The Shambles — Restaurant in Seattle

Sharing food experiences with friends is something I deeply cherish. So when a friend offered to take me to dinner at The Shambles I was delighted. One step in the door and I wanted to step right back out again. I felt as though I had walked into a cave. And not one of those “cool, I wanna explore this cave” kind of caves. There is no character and no charm. The walls are dark, the lighting is too bright in some places and too dark in others. The bar, while stocked with some of the best droughts on tap, is enormous and cold. The backdrop is a huge slab of stainless steel. Cold, cold, cold!! Some of the staff was great and attentive, some of the staff was unfriendly and made us feel ignored. For how busy it was we were sat quickly, but it took a while to get drinks or food ordered and we were sitting at the bar. When the food came I was deeply disappointed. We ordered the meet board for two. It, much like the restaurant looked cold and lacking in character. The cured meat was good, but felt like nothing really special. The rabbit was tasty, but the pickled peppers and the mushrooms were terrible!!! The mix of spices and different regions of food on one small board didn’t go well at all together. And I feel like it distracted me from how good the meat probably was. There is a way that you can make all these things work together, but this felt confused and overdone. The rolls are great and I quite liked the crackers. They have a little bit of a sweet spice on them. But I did feel like they overwhelmed the flavor of the meat. We also both ordered sausages on a bun. One Italian, one curry. Both were really tasty. And when there was a mix up in the kitchen, they fixed it right away. The bun was great, not too hard and not too soft and had really great flavor. The kraut sort of felt like an afterthought, same with the tomato sauce or what ever it was that came with. It was way too sweet. I would have just rather have had the mustard and bread with the sausage. For dessert we ordered the apple custard. It was absolutely terrible. The pretzel crust was mushy, the apple custard was just tart and there was enough nutmeg sprinkled on the top to last a lifetime. They were kind enough to take it off the tab because I did not eat it. The beers however were AMAZING!!!! Some of the best taps I’ve ever tasted.

I can appreciate what they are trying to do with an in house butcher and making things from scratch. But I personally feel like trying to be on trend is taking away from something that could be really special. The meat is great, and the beer is great! Keep it simple and let those things...

Went here for my birthday dinner. The quality of the food is solid across the board. All the food is well salted and is satisfying. For the price-point though there isn’t really much depth of flavor though. It just tastes like they cook with a lot of salt and butter.

The service was great but the atmosphere was a bit rugged for the price-point. I get that this is desirable (even for the price-point) but there simply just wasn’t anything charming about the decor. The thing that was most off putting though was that my partner and I reeked of smoke/grease after the meal (my partner noted she even felt nauseous from smoke). It was as if we had just eaten Korean BBQ (IYKYK). Again, quite strange for the price point. We also both got bad di** right after the meal. I hadn’t eaten lunch so it was clear this restaurant was the culprit.

My partner got the pork chop and I got the ribeye. The pork chop had some pink but we ate it anyways because we assumed it’d be fine at a nicer restaurant. The pork chop tasted decent but honestly was kinda dry. The ribeye tasted great (nothing amazing but was definitely above average), but there was a giant clump of fat at the end of the steak that was at least 3oz. I’d have hoped they could’ve trimmed this off (and not included in the weight/price) for an $80 steak.

We also got the crispy potatoes, Caesar salad and mushrooms. All were well executed and but nothing fantastic.

I really hate to leave a bad review for a local restaurant but was truly disappointed with my experience. Seems as they’re doing just fine catering to the affluent locals but I’d hope they could improve their value proposition a bit. I guess thats just a common theme of restaurants in Seattle unfortunately. Won’t be...

Evidently, The Shambles takes its name from the second definition in the Oxford dictionary, meaning, "a butcher's slaughterhouse" and not the first which defines it as, "a state of total disorder." This review is for happy hour — chaotic it was not.

Here are words to describe my experience: toothsome and delectable (food); congenial, personable and efficient (service); neighborly and relaxing (atmosphere); and accessible (value). From the happy hour menu, my husband and I ordered a burger (included a pile of skinny fries), Caesar salad and olives, he sipped a Manhattan. While waiting for our food, for future reference we perused the black board with the impressive variety of steaks. Staff member Sarah shared info on the different cuts and sizes, tempting us to come back with friends for a full feast.

Not related to the meal, but certainly a hallmark of the establishment: I unknowingly dropped my wallet and didn't discover it missing until a full day later. I emailed The Shambles and Becky responded promptly that she would check when she got in the next day. She did as promised, replying that the found wallet would be there for pick up, putting my anxiety at ease. When I dropped by, Kati handed it over, as pleasant as associates Sarah and Sara were the evening I first visited. I have so many positive feelings about this entire episode, I will certainly return to The Shambles to make more delicious memories. PS: Sorry about the lack of burger pic, we devoured it too quickly without...