Claire's Pantry - An Edmonds Disappointment
Not wanting anything extravagant, a friend and I decided on having dinner at Claire's Pantry in Edmonds. I ordered the Petite Prime Rib that was recommended, and he orders the Chicken Fried Steak. When asked how I would like my Prime Rib I stated medium rare. When the dishes arrived, it was obvious that mine was well done. I informed the waitress and she told me she would go check with the cook. She came back and said: "The only piece left was the end piece and that was all there was". After commenting on this, her curt suggestion was to order another dish. I declined, saying I didn't want to wait on another entree, while my friend was in the middle of eating his meal.

Not only was the Prime Rib grossly overcooked, it lacked flavor. I could only finish about a third of it due to the similarity of eating cardboard (only imagining how cardboard would taste). I asked my friend how his dish was and he too was not impressed. After tracking down our waitress, who was obviously avoiding us, she told me all she could do was give me a dessert. I declined the offer. The waitress was at best rude and evasive.    [25 Aug 2004 17:45:25]

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     ­Candy Berton   candy_berton at rmetro dot com

Lake City Way Robbery
I just came from a Saturday morning breakfast with my wife and 3 year old son. We ordered a vegetable omelet, the Captain's Plate and a child's spaghetti noodles with butter. The service was adequate, except for the fact that we were not asked what kind of toast we wanted and were automatically brought white toast smothered in margarine.

The Captain's plate, a fried seafood combination, was a disgrace for $14.95. It was accompanied by a salad that was iceberg lettuce that was so drenched with water the creamy ranch dressing could not stick to it. It also came with clam chowder that was so salty that it was inedible. The quality of all the components, the shrimp, scallops, cod were bad the pan fried oysters were disgusting. The vegetable omelet had fresh vegetables in it but was so greasy it wiped out any of its healthful properties. The hash browns were fine.

What left us with the worst taste in our mouths however was the $8.00 price tag on a small oval dish of spaghetti noodles with a 2 inch piece of buttered French bread for our child. Are they kidding me, they charged us for a spaghetti and meat sauce dinner for something that should have maxed out at $3.00. Disgraceful, and no way to keep families returning to the restaurant. Saturday morning breakfast for $50.00 at a greasy spoon. Never again.    [29 Oct 2005 15:43:55]

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     ­Eric Eisenberg   fourpugs at earthlink dot net

Was I invisible?
I was having a craving for a good ol' simple BLT so I head out for my lunch break from work to Claire's. I have been eating at Claire's for 40 years now and never had a gripe until today. Wednesday, 1:30, way past any lunch crowd time - I'm seated almost immediately at one of the 4 booths in the center of the room. Right behind me come 3 other sets of folks who are seated in each of the remaining 3 booths. Knowing exactly what I want I scan the menu for the price, then set the menu down. And wait. And wait. Oh, finally, here she comes, but she stops at the other booth who came in after me. No worries, I'm sure she'll get me next. Nope. She continues around the booths in a counter clockwise direction. Okay, okay, maybe there is a rhyme to her reason; she'll catch me when she finishes with the others. But she didn't!! She walked right past me and went to place the other folks orders! Then she is chatting away with one of the other employees! What the ???? After 10 minutes of waiting to place my order I get up and walk out. I sure hope they get rid of that 40 something person - then I'll be back. Good food, good price, usually good service but not today.    [05 Aug 2009 17:40:33]

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     ­Lynn M