Talking Cedar — Restaurant in Washington

Jade was an attentive and proactive server. While she was busy, and it would have been preferable if she had taken our entree order prior to us finishing our appetizers, she was on top of checking in with us and bringing refills for our drinks. All in all, I believe she did a good job.

Our app was good, not amazing, but the excessive wait time on our entrees was frustrating. Jade was kind and proactive, bringing it to the attention of her manager, providing a hefty discount due to the wait, without us even commenting on it.

When the entrees did arrive, the mahi mahi burger had onions burnt beyond belief, none of the food was hot, but the sweet potato fries were just cold. It was highly disappointing considering how long we ended up waiting. At this point we were hungry and unwilling to wait for a refire, we would just eat the disappointment. When we asked for a manager, they did compensate us with an even larger discount, but I don't see myself going back anytime soon.

The part that stood out the most was the manager's response. It was apparent that he was hostile towards the kitchen, if not the staff entirely. He kept going on about how he 'already yelled at the kitchen and would yell at them again' that he would be 'writing them up' due to our experience. As a guest, I don't want to hear about how you would be punishing your staff, I want to hear how you will take steps to avoid it happening in the future. You could just feel the aggression seeping off of him, not towards us, but towards his staff. I told him that it was simply a training opportunity, but I sincerely believe he would use it as a weapon against his staff instead.

Apparently the head chef was on the line, preparing the food that night, which is not reassuring if what we experienced is what their top cook could provide. I don't know if they have an expo checking the plates before they go out, but incidents such as this could be avoided.

It was truly a shame because it was apparent a lot of money has gone into designing and building what really is an aesthetically beautiful restaurant with a varied menu. I understand mistakes happen, and they more than made up for it through the discount. The manager though sincerely needs to either take a break from customer service, or re-evaluate how he handles guest complaints, because the only words I can think of for his commentary is: unprofessional and borderline toxic.

I do hope that this review is read with an open mind, by both leadership and future guests. I can see this being an excellent business, and perhaps our experience was a one off. I wouldn't discourage anyone from trying the Talking Cedar, but I strongly encourage their leadership to reevaluate how they handle issues, with both guests, and...

The place itself is beautiful, clean! Friendly welcoming upon entrance. Server was friendly and knowledgeable of the menu, and when asked questions about menu items that she did not know the answer to she went and found out the answers. We appreciated that. The house salad was pretty good. The onion rings I would say we’re a 6/10. We love, onion rings so the bar we set is high for them! The the french fries are double fried which were really good, they were smaller fries and more of the crispy end pieces of natural cut fries, looks like they use a smaller potatoe. My husband loves that type of fry. I prefer the longer hand cut fries, so if you like the ends and pieces, these would be great to you and those are my husband’s favorite. my husband’s burger was amazing. The beef had a very great flavor and they are hand formed patties. The bacon on the burger was delicious and the buns are grilled 9/10. He also got a side of poutine which he has never eaten or ordered. It’s been something that’s been interesting to him, but never could quite pull the trigger. He tried it here and he said it was pretty good, but he’s never had it before so if you are a person who loves it we couldn’t say if it was the best or the worst. I can say it has made him have the desire to order it again there or at different places. They use the same double fried fries and cover it with brown gravy and cheese curds. I believe it’s more of a Canadian thing. My go to is a wedge salad, Theirs came with red onions blue cheese, bacon crumbles tomatoes the presentation of the salad looked pretty good, but the salad itself was lackluster and not very good. The blue cheese crumbles were almost minced in the dressing and maybe minced together with the bacon that was seemed minced. I didn’t care for that at all. I won’t be ordering that again. We will be back, and give it 1 more try but I will be ordering a burger next time! I would say for brewery food it’s...

We had high hopes for this restaurant. First off the food was decent, the service was terrible.

They forgot to make my wives meal when they prepared all of our food. They brought everyone’s meal except hers, but we thought maybe it took a little longer for her meal and it will be out in a few min. There was no mention of her meal from the waitress.

After waiting for a while my wife told us to go ahead and just eat without her. Then after a long time we realized her food isn’t coming, so I asked the waitress about her meal. She went to the kitchen and came back and said “oh they burnt it, they are making another one” Had they burnt it, first, there would have been a mention of it. Second, they would have made it right away as soon as they saw they burnt it, So this was a lie the kitchen said to cover the fact that they missed it.

It wasn’t until we were all well done eating, the kids were restless, and we had our coats on and we were getting up to leave that she brought out her meal. I requested the bill. My wife took some quick bites while the waitress got our bill.

They had the tenacity to charge us for her meal!! I questioned the server about charging us for the meal, and actually responded and said yes we are charging you for it, she’s eating it. She’s having a few quick bites as we are literally walking out the door and you call that eating!!! I said we are literally leaving and you brought it to us as we are leaving and you are charging us for it? She wouldn’t budge.

Worst of all, through the whole ordeal she didn’t apologize one time for the “burnt” meal. Or any of the inconvenience or anything. That server was terrible!!

Typically I always tip 30% for any kind of service we receive anywhere we go. I can tell you that is not what she got.

Terrible terrible...