TULALIP – A Herald staffer suggested we visit Bob’s Burgers &Brew after noticing that the line of customers waiting to get in is always out the door, especially for Sunday brunch.
Bob’s Burgers &Brew is a Washington chain with restaurants in Burlington, Lynden and Sumas, and three locations in Bellingham. The Tulalip restaurant is in the same complex as Wal-Mart.
The restaurant’s menu is almost as long as the lines waiting for a table. There’s the standing menu that dedicates a page and a half to burgers beef and chicken plus a garden burger for vegetarians. There are also the diner standards salads, hot and cold sandwiches and full meals for lunch and dinner. The winter menu includes five more salads, four additional burgers and another five sandwiches plus Sunday brunch and daily specials.
My friend and I visited Bob’s Burgers &Brew twice – for an early Saturday dinner and on Sunday for brunch.
For dinner, my friend ordered a mushroom burger ($8.65) and I had the mixed seafood platter ($14.95). We ordered sodas ($4.70) and two scoops of potato salad. We decided the potato salad, which reminded us of a membership warehouse product, needed a splash of mustard or something to give it zip. My friend said his beef patty didn’t have much taste but the mushrooms had a great buttery flavor. My mixed seafood dinner was very disappointing. It was obvious that two fryers were used because the calamari rings were undercooked but the clam strips were overcooked, while the cod filets and oysters were somewhere in the middle. At the same time, unappetizing chunks of darkly browned coating were mixed in with the seafood.
My friend and I had an interesting discussion about my dinner. He felt that my disappointing dinner was partly my fault for ordering a deep-fried fish dinner in a burger joint. I believe a restaurant should either do the dish correctly or take it off the menu. We didn’t come to any conclusion. I would have sent dinner back, but our server never came to check on our order until our meal was almost over.
For our recent Sunday brunch, we ordered omelets, which are made to order at the beginning of the brunch line. Just fill out the list of ingredients on a slip of paper with the table number and give it to the chefs. We also heaped our plates with biscuits and gravy, eggs benedict, sausage patties and links, mini waffles and cinnamon rolls. Our server kept our coffee cups filled and checked on my friend’s Mexican-style omelet when it took longer than expected.
Our conversation was filled with us asking each other “How is it?” and repeatedly answering, “Not bad.” Not bad to the point of going through the buffet line twice.
By the way, if you don’t like eating around children or babies, don’t go to this restaurant, because most of the customers are under 12.
Herald restaurant reviewers accept no invitations to review, but readers’ suggestions are always welcome. Reviewers arrive unannounced, and The Herald pays their tabs.
Contact Anna Poole at features@heraldnet.com.
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