Wayside Cafe and Deli — Restaurant in Olympia

I wanted to like this place, I really really did. I live in Rochester temporarily from Seattle while I care for my dying mom so I really need a vegan place to enjoy on bad days. I wanted to like it so much so that I've come three times and dropped $60+ each time.

But each time I couldn't even finish my food. The first time I got the potato comfort bowl and my partner got the rib plate. The comfort bowl is literally a combination of all my favorite foods ever. But it was awful, it made me so sad, bland and weird and just no flavor and mushy everything. Same for the rib plate, I think they're attempting be like like homegrown smoker but their ribs are mushy and flavorless and the sides just disappointing. Not to mention my entire family got sooo sick after the first time we ate there. But I wanted to push it off as a fluke, it was right after they opened, like the first week, so I felt maybe they were overwhelmed and made some mistakes. The next visit I went for a mommy daughter date with my kid, we just ordered the junk food items, mashed potato balls, cauliflower wings and the chick'n wings. Better than our first experience but the only thing I'd ever get again was the cauliflower wings. But every vegan restaurant has them on their menu now and these are definitely the worst of them all. The outside is good but they must start with raw cauliflower because the middle was not cooked at all, I loove cauliflower but it was just weird being so uncooked, that item has some potential though. The third visit was this week, my partner, daughter and I went to enjoy some time just us because of all the sad surrounding us at home and having to be separated all the time while they live in Seattle and I'm taking care of my mom on hospice in Rochester. We really just needed a good time together. This time my kid didn't want anything due to.past experiences so I got her a brownie because they were huge and looked delicious...they weren't, it was so bad that my daughter threw up on her plate because I told her to take another bite 😩 I don't understand how even the dessert could be so bad. I got the dip sandwich, which was soft soggy bread and soggy bland soy curls. I think there was supposed to be onions and mushrooms but they were so tiny or just not there. The bread needed to be crustier and the soycurls pan fried or something so they were just soggy soy sauce strips. The mash potatoes and gravy were okay though. And for $12 and spending pennies on the bread and soy curls, they could easily add some cheese or peppers and bigger onions. I felt like I was eating the most expensive $1 sandwich ever. We got the cauliflower wings again hoping they had improved since last time. They didn't. My partner got the rice and bean bowl with all the upgrades. They can eat anything and all of it always, not this. They didn't hate it but had to take it home to spruce it up. I actually sent all the food home with them since they eat anything even when it sucks 😂 They air fried the sandwich and added somecashew cheese and caramelized onions and said it was much better. They did the same with the bowl and put it on lettuce to make a taco.salad with ranch and liked that better too. They couldn't save the brownie, even with ice cream and caramel sauce, they ended up eating around it.

I'm really glad a lot of people enjoy this place, I think they're mostly people who don't know how to cook or are just happy to have a vegan place in town. I'm pretty desperate to like it but at $60 a pop, I think that was my last visit. I really really really wanted to like it. I feel for the people who are trying vegan food or pastries for the first time. That brownie would...

I arrived here at 6 pm. It was busy to their credit. I would not call this restaurant family friendly. You cannot hear anything and you have to order at front and grab your food off a high counter. The tables seat 4. We were able to grab an extra chair, and it worked because our 2 and 5 year old sat together, but if they had been any older it would not have worked because the place was crowded. In addition, the doors to the bathroom are really heavy for children. My 5 year old couldn't go to the bathroom by herself without getting trapped because she couldn't open the door.

On to the food. The Oreo cheesecake was awesome. 5 stars.

The chicken wings, spicy was awesome. The ranch dressing was a watery mess. It just tasted like salty water. The barbecue chicken wings was good as well, but again, only without the dressing.

The barbecue curls was initially awful. It was so dry and bleh. But then when we relooked at the menu we realised it was missing veganaise that was supposed to be on it. My husband had finished his disappointed. I only enjoyed mine after I got the veganaise. It was creamy and barbecuey and super delish.

The beans were superb. The mashed potatoes tasted like they were boiled in water and mashed with nothing else. The gravy was ok, but it couldn't make up for the bland potatoes.

Over all, I feel like I could've made the same thing at home for a family of five and it wouldn't have cost me $88.00 dollars.

2 sandwiches including a side each. 2 wings (1 spicy and 1 barbecue) 1 side trio (2 mashed potatoes with gravy and beans) 3 slices of cheese cake 1 kombucha 1 root beer.

I wanted to get milkshakes, but was told they don't carry it. I asked why it was on their menu and then was told the machine was broken. They were out of their Mac and cheese.

It was our first time going and I feel like it wasn't worth it. It sucks because as vegans, we were really excited for an all vegan restaurant. I think cheesecake would be the only thing so would...

Very expensive, but maybe vegan is naturally expensive. The califlower "wings" were quite good. Mac & "Cheez" was passable... Need green chilis as an option, and the "Chicken" sandwich was quite good. I always find it funny that vegans name their meals after "animal" - based meals. Ok, it was decent... But I think we paid about $60 for three of us, and that just seemed pricey to us. We usually pay less than that at Mercatos, and that is a much nicer place - but not vegan. Oh, one thing I did not like, was the lazefaire attitude on what are the ingredients of their dishes; I have a nut allergy, and the thing I was going to get, the staff was clueless on whether it was nut-free, after much searching... It turned out to have nuts in it. Knowledge is power and a specialized restaurant like this should know every detail of their meals. Grunge metal for music, kinda reminded us old-foggies of a slaughterhouse.. Heh. Ok, a little...