Port Angeles / Sequim Restaurant Reviews (house, to live, restaurants)

[Linson]

okay, so i had made a post in another thread about some of the eateries in the Port Angeles area. actually, what had happened was an individual made positive recomendations about every restaurant in town that puts up a sign that says: "Best Food In Town". so, i could tell just by the recommendations that this person made, that she basically bought into every bit of hype that there was.

so, anyway, i would like to post my thoughts on some of the restaurants in the area that i've had the opportunity to check out.

now, yes - i have a critical mind, but i think that when it comes to food, an effort should be made to live up to your reputation.

more to follow...

[Linson]

1. Fast Food / Chains

fast food, in my case, is usually food of last resort or of convenience. i would generally rather step into a "sit down" restaurant and order some "real food" than go through a drive-thru. but, ya know... to be perfectly honest, sometimes a Whopper or a #2 Double Cheeseburger from Wendy's can be pretty good. that is, unless you live in Port Angeles or Sequim. the fast food chains here are so sub-par, even for fast food, that the product is not even recognizable as food from a familiar chain - meaning a Whopper from the Burger King in Sequim doesnt taste like a whopper at all. Wendy's, i've always thought was a pretty descent chain, but the one in Port Angeles is a total dive and doesnt even taste like Wendy's at all. you'll notice a big difference whenever you pick up fast food while on the other side of the Sound.

KFC - the KFC is actually one of those KFC/Taco Bells which is never a good thing and always = a half-ass KFC. you walk in that place, and it is literally like walking into a crack house. literally. my sister is an ex-crackhead so i'm not speculating here. the people that work there - my god - it's just no suprise that they are almost always out of half of the menu items at 3:30 in the afternoon. insufficient management skills to develop a solution.

aside from fast food there is only one major chain restaurant in the area and that's the Applebee's in Sequim. Applebee's is a crap chain anyways - and as i've come to expect, this one is far worse than any other i've been to.

for what it's worth, the best: KFC coleslaw is pretty good, if they're not out of it. KFC mac&cheese is good too. so if youre making some ribs or steak or something and dont feel like making the sides, you can get a couple of large side orders from KFC, but you'll be rolling the dice on if theyre going to have anything on hand. the worst: Frugals...or McFrugals...whatever. horrible.

[Linson]

2. BBQ or a post about the Blue Flame

there are two choices for BBQ, Jeremiahs, which is hardly worth mentioning. i've only seen the place open for business like three times in the year and a half i've lived up here. i did take the opportunity to eat there and it was really expensive and really mediorcre. i dont recommend it. it's never open anyway. and when it is open, you dont smell food when you drive by it.

Blue Flame - my recommendation: order just the meat and get it to go. and get your side dishes somewhere else. dont order "the meal." get just the meat, and get it to go.

ive eaten there five or six times. ive had the ribs, chicken, ribeye, brisket, and havnt had the steelhead.

now i'll explain. first off, the chicken and the ribs are really good. the ribeye was mediocre and the brisket was less than mediocre - as in didnt taste like brisket.

why order just the meat? because zero effort goes into their side dishes: "finger salad" (romain letuce leaves with feta cheese, onions, and Italian dressing, "taters" (red potatoes burned in a fire) and an unbaked, cold dinner roll + a can of soda. and, the side dishes cost nearly as much as the meat, which really makes it a poor value. here's another free tip: their corn bread, which costs extra, is also cold and isnt very good.

why only get it to go? because zero effort goes into service. and i do mean zero. keep in mind, this place is only open 3 or 4 times a week, and when theyre open, they can get pretty full, so a table can be hard to get - especially since there are very few tables. there are no waiters. the tables are mostly made of cracked, unfinished burlwood, some of which are rather smallish. debris from previous diners' plates falls into the cracks and you get to look at that since no one cleans the tables (not all that regularly anyway). some of the seats are bails of hay. it's like they're going for this down-home, country theme that is just too much and generally comes off as lazy and a little rude.

so again, my recommendation is that you come for the BBQ meat, but dont stay for the atmosphere, and look elsewhere for your side orders. also, the house BBQ sause is pretty good, so you might wanna score some of that on your way out the door.