Rupee Bar Reviews

Went here while on vacation in Seattle because I read that they received a James Beard award. This place is tiny, very tiny. Service was good. Food was interesting but I wasn't blown away. I was expecting more from a James Beard winner.

We loved this restaurant! My daughter wanted to pick up for her birthday (pandemic, no dine in). The mutton, fried chicken and curries were delicious! We will definitely go back when things open up more.

Top on my son’s list of where he wanted us to eat while I was visiting. And with good reason! He, his wife, and I tried more than half the items on the menu, every one of them to be savored! Oh, and the cocktail menu also gets huge raves from us. Counting the days until I can come back to Seattle to eat at Rupee’s again.

This is a great place to eat authentic food! The cocktails were well thought out. The dishes like the homemade Naan and the dipping sauces were outstanding. If you’re in or near Seattle it is worth the drive to come to this place off the beaten path.

Today's random Foodie Friday takes us to far flung Sri Lanka as the folks behind Manolin (the great seafood spot in Wallingford) took us on a trip to the Indian subcontinent with Rupee Bar. Super cool to see Chef Kenyon (in 2020 of all pandemic years no less) win a James Beard for design and semifinalist for rising star chef last year. Plus they snagged a GQ feature for one of the best new restaurants in the U.S. to boot. Seattle hasn't had much Sri Lankan offerings, so this was an exciting trek. Plus their menu is seasonal, so nice to see things staying always fresh. Most ask if it's the same as Indian and I always say yes and no. The same big orchestra of flavors but different instruments. And many (typically anyway) aren't afraid to punch you in the face with some adrenaline inducing heat. Rupee was super tame in that respect. Breaking from southern Indian norms, you'll see proteins in the form of sheep, piggy, fishy, and moo but they love rice, coconut and fruits as their building blocks. So...... what did we go with? As usual "YES" was the commonly uttered word. Mutton? Yep. Sambol? Yep. Halibut with green curry and peaches? Hmmm... oh wait, yep. In the end we ordered the ENTIRE menu plus we covered 80% of the cocktail menu 🙄😘 On that note, cocktails were similarly inventive and I always gravitate to new flavor profiles. The King Coconut with "coconut oil washed bourbon" and east India sherry, "mata hari absinthe" (and here I thought I tried most absinthes), and "Jaggery"? Yep, I had to look that up too. It's an Indian raw sugar powder that's about as unrefined and raw as you can get. Another had "batavia arrack". That I had heard of from my tiki days of odd ingredients as a high proof molasses and rice spirit that predates rum. Seriously nice vacation from the common stuff. Bottom line? Excellent was heard all around. Loved loved the lamb chop as well as the mutton and wow on the double dipped chicken. That and the sambal are killer comfort food candidates 🥰

A couple years ago we visited Sri Lanka on tour. So we were ecstatic to hear that Seattle had a new Sri Lankan restaurant. We tried to go prior to Covid, however there was a 2 1/2 hour wait. Fast forward almost 2 years later and four of us finally had the opportunity to make a reservation and enjoy a dinner here. Every single item on the menu was absolutely delicious. So flavorful, so innovative, cannot recommend this place enough. You MUST get the naan and Dhal Curry. And why not start off with one of their awesome specialty drinks such as: Last Night in Ngombo,