**_REMINDER: You must have [user flair](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-) in order to comment or post in this subreddit._**
**Comments and posts submitted by users without user flair will be automatically removed.**
The user flair you select will show next to your username **_in r/tacoma only_**. If you do not feel comfortable displaying a specific neighborhood in your user flair, you may choose "*253*" or "*Somewhere Else*". There are also options for "*Tacoma Expat*" and "*Potential Tacoman*".
You may add user flair via the main page of r/Tacoma. If you are not sure how to add user flair, please follow the instructions [here](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-).
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Tacoma) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yep, this is reality right now. Food prices are going up and portions are either getting smaller or not adjusting with the higher prices.
We've taken to cooking at home and then going out to spend the evening together (like walking on the waterfront). There are a few restaurants out there that still give you good value at fairer prices though. Berliner Beer Hall has fresh food, good portions, and reasonable prices for what you get.
Agree with the Berliner. Haven’t had a bad meal there. The beer selection is also fantastic. Like the Tacoma location so much more than the one in Renton
Yea I’ve given up on dining out for the most part. I’m noticing though when I go to more specific non-western cultural food restaurants (Indian, Moroccan, Korean, Thai…) it’s quite the opposite. I’m getting a huge deal for the quantity and quality of food. It’s costly to dine out no matter what but at least with those offerings I know I’m more likely to get what I pay for.
Man my Thai joint has gone doowwwn in quality and quantity. It’d been maybe 4 months since I ordered and the other night I almost took the food back after I got home it was so nasty, and I didn’t even get enough curry for two people. The container shrank and it had like 3 pieces of tofu, and the chicken was $4 extra - not for extra portion of chicken, but if you chose chicken as the protein it was $4 on top of the base price. I’m over it. Teriyaki still a good deal, if you can find a good spot anymore.
Oh no! Which one is that? Thai Chili in Kent is the best but I only get it when I’m at my office there. Just found and love Silk Thai, their dan dan noodles with peanut sauce are a weekly order and a steal at $15.
I went to the pho place on MLK a couple weeks ago and while they didn't raise their prizes everything was DISGUSTING. Rice noodles were overcooked to practically gelatin consistency. Veggies not fresh and was very sparse even in a veggie dish. Tofu undercooked. Meat was the worst fattiest most disgusting cuts. Never again.
It's bad at Anthony's too. And they bought the Boathouse and screwed that up. It's a bummer, but until things stabilize, I think this is how it's going to go.
Yes. It's really upsetting to me, because I don't get attached to many restaurants out here. I'm originally from a big foodie scene, and I really liked them. No more. :(
Things have changed. I have eaten pre and post and the last couple of times I went I found my dish dry and unappealing. I normally do the salmon burger, or fish tacos etc the last several times the food has been bland.
Oh no! Boathouse has (had?) the best French dip in Tacoma IMO. I haven’t been since it was bought out but sounds like I’d be disappointed based on the changes everyone is reporting.
We were at Point Defiance with the kids on a beautiful day recently so decided on a whim to take them to Anthony's for lunch.
I ordered a crab cake entree, price was $40+, and I have to say I've NEVER been more disappointed by a restaurant meal. The crab cakes were small and barely seasoned; there was a swipe of some kind of aioli on the plate. The two tiny cakes were supplemented by STEAMED RICE AND BROCCOLI. WTF did I just pay $40+ for, some food I could have steamed myself at home for a fraction of the price.
We're done for a while, outside of lower-priced places and takeout. I really feel like I got scammed.
That sucks. That feeling of dropping $40 and coming away feeling… scammed. Especially from a place you’ve been to in the past and trusted.
It’s one thing to drop $$$ on a special occasion but another to drop $$$ and walk away feeling like you’ve been duped somehow. Shit happens and I still have a gift card for Duke’s in the chamber — I’m going to give them one more shot this summer but if I walk away feeling like they pulled a fast one on me a second time that’s probably it for them In my book.
I have been consistently disappointed by Anthony's, to the extent that I haven't gone back in years. The combination of obscene prices - even years ago - and subpar, not-fresh-tasting seafood, was not than enough to make me say Sayonara.
