Harry's Fine Foods — Restaurant in Seattle

Last night, I had the chance to dine at Harry’s with my family who were visiting from out of town, and I must say I was quite disappointed with the overall experience. As someone who works in the back of house in the service industry, I try to be understanding, but the service and food quality left much to be desired. My grandfather and his wife are vegan and clearly communicated their preferences to our server, while I ordered my own non-vegan dishes. We did not indicate we would be sharing any dishes. The server's condescending comment about my choice of sweetbreads “not being vegan” was unnecessary especially cause I made clear that I wasn’t. The long wait times for both our drinks and food were frustrating, especially since the restaurant was not busy.

The sweetbreads were particularly unappetizing, lacking the acidity needed to balance the dish, which was ironically supposed to be a “l’orange” sauce that included segmented blood orange. I tasted zero citrus. The overall flavor was dull, and the leeks were equally bland. When my chicory salad arrived, it was served with the dressing on the side and a vegan dressing option despite the clear communication that I was not vegan. The server stated she could have the salad properly prepared and I said yes. When it came back out it was very dry and lacked necessary acidity and seasoning like the previous dish. As a fan of chicories, I found this especially disappointing. The fries, while acceptable, did not match the menu description because our server brought them out “vegan” friendly. I understand what she was trying to do but we gave no indication that we would be sharing plates and it became rather frustrating for me because I was unable to enjoy the dishes how the chef intended for them to be enjoyed. The fries also felt overpriced at $12, as they were simply just fries with fried herbs and dipping sauce.

I had high expectations for the tuna crudo, but my experience fell short. The tuna slices were overly thick, and the dish had an off-putting flavor, possibly due to the combination of Yuzu Kosho, buttermilk, or the microgreens but I couldn’t really place it. Despite my initial optimism, three of the dishes I ordered were quite disappointing. I then decided to try the Mafaldine, approaching it with caution given my experience cooking pasta at some of Seattle's finest Italian restaurants over the past 7 years. For $34, I expected a dish of much higher quality. Unfortunately, the pasta itself was bland and lacked seasoning, while the bolognese was both tasteless and greasy. Although there was a hint of heat, the rich depth of flavor I associate with a good ragu was absent. My pasta ate like piles of cheese were dumped into it and then melted under a salamander or in an oven. Additionally, the portion size was disappointingly small for the price. By the time I reached my final course, which was the chocolate cake my server asked if I wanted another cocktail. I had enjoyed a Negroni with cherries at the beginning, but my second one came without the garnish, and the server seemed confused when I asked for cherries. The chocolate cake was okay and ironically the most “seasoned” dish as I feel there was an excessive amount of flake salt topped on it. In the end, our bill came to nearly $300, and I expected an exceptional experience for that amount. I left feeling unsatisfied and hungry, as the lovely ambiance and appealing presentation could not make up for the deficiencies in food...

Worst service ever, here's what happened:

My friend and I traveled from California and were looking for a nice brunch place to enjoy our morning time before heading home. Our local friend plus searching on the internet both suggested that Harry's Find Food would be a perfect place for us; so we decided to go.

Upon arriving at the restaurant, everything seemed fine. It is a lovely place in a very quiet neighborhood, we were very excited about it. However, things seemed to go south after we ordered our food.

My friend ordered a cup of English breakfast tea. When the tea was served, there was only 1/2 cup of water; we understand the staff probably thought of leaving space for adding milk; but still, the half-empty cup isn't quite what we expected, and to be honest, we've never seen that in other restaurants as well.

I ordered avocado toast, and I thought there was an egg coming with it. That is my misunderstanding, I only saw the photos on Google review but didn't read the menu through. So I flagged down the server and she explained it to me. While I'd use "explain" but really, I felt it's more like "demand". Staring at me without a smile she said " You have to request that from me, do you want it or not?" ...That's a very warm explanation I have to say.

After we finished our meal, here comes the worst part of her service. She came to clear up our table without a word. There was still some food left on my plate, I know I couldn't finish it but she just took everything away without asking if I'm still working on it. I guess she probably knows how to read customers' minds. She then came to our table, dropped the bill, and left, not a single word coming from her as if we were sitting in a silent restaurant. After we took our card out, she brought the machine over and JUST WALK AWAY. She did not stay to check if we knew how to use the machine. Apparently, that's a machine for servers to order food or check empty tables; how do we know? Because the screen is showing something we didn't understand at all, it's not an insert your card and pay screen, it's some sort of backend service screen we saw. And we never see our server, she just left a machine with us and walked away. No greetings from the beginning, no checking during dining time, and no goodbye at the end.

My friend and I were extremely unhappy with her service. This is definitely the worst service we've had in so many years in the US. We will come back to Seattle again since it's such a nice city, but we will never return to this restaurant, and we are not suggesting this restaurant to our friends either.

UPDATE:

I was checking my cc bill today and realized something unacceptable.

We told the server we wanted to split bills, when she handed my the machine the amount was $14 ish, but today my cc bill showed she charged me $39.69. That is the full amount of our meal.

The unacceptable part is that the server did not have my consent to charge whole amount and clearly she changed the bill without me knowing. This is extremely unprofessional and she could jeopardize your restaurant by...

this is an updated review from the email I sent to Harry's Fine Foods

I’d been raving about this place and really wanted to take my out of town friends here. I’ve been sending friends and clients here, love the space and the food. But my recent visit was extremely disappointing for a few reasons.

First, our drinks were served long after other patrons who arrived after us had received theirs. I understand that the bar, within our view, can get quite busy, but it was far too long. And in fact it appeared that our drinks sat on the bar waiting for our server to deliver them. Then there was the heirloom tomato salad, that was supposed to be served with peaches and nectarines, but didn’t have either. We had noticed other patrons eating theirs with the stone fruits. It was weird. The garden salad had no Armenian cucumbers, I’m a gardener and I grow them so I know what they look and taste like, and I gushed when I saw them on the menu. That minor change could have been noted to us when ordering, it wouldn’t have been a big deal. One of my friends ordered the grilled cheese but requested it without the peppers, it came with the peppers. When we sent it back we thought it would be given priority and would come back quickly, it did not, she was nearly finished with her soup upon it’s return. And it came with stone ground mustard, which was not on the menu. It should be noted because not everyone likes mustard.

After paying, and tipping 20%, we left, but I decided I needed to speak with the manager regarding our experience. I waited outside because it was busy indoors and I didn’t want to be rude to other patrons. After waiting a bit he came out and I felt he was rather dismissive. In fact he claimed there were stone fruit on our salad, which I find completely unacceptable. He should have taken my feedback and believed what I was telling him as I was right there in front of him, not lying to him about our experience. I’m insulted that he just brushed over everything.

With all that said the space is gorgeous and the trout...