ochay by me.

Ocho Ballard
9/10 on my bangin' scale

Despite the fact that I've been living in Seattle for 7 months now, I realize that I don't have many bars to compare this one to. I'd have to say this one is way better than any U-district favorites (like Big Time Brewery, Finn MacCool's, or even, that hella sweet Korean bar).

Why is that?
1. It's in super hip Ballard, where all the real people go out to have fun
2. The drinks are really strong, and quite tasty (I had a white sangria and tasted a margarita and a sangria familia)
3. The tapas dishes are cheap, and absolutely delicious.

Now, I can't say I know what constitutes an authentic tapas bar, so I'm just going to have to say it was friggin' jawsome to the max. We essentially got everything that wasn't over $4 on the menu (and a couple that were). It was all good, but my personal favorite dishes were the blue cheese stuffed dates with a delicious, sweet sauce and the white bean portobello stew. Unfortunately, their website does not list all that they have on their menu... I think they rotate their dishes a bit.

The possibly bad: Now I know you might initially freak out when you see that their most popular drink is a $10 margarita, but then you order it anyway and realize that it's the equivalent of two drinks anywhere else. Another possibly bad thing: the place is tiny (aka only seats 18 ish people), so don't go with large groups (unless you get there at 5pm on a Sunday!!! holler!). For me, I'd say this is a good thing since I'm generally scared of the masses.

I'll leave you with a tip: try your best not to embarrass yourself in front of all the cool Ballard-ites when you spill your drink all over the floor because you are tipsy off of one of their cocktails.