Herb & Bitter Public House — Restaurant in Seattle

What a disappointment! I've walked by this place a lot while living on the hill and it always looked like such a cool spot. My friends and I finally tried it last week and it was a major let down.

First we were there before the crowds at 4 in the afternoon on a Thursday and our server barely had the tolerance to deal with being a server, even for post COVID standards. Her body language screamed she hated being a server. Eye rolls, tone of voice, everything. What's crazy is it was not busy yet. At one point, a different server came by to check on us and she was so much better. Our table joked saying, "How do we get her to be our server instead? The other one is truly terrible."

For the cocktails: OVER PRICED AND WATERED DOWN! My friend's Old Fashioned was half the amount it should be for the price. If you look at the photo I posted, that's how it came to the table before he even had a sip. Not good, even for expensive Seattle bars. My Egg Nog Cocktail was literally watered down (think watered down milk for toddlers kind of level) and had a ton of ice in the glass, which is weird for a dairy based cocktail, and the rim was sugar, way too sweet for an already sweet cocktail. I had to switch to a beer on tap for fear all the cocktails were made so poorly. In fact, the entire table switched to beer because of this reason.

And it was expensive for the quality! The food was ok, but not worth the price. Two of us ordered the Lamb Pasta and while one dish had a ton of parmesan on top, the other had barely any. When they set it on the table side by side, we looked at each other like "seriously? Our server doesn't even care enough to call it out to the kitchen before bringing it to the table?" So quality control is clearly an issue along with service.

The only thing it had going for it was the atmosphere. But it's still not so cool it's worth spending the money on average food, bad cocktails, and terrible service.

We have a lot of patience for restaurants and bars post COVID, happy we have the option to go out, but this kind of experience means we won't be back...

From the moment you walk in, the ambiance of herb and bitter is well-executed, a darker and cozy bar later into the night with a large selection of drinks on prominent display. The open kitchen gives you a good idea of the aromas and flavors that await when you order food, and the cushy bench seating welcomes you to sit and stay a while. The cocktail menu is a little hard to read the details of drink descriptions from, but trust the base level flavor descriptions and the designers of the drinks, and you'll be granted a wonderfully complex and delicious experience. I enjoyed my Mezcal Negroni, Pear Cobbler, and Le Daiquiri as wonderful summer drinks, and my partner's tangerine mule certainly tasted as though it hit the spot as well. I loved the arincini, which was beautifully crisp and pairing with a fresh red sauce and a hint of spice. My main of the dungeness crab gnocchi was flavorful and a very large portion, with the gnocchi delightfully tender and the crab's more delicate flavors highlighted to perfection. I finished my late meal and drinks with their chocolate torte dessert, which was paired with a duo of fresh fruit preserves that balanced perfectly with the deep strong flavors of the torte.

All in all, I loved my experience at Herb and Bitter and look forward to coming in again on a late night on Broadway or when their cocktail geniuses next come up with something new. And next time I'll...

Good cocktails but the food is underwhelming. The last time I ate here was a few years ago and it was very good, but prices went up and the quality just isn't there. We went here primarily due to the atmosphere (which is great and hasn't changed) and because the website specifically pointed out they can accommodate vegan, vegetarian and gluten-free diners and one of our party of 6 was vegan. Unfortunately there were virtually no good vegan options. The best that could be done was ordering vegetarian and removing substantial parts of those dishes. Substitutions for vegan diners isn't in general an awful thing, but for a restaurant that specifically advertised having vegan options we gave the limited-looking menu a pass assuming there would be another menu or something special they could do. More inclusive restaurants will do that, or at least mark menu items as being gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, or "vegan possible".

All in all it was a disappointing meal, especially for a big place with good atmosphere. In theory it should be ideal for groups but in practice, unless you can be sure all dietary restrictions can be properly accommodated, I don't think Herb & Bitter is worth the cost anymore. I might come back for drinks, but probably not dinner.

This is otherwise a 4 star place, but 1 star off for poor vegan options vs. the expectations they set and 1 star off for the decline in quality +...