Anthony's HomePort — Restaurant in Des Moines

Monday we had a desire to attend Anthonys for the Sunset Dinner. Rare occasion where my Wife had the day off work so I took it off as well. We just won a racing Championship 2 days before and thought this would be a good way to Celebrate. I looked up the website and saw the end time for the sunset dinner was 5:30pm but no start time. I called and they said it starts at 3:30 (It was about that time at that time) and that you have to be there by 5:30. They offered to make a reservation, I said sure how about 5:00, they said that was full they could do 5:15 but as long I was there by 5:30 I was good. I said okay. We drove from Enumclaw.... in Monday 4:00 traffic - thinking over an hour would be enough time. As we got closer we realized it was going to be cutting it close..... we dashed 3 yellow lights and traffic opened enough to get there right at 5:25pm. My Wife went in and checked in. I parked and made it in at 5:28. The person at the desk said they were very busy and we would need to wait for a table.... that if we did not order our food by 5:30 we would not be able to have the sunset dinner as an option. I let her know we made a reservation, she said let me look it up and she found it.... and said we would be seated soon. There were 3 in our party. Other groups of people came, checked in and were seated, came, checked in and were seated. Over and over. We were alone in lobby waiting. I told my Wife if we get seated and they say that the Sunset Dinner is not an option I say we go somewhere else. This made her very upset. I was allready very upset. Not long after the Hostess came over and said we will have a table for you soon and we will include the Sunset dinner menu. It was too late. I was really disgusted with how this went. We played by your rules.... and this is how were treated? About 10 minutes later we were seated. Our Waitress was glowing. A lovely person. But the damage had been done. My Wife tried to make the best of it. We did order from the Sunset Dinner Menu but I felt uncomfortable doing that like we were likely going to upset the Kitchen staff or something. The waitress casually said its fine. We ordered Mint Mojito cocktails. They were awful. No flavor. I asked the waitress to bring a small cup of simple syrup from the bar so we could add it to the drink. She did, then it was tolerable however the amount of rum in the cocktail was undetectable. Due to medical dietary restrictions white Rum is the only type of alcohol my Wife can have. And we love Mojitos. My Wife ordered the Salmon, I ordered the shrimp. Fish and Chips for our Daughter. The food was so so at best. My Shrimp were rubbery and my rice was dried out.... the person who brought the plates emphasised how hot the plates were. It was like they sat under the heat lamp too long. MY Daughters Fish and French Fries were fine, My Wifes Salmon was dry. We ate all of the food. We were hungry and the portions were small.. The parking at this location is a hassle. You have to get a parking pass then validate the parking. Then we decided after dinner to take our daughter for a walk down the marina and back. When we left we still had to pay $5.50 for parking. The $5.50 is nothing but the gates, paying and all that are a hassle. I have been going to this Anthonys since the early 1990s and it was always lovely. There were no paying tolls or gates..... this really takes away from the experience. Last time we went to Anthonys it was at Point Defiance and it was wonderful. Mid day, no reservation on a Sunday. This experience here was really bad. I am not Mad at Anthonys. This is my Parents favorite restaurant. I did tell them about it because they were eager to hear how wonderful it was. But I told them they should still go and enjoy it. I will however make different choices when that time comes obviously. I attempted to send this review directly through their website discreetly and it says that the reviewer is blocked from being able to submit reviews. Well then. I definitely will not be returning to Anthonys....

So very disappointing to have such a terrible experience and a wedding anniversary ruined by a place we once loved so much. I don't know what happened, but the quality of everything (even including clientele) has drastically gone down. The overall experience, I would liken to walking into a corporate chain like Outback or some other sub par restaurant. The two positives, are that whoever their cook is, they have know the temps for a proper steak. And the Mousse was excellent. Smooth, rich, but not heavy, wonderfully done whoever their pastry chef is. But quite literally every other aspect of our evening was just mediocre at best. My husband requested a romantic table for two for our wedding anniversary, way ahead of time and for a Tuesday. He informed them of our special occasion ahead of time.

We got seated at a bistro sized table directly by the kitchen entry. Loud, busy, and mentally just exhausting. There was no mention of our anniversary at all. They left empty plates all over the tiny little space we had, we were unable to sit comfortably having to naviagte around all the empty dishes they left.

Now the food. We ordered tempura asparagus. They delivered tempura green beans. When asked, it was, "yeah sorry, we ran out so we used green beans." That's not what we ordered. And not what was on the menu. We poured our own wine. Because after half way through dinner it was still sitting corked on our table.

Whatever "cornbread" side they paired with their filet was a repulsive gooey mess. Like it got thrown into a rosemary plant after going through a blender. Then soaked in cheese and slapped on the plate. The presentation was awful, all the food was just thrown on our plates.

The clientele nowadays, was screaming in the parking lot when we got there, and dressed like they're in mid day on a patio at home. One man next to us belched so loudly I lost my appetite. The way he just grinned around the room and didn't even excuse himself was so disrespectful of others.

This is sadly no longer a nice, hidden, little upscale restaurant. Yet their prices have drastically increased, as if they are.

We will continue to enjoy establishments like Salty's, Nell's, Il bistro, Stanely and Seafort's, Portland City Grill, Maximilian, Pink Door, etc, where the people who run the restaurant know how to conduct themselves in a fine dining establishment, as do the people who come in.

And we will have to try again for a wedding anniversary celebration that doesn't...

See update below:

I really wish this place had better food. This was our third and last time coming. I should have realized this when the bread basket was my only favorite part of the meal. Their fish lacks flavor, honestly just a bit of salt for goodness sakes. The waitstaff is always superb and the views are amazing, but for the price and lack luster food, it’s not worth it. I’m sad, because we are locals and wish so badly their food was better flavored, or flavored at all.

Update: I was contacted by the manager and after several communications we were offered a dinner for two for free. I genuinely appreciate the time and effort this took. We arrived for lunch on a Saturday. They were still using the limited brunch menu by 12:15 so I asked our waitress if the lunch menu was available. After some time, she came around with the menu. Great! Our waitress was new so we had a feeling that things could be interesting. We never got waters, never got a bread basket, never got our appetizers and I barely got another drink order in which didn’t come until after our food. The waitress apologized and comped us a desert. I got the salmon tacos which were good! Well seasoned, but the chips were obviously bought and warmed. My husband got the salmon omelette, which he said was alright but not as good as Wild Wheat.

Once we sent the check with the gift certificate the manager came over and spoke with us a bit. I really appreciated this, it was genuine and intentional. Overall, the management is very responsive but the servers should be better trained and the bussers were seen standing around when many table had no water including ours (bussers can multi-task). It wasn’t all bad, but there is certainly room for...