FIVE Restaurant — Restaurant in Edmonds

Made a reservation more than a week in advance for our party's dinner on a Saturday evening due to a recommendation from a friend. I requested specifically that our reservation comes with separate checks and for someone to call me if the restaurant could not accommodate. No phone call so I thought everything was fine. A day before, I called to confirm our table and was told they couldn't separate our checks and that each of us needed to calculate our own bill. Fine, I'll let this pass.

The day of: Got there a few mins early and asked to be seated to our table - no can do. Said that won't seat us until 6pm. I look around and see other tables which were open, but whatever.

Come 6pm, I asked to be seated again, the hostess tells me nope, they're still waiting for a table to be done. I look around again and see at least 3 large tables open so I asked for the manager. I'm told the manager isn't there that evening. But he'll personally take care of our desserts. Fine. Another 5, 10, 15 mins go by.

Find out this bright restaurant decided to make us wait for a table with kids that sat down at 4:30pm that decided to order desserts at this point.

Get your scheduling priories straight. You NEVER schedule a table less than 2 hrs apart. The restaurant could have made this right by allowing us to sit at another table since they mucked it up to begin with, but instead chose to make us wait even though we had a damn reservation. So the group decided to just walk out and eat elsewhere around 6:20. I get a courtesy email stating the restaurant canceled our reservation. Hahaha - you mean to say WE WALKED OUT DUE TO YOUR MANAGEMENT/SCHEDULING ISSUES. Restaurant may have good reviews here and there, but you lost 6 customers in addition to everyone else we'll be passing...

This is a review of our most recent experience -- past visits have been much better. We went to Five last night and were completely underwhelmed by the service and by the food. To start, one of us had a glass of the house red, and there was something floating in it, possibly a fruit fly, possibly something else. The hostess came by because she noticed us looking in it. She looked, decided that it wasn't a fruit fly, but was more likely a thread from the towels they use to dry them. She said she'd bring another glass if we really wanted her to. I'd say at that point, you should just bring the other glass.

Moving on the food, we split the arugula salad and the flank steak. The salad was very one-dimensional, with a strong taste of lemon juice (I think) in the dressing, but not much else. The steak was a huge disappointment. It came with roasted potatoes, grilled leeks, and corn on the cob. The steak was extremely tough (yes, I know, it's flank steak, but it was really tough) and was completely flavorless. The potatoes were undercooked and also pretty flavorless, and the leeks were sparse (maybe 3 individual 1/4 inch rounds of leek). The corn was good, but it was about 1/4 of a full ear of corn.

The server asked how the food was, and I told her that the steak wasn't very good -- flavorless, etc. She said she'd tell the kitchen, but that's the last we heard of it. No follow up from her, from the hostess, or from the manager. With the prices they charge, I would have expected a much different response to this.

This had been one of our favorite places in Edmonds, but I don't expect to be back after...

Food was excellent! The atmosphere was a bit noisy inside. The outdoor seating looked very nice and we'd probably opt for that if we visit again. The service was good. Although one of our orders was not ready when the rest were served, our server immediately acknowledged it was an error on his part, and comped that meal. While this was the right response, I still have to take a star off since it did detract from the experience in a big way.

I was NOT thrilled by the 3% surcharge on the bill though. While I am sympathetic to (and quite knowledgeable of) the challenges of the restaurant business, the simple fact is: no element of the owner's cost of doing business (particularly labor, for which these surcharges are most frequently cited) is proportional to how much customers spend. The staff is on the same clock whether I spend $1.00 or $100, yet if I bring a six top there I have to pay 3x more to SUBSIDIZE the OWNERS than a deuce would? Makes zero sense.

Note, after seeing this on the bill I did verify it's stated on the website, and most probably the menus, so I'm not saying it's a "hidden" charge, but it was still "unexpected" because, well, who's really looking for something like that, right?

Regardless, it's just a disappointing asterisk to the night (and caveat to readers of this review). While I thoroughly appreciated the quality of the product offered (and my star rating reflects that alone; similar to how I would never reduce the server's tip if the kitchen screwed up), I'm really not sure I'll be back. And...