. It’s tender, juicy, and really maintains the beef flavor instead of the remnants of fish or teriyaki chicken cooked previously on everybody’s home grill. The smoke salmon gnocchi accompanying the steak was decent, but seemed slightly overcooked. The shishito agave tequila sauce was the biggest disappointment of the dish. It was very sour and took away from the well prepared steak.
Coffee bread pudding with maple syrup seems like a legitimate dessert. Add some slices of duck prosciutto and you have reached another level. All aspects of this dish were well executed and I feel fortunate having discovered such a unique savory dessert.
The okonomiyaki was the winner of the night! I can’t speak to its authenticity, but my western palate thoroughly enjoyed it. The spot prawns were incredibly fresh and I only wish I could’ve had more for the price!

OK, time to recalibrate. I was rating Gastropod based on my expectations of a brewpub. I expected they would have a ‘core’ set of beers and meal items, and then a couple of things that rotate. Au contraire mon Frère.
When I was here a couple of weeks ago and they had an entirely different menu and an entirely different beer list. They change the whole thing over constantly. Unless you’re in here daily, there’s really no way to get the same meal or the same beer twice,
It’s one thing to figure out a handful of things you do well, and just keep doing that. It’s entirely different thing to constantly do new things well. I’m liking these guys a lot!

Gastropod is a collection of hits and very near misses. Their beers were interesting and inventive and that spirit is well reflected in their food. The prices hover between fair and a little steep, but the quality of their ingredients makes up for any perceived increase in cost.
The space above epic ales that Gastropod occupies is a cute little 2 room space with the charm of the old industrial building and a functional modern kitchen and bar.
The service on a weeknight was great, there was open seating and our waitress made sure we never ran out of water or beer.
The food here ranged from perfect in the form of the okonomiyaki, which was perfectly cooked, perfectly dressed, and topped with the freshest prawn I’ve ever had. To near misses, like the steak which was an amazing piece of beef cooked perfectly but served with strangely flavored gnocchi (salmon) and an off putting shishito-​agave-​tequila sauce. To simply ok, like the garlic and herb twist. Most of the dishes have flashes of brilliance but lack cohesion or need small tweaks. But this is probably the curse of having a menu that changes so frequently.
Their menu is very diverse and inventive and it certainly warrants a tasting.

I absolutely love these guys – the nicest people, and the most passionate foodies. Every dish is creative and different, and they’ve set up a kickass space. As a cool casual restaurant, it’s really hard to beat what they’re doing.
Everything about this space bespeaks a ceaseless wellspring of creativity. They took a thrashed old warehouse space and built a tasting room; then about a year and a half ago they turned it into a cool restaurant. The building a century old, and they have built informal dining rooms at the front corner. There are big old window frames with new glass mounted in them. There’s a lot of traffic outside, but not too many places to go out – especially not for a great meal.
This is the industrial southern apron of the city (or eastern apron of a major working international port, depending on how you want to look at it). Through the force of their creative spirit, engaging personalities, and attention to detail, they’ve carved out an oasis of good food and relaxing atmosphere amongst all the cranes and trucks and noise. They don’t open until the work day is done, which helps quiet the setting – and by then, they get packed as soon as the door opens.
The tables and chairs don’t match, and they’ve done what they can with the materials to make the dining room – it’s really nice, but they’re not overdoing anything for the sake of trying to be lavish. You walk through the back door and you’re down rickety stairs into a warehouse basement. If you take the brewery tour, you see all this, and it is a great reminder that you’re in a place that’s still being born in a lot of ways. Even though they’re already killing it.
They arrange the menu items by price, but everything is of high quality. Everything gets at least a couple flavorful ingredients that never appear in the dish anywhere else, offering interesting counterpoints in texture or flavor. The duck prosciutto was spectacular. It comes with coffee bread pudding (yes, coffee bread pudding – it’s very savory, minimal sweetness) and a drizzle of maple syrup. I would have happily eaten the duck prosciutto, but the combination of elements on the plate made it into something I’d never had before, nor imagined I might ever try. Creativity at this level that can match its original vision with great execution on the plate is why eating out is fun, and can be so rewarding.
The beer here is all from Epic Ales, which is the mad scientist’s laboratory of Seattle’s brewery scene. They’re always doing something creative. They’re very small, so they don’t have the luxury of making multiple batches and polishing off rough edges before they serve – they do experimental things and you get to try them right away, Mark 1. They do bring plenty of recipes back for future batches, and I’m sure they continue to dial them in.
But the spirit of experimentation drives virtually everything about the beer program here. Many of the beers feature unprecedented combinations of ingredients; Cody’s doing things that no one else on the planet has even thought of – dozens of beers like that. Most of them come out too thin for me, with flavors out of balance. But the cornucopia of offbeat ideas really fires up a lot of people who come in here; we had a big group who enjoyed many of the beers, and I’m always talking to people who like Epic’s beers and get bit by the infectiousness of the approach here. I’ll definitely be back for more food and fun, even if I have to pick carefully from the beer list. I like everything about this place, which I say with a straight face even if I only like a couple of the beers.

An interesting experience that reminds me of walking through someones home through the kitchen door and deciding am I going to sit in the kitchen or in the living room? This is a really small space when you have 20 – 35 people packed into about 800‑1000 square foot space. You have to be prepared to have a European dining experience where you going to meet some new friends and just sit down where ever you can find room, so don’t be shy.
We came on a weekend evening around 6PM and it was packed. But, we found a spot and started observing the ambiance of knowing way more about how my table mates lives were going than my own date. My advice is don’t just come as a couple, just bring 6 – 8 of your friends and you can take over the place and it’s your private affair.
The service is more of the Kauai experience where the one (or was it two) waiters has their own pattern for servicing the area, so don’t expect a beer too quick as it takes time to work through the crowd.
The food looks to be fine dining and your not going to be finding a burger and fries or fish and chips on the menu. For the foodie crowd this is going to be an experience to remember as you get a hipster crowd, eclectic beers and ales, European dining and some novel dishes on the menu.
We drank a few beers that were really tasty, a mussels dish that was just incredible and you’ll be wanting to get every drop with the bread. The steak was well under cooked for medium rare and I’d say it was too rare. I wasn’t impressed, but I’m so spoiled eating a steak at Metropolitan Grill so it takes a lot to impress me with a piece of meat.
The crowd is young hipster foodie types and I just couldn’t settle down an relax as there’s no intimacy when you have no space to spread out and we seemed to always be waiting for something; beer, food, refill, bill, etc. I see a brilliance in the food, menu, beer and concept at Gastropod that needs a bit more space or a bit less of a crowd.

Went Fri night with 5 other friends and we ordered every dish off the menu, except desserts, plus many many tastes of the craft brews.
This place is tiny, only about 9 seats at the bar (which are great, ’cause you can watch the chef), but they were always packed, and about 25– 30 seat at tables.
The chef works off of 2 or 3 tiny propane burners and a commercial convection oven — really amazing what they can produce.
We were constantly amazed at how consistently delicious all the dishes were, the portion sizes and the prices. I know the menu changes constantly, but will post some pictures in a few mins. Hard to choose favs, but our were the Mushroom Strudel, the Uni Flan the giant Pork Crepinette meat ball, and the fresh head cheese. The shave brussel sprout salad with kim cheee dressing and rose apples was very interesting and yummy too, although some at our table did not like brussels.
I also want to complement the wait staff, who did a great job keeping everyone happy, and the orders organized, given how packed the place was.