If you know us, we are the type of people who don’t go out to eat much unless we’re travelling. We’ve been travelling for the last month. We eat at home not for any other reason than there are no good restaurants anywhere around us without driving for an hour or more. Another reason is the fact that we're both good in a kitchen, grill, or smoker. That said, when we go out to eat, we often have to judge what we eat against what we make at home or against the best we’ve had at another restaurant somewhere.

Last night, we wanted to take our daughter, Kennedy, to a pizza dinner before we left for home today. We thought about a specific spot in Mukilteo, but they are closed on Monday’s, so Chey mentioned Diamon Knot Brewery & Alehouse (A.K.A. DKB&A) and we headed that way. Now, we’ve ‘been’ to DKB&A a couple of times already by way of the ice cream window, and she recalled seeing someone eating a pizza through the side door.

We got seated and handed menus and found that this is much more than pizza! This is a bar and grill, and they have all sorts of things on the menu. Truth is, we all three had to take a few minutes to decide what we were going to have because it all looked so tempting! In the end, it was the Hog Heaven Mac & Cheese, Steak Dip Sandwich, and the Garlic Onion Burger. Spoiler alert! Great choices, all!

As it turned out, we arrived at about the normal time of the other side filling up which caused the kitchen to get backed up a bit. In some cases, this could have been an issue, but we were in no hurry, and Nancy, our server, was very attentive to us and kept us informed about how the kitchen was managing the influx of orders and that we were next.

A couple of minutes later our food was delivered to us and we dug in. All three of us wanted to try each other’s food to see how it all was and, wow. Without getting too wordy about all of it, let me say this, when we try something that wows us like this all did, we start to pick it apart and get an idea as how to make it at home. Not to make it better at home, but to enjoy it at home because it became a favorite! This stuff was all so good that we’ve decided to leave things alone and just go back when we return in a few months!

I kid you knot (pun intended) the garlic onion burger was phenomenal! I would have never thought to build a burger with the ingredients used in this thing! While the ingredients really don’t seem like they belong on a burger, this was nothing short of genius!

The same could be said for the steak dip sandwich. The sandwich itself is pretty much a Philly cheese steak, but the au jus was something else! I’m not sure what went into it, but it made the whole thing great!

Finally, and this one gets me because I make a great pulled pork and Chey makes (in the opinion of many) the world’s best mac & cheese, why we never put the two together really makes me wonder what’s wrong with us! Again, this was a perfect pairing of two great Southern comfort foods and together they made beautiful music!

As good as the food can be, service will kill a restaurant faster than bad food, at DKB&A, Nancy made sure we were cared for. Our drinks never went dry, and she kept us informed about the wait we incurred. She worked hard for us, and I’ll explain that next.

During the rush, our food was delayed. No big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the Hog Heaven Mac & Cheese came out cold. Nancy took it back and ordered another one for us and brought it out as soon as it was done and she let the manager know and he took it off the bill altogether. That was truly kind but certainly not expected, though it speaks to management’s concern for customer satisfaction.

Final note, while a bar and grill, there should be a family friendly dress code on the grill side. One of the servers was dressed in a manner better suited to the bar side of DKB&A. Again, just our opinion since there was a family there with younger children.

Still, with the issues we experienced, we’re looking forward to returning to continue the menu and see just how good this place must be!