The Tin Thistle — Restaurant in North Bend

This place was recommended to us for it's great vegan food, but our experience was not so great.

Lets start with service: First off the cashier was not the friendliest; we had a few questions about some dishes and she brushed us aside and helped the 2 people in line behind us before helping us. When she finally helped us and we ordered, our total was $6 more than what the menu said it should have been; I kept my mouth shut and just went with it. When she was totalling up our order I put a cash tip into the jar (and she saw that) and then she turned the iPad around for me to give an additional tip on my card, once again I kept my mouth shut and gave an additional tip. I tipped on top of a tip. She then suggested that we sit out back in the patio area (away from all the other customers) probably because we had a small child with us (which he was behaving himself quite well). It was a bit cold outside. Not kid friendly! Sat us in a different section far away from other customers; even tho he was well behaved. Also sat us without offering a high chair for our young child, and after several minutes I had to go ask for a high chair. When they brought out a high chair is was completely filthy and didn't bother wiping it off.

Lets talk about the food: I asked for my girlfriends soup first (before my wrap was ready) and they brought out the mushroom soup and the first thing we noticed was that it was a bit small and there was a thick layer of straight oil floating on the top of the soup. While she was eating the mushroom soup she noticed that there was only 2 small pieces of mushroom in the soup. The crackers that came with the soup were extremely stale and old. My girlfriend ate her soup while I waited for my wrap and side of roasted Brussels. It took just over 30 minutes for them to bring out my wrap. The wait was so long I almost walk out. When they brought the wrap out it was extremely small. It tasted good, but the size and lack of lettuce in it was a bit ridiculous for the amount that we paid. As we left we noticed that there were several more customers inside that came after us but seemed to have already received their food before us.

Overall, I would NOT recommend anyone to dine here with their lack of equality towards all of their customers, their poor professionalism and poor service, along with their over charging and over priced portions. The Tin...

I hate to be critical of a nice vegan cafe with a nice staff, but hope sharing my experience may save some from too high an expectation, and also be appreciated by owner. I was travelling through the area a few weeks ago and stopped by for some lunch to go. The Coos Bay area has very few vegan options, I hope that will change for the better in the near future. I did not find the food in my order to be as good as most of the positive reviews express. The place is comfortable and has some nice art pieces for sale. I was tempted, but didn't purchase this time. The staff was friendly enough. There were only a couple of sad looking slices of pie left in the display case. They looked thin and watery. I had Mac & cheese, and both flavors of pasty. I found the Mac ok, but was not creamy enough and in my opinion had too much nutritional yeast flavoring. I'm a fan of that yeast, but not when it's used too heavily. There are so many good vegan cheese alternatives on the market now. I think a better Mac & cheese would still have nutritional yeast, but also more cashew or oat milk, and one or two vegan cheeses blended in. I just found their Mac dish a little too dense and yeasty, but ok. Give it a try if you're hungry, or don't know how to make your own. The pasties were ok. Piping hot, but again not special. The crust was dense and very oily. Not flaky or like the miner's pasties served in California gold country, which have a crust like a flaky biscuit/pie dough. I realize it is a whole grain dough, but it was just too dense and oily. The filling was just okay. Potatoes were shredded thin, not cubed, and the flavors were good but not great. If this is the same dough they use in their fruit pies, then I'm glad I didn't purchase a slice of pie. Perhaps some reviewers haven't had vegan food that is elevated to meet or exceed the satisfaction formerly found in non-vegan versions, or because there are so few vegan choices in this city, this cafe gets great reviews. Perhaps my experience with their food wasn't typical, and you may have a thoroughly enjoyable meal. I hope so. I want this cafe to grow and thrive, just as I would love to see more vegan restaurants in Coos Bay, and everywhere. I just had to be honest with my limited...

I’ve seen some review from previous customers who had either less than par experiences with the food or service. That’s a bummer that they had that experience with the restaurant. Even with the reviews, I found my experience with Tin Thistle to be excellent.

My partner and I were driving along the coast for his birthday, and we needed to stop for vegan food for to-go. He dropped me off while he went to find sunglasses. While, I was waiting for the food, the cashier recommended to go outside in the garden. While it’s the Pacific Northwest and it gets misty, the weather was so bright, beautiful, and sunny. Everyone was out in the magical garden!

I had a big order, waiting for my food around 15-20 min. This was a weekday after labor day, right at the time they opened, so made getting our order more convenient and quick.

The FOOD! Perhaps because it was fresh, the food was perfect temperature, texture, and portion sizes. We had the brussel sprouts, the Hawaiin burger, the Fiesta bowl (which I highly recommend), the Marion Berry pie, and the patsy. All of these dishes were not oily but in fact amazing whole food, vegan dishes.

This is authentic vegan food. You can tell how nutritiously dense and full of love everything is. Even living in a big city, most Vegan places are imitation food places rather than healthy and nutritious but not just a caeser salad or a bowl. The crust on the Marion Berry pie was so perfect.

It’s not easy to have vegan places like this and can be hard to make healthy and savory dishes with fresh ingredients with the expediency and convenience expected of our modern-day life. I can see all the hard work they put into the care for their food, and I really appreciated not just the ambiance or service but the actual vision and intention behind this...