Here's how we found this year's new participants:

Campagne

86 Pine St., Pike Place Market

206-728-2800; www.campagnerestaurant.com

For the price, simply fabulous. We actually enjoyed it more than our last full-freight meal at the fine French restaurant. Complimentary additions at each table -- fresh gougères to start, and chocolate truffles with the check -- made it feel even more like a special event.

There were no duds, but our top choice for hors d'oeuvres was the paté de Campagne, a hefty, luscious, livery slice served with mustard and bread. That beat out the light, simple squash soup with a swirl of creme fraiche, and a salad with salt-cured mackerel whose large serving bowl made it appear a skimpier serving than it was.

For entrees, we swooned over the tender beef bourguignonne, served in red wine sauce with an earthy depth from porcini mushrooms, with pearl onions and little squiggles of spaetzle. Equally impressive at the first bite, although a little intense by the last, were two highly flavored garlic sausages, a mix of pork and beef that didn't weigh us down as heavily as that amount of meat usually does. They were served on perfectly pureed potatoes, with roasted apples on the side. The single dish that wasn't special enough to order again, though we liked it fine, was the delicate "quenelles de poisson," dumplings with a mix of halibut and fluke, served in a mild leek cream. Desserts are open game from the regular dessert list, ranging from creme brulee to tarte tatin to fig clafouti. We especially liked the twice-baked chocolate cake, richly set off by butterscotch ice cream.

Service was finely tuned and flawlessly helpful.

Are there any catches? Only one: The menu is scheduled to change Nov. 13. We're doggone tempted to try it again.

-- Rebekah Denn

Eva Restaurant

2227 N. 56th St., Green Lake

206-633-3538

Eva offers interesting pairings that don't always work. Drawn from its current menu, the $25 options were hit-and-miss.

Starters were the best course. Steamed Penn Cove mussels were plump and tender. Tiger prawns, served with a lentil salad and yogurt-mint dressing, were nice, but the dressing was a tad bitter. A salad of Cameo apples with greens and toasted walnuts was fine, but nothing special. It was difficult to detect the promised Oregon blue cheese in the vinaigrette.

Entrees were generously sized, but a mixed picture of flavor, with either the centerpiece or the side failing to please. Best was the grilled chicken breast, well-seasoned and nicely semicharred. The side of gigantes beans flavored with celery root was a bit of a letdown.

		Paul Joseph Brown / P-I
	Fish Club's mixed seafood grill combines crustaceans, swordfish and halibut, and comes with a side of tangy-sweet couscous.

Grilled pork loin was bland, but its side of braised cabbage with roasted apple and browned spaetzle fared well together. A pan-seared albacore tuna was nicely seasoned on its own, but did not pair well with the accompanying tomato-olive compote. And the roasted fingerling potatoes with frisee were fine, but uninspiring.

Sadly, dessert didn't bring the desired payoff, though it's wonderful that five choices are offered. I'm no sweet hound, but the restaurant's touch with sugar is too light. My friend liked her goat cheese panna cotta, drizzled with honey. I've never tasted a saltier dessert and could eat no more than one bite. A fruit crisp with apple, pear and quince sounded good, but was average, except for the vanilla bean ice cream.

Pumpkin cheesecake with maple creme fraiche was the best of the evening, but wasn't in the same league as others I've had.

The decor is simple but welcoming. Wine options were plentiful and interesting, and the service was generally good.

-- Kristin Dizon

Fish Club

2100 Alaskan Way, waterfront

Two words: Arrive hungry.

We tried the lunch special here (which has some crossover with the dinner promotion, but some different dishes as well), and thought it was not just a deal, but a steal at $12.50. We were full by the end of the appetizers, and thought the quality and selection would have been dinner-worthy too. It didn't match the heights of Campagne, but, of course it's a different style of food. The brightly posh surroundings in the Marriott Waterfront hotel were swarming with staff who frequently checked in with us; service overall was chipper and casually good.

Choose from five appetizers: Top honors went to the roasted mushroom flatbread with goat cheese crema, topped with leaves of fresh basil and cress. Two small, plump Dungeness crab cakes were packed with crabmeat, although the mild flavor was a little overpowered by the big pillow of tarragon aioli and red lentils.

Scallops were the star entrée, nicely seared, on a bed of house-made pappardelle with a sauce of diverse ingredients that made a delicious mix. We also liked the swordfish topped by an unusually strong, mustardy vinaigrette, served on mashed potatoes and crisp-tender green beans. The scallop and swordfish in the mixed grill (along with a prawn and chunk of halibut), surprisingly, didn't have the same nice touch, although we enjoyed the tangy-sweet Turkish sauce on the Israeli couscous accompaniment. Desserts were a light, cool, "frozen" apple souffle, a delicious, crisp-topped pumpkin bread pudding, and groaningly heavy s'mores with thick cookies.

-- Rebekah Denn

PARTICIPATING RESTAURANTS

Restaurants participating in 25/$25 this month are: