Snoqualmie Valley Blog

RANT: Restaurants on Snoqualmie Ridge

August 2, 2008 on 10:35 am | In Snoqualmie Ridge, restaurants | No Comments

We try and try to get a decent meal in Snoqualmie and our list of places where this is possible is now very short. We don’t have kids, so our reviews will be slanted that way - but I’d love to have reviews submitted from anyone in the area.

Most people try a restaurant once and if they don’t have a good experience, they never come back. In terms of the Ridge, that could put a place out of business in a hurry.

In particular, I love the Pickle Lady for lunch and have had good experiences at Emerald City Smoothie. We like iBurger, but when I’m craving a great burger it’s certainly not my choice.

When we tried to go Talay Thai, we walked in to a nearly empty restaurant, sat down, and waited for at least 5 minutes. The chef saw us, ignored us, and didn’t tell anyone in the back we were there. We heard lots of laughing and commotion from the back, but no one ever came out. We’ll never return.

Nick and Willy’s take and bake pizza is now closed. We never tried it. Hmmm…

Taco del Mar is one of my favorites, but when I tried to go there on the Ridge, the food was sub-par and the service was awful.

Tried to go to Finaghty’s once, but it was so crowded that we couldn’t sit down. I take this as a sign we need more adult-oriented restaurants! We’ll try again and report back.

Mike’s Cascade Grill was overpriced and the menu was mediocre and unmemorable at best. It’s very loud in there.

I have to wonder if the restrictions placed on businesses in this area have prevented success in general. The cost of just being open has got to be extremely prohibitive for the owners of these restaurants. While it’s nice to have original concepts in there, I fear that the conditions for opening, growing, and maintaining a successful small business on the Ridge are backfiring a bit, resulting in a standard of poor quality and service.