Rusty Pelican Cafe — Restaurant in Edmonds

We ended up here because our favorite Edmond's breakfast spot was over capacity. Upon entering I was struck by the unaccountably posh presentation seeing as how it's called the Rusty Pelican. I was kind of zoned out and tired buy my wife and daughter were focused on the menu while we waited to be seated and I heard some audible gasps about the prices. We've been to expensive breakfast spots before like Portage Bay Cafe in Roosevelt--but that place is farm to table and their dishes are put together with a great amount of skill and care. What we would eventually be served at the Rusty Pelican wasn't so much prepared as it was assembled. They started us off with some $5 a cup drip coffee that was actually really good. It was flavorful without being bitter, and it was served at a drinkable temperature without being tepid. We got fished in by the plate of coffee cakes that the waiter waved under our noses before we had a chance to order our breakfast and were pleasantly surprised. The lemon/blueberry coffee cake was well baked and tasty.

For our main dishes we settled on the Biscuit & Gravy, two egg breakfast, and Irish Skillet. I got the Biscuit & Gravy and was greeted with a small portion of sausage gravy. It was flavorless except for the salt and pepper, and a bit on the cool side. The biscuit was doughy and ate more like a large dinner roll. The fried eggs were ok as was the fruit although the six small pieces of fruit made me chuckle. The consensus was that the cooks were afraid of seasoning and spices. Everything was rather bland with my daughter having to add a lot of hot sauce, salt, and pepper to her skillet to make it palatable. My wife's potatoes were also bland and the sausage patties were out of a box. Even the greasy spoon down the road served up hand formed sausage patties that were lovingly seasoned--at half the price.

The service was good and we were checked on several times which is always appreciated--but even he failed to react when he asked how it was and I shrugged and said "alright." I get the feeling he hears that a lot. The atmosphere was stilted and sterile--very much a "restaurant from a box" kind of aesthetic. Also, the table became cluttered very quickly between drip coffees being served on individual saucers with their own tiny pitchers of cream to the massive candle holder and large caddie full of hot sauces and ketchup.

I don't know exactly what they're going for here, but it definitely missed the mark for a good breakfast spot. After asking a friend I was told their lunches aren't much better, so I'll be saying a final farewell to the...

We had a very poor experience here on a Saturday morning for our friend’s birthday. We had called a day in advance to ensure that we could get a table for 10-15 people, and they said we could come early to get a table, so 4 of us arrived at 8AM and we were informed that they would not seat us until all members of our party had arrived, which was completely different than what they told us over the phone. By the time we finally got seated, it was TWO HOURS later at 10AM, well after 100% of our party had arrived. They refused to allow us to even sit at the table even though we were ready to order and eat as people filtered through.

I get that it’s busy because it’s right next to the market, but what we didn’t appreciate was the absolute disregard and rudeness from the manager on duty. He was downright rude and condescending to us. I was shocked that we felt so unwelcome by a local Edmonds establishment. They kept seating other tables ahead of us, even though we had called in advance.

Thank goodness we had an awesome server, Tim, who rectified our overall poor experience, and the rest of the staff was friendly, it was the manager who was rude and dismissive.

We won’t be returning here as it left a poor taste in our mouth. You’d think that a restaurant would be happy to have a party of 12, rather than treating us as...

HAIR in food. DISRESPECTFUL manager. Tried charging me for food afterword. Absolute HORRIBLE experience. Looking to be reasonable and understanding, after fishing a full length hair out of my mouth (absolutely disgusting) and informing the server about this, I was told theyd take off 50% from my bill as Id eaten half of my food up until that point. Flabbergasted by this, I asked to speak to their manager. Promptly and unfriendly, the manager "Tim" proceeds to lecture me about their policy of only refunding part of the dish when a dish is sent back. He also tells me how it's perfectly normal for people to eat hair and pay full price (he's been in the industry for 35 years, he patronizes me). I let Tim know that I was trying to do them a favor of not taking pictures of the hair and making much noise about it in the restaurant as things do happen. Again, more patronizing and trying to convince me I should pay for the dish as things happen and its not their fault. What is inexcusable here is the response from the restaurant, especially the condescending uncaring and frankly rude manager Tim. I won't be back and will tell everyone I know to avoid this place, as there are other businesses to support in the area that have at least basic levels of respect and customer...