McMenamins Tavern On The Square

This, from what I’m being told is the latest addition to the concept. I was reunited with a dear friend here on my visit and the space was perfect for it.
First off. What an excellent idea to repurpose an old elementary school campus into a hotel/​restaurant/​bar. Not only did they get the design right they knocked it out of the park.
Although we only ordered a late night appetizer, their signature tots and aioli dip. It was perfect. Hot crispy and seasoned.
I was surprised to find out also that they brew their own beer. Lucky me. I had a pint of their Pilsner, Porter, and their Stout. All had very unique qualities and all well balanced. I preferred the Porter. The Stout was for my taste lacking in texture and a bit pedantic. But the Pilsner was the surprise of the evening, crisp clean and just enough hoppieness to make a lover of full bodied beer smile.
A great summer option.
I’ve read a few posts that complain about having to wait, or parking, or staff friendliness. These were not issues in my experience. As my friend and I walked the grounds we were acknowledged several times and greeted with professional courtesy. An employee that saw us looking around even took the time to give us a breakdown of the facility and its offerings in a very concise professional and caring manner. The bartender was attentive but not invasive and the food came quick and hot. Although I agree parking is a concern, it was not any worse than the parking issues I’ve experience everywhere else I’ve been in my visit to this great area.
Over all, I give it a 4+ star rating
Go check it out, and support this unique use of a repurposed space with friends and family.

Over 30 minutes for a single burger and fries. Not busy so no excuses. Burger is NOT the same as the Portland OR locations. Just average. Too bad on that front. This is my 3^rd and last meal here. I was here 3 months ago and gave them a pass since they were new and slightly busy but took over an hour for that meal. Waitress was nice but slow and then super nice at tip time.

TERRIBLE! TERRIBLE!
I’m really sad to write this review. This place is putting my old high school to absolute SHAME.
I have given this place countless opportunities and they have let me down each time. My brother in law has the same exact feedback.
Arrived with a party of four. Was told the wait would be fifteen minutes. One hour later the hostess says she’s sorry and is able to seat us in a smaller table. We sit down. Our waiter gives us no water, no introduction, and barely a smile. Takes about 15 minutes to get us our beers. Ordered tater tots that were extremely salty, couldn’t even eat them. Received our food at snail pace and it tasted terrible. Soggy pizza, wilted salad, and an overlooked hamburger. The waiter was unfriendly and disconnected. Wrote a review on a card and watched the waiter throw it away. After waiting another 30 minutes for our check we watched about four other parties complain. We also ran into some friends on the patio who explained they were having a poor time as well.
I wish the management would do something about this place. It’s too bad that it is such an amazing layout, but such a terrible experience for our community.

Wow. Haven’t eaten yet, been an hour. If the food is anything like the service I have no idea how this place stays in business. I’d give zero stars if it was possible.

This place is super cool. Obviously. It’s an old school cafeteria and the restaurant is part of a bigger compound — the entire once-​school-​grounds. There’s a hidden bar in the outside back area, TONS of outdoor seating and lighting, wood stoves, the smell of fire. The drinks were made correctly, the food tasted delicious. One less star for the high prices — a bit over the top for the smaller portions that don’t come with many sides.
Still, this place is super unique, has great service, and the décor is incredible. Good food, good times, INCREDIBLE compound. Kudos to the people who reinvented this otherwise dead school-​ground.

Overpriced hamburgers and but fresh fries. Server was slow in bringing us the check and didn’t return credit card and I had to fetch it the next day. NOT a good thing, they should have given me a coupon for my troubles they caused.

Not too crowded, seated right away. Better than finding parking :(
The server «Sam» was pleasant and helped with questions about the menu.
Ordered — Baked Salmon with couscous salad and BLTA for Sunday lunch. Salmon was good, just plain baked fish. The tartar sauce was a good side edition. The BLTA was ok but could have used a little more bacon and avocado (Panera has them beat for sure on sandwiches from size, flavor and cost). Very small for the high cost of this little sandwich. Bread was well toasted, if you do not like crispy bread might mention a lighter toasting.
The atmosphere was excellent. Indoor and outdoor seating.
I think a little over-​priced for salads, sandwich and small plate items at lunch, but will probably try again when we can sit outside for a few drinks and food.
Be prepared to spend time finding parking and spend a few extra dollars for food. But a cool location in Bothell.

