Some of the best meals happen because nobody planned them. We weren’t hunting a famous restaurant. We were staying in a villa in Belltown, wandering on foot with no map and no reservation, following the salt air toward the water. Then the path ran out at a hotel perched on a pier, and the smell of butter and seafood did the rest.

That hotel was The Edgewater. The restaurant inside is Six Seven, hanging over Elliott Bay at 2411 Alaskan Way. It is walking distance from Belltown, which is exactly how we like our surprises: close, delicious, and a little bit smug about it.

Open seating means you pick your own spot, so naturally we picked the one with the best view. Beyond the bay, Mount Rainier showed up like it had an appointment. Nobody asked it to be that photogenic.

Let’s talk about the star. Six Seven’s Lobster Mac & Cheese comes in a four-cheese sauce, crowned with a golden brown butter crumb and finished with fresh chive. It is the kind of rich that makes the table go quiet: silky and creamy underneath, with a crisp, nutty crumb crackling over the top. And the lobster is sweet and tender, so you find it in more bites than you’d dare to hope for.

• Creamy
• Buttery
• Crunchy crumb
• Sweet lobster
• Chive

It’s a grown-up bowl of childhood joy. If you’ve ever wished mac and cheese could put on a nice jacket and go out to dinner, meet its fancy cousin.

We ordered the Caesar as a counterweight, and it turned out to be a worthy co-star. Crisp baby gem lettuce, crunchy croutons, a properly punchy Caesar dressing, and shavings of nutty Parmigiano Reggiano. It was cool and bright against the warm, buttery mac, with enough bite in the dressing to keep the whole table awake.

A bottle of spring water (which, fair warning, nudged our bill up) sat between us, doing its quiet job of resetting our palates between the creamy and the crisp. Sip, look out at the water, take another bite. Honestly, it’s a pretty great system, and we recommend it to anyone with a view like this one.

The food was delicious, start to finish. The view was the kind you photograph, put the phone down, then pick up again to photograph differently. Our server was friendly, and the service was great. We only dock points for the setup: with open seating, the waiter coverage felt a little unorganized, and it took a moment to figure out who had our table. It never hurt the meal, but it keeps the location score from climbing higher.