Cafe Nordstrom

Nordstrom, The Plaza at King of Prussia

I have a soft spot for department store restaurants. My Grandma Dolly was a big fan of Frederick & Nelson’s at Everett Mall, so we would often do some shopping and then settle in to, what I believe was called, the Arcade Cafe for her to have a ton of coffee and me to have a club sandwich. The special treat with Grandma was to go down to the Frederick’s downtown for the Santa breakfast. It somehow must be in the genes, because mom and I would also stop fairly often at the cafe at Nordstrom in Alderwood Mall for a blue plate special. There is something elegant about such places — an escape from the hoi polloi at the far too pedestrian food court — and I’m glad they exist.

I had forgotten that the Nordstrom at KoP had a cafe, but then Rick remembered and decided that we had to try it. The cafe at this Nordstrom is their “marketplace” concept, which, frankly, was a clusterfuck: you get in a completely indiscernible line near some paper menus (nothing overhead or posted), then order and pay at a cash register. Then, you go find your table, and then someone serves as sort of your server. It’s like you were at a buffet, but there’s no buffet: they’re going to bring out what you already ordered. It’s an incredibly odd mix of informality and formality, which, in a way, sort of makes sense for the odd but normal for me department store restaurant.

The room itself is pretty nice, and even includes a view.

I started with a good though crouton-less french onion soup; turns out that I didn’t really miss the crouton, and that the cheese was just enough. For our main meal, Rick had the Rustic Vegetables:

They were good, but to me a bit too rustic.

I ordered the blue cheese and pear salad, which came with candied walnuts and a champagne vinaigrette.

Do you notice something? Yeah, no blue cheese. So, I hailed a server and asked about the lack of blue cheese, and he said he’d go check it out. He came back and said they were out. Huh. He apparently alerted a manager to my surprise at getting swindled out of a titular component, so she came over and offered me something else (nope, hungry) or for it to be comped (ding). Now, that may in fact have been a bit over the top for missing a few tablespoons of blue cheese, but that is the Nordstrom way, so I was happy in the end.

Will we be going back? Doubtful: it’s relatively expensive (I think both our entrees were around $9), and the experience was odd, not soothing. I’d rather just grab fast food Indian or a big old salad at the food court, I think. However, we are definitely going to try The Zodiac at Neiman Marcus some time, because I refuse to let the dream of department store dining die. Also, please post any fond remembrances of department store dining, or contemporary finds, because I don’t want to be the only one!