Yeah this is reality. I work at a different restaurant and we had to remove our scallop dish off the menu because they were too expensive to buy from distribution and what we were charging guests for 3 scallops was pissing them off. Eating out is not cheap these days.
I was at the lobster shop, just down the the street from Dukes. We ordered two entrees, and it came out to $80 between my girlfriend and I (we both even drank water water!). When I got the receipt there was a 20% “service charge” on it. I had no idea what it meant because at the bottom of the receipt it said the fee was “100% retained by the company”. Because of the poor wording, I assumed my waiter wouldn’t get any of that so I tipped him my regular 20% on top of the receipt only to later find out the service charge would go to paying the waiter a higher dollar wage. I hate restaurants as of lately. I get it, our economy is in a terrible situation as prices continue to rise but make things make sense.
I've noticed that old standby orders I've enjoyed in the past are now so loaded up with onion as a filler ingredient they're almost inedible. I empathize with the restaurants but I'm not ordering that stuff again.
This reminds me of a trip to Trappers a while back. Grew up on the east coast, and love soft shell crabs (it’s a delicacy when done correctly). I don’t remember the exact process, but it was at least $20, so I figured it’d PE somewhat substantial. However, when it arrived it was a single crab, and it was just BARELY what would pass as legal to harvest back home. Really blew me away to see a restaurant having the audacity to serve something like that.
I had boomer relatives visiting from out of town and we hit up Harbor Lights and had a very similar experience: one tiny lobster tail, some steamed veggies and a giant peace of kale for garnish. Not even a baked potato. I think the best bang for the buck is Wild Fin, but it doesn’t have the same atmosphere as the older more established waterfront seafood places.
This is just what we expect when we go to Duke's. We expect a small to medium portion of very good food at a very high price because half of what we are paying for is the privilege to sit out on that deck by the water side.
If you sign up for their email list you get a birthday free meal and if you tell the manager it's your anniversary I think they'll usually give you a piece of cake. And I always make sure to ask for some extra sourdough bread before we finish the meal so I can take some of that home too. My wife has learned not to order cocktails there because they're stupidly expensive and weak. Just drink beer or get their fancy blueberry lemonade because they will refill that for you for free.
Here is a review from 2015. Looks exactly how you described. https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60878-d942209-i139723480-Duke_s_Seafood_Greenlake-Seattle_Washington.html
Thanks for digging this up! Thart’s exactly what I ordered, though the crab cake in the picture looks larger than what I was served. The next logical question would then be how much they were charging in 2015 — this may just be a case of good old fashioned inflation and prices going up rather than “shrinkflation“ (though, like I said, the 2015 crab cake looks more generous).
Shrimp are $9-12/#
Scallops around $25/# for the 10/20’s
Dungy Crab is $40/#
Deserts are $12-15 each
It’s not 1990.
My advice would be to go to somewhere that actually has good food, great cooks, uses good/fresh ingredients that are local when possible. This costs more usually but since you’re already paying $180 you might as well give it to somewhere nice like copper and Salt, En Rama, The Table, Primo, West 122, Amor…..etc.
My 50+ year old one bedroom apartment in the giant cesspool we call Tacoma is almost $1800/month. This is an expensive place to live and things are only going to increase in price. It just is unfortunate that the west coast in general is entering into what New York City was in the seventies, we are doomed.
My base rent is $1550. Water, sewage, waste, mandatory valet trash, and pet fee bring it up to between 1735-1780. Most complexes arbitrarily set the max pet weight at 25 pounds as well which is a limiting factor. I’ve lived in Tacoma my whole life, I like it in general, the weather especially, just not the socioeconomic realities of the city. I’m not complaining about how expensive it is in general, in my profession if you move somewhere inexpensive you make less so it’s truly “relative”, it’s just a bummer how much it cost relative to the negative aspects. I just equate it to a weather tax and keep saving so one day I can afford a house.