I feel like the whole McMenamins concept is to appease people who very badly want to be members of a country club, but didn’t make the cut.
I’ve only been here when obligated, and the feeling is that of an old senior center that’s been closed down because no one wanted to be there.
A bar above a pool so kids can swim and their parents can get drunk? Great idea. They can’t seem to figure out what they want to be, but I’m guessing soon they’ll open their trailer park wing.

Overpriced, horrible service, barely passable food. Will never eat there again.
Arrived early with reservations for 5 adults. Were seated at a booth table barely big enough for four with an extra chair at the end when three other tables were open in the same side room.
Waiter never once smiled or showed any interest in making our stay at all enjoyable. When the food finally arrived, some 20 minutes after said waiter claimed it would be right out, my halibut and my wife’s chicken had dried out under the warmers (or just sitting on the counter waiting for the waiter), my daughter’s gumbo was barely lukewarm, my son’s pizza was soggy, and my other son’s steak was sitting on an oil soaked pile of spinach. There was so much olive oil on the plate, it had literally pooled in a complete circle around the entire circumference of the plate. I have a picture to prove it.
Worst meal I have ever had at a McMenamins and probably the worst collective meal our family has ever had at a restaurant. I would give this restaurant negative five stars if I could. What an awful birthday dinner it was for my two sons. Terrible, terrible restaurant. Avoid it at all costs.

Thankfully our server Andrew was outstanding — great food recommendations and when the kitchen failed and the bar was slow — he was on top of it all to make up for it. Thank you Andrew!
This mcmenamins has yet to get it together as its one of the newest properties. The Tiki menu is far more fun. And bring the Tots to the menu at Tavern!

I wish I could give a better rating but it is what it is. We stayed the night at Anderson School, and got breakfast here on our check-​out morning. We both ordered the «Anderson School Breakfast,» with bacon. I ordered my eggs over medium, my sister ordered soft poached.
My eggs were over easy, and hers were hard poached. I lived with mine, but hers were almost inedible… luckily our server, Dianna E. noticed the problem with my sisters eggs before she served us, and let us know 2 more soft poached eggs were coming. That was lovely.
The breakfast was meh. The worst part however is their «cottage potatoes.» They are seasoned with the same spice as their Cajun Tots… I asked to make sure my palate wasn’t playing tricks on me… and yes, same stuff. What about Cajun seasoning is «cottage»??? They were hyper salty, and way too spicy to go with a simple breakfast. That being said, I love spice, but this flavor seemed super off for a breakfast plate. I did request hot sauce, and they only had Cholula to offer which was also a bit of a bummer; they should at least have Sriracha and Tabasco too.
Over all the service was great, but the food was just so so.

Been wanting to check out the new location, finally had an excuse to get there — my birthday dinner!
We called about 6 hours before dinner time and snagged a reservation, whoo!
The parking situation is r-​o-​u-​g-​h, just so you are prepared. Plan on at least 15 minutes to stalk people as they leave any building (worked for us!).
We were a few minutes early for our reservation so had to wait a littlw bit, but it was nothing like the 45 – 60 minute wait for walk-​us.
Since all of us were starving, we tried the spicy prawns (not that spicy and I detest spicy), which came with three delicious pieces of bread. Kind of wanted to order a whole loaf… it was that delicious. And I was starving.
Entrees came out in a reasonable time, right before I went to steal food from a neighboring table. 3 of the petite filet w assorted veggies and smashed potatos and 1 bowl of gumbo. My «medium rare» filet was a little more alive than I preferred but I was desperate to eat before I lost my mind. The smashes potatos were amazing and the various veggies were supurb. Probably the best carrots I’ve ever tasted! BF had the gumbo and inhaled it and then polished off more than half my filet.
Of course we needed to splurge on dessert, it was my birthday dinner! Beignets for the table (heavy on the powdered sugar. Warning: don’t accidently inhale it, that doesn’t feel good). The chocolate cake w mousse was very rich, probably would pass on that next time. We tried 2 flavors of ice cream and Dad polished them both off, so I guess he liked then.
I missed our waiter’s name but he was cool, kept the water glasses full and spent a few minutes talking about the Spartan race that he and BF had done last weekend.
Atmosphore is comfortable. Lots of people outside on the patio, might have been warmer than inside (must have had the A/​C on, I was frozen by the time we left. Definitely will be back to check out more!

