Ghostfish Brewing Company — Restaurant in Seattle

This place USED to be great, pre-Covid, but has really gone downhill since. All interactions with the staff are done via their QR code menu/ordering system: you seat yourself, you get your own water, and (when there were not enough table settings for our party) you get your own silverware. It's impossible to flag down a server for any request, as they have ALL been trained to avoid eye-contact. Since there is essentially no longer anything for the staff to do, since they function as glorified dumb-waiters shuttled food to your table in an ad-hoc fashion, I've watched multiple employees wipe-down the same sets of empty tables over and over because they have nothing to do. As an earlier review mentioned, it's impossible to order something as simple as extra ketchup without using the online ordering system, and good luck getting it before your fries are cold....

ALL of this would be an annoyance if the food was worthwhile, but something happened post-Covid, and the 3 times we've eaten there have yielded disappointment: soggy pasta and limp, over-cooked vegetables and undercooked mealy-tasting fish-and-chips. My kiddo liked their fries, but it would have been nice to get enough ketchup. Impossible in time, as mentioned. We used to love this place, so we stuck it out for 3 visits hoping we'd just gotten unlucky, but the food was a disappointment each visit. Plus, the online ordering app defaulted to a 22% tip! Crazy! The servers didn't DO anything. Here's a clue for the owners: if your servers don't interact with customers, then there is no opportunity to "upsell" on dining: "Would anyone be interested in dessert?" "Why yes, now that you mention it, I would like a bit of something extra..." This type of interaction no longer takes place.

If it seems like I'm super irritated it's because Ghostfish used to be one of my favorite restaurants. I even own some of their merch! But between the horrible online-ordering system, the limp food, and lack of human interaction, we won't be back... and as a gluten-free diner, it sucks to lose a place I can enjoy.

The beer is still good, so an extra star for that. Save yourself the hassle and just pop in to get a six-pack from the cooler, and skip the dining experience. It's no longer...

UPDATE: because I am a fairly reasonable person I decided to give Ghostfish one more chance. My husband has a soy allergy and we told the server when we arrived. Once his plate was delivered I noticed that there was coleslaw on his plate (which contains a soy-based mayonnaise). As he started on his french fries I flagged down a manager and explained that he needed a clean new plate to put his non-soy foods on. The manager told us that the french fries also had soy (due to some allegedly temporary supply issue) so my husband stopped eating them immediately. We were not comped or even given an apology and he was sick for the next week (I'll spare you the details but it's horrible and not in the way you're guessing). If you see the response from the "owner" below my previous review you'll notice that the owner claims "offense" but doesn't actually address any of the real issues (peanut butter when they used to claim to be peanut free; all of their sauces except cocktail includes soy, etc) My husband definitely won't ever be returning to Ghostfish.

..... previous review ....... I am disappointed to write here that Ghostfish has been going downhill for a while now. I'm focusing on the food and the allergen(s) aspect and not including beer or service (which are both still good). The flavor of the food has been worsening for months. I've been a regular for years and the flavor is terrible lately. It's almost like "anti-flavor." And I can't add any sauces to help the food because 99 percent of Ghostfish's sauces include soy, to which my husband is allergic. (the only safe sauce is cocktail sauce which would be a weird addition to most Ghostfish offerings) Ghostfish used to be better about allergens other than just gluten because they (reasonably) surmised that people with gluten issues might have other allergen issues as well. Now they don't seem to care at all and won't even respond to customer emails with allergy questions. They even had peanut butter on the menu a few months ago which I believe they previously had a peanut-free policy. Truly, if you have no other food allergies or intolerances other than gluten and you don't mind mind-boggling blandness this place might still...

My wife has recently discovered a surprising number of unexpected food sensitivities (olives, corn, lettuce, etc.), which as you'd imagine makes it really difficult for her to eat out. The Ghostfish Brewing folks are the only people I've ever experienced who are not only able but also more than willing to provide a complete ingredient list of any item they sell. If they don't know the ingredients, they'll even offer to contact the vendor from whom they procure a menu item. It was incredible to be able to eat somewhere and not feel like or be treated like a freak or a burden.

(It turned out that there wasn't much my wife could completely safely have, but she was willing to put up with the effects of the corn starch in their fish and chips just to able to have some decent fish and chips.)

I can't say I'm a fan of their pretzel bites, which use tapioca flour and are too chewy for me. Other than that, everything I've had there so far has been really good or even downright great, and I'm looking forward to going there again, regardless of the 30ish minute drive. I highly recommend their brunch.

They're not located in a very good area of town, so make sure not to leave valuables in your car when you park and be conscious of your surroundings. Most of the parking around the restaurant is street parking; there's not a dedicated parking lot for their customers. Their ordering system obligatorily uses a web application that they provide a QR code for. While I appreciate the efficiency and embrace of 21st century technology, the system can be a little clunky, and it's not always obvious how to leave a tip. Oh, and they have a keg that one has to pump water out of for oneself, which grosses me out on account of having to use the same handle and handheld spout as everyone else. Take hand sanitizer with you if you are bothered by...