A little over three weeks after the Great American Diner and Bar closed at 4752 California SW, the Indian restaurant Taste & Best has opened in its place. They allowed our photographer in for a quick look about an hour ago:
Operations manager Yajas Reddy told us the bar’s not open yet (we had noticed Taste & Best hasn’t appeared on the liquor-license application list yet) but they hope it will be “in about a month.”
For previous critics, the menu is updated with real pictures of food, so they are definitely open to feedback! Welcome to the junction, T&B!
But they still haven’t updated the picture on the website to the actual restaurant. It’s still an AI-generated picture of the building layered onto some street corner in what looks like California.
There is no ethical way to use AI, and the damage is done even if they belatedly go back and do the work they should have done in the first place.
Who made you the judge of how things should be done? If you have written them off why comment and criticize?
Oh calm down. As a small business owner, they should be able to use whatever resources are at their disposal in order to survive and make opening a little bit easier for themselves.
I wish them luck! Hope it’s good and they succeed. But oh my…that is a terrible restaurant name. Taste AND Best?
Still skeptical, but hope those that do try it enjoy themselves. When your first impression is AI slop, it’s hard not to wonder where other corners were cut. Three weeks between one tenant moving out due to ongoing unremedied plumbing issues and a new tenant setting up, redecorating for opening, stocking, AND rectifying all of the plumbing issues while opening a second location is an incredible feat indeed!
The Indofusion restaurant across the street barely seems to get much business, so this one will be successful? Doubt it. Especially with such a ridiculous name. The sign in their window says they are hiring a “Food Runner (Man) “. What’s that about? Only men can do that job?
Eww… I was excited when I drove by, but seeing that nasty AI photo front and center on their website raises red flags about the decision making ability of their owners. It immediately makes me question both the safety of the food as well as how they may treat their employees.
It amazes me that so many people have negativity to spread on a beautiful day. There are many restaurant names in Seattle that I find overly pretentious. This one is quirky and I like it. SAY it to yourself! It rolls off the tongue! Reminds me of “Popin’ Cookin”. (Look it up). But who cares? Most importantly, is their food great? Don’t be so precious and give them a chance. This place might kick butt. They may not be great at marketing but excellent at FOOD. If you ask me, that’s why I go to restaurants.
This jogs my memory of another ampersand restaurant in The Junction just up the block, last decade…
https://westseattleblog.com/2018/12/evicted-west-seattle-junctions-vine-spoon-restaurant-alchemy-bar/
I hope they do end up having a buffet. I miss the one at Maharaja. The menu looks great!
I just stopped by and ordered the idli and sambar; they were lovely and made it for me even though it’s outside breakfast hours.And it was delicious enough that I’m bothering to comment on the blog for the first time to say go give this place a try. I’m thrilled we now have some South Indian food in the neighborhood and I can’t wait to try their dosa next!
I’m wary of the overuse of AI slop by any business as well… but the obsession of some folks here is bordering on some other concern—maybe about the fact that this is an Indian restaurant? I mean, have you seriously not noticed how much most pizza, Italian, donut, sushi, etc., restaurants use cut-and-paste/build-a-website sites for their online presence, ads, and menus around here over the years? The takeout boxes are identical, the takeaway menus, etc.? Were you complaining about that too? Or did you not even notice because pizza or spaghetti are okay for you?
Ha, sure we are racist but I don’t think that’s the key issue here. Everyone hated “Great American Diner” when they started too. West Seattle is generally hostile to new restaurants, especially if they sell pizza or misstep in some other way, and that’s part of who we are. Just get used to it.
I don’t think West Seattle is generally hostile to new restaurants. I think some commenters on the blog are, but they’re such a tiny sample, and when you live online in troll-land it is not too surprising to find cynicism and over-reaction
You might be right though it doesn’t excuse those who might damage the reputation of a business so cavalierly. This is not fun and games, we’re talking about real lives and real livelihoods. Sorry, but for me, it’s real “tell,” to use a gambling term.
Welcome, Taste & Best! As a small business owner myself, I can imagine that this is a dream come true for the owners who took a risk and worked incredibly hard to make it happen, and I wish them all the very best!
That seems like a very large widespread menu for a local small business / local restaurant. Goodluck to them. But with a menu as large as the Cheesecake Factory it may be hard to sustain long term profitability imo….
Has anyone criticizing this restaurant ever spent time in South Asia? I might be totally off base, but it all reads a bit ethnocentric (unempathetic) to me.
I wish them the best of luck. I’m however also skeptical, if a diner that serviced every kind of food under the sun couldn’t make it, how does an Indian restaurant intend to? The info fusion restaurant up the street was one of the worst dining experiences I’ve had in a long time and the food was awful. Wondering if there was any market research done about the success of similar fusion restaurants in the area. I don’t love Indian food, so it won’t be a spot I would frequent but I hope people love the food and it succeeds. Maybe they’ll care more about the cleanliness of their restaurant, the bathrooms in the great American were disgusting.
We’re lucky to have new businesses pop up in these uncertain times. Don’t pre-judge, give them a try, and then see for yourself. I wish them and all of our other small business in the Junction the very best.
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