Swing Wine Bar — Restaurant in Olympia

Disappointing..... Have been here many times over the years since they opened, but not often (only when others suggest it) because each time I always hope for more, and I am ever served up with less than expected. Two nights ago, no exception.

But let's start with the positive.. The service was mostly great :-) And of course, the setting is beautiful and it's one of the most charming venues around. That's why it's always been so disappointing that one doesn't get better quality food & drink, and more value there. I'd be there all the time....

We only had dessert and drinks, but still plenty of room for disappointment, unfortunately. I had the $15 cocktail "Feeling Good", which came in a glass less than even HALF full...a truly meager portion. This was reported to have quite a number of different liqueurs and liquors...so each was what, a teaspoon? Apparently there were too many types, as the flavor was just a muddled unremarkable mixology. Truly disappointing, and the price outrageous.

We had the berry pie, which came as a quite modest little slice, waiter said he couldn't warm the pie ("we have no way to warm pie"...?), which would have at least helped the flavor....and it was $11 ala mode (Olympic Mtn. ice cream delicious as usual, no complaints there). I love berries and I love pie and I LOVE berry pie--but this had literally nothing to recommend it....boring. Again, the price was just outrageous for what it was.

$10 for the modest pour of Gewurztraminer. The wine is always overpriced, small pours.

The better dessert of the night was "Coffee & Cream" a tasty panna cotta with a lovely caramelized espresso top, and a side of coffee in an attractive pot. Nice presentation, but $14? ~Sigh.

We are not in Manhattan....bring it...

UPDATE 10/13/24: I give credit where credit is due. The owner, Nicole called me personally to apologize and explain what happened not even 24 hours after I left my review. So this tells me that she really does pride herself on customer service. She did let me know that if I was in town again to let her know. I would 100% give this place another try simply for Nicole calling and apologizing. It really makes me feel better about Swing.

I am highly disappointed. After MONTHS of doing research for my first trip to Washington and wanting to have a girls night with my friend, drink some wine with good food, we settled on this restaurant and booked a reservation. We arrived on time, few mins early and the host was incredibly sweet and welcoming. Took us right to our seat. We sat for a few moments and then our server came. We let her know we needed more time because we were still picking our flight of wine. We than sat and sat and sat. I work for a corporate restaurant so I am very understanding. After watching our waitress take care of other guest around us and never coming back to us, I decided it was best to leave. Each time she came towards us to assist other guest, she turned her body away from us. Her body language was directed away, never once made eye contact. We sat for over 20 mins without service. We then decided it would be best to leave. As we walked out she once again turned away from us.

Sadly as we walked out, the host asked us if no one helped us. We let him know that we had not been helped and walked out.

I am not sure if we were over dressed or just not the type of people wanted in the restaurant….? Either way we left very hungry and even more...

Took my partner here for her birthday- I was excited for the wine, good vibes and good food, and found the vibes good, wine okay, and some of the food almost inedible.

The view from the patio was nice and the overhead heaters were strong.

We got the Chili Releno and the Bruschetta- the pepper on the releno was fine, but the polenta it came with tasted extremely watery, oversalted and overspiced. This was also true of the polenta that came with the salmon. The Brie that came with the bruschetta was fully melted into a cheese sauce, which may have been fine, but it felt and tasted like queso you might find at a Mexican restaurant, which made the bruschetta heavy and confusing.

For entrees, we got the salmon and pasta- both were great, outside of the weirdly bad polenta. Our waitress replaced the polenta with coconut rice which tasted fine, but didn't comment on it or bring over a manager or anything, which felt... odd, kinda wish my complaint was more actionable, since I don't usually complain.

The waitress was solid if not a tad overworked, polite enough and knew things about the wine. The wine flights were fair for their price, but we didn't end up liking any of them, which could be us preferring different wines.

In short, we'd come back for the jazz/great vibes on Wednesdays, but maybe...