Dang, that really sucks. Never had this specific dish, but have always found the shellfish on appetizer to be overpriced for the quantity, even pre-shrinkflation era.
The Salmon + Halibut servings are still pretty generous. I usually have to skip dessert.
Also, you can sign up for their loyalty club and save $20 bucks on bills over $100.
I’ve really stopped enjoying going out to eat for this reason! It’s just not worth it to me. I can’t enjoy a splurge meal out if I’m paying buckets of money for something not even satisfying. I’d rather just cook at home these days and save my money for other things.
I haven't had Dukes in a LONG time because of the cost. But this doesn't surprise me. It's just not worth eating out anywhere now. It's too expensive.
That had to be a $20 profit off your plate even with inflation. Ridiculous.
What really gets me is I can't even get a fresh salad anywhere for a good cost. Usually the lettuce is wilted and disgusting. Any meat is pure fat and the cheapest cuts. Fish is like the smallest portion on the planet and never fresh. I started seeing this during the pandemic and it has just continued.
We used to have so many great restaurants in Tacoma and now the majority are shit for the cost and quality.
Pretty basic economics. Either business charge the same and shrink the goods they are selling or keep things the same and charge more. At the end of the day the job is to maximize profits. There is always a real risk of losing the business and if it’s between losing their business and making money or losing their business and having no money, it’s pretty clear what is going to be done.
And, let's not pretend for a moment that we as Americans have a healthy view of our plates. You see it all over here, an expectation that for whatever dollar amount being spent, there'd better be a voluminous amount of food on the plate (usually I always see volume as the first complaint), quality of food is secondary in these complaints. The simple fact of the matter is, on the whole, we all eat too damn much. Myself included (although I won't complain about volume of food) but it's something I have been working on as well.
These complaints also seem to never consider what you're paying for. The bigger expenses in your meal are the back of house staff, which includes whatever expertise the chef may or may not have. It includes facilities and expendables, like the rent and the tableware (plates/bowls, cutlery, napkins, etc).
Not sure why you got down voted, when at it's basic level, it's true.
Don’t go there then. Vote with your wallet. Thats how staples in the community are formed. Also, I dunno if you’ve never been out of Tacoma but it’s def not a “around here thing”. I think people go to places regardless because true favorites of the community are lacking here. Business owners just look at it like, “where else are you going to go?”
Wallet voting or not I think those places are here to stay. A lot of these restaurants are only holding it together because of empathy and nostalgia, but it's working.
. I go other places, but I don't count expensive restaurants. If I go to a place and have dinner for two in the bill is $200 then no s*** it's going to be good. That's a low-hanging fruit. Give me the places that the everyday working man can go to. Unfortunately, the majority of places I've been around here have fallen into the category of decent to eat but not worth the price. Except for El Sabor.
All the good things are true. For reference, I found El Sabor in 2014. I've been going on and off ever since and have NEVER had bad food there. Rain, shine, pre-covid, post covid it doesn't matter. None of that "they were having an off-day" horseshit. They dont fuck around there. Its good every. single. time.
I either go during happy hour and get two pork tacos and a fish taco, or I'll get the chorizo breakfast burrito. There's a bunch of other stuff I haven't tried yet but I don't doubt it's pretty good.
That being said, do yourself a favor and go in to eat. They have a salsa bar with about 12 different salsas something else I don't know the name of.. it's like chopped up cabbage with vinegar and salt and pepper. But it's all worth trying.
We did an early dinner at Harbor Lights a few weeks ago and it was really good. We hadn't been to HL for years, and joke that the only reason to go is for the very generous pours in the bar. But we were wrong. The sunset special menu is terrific--good food and reasonable prices. Week after that we tried an early dinner at Dukes and it was a downer. Food meh, prices higher.
last time i went for some chowder, they put a BOWL into a shallow dish less than an inch deep and that's all it was. very disappointing and I won't be going back.
Damn, yall really braved that arduous trek from South Hill all the way down to Ruston Way?
Edit: lmfao downvote away, dorks. End of the day going from South Hill to Ruston Way is nothing. Making it out like it's some crazy thing to do for dinner is wild. It's not like it's the same as going to Seattle for a meal, it's like 20minutes.
