The Cedars Public House — Restaurant in Battle Ground

Alright. Where do we start? First off, we’d like to preface this review by formally noting that we are reasonable people and were excited to try out a new local restaurant…but is was remarkably unremarkable to say the least.

Let’s talk about the food - the menu was pretty limited to begin with, slim pickings but we get it - they’re new. We decided on the nachos and caesar salad. The salad was so salty I couldn’t really eat it. They obviously didn’t bother to “toss” said salad because all the dressing was in singular location. It’s hard to screw up a caesar salad but they have mastered this art. Speaking of mastering screw ups - who was given the responsibility of choosing the chip selection for the nachos?? Rock hard kettle chips with a particularly stingy ration of cheese. And yes it continues to go downhill from there with some weird, hippie salsa that had no flavor. But the sprouts were a nice little touch 🤔 we suppose.

The Moscow mule was stubbornly low on alcohol, ironically. The sprite my boyfriend ordered was passable. Though we had to fetch our own water -which to their credit was cold! Bonus.

What further drew our focus from our remarkable meal was the lack of air conditioning on this 94 degree day. Forget about a romantic meal with my boyfriend when I look like I just stepped out of a swamp.

Speaking of swamps, it must have seemed like a treacherous journey back to our table because after the waitress dropped off our food, she was never to be seen again. The feeling of isolation was palpable but luckily we could see the two disheveled bartenders busy flirting away with the same girl over and over. We were rooting for them from our desert island swamp, 🌴. Sadly, they must have had the wrong bait because she wasn’t biting …

When you first walk in, it’s a conundrum. It’s like a budlight wrapped in a polo shirt. White table clothes that are stained but yet crumbed to perfection (kudos to the expert bartender/decrumber). Are we in a country club or a cafeteria? No one can tell. Maybe that’s part of the charm.

We left sweaty, hungry, and slightly poorer. Heads up - you order your food and beverages at the counter and pay up front which includes the tip. 👀 My boyfriend of course always leaves a minimum of 20%, regardless of service. Good thing it was his turn to pay…

We will be wishing them all the best from our air conditioned home while we have dinner tonight (after our...

First off the band [Thilo Kluth Trio] was phenomenal (6/15/24)! If they play again (which I believe they said they would play during the summer) we will be back!

The music although fantastic was very loud on the non bar side, hard to hear those at your table.

Food and drinks are ordered at the bar. Drinks are picked up at the bar and food is delivered to the number you're given.

My group ordered a variety of dishes; Irish Nachos, Mezze Plate, Garlic Lime Chicken Soup, Screaming Eagle Sandwich, In-Club Sandwich, and all 3 desserts. Along with the Champagne Bronze, Bye Bye Birdie (this one got recorded), and peach cider (Cider Boys on tap, if I heard correctly).

The Irish Nachos are okay, very dry. Baked kettle chips with cheese and toppings. A lot of toppings fell to the plate, it came with a dip on the side although I'm not sure what it was. A scoop of sour cream would go a long way, maybe even flavored to kick it up.

The Mezze Plate also offered a dry selection; everything on the plate needs to be dipped in the hummus which was the same portion to everything else on the plate, meaning there was not enough to go around. Also, the feta in the dish with no spoon is a bit odd, I love feta but adding crumbles to dry pita bread is kinda silly.

The Garlic Chicken soup is good, lots of flavor and chicken. Soup is served in large and small.

The Screaming Eagle was pretty good, lots of layers. I swapped the chips for fries and that was a good choice, but be sure to ask for dipping sauce when you order.

The In-Club was big, I didn't catch a report, but it was good I think.

All 3 desserts were fantastic! Do yourself a favor and try the Citrus Sunrise cake, it's sublime! The flavor, texture, added candied orange and sugar crunch.. everything was spot on. The I Love You Lava was served warm and gooey. The Say-Cheese Cake was yummy too.

A few additional notes; self-serve water station, get your own silverware (rolled in a cloth napkin), self-bus your table.

Overall a great night out for a new place working the kinks out, and we are looking forward to some jazz filled summer nights!...and cozy winter one with the massive fireplaces (maybe some big couches or arm chairs in...

I wanted this to be good but it wasn’t. I mean who wouldn’t want a great restaurant within walking distance of their house? I live in the neighborhood and I would like if there was a good restaurant nearby, but I was disappointed. The food wasn’t very good and we got what they said was the most popular. We ordered the brisket sandwich and baked Mac. I got and baked Mac with brisket and the flavor was ok but they both were very dried out like they had been reheated it got left in the oven way too long. The $4 with of brisket was more crunchy that the Mac and cheese. It was so dry I had to take drink of water with each bite. My wife said the brisket sandwich she ordered was not good, the brisket didn’t even compare to my brisket I make, which I barely felt was a compliment after chewing on what I got. She also got the wedge salad was ok but was sitting in a soup of way too much dressing. I’m a proud member of the clean your plate club but even I couldn’t clean my dried out plate! We both left half our food uneaten. The service was friendly responsive but then again it was pretty empty even for a Sunday night. The menu was sparse with only a few sandwiches and Mac and cheese and a couple other item for main dishes. The atmosphere was cozy, with the fireplace, but it’s just an open room with a bunch of tables no booths. Mostly it was the food, I would think with such a small menu the food they serve would be really good otherwise how will they stay in business? Also is it too much to ask for a good steak and a salmon option, and maybe some good pasta or something? I’m sorry, for the bad review, I’m not that picky but they seriously need to up their game. I hope they take this and this helps them become a better restaurant, I want them to succeed but it will take some big changes to get me back...