Spud Fish & Chips Juanita — Restaurant in Kirkland

They've a great location and nearly captive customers, directly across the road from Juanita Beach, which accounts for their formula with four locations all across from destination or scenic waterfronts.

This tells me folks go not for the food—unlike the gimmick of Michelin guides to sell more tires—though as comfort food, it serves, recalling scenes of seagulls pecking for vittles in the parking lot on a hot sunny day. It's purely a money-making machine, evident as 80¢ for a plastic ramekin of tartar sauce and $3.50 for a tiny dollop of vanilla soft-serve.

At least though, the breaded cod and British chips come up piping hot, fried in not-too-old fry oil. No condiments come standard, nor even napkins, so you'll need to ask. That comports with their trash-minimizing ethos. Even their stapler uses no staples—to litter the beach—but instead perforates both the receipt and the bag, creasing and folding the perforations...

It's frustrating that all the spuds are owned by different Entities now. The fish is always pretty consistent which is very important but the rest of it is not. The service at this location was very friendly and the restaurant was clean and pleasant but it's the little things that make the difference and that's what impacted the quality of the experience for me. The spuds on Alki has great tartar sauce and the Green Lake location used to as well. This place seemed like they were using some generic stuff that just tasted like mayonnaise. It actually upset my stomach. Alki also has "The Special" which is nearly triple the cost of what it was the first time I had it but at least you know what you're getting. I probably won't be back to this location. If I'm paying that much for a fast food meal, I need it to taste better overall. The fish is great but that can't carry the whole...

I've always considered Spuds to be the best fish n chips around but that has changed... I took my dad there (because we both love fish n chips) and as we emptied our trays he looked at me and said, "Don't get me wrong, but was your fish horrible?" I WAS SO GLAD HE ASKED: I kept silent through lunch thinking I was just unlucky with my plate but we both agreed that our fillets were just skinny breaded pieces of fish leather... They were disgusting. Spuds is not cheap either, so you expect your single piece to be good. I was disappointed, not so much because my fish was bad, but because the experience marks the end of an iconic era for Spuds in Juanita. Perhaps the new owner or manager is cutting corners and trying to live off of the Spuds name alone. That will only work for a short while before the numbers no longer pencil out and the doors...