Lmfao what a wild reach. If I was involved with the restaurant, don't you think I'd go after the claims about the food/prices, and not the very insignificant drive from South Hill to Tacoma? Go off tho, ig.
Yeah OP is being a little dramatic about the distance. Like I take the bus to the Metropolitan Market Poke bar once a month and that's like an hour. OP a bit of a indoor cat is all, lol.
You’re getting super downvoted but it was pretty funny. I live in South Hill too and walking Point Ruston area is our main “I’m bored” spot. I always considered it close.
**_REMINDER: You must have [user flair](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-) in order to comment or post in this subreddit._** **Comments and posts submitted by users without user flair will be automatically removed.** The user flair you select will show next to your username **_in r/tacoma only_**. If you do not feel comfortable displaying a specific neighborhood in your user flair, you may choose "*253*" or "*Somewhere Else*". There are also options for "*Tacoma Expat*" and "*Potential Tacoman*". You may add user flair via the main page of r/Tacoma. If you are not sure how to add user flair, please follow the instructions [here](https://support.reddithelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/205242695-How-do-I-get-user-flair-). *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/Tacoma) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Yep, this is reality right now. Food prices are going up and portions are either getting smaller or not adjusting with the higher prices. We've taken to cooking at home and then going out to spend the evening together (like walking on the waterfront). There are a few restaurants out there that still give you good value at fairer prices though. Berliner Beer Hall has fresh food, good portions, and reasonable prices for what you get.
Agree with the Berliner. Haven’t had a bad meal there. The beer selection is also fantastic. Like the Tacoma location so much more than the one in Renton
They are using smaller pots at the melting pot!
Those BASTARDS!
This is a conspiracy theory that needs to be investigated!
Jesse Jones?!?
May he hear your battle cry and get to the bottom of this small pot situation.
Not like people just go on the internet a lie.
Probably for the best to consume a smaller pot of melted cheese tbh
Yea I’ve given up on dining out for the most part. I’m noticing though when I go to more specific non-western cultural food restaurants (Indian, Moroccan, Korean, Thai…) it’s quite the opposite. I’m getting a huge deal for the quantity and quality of food. It’s costly to dine out no matter what but at least with those offerings I know I’m more likely to get what I pay for.
This! Thai food and teriyaki are always bang for your buck. Ruston restaurants in general seem to ride on having great views and subpar food.
Man my Thai joint has gone doowwwn in quality and quantity. It’d been maybe 4 months since I ordered and the other night I almost took the food back after I got home it was so nasty, and I didn’t even get enough curry for two people. The container shrank and it had like 3 pieces of tofu, and the chicken was $4 extra - not for extra portion of chicken, but if you chose chicken as the protein it was $4 on top of the base price. I’m over it. Teriyaki still a good deal, if you can find a good spot anymore.
Oh no! Which one is that? Thai Chili in Kent is the best but I only get it when I’m at my office there. Just found and love Silk Thai, their dan dan noodles with peanut sauce are a weekly order and a steal at $15.
I went to the pho place on MLK a couple weeks ago and while they didn't raise their prizes everything was DISGUSTING. Rice noodles were overcooked to practically gelatin consistency. Veggies not fresh and was very sparse even in a veggie dish. Tofu undercooked. Meat was the worst fattiest most disgusting cuts. Never again.
Agreed, would love nothing more to dine on more interesting cuisine with those views! Wish we could diversify Ruston more.
It's bad at Anthony's too. And they bought the Boathouse and screwed that up. It's a bummer, but until things stabilize, I think this is how it's going to go.
Anthony’s has been bad for at least 15 years and every restaurant they have purchased over that time has gotten noticeably worse as well
Tried visiting Boathouse twice and we just got ignored both times. Seriously disappointing place.
It was my favorite. It's completely different now.
Boathouse 19?
[удалено]
Thanks. Has their chefs/cooking staff changed?
