The Copper Hog

Super delicious pub food at a pretty decent price. Wonderful décor, great location, friendly staff and the food is definitely several steps above what you would normally get for pub food. We love it here!

What once was fantastic and bright new look at the Gastro Pub in the PNW, is now faded and become another dive in a town with little appreciation for hearty pub cuisine.

We have gone to the Copper Hog in the past for their excellent Bar-​B-​Q pork ribs. But upon our most recent visit, we found they no longer do that, so it was a little disappointing. Therefore, we had to choose something else, which it turned out, was not a bad thing. The food we ordered was good, but nonetheless, we missed our pork ribs and wish they would bring them back.

This was probably the worst meal I’ve ever had. I ordered their tomato soup with a grilled cheese sandwich. The soup was basically a can of chunky bad pizza sauce in a bowl, absolutely terrible, and the sandwich wasn’t much better. The 3 other people I came with also did not enjoy their meals. The service was pretty blah, our waiter didn’t seem to know what he was doing. The only redeeming quality was that the food wasn’t expensive.

Love the ambiance. Fun place! Great spot for world cup. Duck hash is to die for!
Maybe slightly over priced for what you get.

The food was fantastic. Service is great. The reason we put it at a three, is because it was very loud. Truth be told, it felt far more like an East Coast Gastro pub, then a West Coast. Overall, A good place.

This place has an awesome happy hour — curry fries = :D and their pulled pork sandwich is pretty damn good too. Their service can sometimes be eh but it’s never been bad for me personally. I like all of the local beers they have and just the general vibe of the place is pretty cool. My wife loves their pork belly tacos and their beet pickled eggs. The one thing that I will say is not good is their burger. It just tastes kind of… frozen and bland.

Supercalifragilisticexpalawsome is this place! !!!@ pork chop is a must try and the life size copper hog is a great show piece love this place will dine again
Katherine becker

Bland. Boring. Bad service.
I’d never been to the Copper Hog because I’m a vegan, and I knew they had very fee vegan options. But I went the other night because I was meeting some friends there. I reviewed the menu online in the way and had some questions ready when we arrived.
I asked about vegan options at the server station. The first person was fairly direct and honest, «Your options are limited.» He went through the menu and ticked off what would and wouldn’t work. It was mostly appetizers and a salad (w/​o cheese) – bout what I want excepted. I asked if I could bring in food from another place. That wasn’t a option, I’m guessing more due to health regulations than their own policy.
At this point another server came over to tell I had lots of options and how tremendous those options were. It was so very patronizing and I didn’t appreciate it.
Friends and I decided to stay for a bit, grab and appetizer, socialize and then head someplace else for more drinks and food. Cool.
Then I stood at the bar waiting to order fries and a beer while the bartenders helped three other people who came after me (all friends) before getting to me.
The beer available was mediocre. The service was terrible. And the fries I ordered? Tasteless (ever hear of salt?), soggy, and simple not good. A (non-​vegan) friend got the Shepards pie and said it was mediocre and not worth $ 10.
We left shortly after for drinks and food at Casa que Pasa. After the Copper Hog, the quick service, vegan options, and non-​pretentiousness of Casa was appreciated.
Simply put: I won’t be going back to the Hog not because they don’t have many vegan options. I won’t be going back because the service is terrible and the food is just not good.

Good food, darts, rotating beer selection and creative happy hour. Really liked the artichokes and curry fries– along with their organic cider (bottle only). A fun spot to catch sports (Seahawks to Soccer to Basketball) in their multiple TV’s.
Had their beet salad a month ago and was impressed! Service for food is definitely on the slower side, but it’s a great space for darts or games. Wasn’t in love with dairy/​gluten free options for brunch, but again, happy hour had some tasty choices! If you are a meat lover– things really open up in a delicious kind of way.
Flexible hours too!

