North Shore Lagoon

If you find yourself in Bothell, whether by intent or the whimsical hand of Fate, rejoice at the addition of this gem to the culinary and libation offerings of the once-​bustling town which time forgot. For those of us who work and reside in this beautiful north end bedroom community, hyper-​local choices for dining are rather thin. For diversity (or anything after 8pm), we usually fire-​up the horseless carriage and head… elsewhere.
There are several fine offerings in the old Bothell vicinity (and several which ravening hunger might excuse one to qualify as fine). There is the usual flotsam and jetsam of chain franchises, musty neighborhood institutions nigh-​impossible to dislodge, and the few sterling bastions of uncompromising quality. McMinamins Anderson School has brought us choices of the eat, drink and be merry variety. And these choices don’t flip their open sign at 3pm or 8pm.
Let’s start with the location: It’s in old town Bothell, which didn’t receive the benefit of long range planners’ vision to accommodate expansion to the degree this area has experienced. Nobody looked into the crystal ball and said, «Lo! Is it not obvious that we shall need even u to 20 acres of parking for a destination venue of ye future? Avaunt, ye laggards and build now a gargantuan parking lot for the one-​driver-​per-​car flood of the future!» Why not? Well, they probably didn’t think that new-​fangled car thing would hit it off, for starters. But it’s irrelevant — the parking is what it is: Barely suitable for a 70+ room hotel, theater, music venue, sports bar, high-​end whiskey room, restaurant, and pool/​tiki bar. Yeah. All that and ye bag o’ chips. So if you find there’s no room in the pretty massive parking lot, I offer the following local’s suggestions: 1. I know it’s a huge inconvenience, but walking maybe an additional 20 feet by parking in the frackin’ huge sports field parking lot immediately adjacent… it’s a sacrifice, but let’s face it: It probably won’t hurt you. 2. Take the bus. I know, I know… but if I didn’t say it, I’d have to give up my Washington voter registration, right?
Ambiance: Holy rampant radishes, Bat Man! It’s a gorram tiki bar in old town Bothell, with no-​joke real-​deal artifacts straight from Bali! Hellooooo? Tired of driving 35 – 40 minutes for something fun? Something other than your mass-​produced red and brass festooned eatery, complete with plenty of «flair”-sporting try our new menu jockeys? This. Is. It.
*ahem* Bali. For serious.
Now… you’re going to have quite a hike up those two flights of stairs (past the heated salt water pool, the life sized tikis, the bamboo fencing, the carved benches, etc.) before you’re treated to the madcap, eclectic collection of South Pacific awesomesauce. That’s the trade-​off, my friends. But you can pause at the landing between the flights and check out the cool chandelier above you, whilst you catch that breath from your daunting ascent.
Service and such: There’s a host to greet you 9 out of 10 times. (That’s my personal count.) The bartender sagely awaits your order at the top of this climb, which is fortunate or wise, indeed. The dining area is narrow. Here I remind you that it’s built over a pool (so usable space had to be at a premium), and it includes a good sized kitchen, bar, and places to plant your derrières. The service staff hustle along this trestle like expert circuits performers, dodging feet, chairs, jackets, other servers, and the occasional guest wandering off to check the vantage points of this cozy, curious and quaint place. Remember «Tales of the Gold Monkey»? It’s okay if you don’t, youngsters; Googlepedia it, and grock me when I say the laissez faire of that show’s Monkey Bar is faithfully re-​incarnated here. The staff here is witty, expeditious, knowledgeable… umm… trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, thrifty, brave, clean and… er… irreverent? Scouts, with a Balinese twist, I guess?
Look — you’re going to wait a bit (but not too long!) to savor the fruit from this perch above the lagoon. Enjoy a tasty beverage, soak-​in the ambiance, watch the rain fall through the skylights onto the surface of the pool, put away your Tweeter machines for a few minutes, and speak with the person beside you. Time will fly, and the yum factor is worth it. Try a Mune Louie or Kapu Hut Baguette. Nom nom nom.
Now here comes the downside: No espresso machine. I saw one of the McMenamin brothers this morning, taking a friend to breakfast at the Tavern on the Green. I should’ve said something to him, because this is a really inexcusable breach of NW decorum. No espresso? I mean, I can understand not serving water, but… hello? Washagonian lifeblood, here.
And the flag out front is missing. Anderson School, right? Ever seen a school without a flag? Just seems … I don’t know… imposterous!
But seriously: You’ve read this far, you’re invested. Discover for yourself!

Had a great time here. Cherese, our server was awesome. My wife has a gluten allergy and she made sure to tell the chef multiple times. Will definitely be back. Be sure to ask for Cherese, she’s fantastic.

