I am Somer Canon: Shiftless lay-about, blog enthusiast, and more importantly, food lover. This blog will share my favorite recipes, cooking techniques, adventures in eating, and just about any subject pertaining to cooking and eating.
Ivar’s: The Best Seattle Has to Offer…….Seriously???
I meant to make braised lamb shanks for dinner tonight. I meant to blog about a dessert on here tonight. Alas, circumstances changed and my agenda has changed. We decided to go grab some fish n’ chips for dinner at a local place called Ivar’s. People around here talk about it like it’s the best place ever to get batter fried seafood and chowder. Since we love batter fried seafood and chowder, we decided that a gloomy and cold day like today would be a great time to try this place.
I’m taking a chance by posting this. It’s quite possible that a local will stomp my big toe after reading this.
This place was disappointing all around. We didn’t go to the original Ivar’s on Seattle’s waterfront, we went to a little fish shack in downtown Bothell, a suburb of Seattle. Actually, I’m giggling right now because I’m at their website and by the looks of it, it seems that the company would have you believe that it is a sit-down and elegant seafood restaurant. Umm, no. It’s not. We ate chowder from paper bowls, and ate our fried food from baskets lined with wax paper. Our drinks came in paper cups just like what you would expect from a fast food chain. That in and of itself would never bother me, but this place failed in the food department.
Their fries were ok. They tasted like a million other French fries I have eaten. Their regular fish was not so good. The breading was coarse and bland. The clam strips, the shrimp, were all covered in the same breading. I’ve had better come from my freezer.
The chowders were gross. I have nothing at all nice to say about those chowders. The Manhattan Clam Chowder (the red one) tasted like it came from a can. It had that cheap bouillon cube taste to it that was overwhelming and gross. Clam Chowder, I understand can be tricky, but if you plaster your restaurants and webpage with gloats of awards your restaurant has won, own up and put quality ingredients in your food. There’s just no excuse for cheap tasting soup.
The New England Clam Chowder (the white cream-based one) was weird. It was better than the Manhattan, but it was still not very good. The main taste in this soup was bacon. I want to taste the sweet briney taste of clams and I’m eating bacon-cream soup. That’s not right. This place is famous for it’s chowder and I hated it.
They also provided little plastic tubs of tartar sauce and ketchup with our meals; little pre-sealed Ivar’s condiments. The problem with these is that the tubs were only filled maybe 1/3 to 1/2 full. That’s a lot of plastic waste coming from a native restaurant of a city that considers itself progressive in environmental consciousness. And no, there was no recycling offered. Between my toddler and I, we used 3 tubs of ketchup and 1 tub of tartar sauce (I was sharing with my son and couldn’t use malt vinegar like I wanted)….that’s a lot of plastic going to a landfill and that was just us. I’m disappointed.
There were ants crawling around on the table top. That, to me, was the straw that broke the camel’s back. I expect ants when I am eating on the ground in a park, but not in a restaurant.
The prices were a little high considering what we were eating. We were actually sitting in a booth in the back of a restaurant and the door to the kitchen was open and I could look right in. It was a bunch of deep fryers and freezers. It actually kind of reminded me of the kitchen in the back of the Krusty Krab on the show Spongebob Squarepants (I’ve got a toddler, people. Nickelodeon is very familiar to me!). Also, the “combo dinners” didn’t come with drinks. That’s ridiculous! And the drinks ended up being quite pricey! I am just so annoyed with this place. I could have gotten better tasting deep fried fish at a cheaper price from Captain D’s or Long John Silvers (that’s the comment that’s going to get me killed).
Maybe it’s the fact that I’ve had Fish N’ Chips made by a person from the UK. Those people KNOW how to batter and fry cod, ladies and gentlemen. I just really didn’t like this place, and that disappoints me because up until tonight I have absolutely loved all of the tiny food joints Seattle has to offer. Sorry, Ivar’s and Seattlites. It was NOT good.