We had the occasion to conduct a small business lunch meeting in the area and picked McMenamin’s Tavern on the Square, just based on how nice some of the other locations by the McMenamin brothers we’ve tried.
This complex is HUGE! The Anderson School site is probably 10 or so acres, with a number of restaurants, a swimming pool, hotel, sports fields, and the Tavern on the Square itself. Oddly, parking seems light for so many places. We were here at lunch on a weekday and it was pretty packed. I can imagine it being tough on a weekend night to find a spot.
We were promptly seated — but be warned there are only a few free-​space tables — the rest of the seating is wooden booths, with framing that would make it pretty uncomfortable for larger people. And the seat backs are «Puritan church» vertical. It was not a comfortable seating situation, even though none of my group would I describe as large.
Service was astounding though. Our waters were never lacking water, and we were checked on regularly but the server was utterly respectful of ongoing conversation — she never interrupted with «How’s everythin’ tastin’?» like so many places do.
The actual food was pretty mediocre. We split the chicken BLTA sandwich that was more or less «truck stop diner food» level. Nothing to write home about, and actually pretty soggy. The bacon inside was flavorless — the chicken itself was pretty good but had a «processed food» quality to it… package-​bought and heated up most likely.
The chowder we split was also pretty mediocre — again, not really bad but hardly better than a low-​end diner, which The Tavern on the Square certainly is not. Neither of the two folks we dined with raved about their food. One had ordered the turkey sandwich and the bread was about an inch thick on each side — it almost seemed silly! He left almost all of it behind.
So overall, due to fabulous service and a pleasant atmosphere, I give it three stars. The food on its own I’d give two, and the service five.
So three stars it is.
Dave

All that hype! We were there for lunch on Easter. The food was alright, but service was weird.
First, there were two large parties in our part of the restaurant, and only one long table. So the second party got that table, while the first was stuffed into a booth and overflowed into the walking area.
Second, I ordered a chai latte, and was brought a mocha (I had my friend verify). S’alright, it happens. When the waitress took it back, however, she didn’t return with a new chai latte — she brought back the SAME mocha and said the kitchen confirmed it was a chai.
Sorry, did someone take a sip of my drink or something? If not, you’re implying I either lied or it doesn’t taste like chai. How does this solve the problem? As I said, weird…

Came here with my director and managers for a «work research» lunch to see what type of place Anderson School is and how its made up. Well, we decided to eat here because they have a great selection of beer (also «work research») and also have some great ciders on tap (their normal cider and pomegranate ciders were good) and everyone at the table got burgers.
Service here is SLOW SLOW SLOW… almost like snails pace slow… what’s slower than a snail? this place
Took over an hour to get our food, and they are burger with fries… how hard is that? and it wasn’t even busy since we went during the week where the weather was meh.
The food was good though, their fries are yummy and maybe if I was ever this far north I might come here for beer and fries but that’s about it. They have lots of outdoor heaters so it wasn’t bad sitting outside.
Also dog friendly in their patio which was nice so my dog came with us, also gave her a cup of water for her.
if you don’t mind taking a 2 hour lunch, come here. I can’t imagine how it’ll be here during the summer when its busy… 4 hour lunches???

OK, now for the promised update. They are now open. So I visited again. We were spending the night at the hotel. They are just as crowded now as at the opening. Reservations are needed for dinner, not for breakfast though.
The space is nice, lots of windows, lots of light and an upscale version of the McMenamins style.
On our visit we came twice.
Once late, for desert, The Chocolate Terminator cake was delicious though the ice-​cream was disappointingly not creamy… Also the desert with several different chocolates (not on the website menu, maybe a special?) was very good, this visit had great service I’d give it 4 stars and I would go again for desert.
The second visit was for breakfast–
Service was still good but the food was disappointing, the manager took care of the problems well. Still I just wasn’t that fond of the food, I doubt I would be back for breakfast.

