Yard House — Restaurant in Seattle

Customer service needs serious help. I've been to Yard House many times. I enjoy celebrating birthdays, anniversaries, and successes here. I've always had really amazing service here in the past. This time, unfortunately, I got either a very new server or a rude, annoyed server. I really can't tell. We had a larger party with 2 kids. Right off the bat, Mia looked annoyed. She was impatient with my friends drink order. Messed up both appetizers and got only my order wrong. It's probably a coincidence, but it's still frustrating. We had to ring the tablet to get any kind of drink refills or additional orders in after the food was delivered. On one of those times, a very friendly man came to refill our waters, and I ordered another soda. Our waitress decided to stop by about 15 min after our food had been delivered. After saying she didn't even know that our food had come, she asked if we needed anything. I said "No thank you. We needed water refills, and I had ordered another drink with another waiter. We're good now." And she left. The male waiter returned with my drink. Then, about 5 min later, a different man stopped by with my drink. I was confused and told him sorry, someone else dropped it off. He shrugged and said, "I'm just going to dump it. Does anyone want it?" My friend said sure, and the waiter said,"Alright. I'll take it off the tab cause we can't use it anyway. Just let your server know." I said thank you, and he left. All is well. We finished our meals and waited for the check. (I was paying cash, so I couldn't use the tablet.) And we waited. And waited. About 20 minutes after we had eaten, I finally used the call button on the tablet once again. 5-6 min later, Mia shows. I tell her, "Hey. I'm sorry, but I think my soda got ordered twice, but the waiter said he took it off the tab. I don't mind if you wanna put it on the check, but he said not to worry about it. Sorry about this." She looked upset. She said it's no problem, and she'll take it off the bill. I said, "Thanks, you didn't have to. I appreciate it." Then she said something absolutely ridiculous. She said, "I'm going to need that drink back." We were so confused. I said the waiter said we could keep it and that it's np. She said it's company policy and she had to take it. My friend had finished about half. I said if she must, she can take mine, but I'd rather her just put it on the bill. She repeated herself. She needed to take it. I said we already drank most of it, and it's ok to just put it on the bill, I really don't mind. She then took MY drink, FROM MY HAND and walked off. I was dumbstruck and absolutely embarrassed. I was treating my friends to a good meal and fun times, and this woman was a real jerk. Needless to say, we won't be back. It was a $230 bill. I still tipped out 35%, and I'm now regretting it. Mia, you didn't deserve that tip cause we didn't deserve to be treated like that. How embarrassing. Next time don't argue with the customer and just add it to the bill. That attitude was not worth...

Downtown Seattle used to be our cool weekend getaway coming from our small town up north. We loved the vibe, the restaurants, and especially the array of nightlife choices. Covid and homelessness changed Seattle a lot and our last few visits were less than stellar. Places we used to love are long gone, so we were thrilled to see The Yardhouse still standing and still an excellent place to hang. During our recent visit, we spent two evenings here - one at table service and one at the bar. For our first meal, I had tortilla soup and kale caesar salad. The soup was pretty good, but I wouldn’t order it again. It was creamy but kind of one note in taste and was served in a wide bowl which made it go from hot to tepid quickly. The salad was nuanced and super interesting with pepitas and dried fruit although perhaps slightly underdressed. My partner had four meat pizza and declared it the BEST PIZZA OF ALL TIME!! The crust was thin, it had a small amount of sauce, and was literally covered with meats. He was in heaven. I ordered a flight of drinks - the honey blonde, a mango fruit beer, the daily seltzer, and a pineapple cider. The mango beer was phenomenal.

The next night we bellied up to the bar to watch the MLB home run derby. My partner once again ordered the meat pizza and was somewhat disappointed to see that this time his pizza had far less toppings. He said it was really good, but he didn’t rave. We chalked it up to a busier night or a different chef. I ordered the lettuce wraps. The menu lists tofu as the first ingredient so I was a little trepidatious, but our waiter said he had worked there a year before he realized there was tofu in the recipe as it was well blended and he was right. The dish comes with two sauces and I asked for a bottle of hot sauce to spice it up. I had the mango fruit beer and then switched to wine as the evening continued. Our bartender and servers were attentive, helpful, and engaging. I wish I were better at getting names of excellent workers. We did note the name of our server the first night and have to give a big ATTTAWAY to Frances who was just fantastic. Our bartender was equally great and fixed me up with a great tasty shot after our guy, Cal Raleigh, won the home run derby. Happy hour prices gave us half off pizza and the lettuce wraps....

We went there on Wednesday Feb 28th, just a group of friends enjoying beer and some food. Since we got in, the server Brandon threw the coasters at us. We thought it was just a bad day or part of his personality. He asked 3 times for my friends drink and it was just a coke, pretending he didn’t understand. Mind you, we were speaking Spanish but are all fluent in English. Good came in, drinks, it was okay. The time to pay comes and one of our friends starts using the tablet to pay for his part. Brandon comes, takes out the tablet from his hands and says he needs to process payments in his system, so tell him how to split appetizers. We’re not very specific about how we pay bills, sometimes one of us will pay for everyone, sometimes we break bills apart between only a few, etc. we do not mind a lot about bills… We told him to just let us use the tablet. He said “I can’t, please hear me out I just need you to tell me how to split the appetizers” we said we hadn’t even talked about it. He turned with my friend who was closest and said “let me repeat myself, just tell me how to split the appetizers”. We honestly didn’t even care about it but his attitude was super rude and even like entitled. My other friend decided to pay for everyone and avoid the embarrassment but then, upon thinking twice we were like “wait, why should we do things his way if he’s the one being rude and besides he’s getting 20% in tips. So we called the manager, reverses the charge, and then she sends again the same guy to redo the bill. I mean, I would be brought the new server in (I think they were changing shifts). He starts splitting the bill and telling us there’s a mandatory 20% for groups of 6. My friends tells him “but what if I want to leave a different tip”, very rudely he says “it’s okay I don’t need your $12”. After this unbelievable service, we talked to a busboy and he confirmed that Brandon is super racist, he throws plates at kitchen and cleaning staff and always makes fun of them. I don’t think there’s room for people like Brandon in customer facing roles, much less in Seattle. I have been living here for 2 years and had never felt like this, have always been treated fairly. That day I felt feeling...