Once upon a time in our lovely little city I used to swoop down upon The Copper Hog quite frequently. You see, it was my favorite late-​night after-​work stop for a beer and a bowl of Quite Possibly The Most Amazing Ramen Ever. Yes, the ramen was pricey. But it was good. I mean, it was REALLY GOOD. Do you understand what I’m saying? It was AMAZINGLY INCREDIBLE!!! The broth was sublime, the noodles perfect, and the ingredients authentic and fresh. They served it with a little plate of spices that took the ramen to another level. At one point I was probably to the point of short-​paying my electric bill just to afford another bowl of this ramen. But. I. Did. Not. Care.
And then, the unthinkable happened. Just like that, it was gone. I showed up at my regular time (I got off work at 11:30 so I would arrive for my ramen fix at approximately 11:37:41) and I waved off the menu, uttering with a smile: «I’ll just have my usual. The ramen.» The waiter turned a bit pale. It was that look the doctors on soap operas give people when they have Terrible News. I don’t think I cried, but I can’t guarantee it. I finished my beer, struggled half-​heartedly through a dish of Not Ramen, and then I vowed (to myself — don’t worry, I didn’t make a scene) NEVER TO RETURN to The Copper Hog. If they were going to operate a ramenless gastropub, I was not going to continue supporting their outrageous shenanigans! (What can I say? I get a little passionate about noodles.)
Fast forward a couple of years. I managed to survive without The Hog (and, not shockingly, they managed to survive without me). But I eventually ended up there at a friend’s goodbye party and enjoyed some of their yummy brussels sprouts. Those sprouts were so good that I decided to forgive and forget, end my self-​imposed boycott, and explore their other tasty menu options. So i dove back in at The Hog, enjoying plates of those crispy balsamic-​drizzled brussels sprouts, cones of their crunchy pork rinds (I actually prefer their vegan version, made with rice), and of course their delightfully creamy mac & cheese (always with the «optional» bacon topping). After awhile, I forgot that I’d ever even considered picketing the place with a «No Ramen, No Thanks!» sign.
And lest you think this woeful noodle story doesn’t have a happy ending… it does! In a moment that proves Good Karma does exist, I recently heard that they have brought back the ramen to their menu! In other words, I’ll be heading down to The Hog again very soon. :)

Great beer selection. Loved the eggplantSchnitzel & spaetzle. Bartenders were great but the table service was a little lacking.
Would definitely come back.

I’m giving 4 starts based solely on how much I love their blackberry gin cocktail.
The food is mediocre– unless you get the poutine or curry fries. Their healthier options aren’t great but at least they’re available.
Service is always super friendly and prompt. Even in a packed house they do a great job of being attentive to anyone. Great drinks spot, overall.

Disappointing overall.
Drink menu was a good selection, served relatively quickly.
My wife had the pulled pork sandwich and was happy with it. Good size, good presentation, big pile of fries.
Now for the bad, the place is called the Copper Hog, the highest priced entrée is the «St. Loius» style ribs, should be among their best choices right?
Well, if St. Louis style means cooked in a crock pot and drowned in a sauce that was reminiscent of the topping on Costco meatloaf, then St. Lo style they were. The ribs were tender, I’ll give them that. Served with mashed potatoes and corn on the cob. The potatoes were tasty, as was the corn. Too bad the corn was cold, really cold.
Waiter wanted to bring me more corn, I declined, he did knock a few bucks off the bill.
We’ll probably give them a second chance, but I’ll stick to drinks and maybe pub food.

Great beer selection, cute décor and good and unusual food options. The waitstaff is on the ball with their service. This is a place I would go back to when in Bellingham.