This place has great potential. I really like the group of buildings and it is a fun idea. We first stopped here with a group of 10. They had no seating inside for 2 hours but luckily the outside tables were free seating.
The food at the tavern is really expensive. Main entrees are on average $ 30. The appetizers are about $ 16. We didn’t eat here. We really wanted the tater tots which they serve at the wood shop across from the tavern. Our waiter told us we could order them and 20 minutes later we had our tots. They were pretty tasty. They were Cajun seasoned and came with ranch.
I had a beer here. I had the ruby which had raspberry flavor to it. It was pretty good, but I’ve had better raspberry beers elsewhere.
The problem with this place is it takes forever to get anything. 15 minutes to get drinks. 20+ minutes to get our check then once we handed off our cards another 15+ minutes to get them back.
Despite that, it’s a fun place to go with friends.

Came here for a Saturday lunch with friends. First of all I loved the whole concept of the tavern and hotel being an old school. If you have the time to walk around and tour the campus I highly recommend it.
The parking situation was another story. There was sooo little parking with sooo many people trying to find a spot. It’s cramped and not my ideal parking situation.
The service was fast unlike some of the other reviews. I order their nitro Stout beer which was very tasty, kale chicken salad, and the butter clams. Everything was great, but nothing special and quite pricey. I would come back again to hang out outside on a nice summer day to have a beer, but dine elsewhere.

This review is tough to write because I *really* wanted to love this spot because of all the hype and the fantastic creativity behind the Mcmeniman’s flipping the school into a hotel! Unfortunately our experience with the food quality and service fell very short. (FWIW, our stay in the hotel and experience with that staff was awesome)
We had a reservation for dinner at 8:45, got sat right around that time. We had experienced such slow service at both the Tiki Bar and Woodshop that we immediately asked for a decanter for our bottle of Leonetti that we brought for with dinner. Our server (who was incredibly nice) didn’t bring us wine glasses and asked if we wanted to open the bottle ourselves?
When our waiter returned with the glasses and asked if we were ready to order, we asked if there were any specials and he realized we hadn’t gotten the specials menu so he had to track one down… We ended up ordering the Baked Brie and Beet salad to start, then the Bahn Mi off the specials menu and a pizza to share. He returned a few mins after we ordered to tell us the Bahn Mi was sold out and we ordered the burger instead.
The beet salad was the best thing we are and it wasn’t anything special, not something I would go back for. The Brie wasn’t very warm and came with «baguette» which was more like 5 bagel chips and another server noticed this and brought us a side plate of sliced bread.
We then got our pizza… But never our burger. The server came to check to see how the pizza was and we mentioned we still hadn’t gotten our burger. 15 more mins passed and we saw a server take a burger to the wrong table — we assumed that was our burger. Given that we now had finished our pizza and waited so long for our burger, which would probably be cold at this point since it went back and forth from the kitchen to the tables, we flagged down our waiter and asked him to cancel our order. I was a little disappointed that he didn’t check in with us unless we flagged him down to let us know what was going on with our food.
As a side note, I went to the restroom at one point during the meal and there was feces on the floor of one of the stalls. There was a wait to use the restrooms and I mentioned it to the other ladies waiting telling them not to go in that stall and one woman made a comment that she had seen that earlier — it obviously hadn’t been cleaned up yet. So I informed the staff and they (I assume?) took care of it. How would staff not notice???
Overall my experience across all the bars was that the staff was all very nice (except one female bartender at the Tiki Bar), but they did not provide good service.
My recommendation would be to go to enjoy the bars and small bites. I will not be returning to this restaurant.

Busy busy busy busy. Sat at the bar, considered food but after consulting the menu (a bit high brow for my taste) stuck with drinks.
The Bees Knees is a tasty gin concoction. Also braved the distillery flight with two rums and a coffee liqueur. All very delish.
Ian worked very hard to be helpful and efficient. Got the job done to get my passport stamps and try and keep up with the UBER busy crowd.