Voula's Offshore Cafe - Seattle

The good: Greasy, disgusting. Cranky-looking older men (regulars) occupy the stools at the counter. Humongous portions. Original ideas for their breakfast dishes. 1/4 block away from my favorite view of the space needle (from under I-5).

Great 'No Fancy, FooFoo ' Food!!!. Long, long ago, in my pre kid life, I would head to Voula 's for breakfast/brunch at least once a week. It helped that it was 'on the way ' to my frequent treks over to the Burke Gilman trail but I also just LOVED their food no matter what I ordered. But then I had kids and the life of relaxed meals out, lingering over that last cup of coffee and reading the newspaper was gone. The good news is that the kids do eventually grow up and start having lives of their own, and are then 'little ' people that I can actually take out places and just hang out. They don 't mind if I want to have one last cup of coffee, or I am sitting browsing through some feed on reddit because they are doing the same thing (although always a different topic than me. So we have started to visit Voula 's again, and even though it has been years (oldest child is 17 now! it is still the exact same. The food is still just simple dishes done right. I have ordered 'Smokey the Salmon ' the last three visits, but my boys love that they can order eggs, bacon and hashbrowns, or a country fried steak and there isn 't any of that 'fancy, foo foo stuff ' that some restaurants add (this coming directly from my youngest 's mouth, guess he is anti foo foo But what makes me even happier is that it seems to still be the same kind of crowd I used to love going early in the morning, when many of the people just seemed to be good, hardworking folk and many were from the nearby boatyards. They reminded me of my dad, and of places that I used to visit back in Martha 's Vineyard. Even though it may not be the exact same people (that would be weird, right? I still get the same feeling and that makes me happy!So if you are looking for a spot to just get good 'no foo foo ' food and be surrounded by good people, you should definitely try out Voula 's!!

I got the Pinata Eggs Benedict, one of their signature dishes, and recommended by Guy Fieri. It's a heavy meal and next time I would split it, but it was good!

This is the spot for breakfast in the University of Washington area. I’m normally not a huge breakfast-brunch person…oatmeal and some coffee normally satisfies my morning fix. But I wanted to see what he big fuss was about this place by my alma mater. Having ample parking space in their own private lot was a great first impression. Anyone that’s been to this area knows parking is horrible (I guess this is the case with most of Seattle) so these guys get big props for having a huge FREE parking lot for customers. Once you’ve parked there will likely be a wait of 15-25 mins during weekends. No worries though these guys have free coffee for individuals waiting for a table…very nice touch. It makes the wait a little more manageable.

The lingered beauty as you burst like a dying star, a crying child