Arnies: The view’s as delicious as the food

Published 1:07 pm Wednesday, December 24, 2008

“Nice view, isn’t it?” the hostess said, noticing us staring out the window as we settled into a table at Arnies in Mukilteo.

Outside, snow was falling, coating every surface and adding a romantic touch to an already cozy scene. A ferry, seemingly decorated for the season, pulled into the dock.

The view, in fact, was so enjoyable that we spent a long time staring at it before we even glanced at our menus.

While a highlight of Arnies is the view of the water and Whidbey Island, the restaurant’s food made it well worth the visit. Just make sure to leave yourself lots of time to gaze outside. Most tables are against the window, and all of them offer at least some view.

When our waitress offered something to drink, we happily took her suggestion of a hot cider. We sipped it while finally taking a look at the menu.

We started off with calamari aioli ($9.25). The calamari was fried, with a light breading that was almost fluffy. The little pieces were well cooked and tender, without a hint of the rubbery texture that can so easily ruin calamari. The serving size on this was generous, enough to share among a few people.

The Penn Cove mussels ($13.50) and ginger chicken lettuce wraps ($8.50) also caught my attention.

For a salad, we split a roasted pear salad off of the weekly fresh sheet. The roasted pears were delicious in a balsamic vinaigrette dressing with goat cheese. The lettuce was bit soft, as if it had possibly been sitting in the dressing too long, but we still enjoyed the salad.

The fresh sheet is one of the best things about Arnies. The options always looked delicious, and they are well-suited to the season.

I, for example, ordered the cioppino, which sounded perfect for a snowy winter day. The stew came full of various seafood, including scallops, salmon, clams and mussels. The tomato-based stew was thick and filling. I couldn’t finish the whole bowl. My husband, Jerry, did an excellent job of clearing up the remainder, mostly by sopping it up with the bread sticks that come on the side. The bread was heavily toasted, so it held up nicely to repeated dunking in the stew.

Jerry ordered the pork chops with roasted apples, green beans and mashed potatoes. The pork chops were complemented by a slightly smoky sauce. The green beans included a similar smoky, salty flavor that paired well with the meat. The mashed potatoes were fluffy and I was unable to resist scooping several bites from Jerry’s plate.

After finishing our meals, we stared out the window at the snow and debated whether we should have dessert. How would the roads be? Would enjoying a dessert be worth it?

Not surprisingly, we decided we wanted dessert. Our waitress suggested the caramel apple crisp ($6), which is served warm with a rich caramel sauce and vanilla bean ice cream. The crisp was worth the extra snow we had to brush off of our car. We finished every last bit. If I hadn’t been in a nice restaurant, I think I would even have licked the caramel off the plate. The caramel alone makes the dessert worth ordering.

As we walked out to our car in the snow, we were already planning to come back. Arnies has a happy hour, and we’d like to try that out. We’re also tempted by the brunch.

Whenever we do come back, we know to leave ourselves lots of time for gazing out the window, measuring the time by the coming and going of the ferries.

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