Description
A picturesque waterside patio's meant to relax a restaurant's guests, but a feeling of sloth seems to have spread to the kitchen at Queen Anne's Ponti Seafood Grill, a 30-year old institution on Seattle's Ship Canal. On a recent visit, salad greens were brown and wilted; clams were overcooked and a tuna steak was limp and flavorless. Cooking problems were compounded by clumsy servers who committed elementary mistakes: Even at entry-level restaurants, it's gauche to use multiple bottles to fill a single glass of wine and meet a request for more bread by dumping the contents of one plate into the plate already on the table. At a restaurant where entrees average $30, it's unforgivable. Still, prom-goers and other celebrants flock here.