I might’ve been drunk at my visit to The Lagoon last night, but I really enjoyed it. I see a lot of the reviews talk about the horrible service. That was not the case.
Despite the long wait (hour and a half) to get a table for 9 people, we were sat over looking the pool and offered drinks right away. I myself skipped the offer. I honestly am not a huge fan of McMenemins beers, they are very Lack luster to me. But don’t get me wrong, I definitely had plenty of beers while touring the McMenemins compound for 3 hours. I was pretty much done drinking at this point.
And what does drunk Erica want after 3 hours of drinking? Food!
My husband ordered onion rings and dragon boats. The onion rings were the best I’ve ever had! I’ve never been a huge onion ring fan. I like them on a burger but not alone. Not the case here. I could’ve eaten a whole basket myself! I like them because they were so well cooked the onions weren’t slimy!
I could really go for some right now actually…

Unless I’m at my wits end with hangry kids, I would NEVER come back here.
1. Parking was a nightmare. We drove around for at least 20 minutes, trying to chase people down as they walked back to their cars.
2. The wait was awful. About an hour for a table of 4. Fortunately my sister had already put our name in 10 minutes before we got there so the wait was much shorter.
3. Cramped quarters. They sat 4 of us at a table the size of a coaster right next to the bathrooms. Yay.
4. The menu. It’s one side of a sheet of paper and basically all that is on it are a few mini pizzas, a few variations on burgers, and maybe 3 sandwiches. No diversity at all. Looking at other tables, it kinda looked comparable to food you could get at Chuck E Cheese.
Drinks were decent. We were starving so we ordered garlic parmesan knots, which were really just bread knots, and then left to eat elsewhere.

I feel bummed writing this review because I so love the concept and feel like this is exactly what North Seattle needs! Service, food, general experience was very poor.
We came up to have a drink here as we were staying at the hotel for the night and our friends came to meet us for a cocktail. (FYI our experience with the hotel and staff was fantastic).
We came in expecting a wait, so we saw and open chair at the bar and the folks next to the one chair wrapping up their food so planned to snag those stools. We had four in our party, so us two gals sat at the one chair while the boys waited at the end of the bar for the other seats to open. Twice they were rudely bumped into by staff — yet no one suggested where they should wait instead? They ended up going down in the lobby to wait.
The chairs opened up and we all sat down. We ordered drinks (which took forever to get) and a basket of fries. It seemed like there was a lack of process or system behind the bar because instead of working on one order, making all those drinks, then moving to the next order the drinks came out randomly and more than once drinks from our order were forgotten.
One of the bartenders (the one girl working) was very rude and cold to both her coworkers and the patrons. She seemed to be at the helm making the drinks and did not engage with any of the patrons and I overheard her snapping at her teammates a couple times. It was slammed so I can sort of understand why she might have been chippy, perhaps they need more staff?
My second drink order was completely forgotten, and when one of the nicer bartenders asked us how we were doing I mentioned I never got the drink so just to cancel the order because we wanted to leave (the environment felt really uncomfortable and tense) and he said it was on the house so would make it now. We actually had 3 offers for «on the house» food or drinks during our stay because service was so poor or things were forgotten.
My recommendation would be to head to the Principal’s Office or Shed as we had great service and interactions with the staff at those places.

I enjoyed every minute of our late-​night dinner. All McMenamins’ pubs are kept a bit too dark for my preference, but the torches-​at-​the-​beach level lighting works well at the Tiki style bar. I sort of felt like I was at Disneyland but without the bad food. I mean that as a high compliment. Northshore Lagoon (the Tiki bar above the pool at the McMenamin’s Anderson School) gets four stars from me despite under-​par service because: 1. It’s a Tiki bar overlooking a pool. 2. they just opened and I want to give them a chance to improve. 3. Our food was great. 4. We had a wonderful time. Things they need to improve: 1. Parking/​directions on the website. 2. Staff familiarity with the Passport reward program. I’m confident they’ll work this out. 3. Server familiarity with the menu. This should work itself out. 4. Wait times. I’ll not hold my breath on this one. My family just expects things to be slow at McMenamins. The one exception has been the Roseburg station pub in Oregon.

It was a bit dodgy the first month or so, wait times were awful and the food was mediocre. However Monday I had some of the best service I’ve had at mcmenimans! The server was awesome. Very personable and funny, my dad wanted to order the soup but really didn’t know what miso was. She advised him and playfully suggested an alternative. The green salad with a redwine vinaigrette. He loved it. Over all great experience!

Great ambiance and drinks at the Northshore Lagoon. However the one tofu option comes with fish sauce! Come on, vegans and vegetarians don’t eat fish. Please offer an alternate dressing, there is no reason to put fish sauce in a tofu bowl. They also offer a vegan pizza crust, but strangely no vegan pizza. Weird to offer half way veggie options. Garden burgers are an option, which of course have cheese and eggs.

