The Fairhaven — Restaurant in Burlington

I had the opportunity to take a day trip down to Burlington recently and wow, what an eye-opener! It's only about twenty miles away, but it feels like stepping into a whole different world. The vibe is just so much better than Bellingham in every way imaginable. Driving down the street doesn't make me feel like I'm taking my life into my own hands. The parks are so much cleaner. I didn't see a single bag of dog poop left lying by the side of the trail. And the people are so much friendlier! I took my kid to the park to play and he ran and played with other kids who didn't ignore him or push him out of the way. I even saw adults playing with their children instead of slopped onto nearby benches, faces glued to their phones. At one point, a game of freeze tag broke out that ended up absorbing everyone at the playground. I even had a small child approach me after playing trucks with my son for a while, and instead of his mother swooping in to whisk him away to safety we had a pretend Harry Potter-style spell battle for about five minutes before he wandered off to find someone else to play with.

So it follows that if they get everything else right, the food must be miles better than in Bellingham too, right? Absolutely!

We stopped off at a little sandwich shop called The Fairhaven (no idea if it's connected to Bellingham's retirement district) to pick up some lunch and boy howdy am I glad we did. I called ahead and ten minutes later we came out with a Chicken Bahn Mi and a Muffaletta Sandwich. Their website claims that all of their bread is baked in-house using flour from a local mill, and you can absolutely tell the difference.

The Bahn Mi was a new one for us. If you're not familiar with this, it's a Vietnamese sandwich filled with pickled veggies and some kind of meat on a crusty French roll. The chicken version comes with marinated thigh meat, and I'd normally say that the dark meat is a weird choice for a sandwich like this, but I'd have been wrong. It was perfectly grilled and glazed with a ginger soy sauce that reminded me of homemade teriyaki. All of the disparate elements combine to form a spicy, salty, crunchy, lip-smacking combination that makes you wonder where this sandwich has been all your life.

The real stand-out winner, though was the Muffaletta. Four Italian meats, two cheeses, olive spread, with fresh tomato in the middle, this is simultaneously the best sandwich and pizza you've ever had. The Sicilian sesame roll is perfectly-textured to soak up all the flavor from the olive spread and is sturdy enough to hold everything in place but not so tough it doesn't come away cleanly with each bite. I can say that this was, hands-down, the best sandwich I have eaten in Washington State. I'm sure this sandwich could throw down with any Muffaletta off the streets of New Orleans, and if there's anyone who wants to send me down there to find out, I'd be more than happy to try!

It would be a forty minute round trip for me to patronize this restaurant again, and it's absolutely telling that I'd consider it. I imagine that Burlington is, to most people in Bellingham, just some place you drive through on the way to Seattle. If that's you, the next time you pass by, stop and get a sandwich at The Fairhaven. You might just discover a whole new world you didn't know you...

I have always had the best food at the Fairhaven. This day I ordered the veggie sandwich....don't remember if it said grilled or not....and fries. The fries were barely crisp on the outside and mushy on the inside. The size of the fries and the mushy inside led them to be bland & tasteless, definitely NOT enough seasoning, garlic & parsley etc. The sandwich came wrapped nicely in parchment paper. Unwrapped it to steam rising and a wonderful aroma. That's about all that was good about it. The vegetables were over cooked and dripping with oil. It was not 'grilled' over wood or charcoal, maybe just on flat kitchen griddle. The bread is usually the highlight of a sandwich there. That day the bread was soggy due to it being wrapped in parchment paper. The bread was soaked in oil. The tray was sat in front of me with two containers of something. Not sure if I was supposed to use it for the fries or the sandwich, but no explanation was given by server. I tasted them. One was a lemon mayo the other I have no idea what the flavor of the mayo was. No cutlery. No service check during the meal. The ambiance is ok. It's very very noisy when packed. You can't hear the music. If you wear hearing aides without ambiance noise block....this is NOT the place for you. On good weather days there is always outdoor seating. But on inclement weather days there are very few inside tables, so there's a backup and tight quarters. Go give it a try. If they have the muffaletta sandwich that day try it. It's super yummy. Hard to find a muffaletta west of the Mississippi. Oh parking lot is difficult, better to park in lot on...

Didn't take any pictures of my food because I couldn't wait to taste it! We came for our first time on a Sunday, a limited menu but certainly not disappointing. I had huevos Rancheros. 2 poached eggs atop 2 tamales, sour cream, guacamole, pico and topped with fresh cilantro. With a delicious spicy sauce on the side. The flavors were perfect, I scarfed it down in no time and it filled me up but I wanted more deliciousness so I helped my son finish his. He had steak and scrambled eggs with hashbrowns and an english muffin. The tri-tip steak was cooked perfect medium rare and sliced on the plate, excellent flavor and tenderness. The eggs were scrambled just right, not dry and overdone. The hashbrowns were freshly grated potatoes, piled thick and cooked with a nice crispy crust on top and bottom. The freshly made English muffin was light and crispy and large and served with raspberry freezer jam. I cant say enough about our delicious meal. Took home a brownie and a couple snickerdoodle cookies.. Ill be back during lunch time and am looking forward to trying the reuben, the cuban and the fried chicken sandwich. My compliments to the chef! Well done sir! (Both my son and myself are...