The Fireside Restaurant

$25 steak for lunch, looked like the chef ate half.

We’ve been a couple times as we have a beach house close by. The menu seems to fall a bit flat for being a restaurant on the Puget Sound. We, along with all of our neighbors agree, they should have fish n chips along with more PNW favorites. Unfortunately they are missing out on much business because of that. Otherwise it’s a lovely place to go for a cocktail and a bite.

Well, we gave them another shot. This time for the happy hour experience we've enjoyed before. Unfortunately, there was no outside seating on the sunny day we chose, so we got a table at the window. Our server was exceptional. Very friendly, attentive, communicated status of drinks and food, filled water, made amusing conversation, and was a pleasure. Unfortunately, that's about where the positive aspects ended. We ordered three Arnold Palmers (one with a shot of tequila - Arnoldo?!). Instead of telling us they don't have lemonade, the bartender made homemade lemonade. Although we appreciated the effort, the result was nothing like a regular AP and not good. We ordered macaroni and cheese, a burger and an Italian wrap. The macaroni and cheese was actually rigatoni and unremarkable. I requested medium rare for my burger and it came ashen gray with three tiny tomato slices clumped in the middle of the bun and a piece of lettuce. No pickles when requested. The truffle fries appeared to be scooped from the bottom of the warming tray because only a few were full sized fries. The rest were 1" or shorter fragments with a bunch of the seasoning from the bottom of the bin. They were also just warm. Not hot. The Italian wrap would have been just okay if the mozarella cheese they used hadn't been saturated and leaked everywhere. The clam chowder was decent to good. Once again, for the prices they charge, The Fireside is just not getting it done. Time to find a new, professionally trained chef and make a commitment to high quality food. Preview Review from Aug 2023: As long time owners in the adjoining condo community, we desperately wish The Fireside would be consistently great. No such luck. We have memories of tragically bad experiences 15 years ago, then an amazing and welcomed recovery we hoped would be the new normal. Just this weekend we took another family and our high hopes, and were once again sadly disappointed. The service was friendly but inattentive. I'm not sure if they're chronically understaffed or morale is low, or both. Our server was civil but not overtly friendly. The restaurant was busy but not full and things took an inordinately long time to come out. Everything from drinks to food. Our dining experience for four adults and four younger teens was 2.5 hours. At one point toward the end of our meal drinks took 15 minutes to come out. "Sorry, the bartender got backed up". Piles of empty plates and glasses sat on our table, some never cleared by the time we left. We found ourselves stacking and preparing the dishes for the bus person in an effort to expedite the process. The food was just okay. Some dishes were better than others and none were bad, like in the past. The Fireside is back to being a mediocre experience for dinner and certainly overpriced. The deserts were pretty good and we've had good luck with happy hour outside on the deck. Maybe we'll try happy hour again with hopes it hasn't suffered the same disappointing decline.

Not worth the $ Waiter seemed to forget what we asked for... Twice Never got coffee refill.. at breakfast, that's my pet peeve

This was a true find on the peninsula and will become a must stop for fine dining. The menu was delightful choices and the food was absolutely perfect. Both dinner and breakfast were extraordinary.

FINAL UPDATE: Okay….I take it back. Easily 5 stars or more. As I said earlier, Dan R reached out & offered to make it right. We ended up staying at the inn as well as dining at the restaurant, a little treat. The room we stayed in was lovely, comfortable, and spotless. Our meal at the restaurant was absolutely outstanding. Everyone at the property, from Dan, to the front desk staff, the waitstaff & host at the restaurant, to housekeeping was gracious, kind & went above and beyond to make our visit special. A special shout out to the chef, who curated a special meal for us… what a spectacular experience. I highly recommend stopping in here when you’re on the peninsula, for a meal or a stay, FIVE STARS (actually 10 but it won’t let me). Thank you Fireside Inn. UPDATE: After our initial review, we were contacted by the manager, who offered to make it right. I will update again after our visit, so I can share the experience with details, but we very much appreciate the quick response and generous offer. THREE STARS ORIGINAL REVIEW: My husband made a reservation for Valentines Day dinner days before the holiday, and received written confirmation. Roughly 2 hours before our reserved time, this restaurant called him to cancel the reservation, stating “overbooking” as the reason. Way too late to make other arrangements on a holiday night, effectively ruining our evening. Obviously we were bumped, as it doesn’t take days to figure out overbooking, and if they’d let us know sooner we could’ve made alternate plans. I have no idea about the food or atmosphere, but if they are this incompetent and/or selective about who gets reservations & who doesn’t, I can’t imagine how they’d screw up cooking a meal or providing a nice experience. I wouldn’t recommend at all, especially if you a planning a special night that you don’t want to be ruined. ZERO STARS

Great service and reasonably priced for having locally sourced ingredients.

Food was good but service was slow

Lovely small restaurant with a friendly attentive wait staff and what should be an award winning chef. We enjoyed both our bunch and dinner. We will come back

Very beautiful quaint restaurant. Good looking menu and even better views. Gracious staff.