Really wanted to love this new tiki bar but it doesn’t quite measure up. The décor is very nice and the place has a good ambiance. Our party of 4 adults and 1 kid was told it would be a 30 – 40 minute wait. After waiting downstairs for an hour, they let us know it would be another 10 minutes. The guy host couldn’t have cared less but the girl was friendly and at least semi apologetic. Drinks were so/​so but everyone really enjoyed their food. Out waitress was fabulous and I’m sorry I don’t know her name. A little pricey so it’s probably a one-​shot thing. But I got a cool new tiki mug to add to the collection.

Ok food. Neat concept

I have been wanting to go the the newest McMenamins property. They did a fantastic job, as usual, with the décor and restoration. I’ve been to several in Oregon. I love the décor and amazing update to the swimming pool, now the North Shore Lagoon.
The food was good, pub fare with some Tiki bar twists, but I have to say that my experience with service was great. Erin took really good care of us, was friendly, knowledgeable and just plain welcoming. Since it is so new, I am wondering if some of the negative remarks have to do with overworked or new servers. Whatever the issues others may have had, the experience my husband and I had was very positive and will cause us to return.

New-​so I’ll give it a pass. Service was slow, and appeared to «do their duty», not didn’t create a fun, «gotta go again» environment, so better get their act together to create a long-​term following and repeat customers. Food seemed decently priced, and I enjoyed the coconut shrimp, but if they want to truly try the beach vibe, may want to travel to the warm beaches to get inspiration. I’m from the deep south (Alabama/​Florida), so I know…

Small and intimate, emphasis on small.
Tiki lounge décor. This was the observation deck for the school pool. It was VERY cold out when we were up here, so steam filled the soaking pool, very cool, but no observing from the Lagoon.
The menu is Polynesian inspired with soy sauce, lemongrass and much pork.
Our server Ethan was helpful and accommodating as possible.
Some fun tropical cocktails top it off.
Put your name on the wait list and check it out.

I wish this place was good. I really do. The service took forever, food was meh, not the best drinks.
–Drinks
Looking at the place, you would think that there would be tropical drinks — not really. The mojito I ordered had no sugar (or so little that I count notice) and was sorta bland.
–Food
I ordered a pork pizza, and from first glance looks good, my problem was that it tasted like a McRib. Very disappointing, I still can’t get over that. My partner ordered a burger, said it was a little dry, and not the best burger.
–Ambiance
BRING A JACKET. Holly Jesus this was the coldest restraint I’ve ever been in. I swear it was like 48 in there. Besides that, the place looks pretty cool, but it just seems tacky to have a tiki bar theme.
–Service
Great, nice staff. Very slow though, it took my party (of 2) 40min to get our food, and the place wasn’t packed. Plus, I think they have had enough time since opening night to sort thinks out.
–Conclusion
I this this restaurant/​bar has great potential, except what you come here for is not good, a major disappointment.

We’ve come here a few times during the week and the food and service has been outstanding. Why wouldn’t it be right since they are so slow? We decided to try it out on a Saturday night and the service has been HORRIBLE! It’s hard to give a bad review to one of my favorite venues but honestly, I have never encountered such horrible service in my life. I have a lot of patience since I too am in the service industry but tonight has been absolutely ridiculous. I will never come here again during the weekend.

