Anthony's Hearthfire Grill, Bellingham — Restaurant in Bellingham

For what we paid and experienced, this restaurant will NEVER get my business again.

My partner and I came here on a Tuesday night for a birthday dinner because we thought it would be a great experience with fine dining since it is seen as a high end restaurant. It ended up being the exact opposite with POOR FOOD and TREATMENT, and this has been ALL 3 of my 3 experiences with this chain restaurant Anthony's in Bellingham, both Anthony's Hearthfire Grill and the Anthony's Seafood restaurant just a few doors down..

We ordered the clam chowder and while my partner was eating it, he found a GIANT CHUNK OF PAPER in his soup larger then a quarter. So we sat there waiting patiently for the waitress to stop by our table again, as I didn't want to interrupt her work flow. The waitress never ended up checking back on us until our main entrees were complete. When we told the waitress about the paper in the soup, we got a blank, dead in the eye stare like she didn't understand why we were telling her. I had to tell her AGAIN, before I could get an initial response from her. The waitress decided to say what seemed unsympathetically to me, "OH, THATS AWKWARD" as she grabbed the dishes we had on the table and walked away not saying or offering anything else, yes.. very AWKWARD.

I decided to be patient and think maybe she'll give us some sort of discount for the disgusting, poor service we received when she gets us the bill. It NEVER CAME, we got the bill and we were charged full price.. included in the bill was the $15 Clam Chowder appetizer that we ordered with PAPER IN IT.. unbelievable.

There was a women at the table behind us who I overheard her get in another poor experience conversation, this seems to be a regular thing for this restaurant and they dont seem to really care.

I ended up still tipping the waitress at the end of the meal, cause I want to support our food handlers as much as I can, but this awful experience really made me want to leave them dry, like the blank unsympathetic stare and response I got when I told her there was paper in my food.

I dont think this is just a poor staffing situation, it seems to run up the ladder as well. There was a manager who I saw walking the floor, he walked by after I had told the waitress about the paper in the soup, but said nothing to our table. I also noticed he never checked on any of the other tables experiences, he just walked the floor on his tablet... Unbelievable.

Stay away from this restaurant, the food also seems to not really be made fresh, the mashed potatoes seemed on the cold side with a clear hardening happening on...

Sigh. Long story short, they ruined my filet mignon after almost an hour of waiting and then gave no compensation for ruining the steak.

I was pretty upset. Tonight the place was packed. The room was filled with a lot of high schoolers since it was prom night but there were your usual patrons. My family and I knew it was going to be a long wait since there were so many people.

After waiting a while we finally sat down and ordered our food. I ordered a filet mignon and I asked it for it medium-rare.

We waited a long time. I knew there was going to be a long wait since the place was packed so I didn't really mind. But we finally got our food after almost fifty minutes.

Once the waiter gave us our food. I cut into the filet mignon and holy...its well done. (For those who don't know, having a filet mignon, the most tender of steaks, cooked well done ruins the flavor and texture of the steak). I was so upset. The wait was not tolerable but this, THIS is unacceptable. The restaurant is a grill house; they are SUPPOSE to cook steaks perfectly. Out of all the steaks to ruin the young chefs in the back cooked a filet mignon WELL-DONE.

I left slices of the steak on the plate to prove to my waiter that this wasn't what I asked for. When our waiter walked up to check in on us, he already knew, muttering, "oh...that's not medium rare" and he took the steak back.

So now I have no steak I have already been waiting over an hour and starving. He offered a soup and more bread but I didn't want to fill up on those things.

Fifteen minutes later my steak arrived and it was properly cooked..

The worst part? THERE WAS NO FORM OF COMPENSATION ON OUR RECEIPT! Nothing. The least the restaraunt could do was offer a dessert free of charge or SOMETHING. I ended up paying for the full forty dollar steak after waiting close to an 90 mins.

If you eat just be careful how you order things. The kitchen is clearly visible and this night there were some younger looking chefs working the grill and to be honest they didn't seem to take the dinner service seriously and it was shown in a ruined steak of an expensive cut.

Think twice before you pay a lot...

I would like to thank Anthony's Hearthfire for the last two visits I had there. It was excellent service and I aporeciate their efforts. The food was delicious and exactly as we wanted it.

I will be giving an update soon as I have revisited this restaurant. 10/1/19

Giving a 2 because the steak Oscar was good. I'm so happy the food tasted good because the service was not. To be fair I would give a 2 1/2 but I don't have the option. From my experience in restaurant customer service I know that service should always be a top priority along with serving delicious food. I'm not sure if they were too short staffed today for a party but the service was very slow. I asked for bread and a refill on coke 3 times. I asked for a med well to well done steak (no pink) and got it with pink in it. It had good flavor, I just tried not to look at it as I ate. The bread came as I was eating my last bit of food. The coke came after I was done eating. When I took a sip, it was diet coke, so apparently I went on a diet during the meal. I just left it there. This normally wouldnt upset me except for the fact that I asked 3 times for my beverage. We were not asked if we wanted dessert till someone said something about 20 minutes after eating. At this point we just wanted to pay and go home. My husband and I waited for about 20+ minutes for our bill, it didn't come so we got up and asked for it. We stood up and waited another 10 minutes. Finally got the bill, we paid and left. Not too keen on going back. My husband has had my birthday and anniversary there several times. I think it's time to go somewhere else. I can't see spending money on food when the people who are serving me don't look at me as a critical piece of the business. Hello, customers make the business! We made a choice to walk in and eat at Hearthfire so that's on us but we also made a choice to walk out and not return and...