Kokopelli Grill — Restaurant in Port Angeles

This place was highly reviewed so we were very excited to eat dinner here. We were visiting from Tacoma and enjoy seafood and steak so this sounded right up our alley. The place was nicely decorated and we were seated sooner than expected. We ordered half a dozen oysters and crab cakes as starters and those were great! Then it went downhill from there. My husband ordered the chicken fried steak, and though the breading was flavorful, the steak was grey and overdone. My son ordered the surf and turf with grilled shrimp, and though he ordered it medium rare, it was still completely rare when it arrived. I ordered the Kokopelli sampler and it was a complete disappointment. The salmon was dry and overdone, the two small scallops look like they came out of a can and were microwaved, the shrimp were flavorless and dry. All of us had cold green beans as sides. They reported the mashed potatoes were at least good. Then to top it off, our server than proceeded to completely ignore us for the next twenty minutes while we sat staring at our almost full plates. When he finally returned my husband explained our displeasure with our meals, particularly mine as I had barely touched it. He took it to his manager, who without coming back to see us or ask us our opinion, sent him back with our tab and only took a measly %10 off of my meal! Even the waiter commented, “wow, that’s a lot of food left over”. Absolutely because it was incredibly disappointing. My husband is a restaurant owner and while we completely understand the limitations placed on restaurants at this time, this was absolutely unacceptable. What was even more disappointing was the manager Sarah’s response to my husband when he calmly voiced his concerns, with her saying “well your server asked if everything was ok and you said yes so...”. Um, wrong thing to say. We will always give a place the benefit of the doubt but we tried and they failed. Stay far away from this place if you want decent food and service. I’ve never left a negative review for any restaurant but I felt compelled to do so in this case. We still graciously tipped the server, who hopefully will get the most of his tip, as we actually overheard another server arguing with said manager that she did not tip him out enough! Unbelievable but not shocking as witnessed by the way she handled this situation! There are many other fantastic places in Port Angeles to try so I would suggest you try...

I want to first say that I would not be writing this review if the prices were at all reasonable, but for the quality of food that we got at the price that we paid, I have to leave a review. I will start by saying the service was very friendly. It seemed very clear that there are some older folks and regulars that the staff seemed to dote over very kindly and I really don't want to unnecessarily bash the restaurant. I also couldn't bring myself to send the food back but I really should have.

The $22 crab cakes were relatively over cooked and consisted mostly of batter and very little crab. The basil aoli was actually pretty nice, but the two small cakes were served with a southwestern style corn salsa that completely clashed with the cakes and unripe avocado slices. I noticed a lot of menu items featuring, "southwestern twists" and cannot understand why this would be appealing in a PNW Seafood Restaurant. My salmon chowder that came with my main was also slightly southwestern spiced which again was odd.

The real problem was the main. My wife and I both got the scallop risotto priced at $38 each. I was already very wary of the food after having looked at the menu and thought about leaving but I tried to make the best of it and made the classic mistake of assuming something must be good because it was in the higher/middle price range. Also to be fair it was the only thing that sounded good. The risotto advertised cheese, which I did take note of, but I assumed it would be a few shavings of cheese on top. What came out can only be described as luke warm Mac and cheese made of minute rice and cream cheese. There were unbelievable gobs of cheese in every bite. It was like texture of a mostly melted peice of kids mozzarella string cheese. The scallop had no flavor whatsoever and was sitting on the risotto in some juice/oil. My wife had a few bites and said she couldn't continue. I managed to finish two scallops and some of the cheese but it was truly awful. The total bill, after tip was $120 and I will remember the meal for years, laughing while feeling like an absolute fool for not walking out immediately. We took my wife's boxed up food out of the restaurant and threw it away at Safeway where we bought a microwave dinner of equal quality. It's obvious from reviews that people like this place. But this is obviously a place where people who like Olive Garden to be fleeced for...

PROS:

The atmosphere is upscale restaurant and bar with some tables having an ocean view.

The maitre’d was very accommodating and found us an ocean view table when we requested.

Our waitress was very nice and checked on us frequently even when our main entrees took longer than expected.

The prickly pear vinagraitte dressing was terrific - not too sweet and a good balance of acidity.

The fresh Hama Hama oysters were creamy and tasty with lemon & mignonette sauce.

A good and promising start to our meal… but then things went downhill from there….

CONS:

I don’t know what the fuss was about in other reviews regarding the crab stuff halibut and green chile mashed potatoes - both were dry and way overcooked - literally inedible without the sauce (and there wasn’t enough sauce). We were not the only table to dislike this dish. Another table nearby also complained to their waiter who tried to explain it away saying the dish is meant to be on the drier side… halibut is a delicate fish - you literally have to severely overcook it for it to be that dry. Instead of making excuses, the customer feedback should be given to the chef who should learn to cook fish properly.

There was also barely any crab stuffed into the halibut. I had to dig around for it and pull apart my halibut which was so dry that the strings of halibut (which should flake, not string) were nearly indistinguishable from the stringy straggly bits of crabmeat.

My husband ordered the combo (scallops, shrimp, salmon and crab cake) and his salmon and crabcake were also dry and over cooked. The scallops and shrimp were the only ones that were okay.

Overall, thoroughly disappointed in our entrees and we would not recommend unless the kitchen/chef gets their act together and learns how to properly...