Steak House Or Bistro? Winners Is A Bit Of Both

Jun 27, 1996

John Hinterberger

Seattle Times Restaurant Critic

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

XX Winners, 17401 Southcenter Parkway, Tukwila. ($$) Lunch and dinner (same menu with minor changes at 4 p.m.; $4 to $18) 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Monday through Saturday; until 10 p.m. Sunday. Lounge, full bar. Major credit cards. Smoking in lounge. Reservations: 575-8800. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Winners - the name suggests a sports bar. But it's not really that.

"We have plenty of TVs in the lounge, but no over-sized TV," says its veteran manager, Paul Rosquita.

"We're kind of a steak house - we get only the best corn-fed Nebraska beef - but we're not really a steak house, either. We're a little like a bistro, but not quite a bistro."

Winners, for whatever it may or may not be, doesn't have an identity crisis. Owned and operated by the partnership of Marc Zanner and Richard Radloff (who own 10 Red Robins along I-5 between Bellingham and Oregon), the restaurant opened eight years ago, taking over space near Southcenter that was once Simon's.

It's a pretty place. The central dining room of dark floor tiles, gorgeous burgundy/agate-blue granite tabletops and 10 soaring indoor trees glows with copper fixtures under a massive skylight.

Genuine American Eclectic

The menu is pure, wide-ranging American Eclectic (modeled, I was told, after a Southwest chain called Houston's - Sam, presumably, not Whitney).

Starters include a bowl of Baked Potato Soup ($2.95; they are very proud of it), a kind of heated-up leekless vichyssoise, topped with grated cheddar, sour cream, bacon bits (a bit rubbery) and chopped scallions. It's filling and robust. An occasional daily special, Chicken Tortilla Soup (same price), looks like a plate of chicken nachos put through a shredder and heated in broth with jack cheese, but it tastes fine. Both, apparently, were copied from Houston's.

Salads ($4 to $10) are imposing, bordering on daunting. The Pacific Rim Salad is a crowd favorite.

Winners does draw crowds - best time to find a quiet table is mid-afternoon, or after 8 p.m. A hot red neon sign proclaims: "The Tuff Go Shopping" and then the tuff arrive in droves. The Rim Salad ($8.65) combines grilled teriyaki chicken breast, mixed field greens, red and yellow peppers, rice noodles in a light soy-ginger dressing, black and white sesame seeds and antenna-like bread sticks.

The house Caesar Salad ($7.25 large; $9.95 with cajun-blackened salmon) is otherwise traditional, but with Asiago cheese blended in with Parmesan.

Ribs are tender, tasty

Smoked Baby Back Ribs ($14.95) are Winner's signature dish - and they are far better than one might expect from a mainstream restaurant. Tender, applewood smoked, slathered with a tart-mellow, house-made barbecue sauce, they almost - but not quite - fall off the bone. The portion is imposing (I ate half and, with a sigh, quit). The piquant Applewood Smokehouse Beans that accompany them are loaded with cubes of lean pork and are almost addictive. To erase any notion that the plate is heart healthy, a huge tangle of lightly salted shoestring fries forms a foothill backdrop.

Steaks ($16.95 for a 12-ounce center cut New York strip, or $17.95 for an 8-ounce filet mignon) are a mainstay and expertly grilled.

Lots of upscale sandwiches. Consider the Chicken Portobello ($7.95), with thick strips of roasted mushroom layered over a broiled chicken breast covered with melted sharp cheddar, two strips of lean, crisp bacon, lettuce, tomato and a Dijon-mayo dressing.

A fillet of charbroiled Grilled Halibut was a puzzle. It tasted OK, moist, tender, etc., and it arrived with a crosshatching of golden-brown grill marks, but it didn't TASTE grilled. The temperature (rather tepid) was uniform throughout, instead of sizzling on the outside and less warm inside, which grilling would do. A scoop of thyme butter dropped on its surface steadfastly refused to melt. If the portion ever saw a grill, it was not recently. It was all quite edible, but how it had been finally cooked, I don't know.

Unless you have three hungry friends, don't order the Heath Bar Crunch Pie ($4.95, 10 Hail Marys and a good act of contrition).

"I've never served one of these to one person before," confessed the waiter. "We usually just bring lots of forks." Deep layers of chocolate and mocha ice creams, about a 6-inch wedge, are topped with an inch of whipped cream, toasted, slivered almonds and backed by a wall of crushed Heath bars. Hot fudge and soft caramel are poured over all.

John Hinterberger, who writes the weekly restaurant review in Tempo and a Sunday food column in Pacific, visits restaurants anonymously and unannounced. He pays in full for all food, wines and services. Interviews of the restaurants' management and staff are done only after meals and services have been appraised. He does not accept invitations to evaluate restaurants.