The Old Whiskey Mill — Restaurant in Port Townsend

Woweee Zoweee (those are real words 😄).

Loved eating local while visiting Port Townsend and The Old Whiskey Mill does not disappoint.

After a long day searching for sea glass we were looking for something delicious and new to us. We did search menu's online before leaving our hotel and chose "Whiskey Mill".

There was no wait to sit at 6pm on a Tuesday night. Wait staff said not many other restaurants are open at that time, this time of year. Which made the lack of staff all the more challenging this particular night. We waited a really long time for our main course. I'm not sure if they had people call in or why there were so few working but I think they only had 3 people up front. It definitely required patience. I just got up and looked around at all the incredible old photos on the walls. The architecture and decor are a real treat.

For me, the wait was made manageable because the food was most delicious.

We had the Smoked Onion Spinach Dip w/baguette as an appetizer and wow. It was nice and warm and the baguette was lightly toasted. Perfection is a great adjective here. It was the right kind of creamy and I've not tried a smoked onion version of this hot appetizer so it was a nice surprise. I wanted to try a local clam or oyster dish since those are sourced fresh right the waters nearby but my travel companion doesn't enjoy either so we chose the dip. The dish was returned empty 😊.

Choosing a main dish is challenging, they have house favorites like 5 Poutine options and they had a Salmon Bisque...we both chose comfort foods.

I had Guiness and Steak Pie and my friend had Bangors and Mash, we were NOT disappointed 😊❤️.

According to my friend her Bangers were "sooooooo freaking good". She actually didn't say anything for a few minutes once she started eating. She was very very happy about her braised cabbage as well.

My beautiful Steak Pie❤️. It was baked a perfect golden brown, the steak so tender, the potatoes and carrots were very good.

If ever someone wanted an example of the best in comfort food, The Old Whiskey Mill nailed it. It's not inexpensive but so worth the...

This was the third and final time we will waste money or time at this restaurant. Last night we made the mistake of trying one more time. Awful. We waited 15 minutes to be greeted by the primary server. When she finally got to the table she managed to get one appetizer correct. The salad came with the burned fish and chips instead of as an app. The kid's noodles were hard and cold, and we waited so long for everything that I didn't want to bother trying to get different fish, let alone ask for anything else. By the time the check came, we discovered we had been put into the pos as a 6 top, even though there were 5 of us INCLUDING the baby. So she had already added a 20% gratuity for herself without asking and knowing that we were not six. Her response was oh, I don't know why I did that. Even joking that she had forgotten another table's order altogether. So it seems her way of rectifying the situation was to give herself an over 50% tip on top of our already 96$ tab for subpar food and unbelievably slow, inattentive, service. The one redeeming thing I was that TODAY I was told by the nice young lady on the phone that I would be contacted by a manager named Amber to get a refund for at LEAST the gratuity by the end of today... Hopefully. I will never come back, and anyone visiting will be steered the opposite direction. You should do better with staff that tells a table that they're doing the business a favor by helping out. All she managed to do was to completely make the final decision to never recommend this place to ANYONE easier. When you wait on someone who's been in the industry for almost 30 years it's especially lame given the current state of things for restaurant folks. None of us can afford to have unexpected charges on our credit cards. She knew what she'd done, and instead of fixing it, she stole more of my money. Boo. Hiss. *As of this evening not a peep. I gave them my email, name and # *Update Still unresolved and was offered more excuses about a holiday weekend. DO NOT WASTE YOUR...

This is my second time here, and maybe they were having an off night? I don't remember it being this bad last time but I don't know if I want to come back again. Which is sad, because I always remember this place and I really like the atmosphere. Dirty dishes in a bus tub at the bar took precedence to us being seated. Our waitress wasn't outright rude but she wasn't very friendly and seemed a bit annoyed that we were there. They weren't that crowded, it was early-ish evening so I don't know what was up.

We tried to be extra friendly and engaging to help make up for her attitude, and I think maybe we won her over in the end. Unfortunately, she made me one of the worst whiskey cocktails I've ever had. I was so excited, but it was about 90% pure alcohol and mixed poorly. It was literally undrinkable. I might as well have ordered a straight shot! I ended up discreetly adding water to it from my water glass and took just little sips. I'll DEFINITELY be sticking to just beer there from now on.

I was told their fish n' chips are 'the best' but honestly - the batter on the bottom of each piece had gone soggy and was falling off. The pieces were pretty small and my plate was about 75% fries. They weren't even that good of fries either. The tartar sauce tasted funny and had a somewhat gross aftertaste. Honestly, the wilted greens dressed in a light vinaigrette were the best part of the meal but I only got about 4 bites worth on my plate. Sad. My hubby's Caribbean chicken sandwich was so-so. It needs some work, that recipe. Definitely wouldn't write home about it, and absolutely would never order it again. It just wasn't that good. His plate also, was about 75% fries.

So - all in all, stick to beer and probably just burgers. Those are hard to mess up. Don't get anything too fancy from the menu or you'll probably regret it. The atmosphere is awesome, hopefully the waitstaff gets friendlier. I think next time we're in town, we'll try some other places instead...