McKeown's Restaurant and Bar
After years of hearing how good it is, I've finally eaten at McKeown's . I don't know what kept me away for so long. Maybe it was their mascot, an anthropomorphized dog, or maybe the fact that many of Seaside's restaurants are overpriced tourist traps with mediocre food that always seems to let me down. But McKeown's gets the food right, and it's excellent.
Their menu lacks focus. There isn't any discernible theme to it. You'll find steaks topped with distractingly strong bleu cheese, barbecue dishes, Italian pastas, big salads, even a chicken teriyaki bowl for some reason. But like T. Paul's Supper Club and The Lost Roo , I ended up really liking all the food, despite its scattered style. There were some things I'd have done a little differently, but for the most part my complaints are minor.
Crab cakes ($12.99), made with Dungeness and rock crab, were a touch bready for the price, but this was made up for by the plump Dungeness legs served atop them. The cilantro lime aioli was a suitable zippy accompaniment. Crispy fried artichoke hearts ($8.99) with lemon garlic ranch dip were abundant – so much so that our table of three grew tired of them before they were gone. It's a signature item, and I can understand its popularity, but I'd have preferred that the artichokes had not been marinated.