Explore Everywhere: Some old favorites: Matador & Wasabi Bistro

A few weeks ago, former roommates Heather and Ashlee were in town from Idaho so I got to spend a few days hanging out with my best friends from college (and some of my best friends period). Heather and Ashlee wanted to hit up some of our old haunts, so we had happy hour at the Matador and at Wasabi Bistro.

Matador is a chain and the one Ballard has been home base, but since several of us live in West Seattle now, we went there instead. Their happy hour is awesome, especially the famous nachos ($4 and enough to comfortably feed three people). I'm not a huge fan of black beans, so I usually skip the nachos and order the chicken quesadilla (also $4).

Wasabi Bistro features trendy, westernized sushi. A lot of the rolls are $5 at happy hour and enough to share. If you're not a huge sushi fan but feel like trying it, order something tempura (fried). We are kind of boring and almost always order the Seattle tempura roll (salmon, cream cheese, avocado). They also have some pretty rad creations with whimsical names like "The Romantic Mermaid Roll" (eel, strawberry, cucumber, spicy crab, topped with wonton crisps and blueberry cream). Aimee got the crunch roll (crab, scallop, mayo, tobiko, cucumber, tempura crisps) and Jenny got something sashimi-like--can't remember what exactly, but it looked pretty on the plate.

matador nachos