South Fork — Restaurant in North Bend

The ordering system is terrible and makes for a chaotic customer experience. Seat yourself, but come back and grab a menu, order here or over there, pick up half your drink order over there, and then come back here for food. Once you order, they give you a pager with a note on it that says "please silence the beep, we hear it in our sleep" like it's the customer's fault the owner selected an annoying pager system. There are pagers available that light up and vibrate sans beep. Invest in a set. They should be able to afford new pagers given they are out here slinging $20 avocado toast.

The expo was visibly annoyed and short with people picking up food from the window, or anyone trying to get a coffee refill. I can understand why, she's in a terrible position in this insanity of an ordering system, but it's not the customer's fault and they shouldn't be treated like it is. If it's a self service joint, put coffee out so I can get it myself. Or maybe offer to put a pot on the table so I don't have to get up multiple times to bother the obviously busy staff and feel like a burden for a service I'm paying a premium for.

I can understand a walk up ordering system, but with this type of food, you're usually given a stick with a number and the food is still delivered.That would greatly improve the experience here and give me a reason to tip. Also in 2025, having the ability to order from a QR code at the table eliminates the line. Everyone hates being in a line. Why do that to the people you want money from? The system isn't "vibey" or creative, it's poorly thought out in a silly attempt to be original. If they cared about customers it would not be like this.

I did enjoy the Tofu Bahn Mi bowl with the addition of a fried egg. However, I was the only one in my party of 6 that fully enjoyed the food. The forager burrito was tiny and said to be extremely bland, as soon as I saw it, I felt bad my husband ordered it. The English muffins in the Benedict were visibily not toasted and also noted as unseasoned. The hash and chicken & waffles were underwhelming.

I'm bummed because looking at the menu & reviews, I was pumped to try this place. I suggested to my friends we should go there. We got there and I felt like a fool. I don't understand how they have such a high rating, and I'm writing this to help folks avoid feeling like they led their loved ones astray.

Reading through the reviews, the owner doesn't seem to care about the people they are borderline robbing. If you're going to be in hospitality, being hospitable should be your priority. Nothing about my experience suggested there was any thought or care given to the customer experience.Take your money to a...

03/30/2025

This was approximately my 12th time enjoying the food, service, and atmosphere at South Fork North Bend.

I am writing this review to note that today the coffee tasted rather off from it's usual standard. I attempted to communicate this to the staff members and they were willing to accommodate me with another cup of drip. The black cup of drip tasted like the standard cup of Vita that I have had every time I have visited South Fork North Bend for food.

I later found out that the half and half that was sitting out was likely the reason that my coffee tasted sour and stale. My wife attempted to communicate to a staff member that she also thought that the coffee with half and half tasted flat and sour.

As a customer, I would expect that staff would be willing to retrieve fresh half and half from the back so that there could be a procedural fix for the coffee. Instead, my wife was advised that South Fork North Bend "only uses fresh ingredients", "nothing is expired", and "you two were the only one's who complained". The staff member refused to acknowledge that the half and half may be off today from customers who have had the coffee at the location on more than one occasion.

Prior to writing this review, I did observe that South Fork North Bend receives its best critique (lowest score) under the service rating of the reviews.

It should be noted that the chicken and waffles I had were very good and that I am documenting my experience today large in part to how my wife was treated by the staff.

I have seen from other reviews that the owner tends to respond in a childish way but to them I say, thank you for operating a nice place for families to go and enjoy all three main meals. I'm sure you're looking to improve ratings received under "service" from other reviews and I hope this review adds to your considerations as well.

If you read to this point and are thinking "damn you really took the time out of your day to write all that?"..... Hey.. it's my weekend...

I really wanted to like this place and even went back again. Bottom line: food just isn't good. Everything lacks flavor and is bland (not because of lack of salt, they definitely got that covered).

I'm really struggling at how this has almost 5 stars. I use to be a line chef at two different restaurants and have a passion for good food. I travel a lot and always try local places searching out the best.

Service was ok, they told everyone in line they could place food orders at the bar, long line of people behind us rushed over and put their orders in ahead of us, even though we had been standing in line for 15 minutes. You cannot ask for tips if you are gonna charge those prices and have everything self service.

Food was super mediocre and oversalted. As stated I've been there two times and it was the same experience. Two different groups I was with also thought the food was pretty mediocre, which again is so confusing that this has so many five star reviews. Maybe standard is just really low in North Bend. The ingredients just seemed low quality. I read other similar reviews and they are spot on. Restaurant looks nice and food prep looks fantastic...but I'm there to eat and end of the day you will just be disappointed.

For specifics: Salmon in the dip was very dry, Mac and cheese was bland, tofu didn't have excess water removed before cooking, mold on the berries on the cheesecake, to much salt on almost everything.

To highlight how overpriced everything is for the quality: Hersey's chocolate for the $12 s'mores highlights the low quality ingredients that others have pointed out, that is some of the worst quality chocolate you can buy. Graham cracker and marshmallows seemed like the same quality. So you have maybe $1.50 of ingredients at a 10x markup. Where is the passion and ownership? You can make really good graham crackers from scratch easy and buy slightly better chocolate. You would cut into maybe 5-8% of your profit, but you wouldn't...