Silver Salmon Grille — Restaurant in Astoria

If you are from out of town you will probably agree with my review. Seems the locals love this place, or how else could it have ever achieved 4.4 stars?

We came at 5pm on a Sunday and found the place empty. We should have turned around and walked out the moment we came in. I get that it's an old restaurant, but that old musty and mildewy smell just should not be so prevalent.

Everything about this place said get out. Unfortunately, I was wholly misled by the menu posted online and felt somewhat confident that the food would make up for our other concerns.

Really should have listened to my gut, which had gone from starving to feeling like I didn't want to eat for another week. That's how strong the gut feeling was to leave this place before we ever ordered.

Anyways, being an hour and a half from home and not wanting to restart the process of finding another place to eat, we dug into the menu and very quickly realized two things. One, the prices were on average $3 higher than on the website and two, you could tell from each menu item that all this establishment had was a freezer and that NOTHING, I MEAN NOTHING that came from the ocean had been there anytime in recent history.

Yes, this means that all shrimp were of the coconut variety (FROZEN), the only crab in the building was dungeoness (CANNED), and the only fish available per the namesake is Salmon (probably FROZEN). And for an establishment where everything is north of $20 for chicken and $30 for beef or seafood, this perceived lack of quality was truly alarming.

Again, we wanted to give them a chance. The flavors promised by the menu descriptions seemed to fly directly in the face of the truly run down atmosphere (and the bum sleeping out front).

It took one hour from the time we arrived to an empty restaurant to receive our food. We probably could have avoided even tasting it based solely on the presentation. However, having basically already decided that we weren't paying for this and would be moving on, we felt it necessary to try a few bites just to bolster our inevitable complaint to management.

Yep, two bites in my "ribeye", used quotation marks for a reason, and after my wife and daughter each had two bites of their bagged frozen chicken breast/canned crab concoction, we knew with certainty that it was time to get out of there.

Meals were removed from the bill. Paid for our drinks and got THE HELL out of there.

Our appetites were ruined and we ended up at...

The staff was amazing, the wine list was solid, and some of the food was edible. Unfortunately, that's about all that can be said in favor of the Silver Salmon dining experience. We entered the lobby with a reservation and saw that the restaurant was not obeying social distancing in any way, shape or form. The owner came up to take us in, and she was wearing her mask only over her mouth. We said we were not comfortable dining in, but would love to put in a take out order if that were possible. She courteously said of course, brought the bartender over, who was also very kind, and we placed an order for one fish and chips, with a side Caesar salad, and one blackened salmon & garlic mashed potatoes with chowder. The bartender also offered a dessert selection, for which the presentation was very nice, and we selected the hazelnut brownie sundae and the key lime pie. We also purchased a bottle of Oregon wine. Flash forward twenty minutes or so, we received two bags with our order and left on the 3.5 minute drive to our residence. Upon arrival, we saw that we had received the entrees but not the side dishes (Caesar salad, clam chowder). The chips and fish were soggy in a way that suggested they had not been cooked thoroughly - the minimal amount of condensation inside the clamshell and complete lack of browning on the fried items indicated the undercooking. The salmon was well cooked but the mashed potatoes were, ahem, chunky with huge uncooked pieces of potato that felt like biting into a crisp apple. Not pleasant. "Well, at least we have dessert!" we thought! Alas... Dessert was possibly more depressing than dinner. I attached photos of the "slice" (more of a pile) of key lime pie I received. I held the desserts stable on the way home and in no way did I cause damage to them. I simply cannot believe a reputable establishment would serve something that looked like this. Additionally, the hazelnuts were absent from the brownie. The brownie has the texture and taste of a box mix. All in all a very disappointing dinner. TLDR: Save yourself from the disappointment and...

My family of six decided to have a celebratory dinner after receiving our tax refund. After deliberating over several restaurants, we decided on Silver Salmon Grille and headed from Seaside to Astoria. We arrived at approximately 6:30 pm on a Wednesday, and were seated immediately. April gave us our menus and silverware, and Donald was our server. As a family of six, we are used to waiting several minutes for food and drink, simply due to the number. We are also a restaurant family, as each of the adults have worked in many a restaurant at different points of our lives, so we know what's acceptable and what's not. Well, April brought us waters within two minutes of sitting down, and Donald came in soon after with our dinner drinks. We decided on the calamari and cheese bread for appetizers, and no joke, they were at our table in less than 5 minutes! The calamari was perfectly seasoned and fried, and the cheese bread was loaded with garlic and mozzarella. Donald took our orders, and soon after brought out my cup of clam chowder. When we were finished with the appetizers and chowder, our food was at the table! Pictures are of our entrées. Now, being the foodies we are, my husband inevitably finds at least one thing wrong with either the drinks, the food, or the service at every restaurant we visit. NOT THIS TIME! He ordered the Jambalaya, and ate in peace! Not one complaint!! I was also impressed with the coconut beer prawns and the cajun orange marmalade. I'm not one for very spicy food, but the cajun marmalade was actually delicious and paired excellently with the prawns! Portions were in line with the price of each entrée. Then came the dessert tray! We were all stuffed, but decided to take some to go. It did not disappoint! I ordered the brownie a la mode. Fresh, gooey brownie, with decadent hot fudge sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream -- to die for! Overall, for drinks, appetizers, entrées, and desserts, it ended up being about $30/person. Not somewhere we'd be able to go any random weekend, but DEFINITELY somewhere we'd like to go again for...