The Place: Lot No. 3, 460 106th Ave. N.E., 425-440-0025, BELLEVUE. If you walk into Lot No. 3 and ask for their most popular item, your server will likely have a very difficult time deciding between the trio of sliders on the menu. From what we were told, all three are equally popular. But we set out to conduct our own poll: Which slider would we want sliding down our gullet again?
The Rivals: Duck vs. BLT vs. short-rib sliders.The duck confit slider ($3.75) was a surprising combination of sweet raisins, savory duck, verjus jam (a sour jam made from unripe fruit, such as grapes or apples) and cracklins (little pieces of fried pork fat). These sliders were pretty intense. The cracklins provided crunch, while the jam added a burst of acid to create a bright flavor contrast to the savory duck. From a textural point of view, the cracklins were the key player in this slider. Without them, it wouldn’t have tasted half as good.
With Nueske’s bacon, iceberg lettuce, tomato, and aioli, the BLT slider ($3.50) was really good. The amount of aioli used was perfect—it added zip without diluting the flavor or crispness of the veggies. But the quality of the thick-cut bacon cemented its success.
The short-rib slider ($3.75) with chile barbecue sauce, cheddar, and red cabbage, sounded great. We were excited for the chile heat, which unfortunately never evolved. The sauce tasted like your standard barbecue sauce, and lacked any sort of kick. What we did like was the tartness and the crunch of the cabbage.
The Champ: Compared to most sliders, which are often nothing more than a shitty version of a mini-hamburger with a bottle of ketchup as a condiment, Lot No. 3’s were sensational. But if we could order only one of them, we’d opt for the duck confit slider, and throw in a request for extra cracklins.