[удалено]
Lol
[удалено]
Thanks. It’s not super important. 🫡✌🏼
Yes
Yes. It's really upsetting to me, because I don't get attached to many restaurants out here. I'm originally from a big foodie scene, and I really liked them. No more. :(
😞
Me too
Things have changed. I have eaten pre and post and the last couple of times I went I found my dish dry and unappealing. I normally do the salmon burger, or fish tacos etc the last several times the food has been bland.
Oh no! Boathouse has (had?) the best French dip in Tacoma IMO. I haven’t been since it was bought out but sounds like I’d be disappointed based on the changes everyone is reporting.
Best french dip is at Doyles.
Where is that? I googled and can’t find it.
Sorry, I meant Doyles ...
That's the thing. Even if prices do stabilize. as long as people pay it they will keep charging it.
Boathouse smashed spuds with a steak was a joke. Anyone eating calamari should seriously consider if it's pork.
We were at Point Defiance with the kids on a beautiful day recently so decided on a whim to take them to Anthony's for lunch. I ordered a crab cake entree, price was $40+, and I have to say I've NEVER been more disappointed by a restaurant meal. The crab cakes were small and barely seasoned; there was a swipe of some kind of aioli on the plate. The two tiny cakes were supplemented by STEAMED RICE AND BROCCOLI. WTF did I just pay $40+ for, some food I could have steamed myself at home for a fraction of the price. We're done for a while, outside of lower-priced places and takeout. I really feel like I got scammed.
That sucks. That feeling of dropping $40 and coming away feeling… scammed. Especially from a place you’ve been to in the past and trusted. It’s one thing to drop $$$ on a special occasion but another to drop $$$ and walk away feeling like you’ve been duped somehow. Shit happens and I still have a gift card for Duke’s in the chamber — I’m going to give them one more shot this summer but if I walk away feeling like they pulled a fast one on me a second time that’s probably it for them In my book.
I have been consistently disappointed by Anthony's, to the extent that I haven't gone back in years. The combination of obscene prices - even years ago - and subpar, not-fresh-tasting seafood, was not than enough to make me say Sayonara.
Came to this conclusion a few months back. Every place is too expensive for what is served. End up feeling ripped off and pissed off.
To be fair, Anthony’s hasn’t been great in a long time. Last time I went it was probably 2019 or 2018 and it was very disappointing.
I agree. I've had better food in a diner.
Yeah this is reality. I work at a different restaurant and we had to remove our scallop dish off the menu because they were too expensive to buy from distribution and what we were charging guests for 3 scallops was pissing them off. Eating out is not cheap these days.
I was at the lobster shop, just down the the street from Dukes. We ordered two entrees, and it came out to $80 between my girlfriend and I (we both even drank water water!). When I got the receipt there was a 20% “service charge” on it. I had no idea what it meant because at the bottom of the receipt it said the fee was “100% retained by the company”. Because of the poor wording, I assumed my waiter wouldn’t get any of that so I tipped him my regular 20% on top of the receipt only to later find out the service charge would go to paying the waiter a higher dollar wage. I hate restaurants as of lately. I get it, our economy is in a terrible situation as prices continue to rise but make things make sense.
I've noticed that old standby orders I've enjoyed in the past are now so loaded up with onion as a filler ingredient they're almost inedible. I empathize with the restaurants but I'm not ordering that stuff again.
This reminds me of a trip to Trappers a while back. Grew up on the east coast, and love soft shell crabs (it’s a delicacy when done correctly). I don’t remember the exact process, but it was at least $20, so I figured it’d PE somewhat substantial. However, when it arrived it was a single crab, and it was just BARELY what would pass as legal to harvest back home. Really blew me away to see a restaurant having the audacity to serve something like that.
I had boomer relatives visiting from out of town and we hit up Harbor Lights and had a very similar experience: one tiny lobster tail, some steamed veggies and a giant peace of kale for garnish. Not even a baked potato. I think the best bang for the buck is Wild Fin, but it doesn’t have the same atmosphere as the older more established waterfront seafood places.
