The Hardware Store Restaurant — Restaurant in Washington

Traveled to the island as a first time visitor and had no set plan, other than to just wander and explore.

We were starving and hadn't eaten since breakfast so we also wanted to sit but not wait and my son's picky eating was in play on this one so he just wanted a burger or familiar food, no risk taking on this one.

We were on foot and the only options we could find were pizza or The Hardware Store Restaurant. I don't prefer to get pizza when traveling as I have a teenager....there's plenty of pizza in our lives. I actually did hear about an Italian restaurant on the island that makes 00 flour crusted pizza with imported ingredients from Italy but it wasn't where we were. 😔 I was hoping to go there.

We did not have to wait and were given the booth we asked for.

My son had the "Impossible Burger" and said it was because most restaurants Impossible burgers aren't Impossible. 🤔🤪. I had panko fried cod and fries. I thought I ordered the sandwich so I could have the cole slaw but I don't know. I ordered some on the side.

The cod was very good and my son thoroughly enjoyed his Impossible Burger. I had a bit of traveling-all-day brain or mind-set so I didn't think to verify if it was truly impossible but he had no trouble eating that, drinking an amazing root-beer and oh man mouth watering clam chowder. Had I known I would have just had the chowder ...soooo good!!

The staff was so friendly and my son is a talker but everyone just engaged in his conversation. Even offered up some suggestions on which stores within walking distance were worth a visit after hearing what we were interested in.

The bill was a little....well shocking. It's my fault and I'm not sure where my receipt went but without tip it was $68.00. 😬 Our plates were just under $20 each and the soup was $10. I'm not sure how it got to $68 bucks? I tipped 25% because the waitress truly was worth it. But yeah.....more expensive than I planned.

I'm no "karen" and at the end of the day I could have actually looked at what was on the bill so it doesn't impact the experience we had really. Dining room was clean, incredibly awesome staff and there was featured art in the back. It is 100% worth stopping by if you're there and I...

We almost ate here for lunch today but the hostess was so rude and incompetent we had to leave. We were friendly and polite to her from the moment we walked in and she responded by being surprisingly standoffish and aggressive. She acted put out that anyone was coming into the restaurant, like she was annoyed that customers were there making her do her job. We were told that it would be a 20 min wait and after saying that sounded fine my Mom and girlfriend headed to go use the bathroom at which point the hostess almost yelled "I said it's going to be a 20-25 min wait!" as if she thought they were just going to walk back and steal a table. We got the call back 10-15 minutes later and she asked what we wanted. When we explained that she had just talked to us patronizingly wined to us that she sees a lot of people. After showing our vaccine cards again because she'd forgetten the first time, she started to lead us back towards a small table by the fireplace in the back. My Dad reminded her that he was already overheating and that we would prefer a booth (there were booths available and she had just sat two 2 tops in booths). She said that the waiter in the section she wanted to seat us in had to make money so that's where we needed to seat. At this point my Dad had had enough and walked out. My Mom followed and my girlfriend politely thanked the hostess and said that we were going to try somewhere else. The hostess ROLLED HER EYES and walked away!

We were shocked. Luckily though, we went into the cafe next door looking to salvage our brunch plans and get some pancakes. They only had bagels though so they pointed us towards Sportys one more door down and that turned out to be the perfect place to go. They had huge, delicious portions at low prices and everyone was so nice and chill. We walked away from our brunch at Sportys very happy and full, toting leftovers and having only spent $55 + tip for breakfast + lunch for 4 people! All's well that ends well :)

Tldr: don't bother,...

Reviewing now, as this was my second time dining here on an island where options are limited.

First time was during the pandemic, and the only bright spots then were our server and the manager. You could tell they had been in restaurants forever and they knew their stuff. They had either worked together for years or they were married, but either way they had service choreographed and fine tuned like a ballet. The menu back then was ok but underwhelming considering the place supposedly had some big-name chef from the city, but the pork I had then was tasty even if it was a bit tough. I had also had the displeasure of meeting the owner then—let’s just say I’ve met corpses with more personality and badgers with better people skills than this lady.

So my wife and I had our second visit to the island and, come to find out, the hardware store is only open a few days a week now, which is sad considering there’s still a lack of other options on Vashon. Ok, sure, it’s hard to find people who want to work these days. Anyways, the server and manager we loved so much have long since left this restaurant from what we were told in a very condescending tone (they were too good for this place anyway), and the menu looks almost identical or maybe even smaller than it was a couple of years ago! We also waited forever to even be greeted by someone and the restaurant wasn’t exactly hoping at the time.

We slummed it: a burger for me, fish n chip for my wife. Passable, but just barely—burger undercooked (ordered medium well and it came bloody), fish was dried out, fries limp and cold. Took an extra ten minutes to get a side of ranch when we asked for it, and by then we didn’t even want it.

Do yourselves a favor and go across the street to the little take out teriyaki place instead. The food is way better, the owner there is one of the nicest guys you’ll meet, the service is fast, and they’ve got a massive beer and wine selection. Hardware...