Topside Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Steilacoom

The good: The service was great. The employees worked wonderfully together. I heard employees ask if their co-worker needed help, multiple times. This was nice to see. Our appetizer (pork nachos) came out extremely quickly and we were all satisfied with it. Fish and chips were also good.

Needs improvement: Traffic flow at entry. Patrons entered doorway with confusion on where to go, often not realizing where the host station was that would allow them to add name to wait list and answer questions about the restaurant. I recommend considering removal of portion of seating bench that is closest to entryway, IOT provide enough space for a hostess to setup and greet patrons as they enter. It’s possible that patrons turned around and left after confusion over entryway foot traffic and waiting customer congestion. I guided three different parties on where to go, after seeing their familiar look of unknowing what was going on.

The clam chowder recipe should be compared to other recipes and reviewed by a test group. The dill flavoring overpowered all other ingredients, to include the clams. I also recommend considering using a traditional tartar sauce recipe, or just dialing back the dill.

Overall we enjoyed the restaurant, and may visit again once construction of deck seating area...

When we arrived we were told about 40 to 45 minutes for a table outside and longer for a table inside. I said we wanted to sit outside. The host scribbled my name and number on a sticky note and said we should go visit the wine bar down stairs and he would call when a table was available. He didn't write us down on the list and when I asked if he was going to, he kept saying "I'll put you down Boss". The owner approached us and in kind of a confontational tone said "is there a problem"? I said no, just want to make sure we are on the list. We went to the wine bar and 55 minutes later we headed back up...we had not received a call. The same guy said we would be one of the next ones...then said here is one thats available, they are leaving. It was a table inside so I reminded him we wanted to sit outside. He didn't have that written down. He scrambled to sit us inside until an outside table was available. An hour and thirty five minutes from when we first arrived we had a table outside. The service was slow, not the fault of our server, they were not staffed properly...the food arrived very timely once ordered and was good. The issue I have is with the customer service from the host and the owner. There were several tables sat outside before us with guests who...

We walked in at 4:05pm on a Sunday, nearly immediately put in a order for the drunken mushroom burger, about 10 to 15 min passes. A new water came to greet us due to shift change. He was well manored and had good energy. Then its 4:55pm around 50 min after entering. No burger, we watched many people get their food, and our waiter did not come back until this time to say that he just noticed our order was never sent in to the kitchen. He was apologetic and encouraged us to get the rosmary fries rather than the regular ones the burger comes with. We agreed. We then get our burger at 5:05 or so. An order that took less than 15 min!....we waited for a hour. We then get the check with nothing comped...with an ADDED two dollars for the "special rosemary crack fries".... seriously most tacky thing to do after knowing your guests waited that long for a truly simple order...upsell them. My boyfriend had to walk to a server station and explain to a few of the servers how wrong this was. Their frist remarks are "who was it". They should realise its past being our earlier waiters fault, our new waiter completely added to this unacceptable experience. At this point we are both very unsatisfied, they comp the burger. My boyfriend should not had to have discussed this...