Restaurant observations

Since as I said the baseball season is getting in the way of dinner this week, we went to McCormack & Schmicks' on 1st Ave tonite after the late afternoon game. I don't normally order salmon in a restaurant, assuming that I can do it as well at home. But the line chef (Eric was out tonite) told me he'd do their crab/shrimp/brie stuffing in a piece of king salmon for me, and I was sold. (By the way, I highly recommend sitting at the kitchen counter, it's fun and you get to watch, and you can ask questions of the cooking staff.) They cook it for about 12 minutes in their 500 degree convection oven (yeah! I'll have one soon!) and it is just wonderful. I don't recommend the beet and goat cheese salad. It used to be great, but now they are coating goat cheese rounds in dried herbs and not only do they have no flavor but the texture is lousy too. The french onion soup is better, but be prepared for chicken stock, not the usual beef stock.