Hard Luck Bar & Grill — Restaurant in Washington

Yesterday, after meeting with my orthopedic surgeon to discuss progress and recovery, following a less than stellar PT session last week which caused a huge setback in my recovery, (NO fault of the PT), it was off to have a meal prior to running errands.

While I know we have not exhausted all of the eateries in Tacoma, we have definitely been to all who have decent parking. The Hard Luck is on our way home so after driving past it many times over the years we decided to stop.

They had only been open for a short time before we arrived, so there were only 2 other customers. Being first time customers, and not knowing protocol, I went to the counter to ask how we were to order. We picked a table and waited for the bartender to bring us menus. We waited several minutes before the menus arrived. Ray and I both ordered coffee and water. We needed to wait for coffee to be brewed. Fair enough, no problem. Better fresh than hours old coffee. Either their coffee machine needed to be replaced, due to it being ancient, or the bartender wasn’t in any sort of rush to deliver it.

We placed our food order, and waited for our coffee to be delivered, which was just minutes before our food arrived. The bar was not slammed busy. One customer had finished his meal and left shortly after we arrived and the other customer was eating her meal when we walked through the door,

Ray ordered the chicken fried steak with hash browns, scrambled eggs, and wheat toast. I ordered the BLT on sourdough with fries. While we are rarely in a hurry to get our food, neither was the bartender in a hurry to bring it to the table. Our meals had definitely been sitting up for a while. While not cold, our food wasn’t exactly hot either.

The bartender did check back with us a few times which was nice. We decided it wasn’t worth asking for hot food. We had to request more coffee, and then wait for it to be delivered.

Ray said his chicken fried steak was better than he expected it to be. The hash browns looked undercooked and soggy and the scrambled eggs looked pale and almost gray. We have chickens and are used to bright orange yolks.

My BLT had a decent amount of crisp bacon. The lettuce was fresh and crispy and the tomato had flavor. The steak fries were good but could have been hotter.

Breakfast is served until 4:00 every day. I sometimes like breakfast in the late morning/early afternoon. If you are like me, that is worth noting.

One thing I will give the bar was that the music wasn’t blasting us out the door even though the place was empty. The other thing I appreciated was pleasant, rather than annoying, music. I don’t necessarily have a problem with loud. I do have a problem with certain genres of what passes for music these days.

Everything was OK although nothing on the menu screamed return visit!! While I would not advise against going there, we won’t be back.

They have karaoke and several pool tables. We were seated on the dance floor. I have no idea whether dancing still happens. My idea of nightlife has changed in the past few...

Security didn’t let me and my friend in at 1am(even tho website says 2) z saying supposedly they’re not letting anybody in anymore .. which was fine .. then proceeded to let in two separate people before we even left the parking lot. It was just me & one homegirl wanting one last drink before last call around 130 & we came at 1 to be exact & they close at 2. No explanation & they didn’t even look all that busy , other than this time I’ve had a...

Went for the karaoke and was a little let down. It was a good crowd and lots of different music was played but unless you know the karaoke lady good luck getting a second song in. She kept her regulars in rotation. It does get busy on a Saturday night so you're going to wait for a drink. Food was pretty good. It's bar food and for some reason I love bar food. Great mix of people and everyone...