Cruiser Cafe — Restaurant in Eatonville

I had two off ranch horse training sessions with clients today. After my first session, Ray and I excitedly drove here, looking forward to breakfast. Unfortunately, for us, there was not a parking spot to be had. Judging by the outside tables which were full of diners, it was obvious they were packed. We ended up having a disappointing meal at what used to be a very good Eatonville restaurant.

After completing my second training session, I was a little overheated as it was a beautiful warm day. Ice cream, or some sort of dessert, sounded like a plan, so without hesitation, back to Cruiser’s we went.

The restaurant is an old remodeled house, just one block past the traffic light, where you turn left on your way to Mt. Rainier. Unlike earlier where we faced disappointment, we were able to get a parking place and an inside table.

All of the servers were busy with diners, so there was a bit of a wait to be seated. Once seated we were handed menus, and ice water, but we were already looking at the ice cream and milk shake choices on the huge white board prominently displayed behind the counter.

Ray ordered a banana milkshake. I was vacillating between the raspberry sorbet and the huckleberry ice cream. After a few more minutes of deliberation, and no help from our server, because she liked them both, (LOL), I finally settled on the huckleberry ice cream in a waffle cone.

Both choices were excellent. Ray’s milkshake was huge. It not only filled his glass but the canister it was made in, was easily half full.

My waffle cone was stuffed to the top and then some. The ice cream was delicious.

I told Ray to leave room because I knew I was not going to be able to finish my cone. I was right. Ray finished off the rest of my cone and we brought home the rest of his milkshake.

Cruiser’s is named for the Eatonville High School Mascot. There are school pictures everywhere, as well as band, football, and cheerleader’s uniforms mounted on the walls.

Their food is excellent!! We have never had a bad meal, or even a mildly disappointing one. Meals are made to order and come out at the appropriate temperature, hot or cold. There has alway been enough to take home. Service has always been excellent and attentive.

As we were leaving and walking out the door, the mountain “was out today”. I took a picture of what could be seen, from Cruiser’s front porch.

I am looking forward to more off ranch, Eatonville located training sessions. While not far, Eatonville is not on the way to anywhere other than Alder, and Mt. Rainier. This will give me another reason to go to...

It is not often that a restaurant surprises you by being so far above the bar, but that's what we experienced today. The first thing you see is that it is in a converted house. When we walked in, there was a wait (which is always a good sign). We were seated and staff was young people. With all the recent talk about the gen Z stare, I wasn't expecting much from the service. Boy was I wrong. We have a non-verbal 22 year old special needs son and our 18 year oldish waiter acknowledged all three of us, brought him a menu and asked about his motor control and if he needed a lid for his drink Which our son did. Then, he brought our son's meal first because he had asked the kitchen to get it out quicker so he could get his meal as quickly as possible to help him. We still have to feed our son and the waiter stopped by and laughed that he wished his mom would feed him like that. Through the entire meal, he met our son where he was and shared in our lunch experience with him. It is rare to find anyone who truly understands how to treat special needs people in a way that both respects them as people and also meets their special needs, let alone in someone so young. He made our experience there memorable.

Oh...and they have food there too and it was equally as surprisingly good. All three milkshakes were superb. The tots were perfect and the fry sauce made them better. They had a blackberry vinaigrette that was amazing. The burgers were great and I just wish that we lived closer to try everything else.

Thank you Cruiser Cafe for capping off my son's 22nd birthday weekend with such a...

I've travelled over 35 states and eaten food at several restaurants in the past 11 years I've been in USA. I've never felt ill treated like this place, ever. The waiters were rude and refused to even come to our table when the place was mostly free. My wife, her friend & I visited this restaurant on Aug 4th at 2:30 PM. The place wasn't busy and 3 indoor tables were free. When I asked if I could get at table for three, the girl who was placing silverware on an empty table replied in rude tone "I'm not a waitress, ask someone else". She works there and knew they have open seating!! When I approached other waiters, they totally ignored me. I finally called a waiter and asked about seat. He said it is open seating. We took an empty table by the entrance. The waiters walked pass us and at times look at us but never came to us to provide menu or give an additional silverware. After about 10 minutes of waiting we saw two groups of people came and sat on the next two empty tables. The waiters immediately placed additional silverware and gave them the menu and started taking order. They simply ignored our existence. It took a while to understand an open discrimination is going on. We left politely. Not sure what was the basis of the discrimination. Perhaps it was the way I look or the way I speak or something else but I saw something extremely odd about this place that I never experienced...