9 Responses so far
Yikes!! It is always more disappointing when the place is all hyped up than not, isn’t it?! I want braised lamb shank …
I love braised lamb shank! It’s slowly becoming a comfort food for me!
I’m sorry you had that experience. The Ivar’s chain shops are not like the waterfront restaurant. Ivar’s Acres of Clams has good food and service, for a price.
When I was a little girl, my father often took me for fish & chips, and “the red” clam chowder at the outdoor walk-up window in front of the restaurant on the pier. They had a heater in the cover over the eating area and the food was my favorite…..25 years ago! We watched the seagulls and munched our dinner–it was great on gray Seattle days.
We ate at the main restaurant recently, but I’ve graduated from fish & chips to a nice glass of wine and the dungeness crab (which was HUGE and delicious) and their pasta with shrimp…..the memories of the fabulous chowder and fried fish are fond, but long gone.
There are knock-off recipes of Ivar’s Clam Chowders online, though, that are better made at home now.
Thank you for giving a good experience on this place. I was wondering if the main restaurant was really that much better and now I know.
I am sorry you had such a bad experience but that is in no way shape or form the norm for even the fast food chains. I hope you consider reporting that experience to corporate office because they count on management of each restuarant to keep up quality.
I live in Richland, WA now but grew up in Seattle and ate at Ivar’s as often as possible. Thankfully there is one Ivar’s here
My parent’s took us to the restuarant on Pier 54 once a month for as long as I can remember and that’s where my love for Ivar’s fish ‘n chips began 
As for the french fries, yes, nothing special but if you do what I’ve done since a child you might change your mind: Dip in their tarter sauce instead of ketsup
Being that you have braised lamb shank tastes you’ll definitely be happier visiting Pier 54
Thank you so much for giving your two cents! I’m so glad that you locals are making sense of all of this. I guess that I should definitely visit Pier 54 if I ever return to Seattle and try the real thing. I’ll chock my bad experience up to sloppy management!
I love Ivars, and living in North Carolina now, I miss it. The Ivars on the waterfront is the place to go. Personally, I want my fish and chips in a basket lined with paper. Normally it is served in the paper type bowls, with the parchment paper. Ivars has excellent tarter sauce, one place on the Carolina Coast sells it in their restaurant.
It’s been years since I’ve had their chowder, but I always enjoyed the creamy texture, and getting a clam in every bite. I know it’s sold that way, there’s a youtube clip of a couple eating the chowder, with the boyfriend commenting on the clams in every bite.
And yes, it was served in a paper cup, but then again, this was from the takeout window outside the restaurant. Nothing like a rustic chowder sold in that manner, on a cold cloudy afternoon.
Everyone has different tastes, and I’ve had English fish, I enjo that too. These days I make my own at home, and after looking up Ivars again, I think I’ll be frying some cod in the near future…lol…Personally, I’d love to have Ivars right now.
I love Ivar’s in Kent WA. And I love the employees too.
I don’t care for the chowders at all. They have an overwhelming smoke flavor and that is all I can taste. When I make chowder I blanch the bacon or salt pork for ten minutes, rinse and drain and then cook it. The fries are good and sometimes when they don’t hold when they come out of the fryer they are spectacular. I like the grilled halibut but love the fried cod. I go back for the cod all the time. I get a 4 or 5 piece order and nothing to drink (they do not offer decaf sugar free drinks with the exception of water), I eat some of the fries but all of the cod. I love their tartar sauce on the fish and the hot fries. I don’t care for the clam strips or the shrimp/crab cocktails as they can be watery. I go back every couple of weeks because the cod is so good. I have eaten on the waterfront, acres of clams, and the salmon house and the best of the lot is the store in Kent, WA. And if something isn’t right they will make it right.
Again, I’m very thankful for all this input. It’s nice that my bad incident was isolated. Too bad I can’t get to an Ivar’s here in Philadelphia to give it another shot.
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