Steelhead Bar & Grille — Restaurant in Spokane

Steelhead Bar & Grill is casual as you might expect. But what you are less likely to expect is the fine dining that’s possible here. I ordered the clams in broth as the appetizer and for something light, the fish-tacos for dinner. A generous mound of 1” clams in broth were served in a large bowl. I nibbled on a couple of the clams and they were quietly “clammy” in a good way. Then I sipped the broth; again nothing startling but pleasant. As I ate and sipped more, the bits at the bottom of the bowl became accessible; wow! For me the whole bowl bloomed— the clams were FRESH and the subtlety tasty broth augmented the whole dish. I started to gobble clams but had a second thought— slow down and savor this experience. And I did. Finally as I finished the last clam, Kailey who was attentively watching over me, brought out the main course... the fish tacos. The three fish tacos looked ordinary; so, after reveling in the appetizer, I lowered expectations. Wrong! All three tacos were filled with a mix of lumps of freshly cooked cod, slaw and topped with a swirl of guacamole and a sauce on the side. The first bite with sauce spooned on told me that it wasn’t ordinary; there had to be more to it. (I’m a clinical research scientist) so, I started to experiment. First I drizzled sauce over one of the tacos and ate it ... delicious. Then I dipped a corner of a taco into the sauce; then I dipped another corner more deeply into the sauce ... what a difference... more better!!! Actually TERRIFIC! The only regret is that I finished that second taco voraciously, then consumed the last taco ... but I ran out of sauce before the last bite. If you order the tacos, my advice to you is to get EXTRA SAUCE. There was one last revelation; at the end I was picking at the pieces that had escaped - as savory as each of these morsels were, they paled by comparison to a hefty bite of the fish/cod taco dipped deeply into the sauce. The intact taco is indeed greater...

I ordered the Halibut fish and chips and an iced tea. I like to mix some mayo with my ketchup to mellow the ketchup, but they had no mayo. How does a place that serves burgers and tartar sauce not have mayo? I asked the pleasant server if the tartar sauce that came with my fish was house made. He didn't know, so I told him not to worry and I would use the tarter for the fries. He did come back with some mustard though.

The three small halibut fillets were about a half inch thick. I was concerned, as halibut dries out quick when cooked. I took a piece and dipped it into the tartar sauce. The sauce was too savory and, of course, the halibut was dry and appeared previously frozen and not fresh. There is nothing tastier than a juicy bite of properly cooked halibut; this was not it. It was edible, whether fresh or frozen, but I did have to add a bit of sweetener to the tartar sauce to make it all palatable. Because I had to use so much of the tartar sauce to compensate for lack of moisture in the fish, I had nothing left for the fries. They should know better and instead use just two thicker pieces of halibut. Better yet, since I left hungry, just use fresh cod/rock-fish. You can give the customer more, by nature it has less chance of drying out, is delicious and is also tried and true.

The fries were still decent and the iced tea was fresh brewed and decently strong for a restaurant. The service was good, but I did have to track down the waiter about 20 minutes after we had finished eating, so we could pay and get back to work. There were only four tables occupied the whole time we were there. Got there at 11:30 and left just after 1:00.

With a $7.00 tip and the $34.90 for the fish and tea the bill came to $41.90. Too rich for my blood. I...

For reference, we ordered exclusively from the social hour menu, and I want to be clear that the service was wonderful.

Firstly, two of the drinks on the cocktail menu weren't available due to ingredient shortages. We couldn't get the seasonal sour because the bar didn't have egg whites. And the Chartreuse for the gin cocktail has been on limited release since 2019 - this is hardly a new development - therefore it shouldn't be on a featured menu.

We moved on to the social hour food menu, aiming to share a handful of appetizers, so we narrowed our selections down based on non-dairy options she could enjoy. We enjoyed the pork belly bites (very good), salt and vinegar shoestring fries (a fry type I despise on principle but they were fine), dry rubbed wings and tossed wings (both delicious, special thanks to Spiceology).

The issues arose with the brussels sprout chips and the chicken tacos. The brussels are a nothing food - you don't get the bacon or option of sauce from the main menu appetizer, and it comes out as a literal pile of leaves on a flat square plate so every swipe of the spoon knocks half the leaves on the table. We opted to eat with our hands because it was honestly less messy. The chicken tacos came with cheese so I was on my own to eat them, but after one I couldn't do it. The chicken had a soapy flavor, the cheese was flavorless, and the salsa was effectively tomato water that didn't stick to the taco whatsoever, just kind of washed it. Our server noticed I wasn't eating them and offered to remove them from the bill, which was so sweet.

Overall, for a longtime spot downtown with some killer real estate - I don't...