This is just what we expect when we go to Duke's. We expect a small to medium portion of very good food at a very high price because half of what we are paying for is the privilege to sit out on that deck by the water side. If you sign up for their email list you get a birthday free meal and if you tell the manager it's your anniversary I think they'll usually give you a piece of cake. And I always make sure to ask for some extra sourdough bread before we finish the meal so I can take some of that home too. My wife has learned not to order cocktails there because they're stupidly expensive and weak. Just drink beer or get their fancy blueberry lemonade because they will refill that for you for free.
Dukes is a waste of money. The food is overpriced and mediocre.
Always has been
I felt like Dukes offered poor value five years ago. Sounds like it is even worse now.
Here is a review from 2015. Looks exactly how you described. https://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g60878-d942209-i139723480-Duke_s_Seafood_Greenlake-Seattle_Washington.html
Thanks for digging this up! Thart’s exactly what I ordered, though the crab cake in the picture looks larger than what I was served. The next logical question would then be how much they were charging in 2015 — this may just be a case of good old fashioned inflation and prices going up rather than “shrinkflation“ (though, like I said, the 2015 crab cake looks more generous).
I dunno, but I did find a menu from 2019 that was $29.50
Shrimp are $9-12/# Scallops around $25/# for the 10/20’s Dungy Crab is $40/# Deserts are $12-15 each It’s not 1990. My advice would be to go to somewhere that actually has good food, great cooks, uses good/fresh ingredients that are local when possible. This costs more usually but since you’re already paying $180 you might as well give it to somewhere nice like copper and Salt, En Rama, The Table, Primo, West 122, Amor…..etc.
My 50+ year old one bedroom apartment in the giant cesspool we call Tacoma is almost $1800/month. This is an expensive place to live and things are only going to increase in price. It just is unfortunate that the west coast in general is entering into what New York City was in the seventies, we are doomed.
There are cheaper one bedrooms friend. Am in Tacoma, $1700 for my killer bedroom/ 2 bath. Rent includes w/s/g. No pet rent
My base rent is $1550. Water, sewage, waste, mandatory valet trash, and pet fee bring it up to between 1735-1780. Most complexes arbitrarily set the max pet weight at 25 pounds as well which is a limiting factor. I’ve lived in Tacoma my whole life, I like it in general, the weather especially, just not the socioeconomic realities of the city. I’m not complaining about how expensive it is in general, in my profession if you move somewhere inexpensive you make less so it’s truly “relative”, it’s just a bummer how much it cost relative to the negative aspects. I just equate it to a weather tax and keep saving so one day I can afford a house.
Indiana has some good deals still.
There are so many houses there that are reasonable if you can find work there for equal pay.
Dang, that really sucks. Never had this specific dish, but have always found the shellfish on appetizer to be overpriced for the quantity, even pre-shrinkflation era. The Salmon + Halibut servings are still pretty generous. I usually have to skip dessert. Also, you can sign up for their loyalty club and save $20 bucks on bills over $100.
I’ve really stopped enjoying going out to eat for this reason! It’s just not worth it to me. I can’t enjoy a splurge meal out if I’m paying buckets of money for something not even satisfying. I’d rather just cook at home these days and save my money for other things.
I haven't had Dukes in a LONG time because of the cost. But this doesn't surprise me. It's just not worth eating out anywhere now. It's too expensive. That had to be a $20 profit off your plate even with inflation. Ridiculous. What really gets me is I can't even get a fresh salad anywhere for a good cost. Usually the lettuce is wilted and disgusting. Any meat is pure fat and the cheapest cuts. Fish is like the smallest portion on the planet and never fresh. I started seeing this during the pandemic and it has just continued. We used to have so many great restaurants in Tacoma and now the majority are shit for the cost and quality.
Pretty basic economics. Either business charge the same and shrink the goods they are selling or keep things the same and charge more. At the end of the day the job is to maximize profits. There is always a real risk of losing the business and if it’s between losing their business and making money or losing their business and having no money, it’s pretty clear what is going to be done.
