The Gallon House — Restaurant in Silverton

Rude staff and incredibly slow service.

A few months ago we enjoyed a casual meal here after wandering the Oregon Garden nearby. Though slow, the staff was friendly which made up for it. The food is good - casual and classic American grille fare, a bit overpriced for what it is. This past weekend we had family in town and thought we'd visit this restaurant again after another garden wander and what a terribly, awful experience....

We arrived at 1pm on a Saturday and it was super empty with one or two guest-groups on the patio. My in-laws (a group of friendly, academics visiting from the midwest) went to get a table while my hubby and I tried to find parking. They entered from the patio side and didn't see a host, so they stood for a bit and then seated themselves. No one came to the table for at least 10 minutes, so just as one of our family members went inside to inquire, a staff member rudely approached our table to angrily scold us for entering the wrong way and seating ourselves (there was no sign at the patio entrance and the name and logo on the patio door made it appear as though that was the main entrance). We offered to get up and go "wait on the line" (of literally no one at the time). She told us we are already seated, so we may as well stay seated, then hurried off. 15 minutes later she came back to our table to inform us of a special policy that since we were a group of 8 people, there is a 20 minute wait period at the table until they can take an order to allow the kitchen time to prepare. She didn't even offer to take a drink order or bring us water and just handed us the menus. This "time out" made absolutely no sense, especially given that the restaurant was dead at a peak time on a weekend. 20 minutes later she returned and took our orders and it took another half hour for her to bring the first round of drinks. When she finally did, she forgot my drink so I waited another 10 minutes for it to arrive. At the time of ordering, we asked if she could bring out our toddler's meal as soon as possible to keep her distracted, but she didn't. Another 30 minutes later our food finally came, but staggered so that every 5 minutes a couple of us received a meal over the course of 15-20 minutes so that we couldn't actually eat as a family, unless we wanted our food cold. We'd ordered easy things and all very similar: mostly burgers and a salad (that had silted old green mixed in), plus shrimp and an appetizer (that arrived last).

I'm a friendly, happy and gracious restaurant guest and rarely have issues. While my in-laws may have made a mistake due to lack of communication from the restaurant, there was no reason for the staff to be so rude, let alone slow. I was appalled at their lack of hospitality and will never...

We came here yesterday for a get-together.

The person organizing the event called this restaurant four days in advance to confirm that our group size would be ok, and it was. However, as more people arrived, our table filled up. One of the last couples to arrive was treated poorly; we were told that our group was too big and the couple couldn't join our group. When they tried to order drinks at the bar, they were turned away because "they weren't apart of a table and they couldn't sit at their own because there was no room in the restaurant". This was so frustrating that the couple decided to leave.

Along with that, service was slow and our server had to be reminded multiple times to bring one person's drink, but as this was first Friday, this was to be expected. People at our table were also told that we couldn't go up to the bar and order drinks as that would confuse our waitress and so we had to wait for her to come back to us so we could order drinks and food. We would normally be accepting of this, except, our waitress was the only one working last night and from our experience was actively ignoring our party.

When I arrived at 7:40, the place was packed and I expected a wait for food and drinks. However, I wasn't allowed to order until 8:10 when the hostess came over and informed us that there would be live music played and the band needed the spot that we were all sitting in to set up. We told her we hadn't even ordered yet and so she brought our waitress over to take our food orders. The hostess did everything she could to help us, brought waters and apologized for not being able to do much more for our party. She was very accommodating, where others weren't.

When we were moved from our original table, we were told that the people who had ordered food and drinks needed to sit at it, otherwise they wouldn't be counted as apart of the table and wouldn't be served. Once we got our food around 8:50, it was fine. The appetizer (mozzarella sticks) we ordered came at the time as our entrees and everything was just ok. The food was overpriced for what it was.

All in all we were very disappointed with the way our party was treated and the restaurant itself, so we won't be coming back...

UPDATE: Went back recently and had a great experience. Seems like a new staff and I have had a couple great dishes. I was craving nachos the other day and theirs were great. Worth your time to revisit this establishment.

The Gallon house has a really nice patio to sit at while you watch the world go by. It can be a little loud at times but I really enjoy sitting out there and having a beer off their extensive tap list. There is always something new in rotation. They have always had good burgers but last time I had the chicken sandwich and that is my new favorite. It was a chicken breast in tempura batter on a ciabatta bun. It was excellent and I ate every last bite. They also have good mac and cheese but that chicken sandwich is my favorite.

Update:. The pandemic has been hard on everyone and the restaurant industry has been hurt beyond a reasonable doubt. That being said I unfortunately I won't be going back to the Gallon house. We waited 20 minutes without getting even a drink order and then the wait staff went on to get drink orders six other people. I knew we weren't going to enjoy that experience so we just left. It was a very negative experience and the staff that was there looked overwhelmed and confused. We went to Markum Inn and they were at max Covid allowed capacity but everyone had a positive attitude and incredible hustle. I hope Gallon House can recover. It used to be a great little spot. Oh also don't let them seat you on the end of the patio with the dumpster. All you can...