The Club, SEA (Concourse A)

What do you do when you are delayed at the Seattle airport?  Particularly if you don't have any status with an airline to get nice lounge access, and are just flying domestic?  If you are me, first you mope around a little, lament your life choices, and then eventually, suck it up and figure out how to pass the time.

If you have Priority Pass, you are in luck, as they have one lounge accessible, dubbed "The Club", in Concourse A, which just happened to be where my flight would eventually take off from.

"The Club SEA lounge offers alive with warm, natural lighting, soft flowing interior lines, inviting social spaces and a range of food and drinks."  

Access is $50 per visit if you don't have Priority Pass or access some other way, and I can't imagine paying that.  Let's just say, this is a pretty lackluster lounge.  The space is drab, the bathrooms were less clean than those in the main terminal, and everyone inside was as grumpy as myself.  That said, it at least entertained me for a few minutes.

Uninspired Seating.

The description of the space refers to "warm, natural lighting" and "inviting social spaces", but what I actually found was a narrow, fairly dark, and very drab space.  It was considerably less pleasant to spend time in than the main terminal actually, and felt rather depressing.  It reminded me more of a doctor's office waiting room than an airport lounge.

There were no power outlets anywhere near the seats.

Lackluster Soda.

The non-water drink options were a coffee maker that actually made decent coffee, and a cooler with Coke, Diet Coke, and Sprite.  Very minimal line up.  On the counter was a dispenser with regular water.

I wanted sparkling water, which I could get from the bar "club soda", but the bar was not self service, and was never actually attended by a staff member.  They had a buzzer you could ring to get service, which was ignored more often than not, and it generally took at least 5 minutes just to get someone to fetch me a club soda from behind the bar area.  I believe they also had a few wines and beer, and maybe even spirits, but, again, never attended, and they certainly were not encouraging you to order beverages from them.

Salad Bar. 

The main section of the buffet is a salad bar of sorts.  It had the basics: not very fresh lettuce, mealy tomatoes, broccoli, black olives from a can, minced red onion and peppers, way over dressed cous cous salad (Italian dressing), and additional ranch and Italian dressing and cheese.  I was fairly underwhelmed with all of it.

What I really had my eyes on, and honestly, why I was excited to visit the lounge, was the macaroni salad, which I knew would be on offer.  I adore macaroni salad, cheap deli kinds are often my favorites.  This one certainly looked the part: very dressed, little to no seasoning, not really much to it other than a few small bits of red pepper and maybe some celery.  

I made a base of wilty, limp, and somewhat brown romaine, topped it with the macaroni salad and tomatoes (which I quickly discarded), and sat down to enjoy.  Oh, I added copious amounts of black pepper first, which they did have in packets.  It was ... fine.  Honestly, it didn't taste like much, but at least the pasta wasn't too mushy.

** for most of the lineup, **+ macaroni salad. 

Veggies Re-Stocked.

The big gaping hole in the salad bar turned out to be for veggie sticks, carrots, celery, and bell peppers, which was restocked a bit later. The veggies were fine.  I appreciated having some carrot sticks to munch on later as a healthier alternative to more standard offerings like chips (in fact, they had no chips or pretzels or anything like that).  *** veggie sticks.

Meatballs.

The hot item of the day (and, according to my research, most days) was meatballs.  There were small Hawaiian rolls on the side to make sliders if you wished.

These seemed to be very polarizing for people.  I saw many plates with discarded meatballs on them, but I saw just as many people going back for second servings of them.  I didn't have any, but I suspect you could make a decent little bite with a Hawaiian roll, meatball and sauce, and cheese from the salad bar. 

Lobster Bisque. 

The soup of the day (and again, according to my research, most days) was lobster bisque.  It was relatively warm, and had a sorta seafood-like flavor to it, but was fairly cloying and heavy.  Also woefully under seasoned.  Meh. **. 

Chips, Pita, Salsa, Queso.

Far off on the side, not with the rest of the buffet, was a tortilla chip, salsa, and queso station, with warm cheese sauce, fairly fresh salsa, and pita chips as well.   I added some of the salsa to my salad as a replacement for fresh tomatoes, and drizzled a little queso on top, but kind of wished I hadn't, as I didn't care for the queso.  If you did like it, I suspect it would go nicely on the meatballs too?  **.

Wasabi Peas.

The only real snack item, for those who just wanted to nibble on something salty and crunchy, was wasabi peas.  They were decent, had a bit of kick to them.  Probably my favorite thing in the buffet.  ***.

Desserts.

And finally, desserts.   I was surprised to see it wasn't just cookies, but rather, brownies and carrot cake.  

The carrot cake I actually enjoyed.  The cake was light and fluffy, a bit boring as the carrot shreds were minimal and it didn't have any: pineapple for moisture, raisins for sweetness, nuts for crunch, but, the base was fine.  The frosting was sweet and reasonably cream-cheesy, very creamy.  Not a carrot cake I'd go out of my way for, but it was good enough.  ***.

The brownies were ok.  I liked the big chocolate chunks on them.  Not too dry.  But not particularly deep rich fudgey taste.  Average really.  ***.