It’s so hard to know exactly where to rate these guys. I walked in expecting it to be a five star experience without a doubt, and I have no trouble imagining that that’s usually how it is. It’s a huge space and they get tons of good kegs and host tons of cool events. It has charm and history for days. It’s in an old bus barn that has been converted for mixed retail, with a small parking lot, and a wide patio lined with picnic tables. Every table was taken – mom, dad, grandparents, little kids, college kids, young adults; a true happy mix of all ages hanging out.
Inside, there are big dining rooms and a huge antique-​looking bar built of dark wood with nice detailing and well-​worn old tile. The host station is big, and the bar’s even bigger, and tables cluster around support posts, and it all runs together in the great rabbit warren feeling that old bars can develop. These guys seem to have built it overnight, by keeping some of the original bus barn construction where they could, and the original materials add charm.
The beer and wine lists are hand-​written on chalkboards over the bar, and the food menus are on heavy paper stock, lashed to small clipboards that you can grab. The beer list picks up all kinds of cool local stuff, and they get great kegs from up and down the west coast, too. The glasses weren’t dirty, but they could have been cleaner – even the one flat beer we had showed bubbles clinging to the walls of the inside of the glass. Bubbles like these cling to soap film inside the glass, and shouldn’t be there.
Someone in the kitchen really knows what they’re doing. Everything on the menu sounds good, and it seems like everything features something done in house over and above scratch cooking. They offer you a nice mix of pub grub and small snacks. You can’t really argue with the kitchen here, on paper.
In practice, the food here is solid. For $ 7, the pork wings are fantastic. Tender, lots of flavor, plenty of sauce, carrots, ranch. They were clearly done in house. The Smokehouse Platter, for $ 13, was OK. 2 nice cheeses, and two nice meats. The duck sausage here really is good, and this platter features several thin slices of it. The menu claims these things are smoked in house, but the gouda and the pork sausage seemed closer to store bought, and no one could tell us what kind of sausage the pork was. The nuts were tasty. We certainly ate every bite, and the blue cheese did have in-​house smoke. No real complaints, but don’t say on the menu that it’s all made in house, and make sure your staff can explain what they are.
The duck sausage banh mi was pretty rad. It’s $ 12. That will buy you 3, maybe even 4 banh mi at a lot of Vietnamese delis. To be fair to the Hog, a lot of non-​Viet-​owned places charge $ 12 for banh mi, even far outside Seattle. They’re not the only ones, and this was a good sandwich. And it’s fine to serve it with a few non-​traditional twists, too. But actually, removing a couple of those twists would make it a far better sandwich, even if it wouldn’t be any more traditional. First of all, the duck sausage is served in the bun as a link, which is kind of weird, given how many vegetables and pickled delicious things are packed into the bun with it. You could cut the sausage on a very long-​angled bias and make the sandwich seem fuller AND easier to eat, and get a more even distribution of cilantro, vegetables, and meat in each bite. Second, the bread should be crumbly and crackly on a sandwich like this. The big soft supermarket baguette is perfectly appetizing, but just made it feel even more like a yuppy hot dog instead of a banh mi. Slice up the link and crackle up the baguette and this whole dynamic changes.
The whole experience ends up being a good one, but a couple other things could stand a polish. Our bartender was very sweet, but she was clearly annoyed at having to run the whole floor solo on a holiday weekend, and there were definitely too many people there for her to catch up. There was one dude running food, and it was hard to tell if he was a manager or what, but he definitely never helped her. It took forever to order stuff, and it took a while to get stuff at times, and to pay our bill. This was more leisurely than irritating, to be sure, but it seemed like they could use two real employees on the floor.
Lastly, there were fruit flies over beers, over empty kegs, even near food. Now, the doors are open. There will be a fly or two. But if you charge like you know what you’re doing, and you clearly do know what you’re doing, some hot bleachy water will save you from the fruit flies. This weekend was probably just a tiny fluke, though, and I’ll definitely be back. A lot.

Slow service. Staff was having a hard time with basic math :/
Ordered a few beers only to find out that they were out of them. Kinda «cold» décor wise. People on the tap trail told us to try this place last-​ish & now I know why. It was underwhelming.

I’ve heard from several people that this place USED to be good so the verdict after the experience is, meh… it could have been better…
The chicken and waffles were featured as one of The Copper Hogs popular items so, I went with it. Little did I know, it was on the super bland side. I was expecting some flavor component like savory buttered down waffles, crispy fried chicken, but instead I got a stale piece of what suppose to look like a waffle with a piece of a wing that was overcooked and not seasoned well.
In my opinion, the sauce that goes on top of the waffle is suppose to compliment both the chicken and waffle, in this case, that didn’t even meet the requirements. The sauce threw off the whole plate because all I could taste was a diabetics worst nightmare of sweet sauce.
If you go here, see for yourself and hopefully they make some refinements to their showcased chicken and waffles.

My kid and I got a recommendation to try this place from a local Bellingham lady who works in a cute shoe store nearby, so we figured, it had to be decent, right? WOW, «decent» is an understatement! This place was fantastic!
We got seated right away at a sunny table by the window, which I requested. Our waiter was super: on the ball, attentive, friendly and knowledgeable about the menu. The menu had a good variety of choices. The kid had a salad with blue cheese and chicken which she literally devoured. She said it was delicious. I had a flat iron steak which was cooked to perfection. It melted in my mouth. I’ve not had one better, anywhere, ever. (I was glad that I had asked for the chimichura sauce to be on the side, though, as it was super vinegary and neither my kid or I liked it much). The accompanying asparagus was perfectly seasoned and cooked, as were the potatos. We were too full for dessert, but the dessert menu looked great.
There is the cutest outdoor patio dining area, and I could see this was a popular spot, as a lot of young people were dining al fresco there.
What a great restaurant! We’ll be back when we return to Bellingham, for sure!

Beyond words. Go, go now, have brunch! Go, what are you waiting for? GO!
The kahlua pork hash is firework eruption of flavor. Slow cooked pork, with pineapple, potatoes, peppers, holandaise. … so good!
Stuffed french toast with bacon infused cream, bacon jam, and… bacon dust! What??? Pure bliss in your mouth!
As we waited, two pieces of spice sugar encrusted coffee cake kept us occupied, oh, it had just come from the oven!
Whole experience, top notch!