Blue Goose An Old Favorite That's Now Better Than Ever

----------------- RESTAURANT REVIEW -----------------

Blue Goose Cafe and Caterers, 411 108th N.E., in One Bellevue Center. 453-2603. Visa, MasterCard, American Express accepted. Personal checks OK. Takeout available. No smoking allowed. Hours: 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Closed on the weekend.

The business crowd in downtown Bellevue has undoubtedly known about the Blue Goose Cafe for years. Housed on the first floor of the One Bellevue Center office complex, the cafe promotes a concept of speed, quality and reasonable pricing that seems to be common knowledge among the suits who flock there for lunch.

The cafe's general philosophy will remain the same, but changes are being made under the new ownership that took over the Blue Goose Cafe three months ago.

The first move was to replace the old coffee brand with Starbucks and to upgrade the sandwich meats.

Now management is looking at menu expansion and has brought in a deli specialist to help develop delicious new hot entrees that can be prepared on the spot.

Come January, Manager Mitch Pak says patrons can expect to find various pasta dishes and salads that will be made to order while the customer waits.

"People here don't have hours for lunch," says Pak, emphasizing the cafe's focus on quality and speed. "Most of them have around 30 minutes, so if you spend too much time preparing the food, they don't have time to enjoy it."

Patrons who stop in for a quick breakfast or lunch at the Blue Goose won't find a hostess waiting to guide them to their table or a waiter eager to take their order. It's a cafeteria-style setup where customers go to the order counter separating the kitchen from the dining room and make their selection.

Then it's off to a seat by one of the impressive floor-to-ceiling windows that overlook the courtyard, or at one of the many contemporary four-tops.

The dining area includes a bilevel ceiling, studio lights and a black-and-teal color scheme that takes in everything from the wall tile to the chairs.

Hot entree specials, which go for $4.95 and include a side salad, range from vegetable lasagna to chicken teriyaki and are rotated daily.

But the Blue Goose's current focus is on sandwiches, soups and nearly a dozen types of gourmet salads.

There is no going wrong with a sandwich at the Blue Goose.

They are made to specification on choice of wheat, white or rye bread and are put together generously. Roast beef, ham and fresh turkey breast are among the sandwich choices available.

Vegetarians shouldn't pass up the vegetarian club, a triple-deck sandwich piled high with sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, lettuce and two kinds of cheese. Large dill pickles and a pack of potato chips are included in the $3.95 price. On the hot side, there's the tuna melt, turkey & swiss, French dip and hamburger.

The soups, made from scratch daily, are also an excellent choice.

Two different soups are featured daily and vary between a broad selection that includes chicken gumbo, clam chowder, minestrone and cream of mushroom - just to name a few.

And the cafe is known for its gourmet salads - 10 in all - which range from the seafood salad, loaded with cocktail shrimp and imitation crab, to the pea-and-cheddar salad.

For dessert, there are muffins, banana nut bread and incredible chocolate-chip and oatmeal-raisin cookies that are large enough to be meals in themselves.

The breakfast menu offers waffles, cinnamon rolls, omelets and other egg combinations and is served until 10:30 a.m.

Everything - soups, salads, entrees and desserts - is made fresh daily. The downside to this is that the kitchen staff only prepares enough of one item to get through the day, and by early afternoon the selection begins to grow slim.

The Blue Goose lunch crowd starts trickling in around 11 a.m. and is going full force by noon.

Show up before 12:30 p.m., and you should do fine. Come 1:30 p.m., and you're on your own.

Restaurant reviews are a regular Thursday feature of the Seattle Times Eastside Life section. Reviewers visit restaurants unannounced and pay in full for all their meals. When they interview members of the restaurant management and staff, they do so only after the meals and services have been appraised.