Pilchuck Drive In — Restaurant in Snohomish

I didn't have a great experience a couple years ago and decided to give this place another chance. The line of cars for drive-through wasn't moving and I have a larger vehicle that I didn't want to block the road with so went inside. As expected, the line wasn't moving any more quickly inside. Contrary to some other reviews I read here, both the seating area and the restroom seemed clean enough.

The craving for fish and chips and a fresh lemonade had lured me in. They were out of lemonade. I placed my order for fish and chips. Several minutes later they called my order number, but only to tell me that they were out of fish. I switched my order to shrimp as it was closest to the fish I had a craving for, so the cashier refunded the difference to my card, or so I thought. A few more minutes later, he walked out the difference in cash, including many coins, because he couldn't figure out how to refund the card. After yet another long wait, my order was finally done. The shrimp was slightly overcooked but not terrible. The fries were limp and lukewarm, with salt on some but not most.

From reading the other reviews here, I think the burgers and shakes may be better than the things that I've had here. They may even make up for the very slow service and disorganization. The prices seem more reasonable on those also, unlike the $20 total for a single person's fish and chips plus a fountain drink.

There were only a couple young employees visible when I was there and they didn't seem to be coordinating very well for having so many customers waiting. They also didn't seem all that excited to be there or working with customers. An experienced shift lead helping with coordination and management of inventory would go a long way toward addressing the many problems here.

I know this place is a unique Snohomish staple and alternative to the chain fast food places. I like supporting local businesses, but after a few tries over a few years and having poor experiences each time I don't expect to be returning in the future.

For anyone who may be considering stopping by, I'd encourage you to go when you have plenty of time to enjoy the burgers and shakes. If you aren't in a hurry and order those, you'll likely have a better...

30 Dec 2018 - First impression

Score: 3.5, rounded to 4 - Recommended to try.

Overall: The food was good and reminded me of a combination of Sonic and In-n-Out. It’s definitely worth repeat business, and we’ll be back within a month.

I had a bacon burger, fries, and a soda.

Bacon Burger: Overall, the burger tasted salty, but probably because of the bacon they use. It looked and tasted a bit like precooked bacon—thin and flimsy, and the day wasn’t cooked as much as I like. Slightly thicker (not thick-sliced bacon), less salty, and super crispy bacon cooked on-site would have improved flavor and texture. The shredded lettuce was soggy, but the grease from the patty probably contributed to that. The patty seemed to be a common thin 1/4lb patty sold by Sysco foods. No complaints though. That’s what I wanted. Overall, 3/5 for the burger. Less grease from the burger and possibly bacon would have allowed other flavors to come through. Less salt, crisp lettuce, and crispy, thicker bacon would have made it a 5. Also a better house sauce for the burger would have been good. The ketchup/mayo/relish wasn’t impressive.

Fries: The fries were good, but could have been cooked 20 seconds longer for a little more crunch, or maybe the oil had cooled down due to frequent use. Also, the quantity for a large fry is what I was expecting for a medium fry.

My wife had a cheese burger and fries and a vanilla malt.

Cheese Burger: She said the burger was good, but the grilled onions were overwhelmingly greasy, which made them taste bland.

Malt: The malt was incredible. Rich flavor and not too thick. Some milkshakes and malts lack flavor because the ice cream isn’t very good or is too cold and adding milk to thin out the ice cream makes the milkshake taste more like milk than ice cream.

Soda: The soda syrup to water ratio was good. It doesn’t taste like they’re watering down their sodas.

Value: Probably around $10-$12 / head. Great value...

Slowest of all time, no joke. Average wait for me is 20 mins if I'm first in line. The burgers are quite good and fresh, employees are sincere and polite and not lazy, and there's always lots of staff, but the place has zero management and is curiously designed to be slow even though it only has capacity for maybe 10 customers.

It's extremely interesting to watch if you have the time and are interested in operation flow, they actually work hard but in the slowest way possible. The orders are hand-written on post-its, placed and cooked one at a time, and all employees in the store often run to the same area at the same time while filling orders. Today the grill guy stopped cooking, left an empty grill, to run to the drive thru to help make milkshakes. Seeing 3 employees all at the machine just to make 2 milkshakes was fascinating and mind-boggling, especially since it's a 1-person machine. During that time there were 7 groups waiting to order, and no patties on the grill. They finish an order completely before taking a new one. You could write good college papers based on observing the action.

I rather like the place, it has a certain charm, like a quirky cafe in a sitcom which is problematic beyond belief yet the characters always frequent it regardless. But I have to give 1 star considering the place is literally designed to make you wait and waste your life when when they aren't busy. This drive thru only fits 2 cars, but you can pretty much order a pizza and get it delivered in the same...