Axe & Arrow Gastropub — Restaurant in Bremerton

7/9/21 Axe and Arrow's location is downtown Bremerton; it's nice to know they survived the challenging times of the past year and a half, especially since they opened in 2019 and Covid has demolished many businesses, especially small ones. It's been forever since I last drove downtown Bremerton, mainly because my hubby works from home and not Seattle anymore, so commuting on the ferry is out. We wanted to try someplace local that wasn't a chain restaurant/fast food. Axe and Arrow's food menu wasn't overwhelming but enough to pique our interest. For that being said, their drink menu left me reading and re-reading a few different times, not that I was planning on ordering any alcohol, but there was so much to read, especially if your a Whisky fan lol; and my husband did enjoy a beer, Hefeweizen one at that.

The choice was tough, but I ordered something I would generally avoid ordering because I rarely eat deep-fried foods, but I splurged and ordered their seafood platter and my husband ordered the 1/2 pound wagyu burger deluxe. For anyone who doesn't know what Wagyu beef is, to sum it up in a small paragraph, it is a Japanese cattle that produces highly marbleized beef, and it is known to be healthier but more expensive

My seafood platter came with a healthy amount of french fries, along with two pieces of beer-battered Mahi and a handful of coconut shrimp and calamari, plus three hush puppies. All I can say is I wish there would have been more hush puppies; I usually am not a fan of those, but these were delicate, and the flavor popped! The Maui fish was good, and I loved the coconut shrimp, tons of coconut adorned these excellent size shrimp. The calamari, well, it was my least favorite; I'm not saying they tasted terrible or that the texture was weird; I just felt there wasn't a lot of the "calamari" taste and most of the flavor I received was the batter. But the hush puppies ranked supreme. And just so you know, half of my food went to my hubby!

My hubby's burgers hosted some tomato, onion, lettuce, bacon, and cheese, dressed with a garlic aioli sauce, a house-made habanero pickle, and fries on the side. According to him, he enjoyed it, and it really looked great!

Dustin was our waiter, and while having no significant complaints about him, meaning Dustin was pleasant and mannerly, he wasn't too attentive; there were a couple of times we had to seek him out, and he only checked on us once. But, towards the end, another employee named George came and chatted up a storm with us; he was genuinely funny, friendly, and polite; I recommend asking for George as your server; at least, I think he was a server!

About their restroom, I hope there was more than just the one, but what I saw and used was unisex, and a little on the messy side, especially since they are only open for dinner time, either someone forgot to clean the night prior or there were a lot of messy customers in 20 minutes. The counter needed to be wiped down, and several tiny shards of toilet paper cluttered the floor. Overall, the restaurant was unique, lively, crowded, and quite the line of people waiting to get in. Axe & Arrow opens at 5 pm, and we happened to arrive at 5:10 pm, and it was already busy.

You can dine in or dine outside; either way, I definitely recommend trying them out and supporting their locally owned small business!!!

Axe & Arrow Gastropub is located at 232 4th Street, Bremerton, WA. By the way, 4th Street happens to be a one-way street, as an FYI. Axe & Arrow is straight across from Fairfield Inn & Suites by Marriott Hotel and is neighbors with Dog Days Brewing and Valentinetti Puppet Museum.

Downtown Bremerton has grown significantly, Plus with ferry and shipyard traffic, I recommend planning ahead for parking; there is some street parking, not a lot, and I believe there is a couple of parking garages off Washington Avenue.

Enjoy the Summer, eat, drink and...

I was over all disappointed with my visit from start, to finish. I walked in with a party of 5, and we weren't greeted initially. After 1-2 mins, I decided to time how long it would take before a single employee ( hostess, bartender, waiter, etc) acknowledged that we were in the building, expecting to drop a decent amount of money on dinner and drinks.

It took 11 minutes. 11 minutes of watching countless employees scurry around us, without saying anything other than excuse me. Not off to a good start. We then we’re told we would be on a waiting list for 20 mins or so. I wasn’t too upset about that, considering businesses are still currently required to enforce covid rules, but I WAS upset I had to wait 11 mins to be told that.

Once we we’re seated, our server seemed impatient and unaware of current stock of items. They were out of ingredients to make the 3 cocktails we wanted. Took at least 15 mins for our flight of beers- those were good, at least. The waiter forgot one of my friends beers all together, and they were too annoyed to try to order another.

We ordered 2 apps: chicken lettuce wraps and lava fries. Chicken wraps were overpriced for the 3 Romain leaves and super salty chicken. The lava fries were incredibly bland, and wasn’t Anything to rave about. After waiting about 30 minuets after our apps were brought to us, our dinner came. Every plate was flavorless, and bland. Presentation, was great, however. The worst part about this experience, is that the restaurant is gorgeous, and they have the right idea. If management could pair the setting, with employees that seem interested in serving our community with a smile on their faces, and some extra flavor in the food, it would be the place to go. Until that changes, I will...

Did not live up to expectations. The building itself is very nice and looked like a ritzier place than normal for the area. First issue is there was no hostess at the waiting area with a sign that said please wait to be seated. The wait staff did not look interested in coming over to seat us and finally a second group that came in later than us went and grabbed someone to come sit people. The menu was small but looked interesting and while on the higher end for quality food it would be expected to pay a premium. Wife and I shared the lettuce wraps appetizer which sadly turned out to be the best part of the meal we had that night. I ordered the Wagyu cheeseburger and asked them to hold the bacon because I do not eat pork. The wife ordered the crab stuffed halibut dinner with roasted brussel sprouts and potatoes. The waiter was friendly, however had to be reminded about requests and the service was slightly below premium standards. The lettuce wraps were decently flavored and were enjoyable. The Wagyu cheeseburger came out with bacon on it and I only caught it because I have a habit of cutting my burgers in half. I mentioned it to the waiter and there was an awkward silence and then an apology and an offer to refire the burger. I chose to pull the bacon off and ate it. The burger was juicy and cooked to a nice medium however the taste was just off and I couldn't identity what it was. The wife's dinner had a strong fishy smell and she said the brussel sprouts were very bland. She ended up using a lot of lemons to cut the fishy taste and smell but the dinner was not what was expected for the price. I can see some potential for the place, but I believe they need some quality control of the food and more...