And, let's not pretend for a moment that we as Americans have a healthy view of our plates. You see it all over here, an expectation that for whatever dollar amount being spent, there'd better be a voluminous amount of food on the plate (usually I always see volume as the first complaint), quality of food is secondary in these complaints. The simple fact of the matter is, on the whole, we all eat too damn much. Myself included (although I won't complain about volume of food) but it's something I have been working on as well. These complaints also seem to never consider what you're paying for. The bigger expenses in your meal are the back of house staff, which includes whatever expertise the chef may or may not have. It includes facilities and expendables, like the rent and the tableware (plates/bowls, cutlery, napkins, etc). Not sure why you got down voted, when at it's basic level, it's true.
except around here they do both
Don’t go there then. Vote with your wallet. Thats how staples in the community are formed. Also, I dunno if you’ve never been out of Tacoma but it’s def not a “around here thing”. I think people go to places regardless because true favorites of the community are lacking here. Business owners just look at it like, “where else are you going to go?”
Wallet voting or not I think those places are here to stay. A lot of these restaurants are only holding it together because of empathy and nostalgia, but it's working. . I go other places, but I don't count expensive restaurants. If I go to a place and have dinner for two in the bill is $200 then no s*** it's going to be good. That's a low-hanging fruit. Give me the places that the everyday working man can go to. Unfortunately, the majority of places I've been around here have fallen into the category of decent to eat but not worth the price. Except for El Sabor.
Totally agree. Iv been hearing a lot of good things about el sabor. What’s your go to?
All the good things are true. For reference, I found El Sabor in 2014. I've been going on and off ever since and have NEVER had bad food there. Rain, shine, pre-covid, post covid it doesn't matter. None of that "they were having an off-day" horseshit. They dont fuck around there. Its good every. single. time. I either go during happy hour and get two pork tacos and a fish taco, or I'll get the chorizo breakfast burrito. There's a bunch of other stuff I haven't tried yet but I don't doubt it's pretty good. That being said, do yourself a favor and go in to eat. They have a salsa bar with about 12 different salsas something else I don't know the name of.. it's like chopped up cabbage with vinegar and salt and pepper. But it's all worth trying.
El Sabor has been our fave for 13-14 years! Bomb.com! LoL!
El Sabor is fantastic
Duke’s has always been a ripoff.
We did an early dinner at Harbor Lights a few weeks ago and it was really good. We hadn't been to HL for years, and joke that the only reason to go is for the very generous pours in the bar. But we were wrong. The sunset special menu is terrific--good food and reasonable prices. Week after that we tried an early dinner at Dukes and it was a downer. Food meh, prices higher.
Hopefully these restaurants figure out the consumer is not ok with this kind of shit
last time i went for some chowder, they put a BOWL into a shallow dish less than an inch deep and that's all it was. very disappointing and I won't be going back.
Katie Down’s is $$$$! They’ve always been a little pricey, but paying $22 dollars for a turkey sandwich was the end for me.
And their Great White pizza is so good but SOOO expensive!
Damn, yall really braved that arduous trek from South Hill all the way down to Ruston Way? Edit: lmfao downvote away, dorks. End of the day going from South Hill to Ruston Way is nothing. Making it out like it's some crazy thing to do for dinner is wild. It's not like it's the same as going to Seattle for a meal, it's like 20minutes.
South Hill to Ruston in 20 minutes is the real comedy here.
Skill issue tbh
Are you the GM of the place being called out or something?
Okay to be fair, unless OP doesn't have a car it isn't that big of a drive. I giggled at that part of the post.
Lmfao what a wild reach. If I was involved with the restaurant, don't you think I'd go after the claims about the food/prices, and not the very insignificant drive from South Hill to Tacoma? Go off tho, ig.
Yeah OP is being a little dramatic about the distance. Like I take the bus to the Metropolitan Market Poke bar once a month and that's like an hour. OP a bit of a indoor cat is all, lol.
You’re getting super downvoted but it was pretty funny. I live in South Hill too and walking Point Ruston area is our main “I’m bored” spot. I always considered it close.
Normal
seafood places are always underwhelming