It’s tough dinging these guys, because they put a ton of effort into an incredibly cool buildout. The Anderson School has other places to eat and drink. This is just one spot – the tiki bar part.
You can find positives about virtually any McMenamin’s that’s a historical reclamation project like this one. This is what they do – they keep these cool projects going in interesting historical locations. They save buildings from the wrecking ball, and they keep the community in mind and engaged when they bring the places back to life. I love that, and this type of McMenamin’s will always hold a fascination for me. The Mill Creek and Queen Anne locations and other spots like that are forgettable, but this is super cool. Unfortunately, the food, beer, and service fall short, as always.
Looking at the positives, if you want to check this place out, come in with no schedule pressure and hang out for a couple drinks, maybe snacks. Don’t be in a hurry, and don’t expect attentive service or anything, and you can get through it. We all need interesting, eclectic spots for a relaxed drink or two, and this place can function that way.
This is part of the Anderson School complex, which comprises multiple buildings and a big parking lot in the heart of Bothell, near the high school football stadium. They remodeled a junior high, and this is the pool building. The city tried to keep it going as a public pool, but they had no money to fix it up, and it never generated any income. Enter the historical reclamation specialists.
Now, this bar serves as overflow seating for the big restaurant next door, in a sense. The main floor is locker rooms and a 5′ saltwater pool, which steams up the windows upstairs a bit. Looks kinda fun. Lots of kids in there – there was even a kids’ birthday party at the table next to us. Seems like this place could do very well focusing on kid parties. They even have a lifeguard on duty.
As you can imagine, the space upstairs is shaped rather strangely, given that it was never intended to be a cocktail bar. That’s both cool and problematic, depending on how you lay it out. Unfortunately, it’s one of the most cramped layouts I can ever remember seeing. There’s a long, narrow bar with long, narrow dining rooms on either side. They tried to fit rows of booths and rows of tables in here, rather than mixing movable table of varying sizes. As a result, there’s a narrow channel where bussers, servers, kitchen staff, and guests all have to take turns walking back and forth, and you end up with people jostling tables all night. Tear out the booths and put in more tables. You’re trying to fit 110 people in the space for 40. You can still pack it, even with tables. Granted, the place was more than half full on a Monday night (during football season, even), but navigating is a nightmare.
Happy hour ends at 6, and they pull stuff off the happy hour menu then. They don’t change the price, they just pull some items. They switch to a short list of burgers, pizzas, and salads, with a handful of wildly overpriced appetizers ($ 18 for a couple bites of not much). We checked out the Dragon Boats, which are Sysco pork meatballs with shredded carrot and a small piece of lettuce – 3 of these for $ 12. Two of us had burgers, two had salads. The salads come with vermicelli. In fact, four menu items come with vermicelli. They were out of vermicelli, but said they’d have more in 20 minutes. It doesn’t take 20 minutes to make vermicelli if you’re just warming it up. Five minutes later, they had more again. The waitress never knew any of this without making a special trip back to the kitchen to ask, so ordering took forever.
She also didn’t know they were out of one of their beers, until we ordered it. We tried the Ruby, which tasted like synthetic fruit syrup and wet grain, and the Centinel, which had over-​sweet malt notes, and no flavor or aroma hops – just bittering. We switched to the Terminator, with better results.
When it came time to clear the plates, I was hoping our server was getting more comfortable and hitting her stride, but then she asked my boy C to put his napkin on the plate for her. Evidently she is only involved in clearing tables part-​time, and doesn’t actually take care of all those pesky details.
I’d love to spend more time talking about the cool tiki iconography here, the fun bamboo decorations, the clearly-​reclaimed windows and other architectural touches. But our dinner of burgers and beers for 4 people totaled $ 194 before tip, and the service and quality were barely on par with a meal costing half that. Beers here are about 12 ounces, and run $ 6. Maybe the greediest beer pricing I’ve seen on a regular ale lineup. I get that they have some big loans to repay on some incredibly cool historical restoration, but it’s hard to find the value, as priced, with what’s on offer in the dining room.

Probably the worst tuna I’ve ever had, hands down!
If I wanted sauce instead of fish, I would have asked for it. At $ 20 a head, you’d think they would not use frozen fish, it tasted watered down. Just not what I call delicious!

Overall underwhelmed. $ 50+ for a pretty crappy experience.
Ruby was good as always.
The meatball appetizer was bland & overlooked.
Ordered the Wilber (med to well) with a fried egg; I got a hard egg, overcooked charcoaled patty with stick like bacon. Completely under seasoned, heck even my oil vinegar dressing lacked any seasoning.
My husband got the spicy tots, with a chicken burger. Again, dry, over cooked, bland. The only saving grace was the tots.
Unfortunately the food was good compared to the service. No one at the door to greet you or a hostess. Took a while to get drinks, including water. Then after 30 min when we finally got to ask her how much longer she said «I just saw them coming up to the window, and was about to go get them». During this wait she passed our table at least a dozen times, never asked if I needed another drink or took the empty glass which I thought was weird.
Then she dodged us after her window comment and avoided making eye contact for another 7 – 10 minutes while walking by and chatting with co-​workers.
We finally got our appetizers literally right before our meal and it was a pre-​made meatball on lettuce with some carrot and daikon.
Note to waitress:
If you see the kitchen is taking a while, empathize and apologize for the wait. Offer to get them another drink since you are a brewery.
Don’t lie to your clients; it creates distrust. If our food was in the window I imagine you would have just gotten it
If a plate is left empty and bare, it’s ok to pick it up.

with all the hype around Anderson school I was underwhelmed. with an hour wait at tavern, we tried the lagoon which was half empty and it took 45 minutes to get our food.
for a tiki bar atmosphere the drinks were less than tropical. daiquiri tasted like you just bit into a lime – overall a rough experience.

For such a large chain you would think that they would not be out of so many items from the food menu as well as the drinks from the bar. I understand about being new but this is really poor. I would hope in the near future that the Lagoon will suceed in their new location. The first experience was not pleasant with slow service, out of menu items and inability for simple blender drinks for a major chain. Really? Maybe next time? I wonder if all the restaurants at the Anderson School House suffer from the same issue.