Arlis's Restaurant — Restaurant in Bellingham

I'm convinced that Bellingham just doesn't understand breakfast. Every time I try to find a breakfast spot it's either closed, terrible, or a bar. I just want to sit down, order some biscuits and gravy and some hash browns, and I'd prefer not to have to mortgage any of my internal organs to pay for it.

I'd slept on Arlis's for a long time, because it's downtown and I can't stand downtown. I couldn't stand it five years ago when I moved here, and it's only gotten worse ever since. If I go downtown, it's only ever under duress. Today happened to be one of those days. It was noon, I'd been out since eight, I hadn't eaten today, and I was able to convince myself that Arlis's was technically only on the edge of downtown so I could park a couple blocks away rather than deal with the nightmare that is downtown parking.

Now I'm regretting all the breakfasts I've missed out on over the years, because Arlis's was exactly what I'd been looking for. It's a classic diner, minus all the hipster nonsense the diners of today have adopted. The kind of place where the first question you hear upon walking in the door is "Can I get you some coffee?"

But it's breakfast I'm here for and breakfast I shall have. Here's a tip for all the food critics out there: get yourself a wife and child. You get to sample more of the food and you don't have to cook for them later! For our table today we had some biscuits and gravy (as previously alluded to), a chicken fried steak (because that's what the online review said to get), a slice of french toast (which the boy wasn't going to eat even though that's what he said he wanted), and a cinnamon roll (all three of us could agree on that at least).

All the food is exactly what you'd expect from a really good diner. Crispy hash browns, fluffy eggs, pancakes of perfect uniformity, sausage that's actually sausage and not Bellingham's usual unspiced-pork-substitute-derived-from-less-cute-animals. Cinnamon roll that's a bit chewy but that didn't stop a three-year-old from gobbling most of it down. It is, in a word, comfort.

The biscuits and gravy were, again, exactly what you'd expect. Not phenomenal, but at least you're getting what you paid for. The biscuits are a bit bland, but a whole order comes with two halved biscuits that are equal to four anywhere else. The gravy is a bit thick and probably reconstituted, and has less sausage in it than I'd like, but it's still actual gravy rather than some of the strange substances I've been served in Bellingham before. A little pepper from the shaker on the table and you'll be transported back to 6am diner breakfast on the family road trip.

The winner, as predicted by the internet, was the chicken fried steak. It was I Wish I'd Gotten This Instead Good. Crispy fried, full of flavor, the gravy on top working for it so much better than for the biscuits. It came with two eggs, half a plate worth of hash browns, and three pancakes and was probably THE perfect breakfast if I've ever seen one. It just felt like a little slice of something you don't see anymore, a relic of the past when eating a slab of batter-fried meat for breakfast was normal. There's a lot about the past I'm glad to leave behind, but it's also nice knowing I can go out and find some of the good parts that are...

Edit: I'm changing my review from 1 star to 2 stars, because the owner reached out to me in a very cordial manner in attempts to resolve my bad experience. They were kind enough to offer solutions, though I did decline them. So thanks be to the owner for trying to remedy the situation, I really appreciate it. Quality of food and service has gone way way downhill here.

I've been coming to this restaurant for 10 years, and in the last year or so, it has been strongly lacking in just about every way possible.

We sat down and waited for our order for half an hour. People who sat down after us were served (received better service than us too) and left before we even got our food. The waitress was barely attentive to us, we had to wave her down a couple of times in order to get my coffee refilled (don't get me wrong, she walked around with the coffee pot in hand to offer refills, but avoided our table for this every single time for some reason).

The food was bland. Ordered a potato scramble, the only flavorful bites came from the meat. The veggies were okay, but the potatoes were not skillet fried at all. They had been boiled and not seasoned, and relied entirely on the meat and cheese for flavor (when the plates were brought out, the cheese wasn't even melted - literally a fresh pile of cold shredded cheese slapped on top of a lukewarm plate of bland food). So it's like the meat and veggies were fried separately, then slapped on top of boiled potatoes (not fried), with cold cheese thrown on top. It was not satisfying, at all. I've ordered this multiple times before and absolutely everything was skillet fried together, so this change is new.

It seemed like our order was the last order to be taken care of. I really would've preferred that she just ask us to leave if serving us was such a big deal, because I would've gladly spent my money elsewhere.

We let the waitress know that we weren't satisfied, but she took that to mean that she could debate this with us by insisting that the potatoes were seasoned with salt and nothing else and that "this is how they've always been", she didn't say anything about their lack of being fried and not soft/mushy.

This place used to have staff that was friendly, fast, and efficient. Not sure what happened recently, but it has turned into a giant letdown for this avid bruncher. Won't be going back again, sadly.

If you want amazeballs breakfast, go to Homeskillet or the Daisy Cafe. They will absolutely hook you up with a great breakfast and...

First off, I eat out for breakfast ~3x a week on average. My experience here has been hit or miss over the course of about a dozen visits.

This last time was probably the worst so far. The restaurant was maybe 1/2 full on a weekday. One waitress seemed to be serving the whole place while another one looked around aimlessly by the pass like she needed a task. She dropped off a luke warm cup of coffee, no silverware, and took 10 more minutes to come back with water and a setting. From the point I sat down till the point I left (I ate in about 5 minutes to not be late for my next work alt) was 45 minutes. I'm sorry but if the coffee isn't hot and you can't keep my water glass full, I can't possibly give a decent review. One of my biggest pet peeves with restaurants is the use of very small glasses that require refilling constantly. If you're going to do that you have to have the service to back it up. Otherwise just use bigger glasses and bigger mugs. Since coffee and water are virtually free I don't see why some restaurants use such small place settings.

On the other side of things, the food is great here as long as you get it hot. Today I saw on average at least 12 plates piled up at the pass... meaning food was sitting quite awhile there. I believe they have heat lamps there but reheating food never tastes the same as it coming hot off the grill.

All in all, when the service is good here, you get a solid meal. I've just had mixed experiences with service here and I never have time to sit and wait for something to...