Harbour Public House — Restaurant in Bainbridge Island

Went on a Friday night for a friends birthday and will not be returning. The place is small. Which may be fine if you are going for a very SHARED experience. It is a public house, so I get the idea. That part was fine. Don't go with a large party. You will be relegated to the back deck, which is nice enough, but also not roomy. They quoted us an hour and half to seat a group of eight, but made no attempt to ensure tables were vacated long enough to accommodate us. The deck ended up working out, only because we were out there long enough for a sufficient table to open up on the deck that we had to claim ourselves. Bartenders have zero urgency. The one guy behind the bar made no attempt to take orders for people standing and waiting for a drink. He acted more like a personal waiter for those lucky enough to grab a seat at the bar. The girl working behind the bar was attentive but was doing drinks for what seemed like the entire restaurant while the guy did very little. Finally got starter drinks after 10 minutes of standing there. Once "seated" our waitress was rude and very impersonal. Never got her name until we asked for it at the end of the night. We asked for a round of waters (not an unusual request, especially since we were drinking) and her reply, "that's going to take a long time." Really?! Eight waters? After that she continued her bluntness, taking only a few orders at a time. I suppose she didn't want to overwhelm herself with the 4 or 5 tables that were there... Like I said, it's not a big place. Every request seemed to irritate her. The food was delicious. That is the only reason for the two star, otherwise I would have gone with one star. It didn't take terribly long to get the food, but I also wasn't timing it. Fish tacos, calamari, poutine... all winners! Then the checks came. She made no attempt to combine checks to start because "it would be too complicated". She gave everyone an individual check so we could combine everything when we payed. Makes some sense. When we received the combined checks however, something was wrong. Luckily we had one person who had not had anything to drink with us who didn't understand why her combined check was $30 more than if she had payed individually. The waitress then came out to tell me I didn't pay her enough for the bill. Confused I asked her to show me what she was looking at. She tried to tell me that there are charges for the kitchen staff and the gratuity was already added for our large group, which I totally understood. What I couldn't understand is how $20 is 20% gratuity of $50... because it's not. After a few minutes of me explaining math to her, she said, "lets check the computer". Sure enough, it doubled the gratuity which she could easily see as she showed me the screen. She also had the ability to remove the gratuity, which she did. Then said, "Oh, you did give me enough". We left shortly after this. I feel like the additional gratuity was added to take advantage of seemingly inebriated people. Since she had the ability to remove it, she had the ability to add it also, perhaps hoping we wouldn't notice. If we paid with a card, I am not sure I would have picked up on the discrepancy, because we still tipped on top of the added gratuity which "was not...

After a pleasant morning at Bloedel Reserve we were hungry for lunch before taking the ferry back to Seattle. We were quoted a 45 minute wait, and it took just over this before our table was available. I liked that we could track our place in line on Yelp. To give you an idea, we were #8 on the list.

While we waited we had drinks out on the patio. It didn't take too long to get our drinks at the bar, but since the patio only has two tables, which were occupied, we sat along the railing. No problem, except there's nowhere to place your beer, so you end up with it in your hand or on the floor.

When we were finally seated, the server apologized that the other server had to go home. That's right - one server in the entire place. The hostess did help out, but it was obvious by the speed of service and attention we got that they were understaffed. Our server did her best, but it definitely slowed things down. Plus, I asked for water with our beer, and never got the water. I let it slide.

The food was bland. I was really looking forward to a tasty lunch after waiting so long. I had the cod and chips, my partner had the Trencherman burger, and we split the Classic Montréal poutine. The cod was pretty good (loved the tartar sauce, too!), but too damn expensive. I thought the fish and chips we had in Iceland was pricey, but this was even more expensive, for a smaller serving. The burger sucked. No seasoning. It was like eating cardboard. The poutine was also bland. Poutine is just a fancy word for gravy, and this gravy didn't have any taste whatsoever.

Finally, the insult that inspired me to write this review in the first place: the mandatory 5% kitchen gratuity. What the heck is this? I have NEVER IN MY LIFE paid a mandatory tip that went just to the kitchen staff. Translated, this fee means the owner is a greedy POS who underpays his cooks and then sneaks an extra fee onto your bill to make up for it. Had it been disclosed, we could have chosen whether we wished to eat here. Instead, there was no mention anywhere of this required fee. Sure, it's only a couple dollars, but merely on principle I have an issue.

Value? The place is way overpriced. The two of us had 2 beers each, a burger (no fries are included with the burger, by the way), side of bland poutine fries, and an order of fish and chips. This cost us $90....

It's apparent that The Harbour Public House survives on the high volume of tourists that are literally starving after waiting forty five minutes to board the ferry and another forty five minutes of voyage and traveling through town to the restaurant.

Upon arriving we were told that the wait time was 20 minutes and we were seated in slightly less than that time. With the prices for burgers between $15-$20 you would think that they would be some of the best in the Northwest. I was shocked that the trenchermen burger was not much larger than a slider, had a patty that was quite a bit smaller than the bun, included limp little fried onion pieces, and was essentially 90% bun. The fries were some of the worst ever. Limp, oily, and tasteless. Not a fan of trying to season food that has been professionally prepared.

The saving grace on food was an accidental order of the hummus plate. We were so famished that we wanted something out quick and opted to share a hummus plate and then share a burger. This was a good move, because the burger took about thirty minutes to arrive. Coming in at only $7, the green chickpea & garlic hummus was well prepared and served with a side of fresh cucumber slices and red pepper. Most bars serve hummus with pickled veggies, so the fresh selection was a pleasant surprise. Rather than pita, eight crusty, toasted french baguette slices are served. It was an extremely satisfying and light alternative to everything else on the menu. They did charge $2 more for four slices of additional bread and some additional veggies, but with a total of only $9 the hummus plate was a very good deal and is the primary reason the restaurant earns a three star rather than a one or two.

The service was descent. It was not top notch, but it was apparent the two servers were outnumbered by the never ending sea of rapacious tourists that pour through the doors all afternoon. Our server was friendly and the order was spot on although you could see the fatigue had set in which always makes the diner feel a little guilty for even sitting down to eat.

With the harbor view and large beer selection, the restaurant could be great if they altered their burger menu. However, they probably do not have to as long as the ferry boats continue to shuttle thousands of hungry patrons to their...