The last three weeks we've tried two new restaurants. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera with us either time, so you'll have to imagine what the food looked like.

I bought a Groupon for $25 of food at Araya's, a Thai food restaurant in the U-District. There were a lot of people there since it was a Friday night. We saw several other people with the same Groupon. The service was really slow, but I liked the nice romantic atmosphere and the food was really good. We shared some fried spring veggie rolls and I had the pad thai. Troy got the green curry, which was a little spicy but good. I'd like to go back and maybe get a curry or something.

Then this last Saturday night we went out for dinner to La Isla, a Puerto Rican restaurant in Ballard. It was similar to real Mexican food. There were a lot of seafood items on the menu and some interesting appetizers. I got a Mai Tai, which was really good at first, but seemed to get too strong the more I drank it. We shared an empanadilla and had the ropa vieja which is shredded beef in abodo sauce, peppers, and onions. It came with some tostones, avocado, beans, and rice. The food wasn't as hot (as in temperature) as it could have been. We also had a yummy dessert called "Guayabitas Vivian". It was a torte with mango filling and cream cheese topping served with vanilla ice cream sprinkled with cinnamon. It was good, but a little expensive and the service was a little slow. We'd like to go back though and try more different dishes.