Chelatchie Prairie General Store

I didn’t realize until lately that the diner has its own name. lol
I have been eating breakfast here (every other weekend) for the last 2 years.
I love everyone here. I haven’t met the «Grandma» though.

This is actually a general store and a diner. It’s off the beaten path unless you’re taking highway 503 through the little town of Amboy towards Cougar, WA and towards Mount St. Helen’s. It’s a place that mainly serves locals including hunters and campers.
The little restaurant is snuggled in the back of the General Store. The actual name of the «diner» is either Grandma’s Kitchen (as on the sign) or Gramma’s as on the menu. We weren’t quite sure. Not only the name was a little confusing but so was the service for first timers.
At first we weren’t sure whether to order from the counter but then discovered menus on all the tables and a waitress. We sat down, figured out our order and was ready by the time the waitress stopped at our table. It was breakfast time and coffee is always number one on my list of items to order in the morning. I never got the coffee. We only realized after we were finished that drinks are normally self-​served … but my husband was served hot chocolate.
Waitress indicated she was new — had only been there a week — but didn’t seem to know much about items on the menu or how they are cooked.
Then, there’s the food. This should be rated by itself. The plates were so full that we could have split the breakfast and still walked out very full. We had no complaints on the food related to the cook … only to the waitress. The food was very good and very nicely priced.
My rating of 4 stars is 5 for the food and 3 for the waitress (probably should be a 2 for the waitress). Because the food was good, we will definitely try this place again when we return next summer.

I’ve been coming here for the last 25 plus years as a child thru current time. I stop here all the time. When I’m heading up in the hills. Or sometimes on my way to work. The staff is nice and the food is really good. I’ve never had a bad experience here ever. They even have pickled eggs!!! Sooo good. I love this place.

Every time I am up in the area on what ever adventure we have planned we stop at this convenient store. Last time I went the lady was very friendly and even gave us a map of the area because she didn’t want us getting lost, what a gal! The selection at the store is about average. You cannot use a debit card unless you spend more than $ 5, I’m not a fan of that. There are always people outside pumping gas or inside shopping that glare, i don’t know why but I don’t like it but it might just be the area.

This is one of those mountain general stores that has a little bit of everything. From prepared foods to dry goods to work gloves to ice to wood… even those hard foam beer koozies (not the collapsable neoprene ones) with dumb jokes like «Never do anything you wouldn’t want to explain to the paramedics» and «A life… where can I download one of those?!» in comic-​style fonts on the outside of them.
We stopped at this store specifically because I could tell, just from looking at the outside, that they’d have koozies for our campsite beers. Lo and behold they do have a koozie selection, and a very WT one at that.
Beware, however… one of our koozies had a $ 1.99 price tag on the bottom but rang up at $ 4.99, which is more than double the price. We tried to ask the cashier about the discrepancy and we got blank, confused stares from her (and kind of a crappy attitude). A «look I’m new and I don’t want to deal with this» response. There was literally one other person in line.
We needed (yes, need is the right word) those koozies so we sucked it up and bought them, but I don’t think bait-​and-​switch pricing is all that cool. However this store is well-​stocked with a variety of goods, so as long as you’re eagle-​eye on price tags and what they’re ringing up for at the register, this could be a very useful stop.
Also they have koozies.

For our last full day in Washington decided to drive up to Mount St Helen’s. Unlikely though due to rain and low clouds covering most of the area.
It was a nice drive anyway and after failing to get any closer than the town of Cougar we headed south toward Battle Mountain, Walnut Grove and back to the hotel.
We rounded a bend and spotted this market and sign kitchen open and considering it was Noon stopped for lunch.
In the corner was the dining area replete with metal chairs and tables. The menu was generally deli style with various sandwiches. The Mrs. went for the Egg Salad sandwich (about 2″ thick) and I took the Chili Burger (actually a «Chili Size»), it came with fries and soup or salad. Being wet and about 38 deg. outside opted for the Soup de Jour which was homemade chicken rice. talk about comfort food, I could have ate about 3 more bowls of this! Mmm!
My burger came out and what had in front of was a giant, maybe ½ # patty on an open face bun with cheese and slathered with about 2 cups of delicious red! Also homemade!
This was absolutely the best Chili I’ve tasted aside from my own of course!
Leave fat and sassy commented if I lived in the area this would definitely be a Sunday motorcycle destination!