Bellingham, WA

A couple of weeks ago, in conversation I told my good friend CJ that I ate at Pel Meni and her friend piped up and said, “that restaurant is the best place late at night after drinking when you want something bad for you to eat.” Likely true. I eat at Pel’meni about once a week. This unique restaurant stands out amongst the restaurants in Bellingham yet it fits right into the Bellingham culture. The Russian name of this restaurant, Pel’meni, takes after the name of the only food it serves on its very simple menu: dumplings–tiny bite-sized meat or potato-filled bundles of joy served with condiments of hot sauce, butter, yellow curry spice, cilantro, and sour cream. It has a bite with a little bit of napalm but if you stir in sour cream the heat dissipates. I crave these dumplings.

Again, the only variety is in your Russian dumpling choice. You can get either meat or potato but I only like the meat ones. I really don’t like the potato for two reasons. Firstly, the potato ones have lumpy, dirty-tasting mashed potatoes inside them. Secondly, they’re peppery. They are really really peppery. If you’re a pepper fan, this would be great for you.

For six dollars you get a nice helping of dumplings and a dry slice of wheat bread. For a dollar more, you can have a soda. I’m having a harder time wanting to visit as often as they recently raised their prices and changed their dumpling size. I understand the price change is justified but it still bums me out.

This place is great to visit in the winter because they constantly have pots of water boiling on the stove ready for your order. The friendly folks that work there have great complexions. This place is open quite late and is very casual. The owners have hung large multi-medium paintings on the walls of this long and narrow room. There is a bookshelf stuffed with LPs that you can play. While you wait, you can read the local free alternative newspaper.

While the atmosphere is casual and quite laid-back and the folks are friendly, I do have a couple of complaints. Recently, I got sick from eating a meal at Pel’meni. Not horribly, laid-up, puking, life-threatening sick but I missed my Spanish tutoring session because I had to rush home. It was an emergency. Also, the cleanliness could be a bit better in the dining area. There have been several times that I have visited where all of the tables were dirty. Finally, they use Styrofoam boxes to serve you with and that makes me feel guilty.

Would I recommend this place to you? Yes, I still will. After eating there frequently for over a year, I still like it but it isn’t my favorite place. I prefer this place to any fast food restaurant in town.