Traditional Seahorse Adds Some Wrinkles

The Seahorse Restaurant: 707 Front St., Mukilteo. Lunch, Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Dinner, Sunday through Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Sunday brunch, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Early-bird dinner, 4 to 6 p.m. daily. Lounge, live music, full bar. Major credit cards. Reservations. 353-6477. ------------------------------------------------------------ -- MUKILTEO

The Seahorse Restaurant feels like a place you went to with your parents when you were a kid.

It's a serious, old-style restaurant despite the newer decorative trappings of brass, glass and foliage. The waitresses are not gushy students trying to establish a first-name relationship. It's a grown-up's meat and fish house.

But some of that is changing. The Seahorse still has entrees like the Canadian king salmon in parchment, fruits di mare, king crab legs, steaks, lobster and lamb. And there is still plenty of fish being deep-fried in the back, but the Seahorse has added a lighter side to its menu. Plus, the restaurant has instituted an early-bird policy, an express lunch menu and weeknight pasta specials.

A recent visit tried a bit of the new and the old. Breast of chicken Oscar was chosen from the Early Bird menu. At $9.95, it was a sizable boneless chicken breast, lightly browned in butter, covered with bay shrimp and asparagus spears and sauced with Hollandaise. It came with bread and vegetables, a choice of soup or salad and rice or potato.

The chicken was tender and the asparagus fresh. The steamed red potato and pea pods were a bright, colorful surprise and done just right. The clam chowder, however, was too heavy and on the bland side. The Hollandaise had a creamy fresh flavor.

Fresh seafood marinara ($8.95) came from the Weeknight Pasta Break menu, which is served from 4 p.m. Monday through Thursday. It was a wonderful dish of angel-hair pasta, salmon, scallops and rockfish, bathed in a rich marinara, well spiced with mushrooms, onion and garlic. It was a sauce that cried for a plate cleansing with dinner roll.

The Express Lunch menu served Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., includes Caesar salad, pasta of the day, chef's seafood special and three other choices at $4.99. The clams and chips sampled were fairly heavily breaded, but the clam held its own.

For all the changes at the Seahorse, there are still some customers who favor earlier days and ways. A young boy eating with his family at the next table voiced clear disappointment when he discovered that the potato he'd be getting with his dinner was red and steamed instead of the big baked he wanted.

"Well, you just let the managers know how you feel, honey," his waitress counseled.

"They'll listen to you."

Restaurant reviews are a regular Wednesday feature of the Seattle Times Snohomish County 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.