Seattle Center Appetite? -- Head Over To The House

----------------------------------------------------------------- Restaurant review

The Center House, Seattle Center. Fourteen food service outlets ($1 to $17.95), 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday through Thursday; until 8 p.m. Friday, Saturday. Summer hours beginning June 20: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Beer, wine and one full bar available. Credit card use limited. No smoking. General information: 684-7200. -----------------------------------------------------------------

The Center House, smack in the middle of Seattle Center, is lined on almost all sides by large, spreading plane trees; which, as Martha Stewart might say, is a good thing.

It's a dated structure that, nevertheless, daily receives and endures a large, steady and diverse clientele. Back in the days of the World's Fair, it had been called the Food Circus. Earlier, it was (and structurally still suggests) a National Guard Armory.

Many Seattleites have never been inside of it - except, possibly, to find an uncrowded lavatory.

Yet, the Center House is remarkably functional, a great place to take young children (the grotto-like kids museum on the ground floor is a toddlers' delight). It hosts dances for teens and seniors and has 14 food service outlets (with two more due to open soon), ranging from small stands like the Kabob Corner, a thriving Frankfurter and nonstop Starbucks, to a couple of sit-down restaurants, like Quincy's and the newly refurbished Michelangelo's Bistro & Bar (with the only class H liquor license in the complex) that used to be called Yukon Jack's.

Gone are some of the original World's Fair tenants - the Mongolian Grill and the Belgian Waffles. But the Vietnamese Cafe Loc has been there for ages, as has Pizza Haven and - under one name or another (Pago Pago was one) - Quincy's.

Better than usual fast-food

None of it is terribly distinguished, nor was it intended to be. Most of it is a culinary step up from national chain fast-food, and some items are considerably better than that.

You won't mistake Quincy's "Real Charbroiled" Mondo burger ($5.29 to $5.99 depending upon toppings) for anything under a golden arch. It's a half pound of lean beef on a sesame seed bun that when fully assembled looks like an overstuffed Frisbee.

It's imposing, fresh-tasting and probably ought to be ordered with a heap of Spud Pile-Ups ($2.79 to $3.99), waffle-cut, deep-fried potatoes topped and infused with everything from shredded cheddar and pepper-jack cheese to chili.

Milkshakes are particularly destructive, especially (saints preserve us) the Deluxe Snickers Caramel Crunch ($2.75 and, alas, worth it).

Next door is Steamer's Express - both restaurants share some dining space and are owned and operated by Consolidated Restaurants (Metropolitan Grill, Elliott's, Union Square grill, etc.). Steamer's features ale-battered fish and chips. The ale is Pike Pale Ale, the present local boutique favorite, and the fish is fresh Alaska true cod. It's richly battered, dipped in Panko and flash-fried. I've eaten fish and chips from West Seattle to Green Lake to London; Steamer's crunchy fillets hold up to any of them - especially in its Giant Fish Taco ($3.99).

The taco (which looks more like a burrito and is hence easier to eat) is made with a couple of fillets, shredded cabbage, a verde sauce of low-fat sour cream, tomatillo and tartar, combined with fresh cilantro and pepper-jack cheese.

Steamer's is the only seafood outlet in the complex. Because of a variety of non-compete agreements, none of the stands or restaurants can sell identical products. Therefore Pizza Haven - which may be the busiest stand in the House - sells pizza by the slice (from $2 to about $3 for huge, heavily topped wedges), while Michelangelo's makes 10 varieties of individual wood-fired pizzas ($6.95 for a basic Margherita to $8.95 for the seafood Pescatore, with mussels, bay shrimp and artichoke hearts) but cannot sell slices.

Recent renovation

The recently completed renovation (total public and private costs around $6 million) relocated all of the food outlets to the perimeter of the second (main) floor, with tables and a dance floor in the center.

Some of the stands are national chains - Subway, Orange Julius - but the rest are rather venerable locals, like Rico Burrito and Robert Fritz's Seattle Fudge, which has been rolling out 25-pound rolls of a soft, creamy product for 15 years (try the walnut; it's their bestseller). Seattle Fudge features toddler-sized tables for younger children; they're usually filled with tots in birthday party hats.

Michelangelo's, a full-service place owned by veteran Seattle showman and restaurateur Hal Griffiths, has just completed its transition from alleged Yukonese to Florentine. The murals were still damp a couple of days ago. But the apple-wood-fired pizzas are fine and the "family-styled feasts" ($9 to $18) should be reaching competence in a week or so.

The Center House is a kind of strictly Seattle culinary curiosity. It's been there so long, it seems almost automatic to walk on by. You don't have to. (Copyright, 1996, John Hinterberger. All rights reserved.)