1726 West Marine View Drive
Everett, WA 98201
Eagle-eyed readers of this blog have probably wondered why we haven't made it out to Corona too much in the last four years. Our good friend Anthony, no relation to the restaurant I'll be reviewing, and his mediocre wife Sabrina lived in Corona. We'd often find ourselves visiting them and trying to find some great places to eat in their former hometown. Unfortunately, they moved to the Pacific Northwest four years ago, which is why our Corona visits have dropped significantly in the last few years.
We were nearing the end of our Seattle trip but made the trek to see our good friends Sabrina and Anthony's new house in Marysville, about an hour north of Seattle. Even though it had been a few years since we have seen them, the four of us just picked up like no time had passed. After a tour of their house, and way too much laughter, it was time to pick a restaurant. Since they know the area, I let them choose where we should go, and they steered us towards Anthony's HomePort in nearby Everett.
I didn't know it at the time, but Anthony's is a pretty large restaurant company. They were founded in 1973, as a steak and lobster restaurant in Bellevue, Washington. Then three years later the first Anthony's HomePort opened its doors on the waterfront in Kirkland, Washington, with more of a focus on seafood. In 1984, they solidified their seafood reputation when they started their own seafood company, supporting local fisheries and serving the freshest seafood possible.
They now have restaurants in Idaho and Oregon as well, most under Anthony's name, but some are other concepts. This Anthony's in Everett is situated overlooking Port Gardner Bay and offers brilliant views of the nearby islands. We arrived at 7pm on a Friday and were met with about a twenty-minute wait for a table. Thanks for making a reservation, Sabrina. Not the first time she has dropped the ball.
Anthony's menu is divided into small plates, chowders, salads, seafood favorites, daily features, steaks, and shellfish offerings. Entrees range between $23 to $75 for their salmon medallions from the Copper River. Why the high price for this salmon? The salmon from this area is known as the wagyu of salmon because it has a more buttery and succulent texture than other varieties of salmon found elsewhere. A little rich for my blood, but I was excited to give Anthony HomePort a try, and of course continue finding out about how life had been going for our friends since their move up here.
Any seafood restaurant worth its grain of salt will start you out with some Sourdough Bread for the table. The folks at Anthony's were really good about making sure that we always had bread on our table. I think they refilled it two times, for a total of three loaves. This first batch that is pictured here was a tad on the darkened side, but the others were not like this one. It was still a very good sourdough, thick-cut slices with a subtle sour taste to it. The butter was very creamy and served at room temperature for easy spreading.
Both Katie and Anthony started with an appetizer. Katie selected these Hawaiian Ahi Nachos ($16). This quintet of nachos started off with a taro chip as its base and then the cubed ahi was placed on top with a wasabi aioli drizzle. Katie liked the little wrinkle of the taro chip, which added some stability when bit into. The ahi was fresh, but the wasabi aioli could have packed a bigger punch of flavor than it did.
Anthony went with the Appetizer Oyster Sampler ($26) to start things off for him at his namesake restaurant. I did not take the time to write down the six varieties of oysters that they gave us this evening, but I can tell you that they were some of the freshest, cleanest tasting oysters I have ever had. With the two that I had, I could really tell the difference between the two, something I have not really experienced before.
Sabrina and I went with soup and salad for our first course. She had a cup of Anthony's Award-Winning Clam Chowder ($8). This New England-style chowder had plenty of potatoes and bacon included, but from across the table where I was sitting, it seemed a little on the thin side. Sabrina seemed to like it well enough though, but she is wrong quite often though. I had the Classic Caesar Salad ($8) which was delicious from my first bite until my last. This salad used traditional romaine, croutons, a healthy sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and a liberal amount of Caesar dressing. Each piece of lettuce was nicely dressed with just enough dressing. It was almost like they had applied just the right amount of dressing on each piece. Very nicely done.
Entrees are up next, and we might as well start with Sabrina's first, the Crispy Panko Wild Alaska True Cod Fish and Chips ($23). These three pieces of cod were fried with a panko coating, which was a nice deviation from the heavy beer batter fish that seems to be the trend of late. The panko provided a nice crunch when bitten into and let the cod stand out a bit more due to the lack of grease with this version. The tartar sauce was nicely done, with a good flavor to it and the thickness was on point. This plate was rounded out with ginger slaw and french fries.
Sabrina's much better half, Anthony, selected the Fresh Alaskan Chargrilled Halibut ($44). The fish was spice-rubbed with a lemon beurre blanc sauce and finished with chive oil. The piece Anthony gave me was moist and delicious. The sauce really kicked this up a notch. This was accompanied by some broccolini and champ potatoes, which are mashed potatoes with scallions and milk added. Both sides rocked it.
Katie felt like treating herself with Dungeness Crab Cakes ($49). The two crab cakes were slightly larger than a baseball in circumference, but she felt they could have been filled with a little more crab for the price. To their credit, there was not a lot of filler binding these together and the crab that was here was fresh and flavorful. The outer breading was crunchy and she liked the unique ginger plum sauce that lined the bottom of the plate. She was also a fan of the almond basmati rice pilaf and the broccolini.
I definitely had the clunker entree of the evening. I had the Macadamian Nut Mahi Mahi ($34). I did not get the full description of this plate, but it doesn't really matter because this could best be described as bland. It really lacked any kind of sauce and was only made better when I asked for some tartar sauce from the kitchen. The fish was overcooked and the mango? salsa and large macadamia nuts covering this were no help. The rice and broccolini were fine, but by the time I had gotten to them, I had checked out.
Dessert was our last hurrah, and we split two between the four of us. The Homemade Cherry Buckle ($12) utilized some local cherries in an almond crust topped with vanilla ice cream. Truth be told, I'm not really a big fan of cherries, and these ones were a little too tart for me, but everyone else enjoyed this. I did like the almond crust and that they used plenty of good vanilla ice cream topping this. The four of us had been on a cruise together a few years back and we had ended all of our nights with a warm chocolate melting cake, so it was with some sentimentality that we tried the Melting Chocolate Cake ($13) here at Anthony's. This baked-to-order chocolate cake has a creamy truffle in the center and is topped with vanilla ice cream and raspberry sauce. I would have liked this a lot more if we had gotten it without the raspberry sauce, which really overpowered here.
For the most part, Anthony's HomePort had some flashes of promise, but I left here a little disappointed. The fish and chips, oysters, caesar salad, and halibut were all pretty stellar, but my Mahi was below average, and the desserts were not the grand finish I was hoping for. Anthony's kind of resembled most restaurants that I have experienced that overlook a body of water. You pay for the view, and the food is usually a secondary thought. That's the vibe I got here. I also felt their price point was a tad too high, but in these times I don't really fault them for that. The service on this evening was kind of all over the place. We were left alone for stretches at a time, but as the night was ending and the restaurant was clearing out, our server was around more to clear the restaurant sooner, which I totally understand after a long day. She also might have been wanting to get rid of Sabrina, just like the rest of us. Sorry S, I had to get one more in here since we don't see each other nearly enough.
Out of five oil rigs, (because Patrick Duffy attended high school in Everett, and he was on Dallas, a show about an oil-rich family in the 70's, and 80's). five being best to zero being worst, Anthony's HomePort gets 2.5 oil rigs.
For more information about Anthony's HomePort, head to their website by clicking here: https://www.anthonys.com/
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