Rhododendron Cafe

Closed until Jan. 13^th.
No reviews to be had, place was unexpectedly closed… no post on website.

This is our second time to dine her. The first for lunch which brought us back from dinner. This is a true gem. There are 2 restaurants a few miles north that are twice the price and not nearly as good. I had duck breast with huckleberry and crispy spate and my wife enjoyed chicken sambuco mushroom risotto. The mussel appetizer was large enough for two. The coconut cake with pineapple filling was outstanding.

While the official name may well be «Rhododendron» — this sweet small café/​restaurant deserves its affectionate «Rhody Café,» calling. And that’s the name painted on the sign, after all. We made the drive down Chuckanut Drive just to go to lunch here, and are so glad we did. The food was carefully prepared — a house salad, potato gnocci (chewy, scrumptious) and the aromatic mussel bowl. If the bakery/​coffee shop hadn’t been next door, we’d have included dessert as well, but wanted to give the other spot a try. Service was fine, there when we needed it, and otherwise not hovering. Set in an idyllic country setting, the Rhody Café is a good spot for breaking up a long drive or a short afternoon in the country. Enjoy!

Happened to find this café after a scenic drive through the Chukanut drive. You know you’re in the right place when Jack Johnson is playing in the background and most ingredients are grown locally. The burger was cooked to perfection and the omelette was just right. Peak around back to see the garden that supplies the kitchen’s herbs and ingredients. Sustainable. Local. Organic. Café.

Great little restaurant with amazing food. However, on the day we had dinner, we had to wait more than 45 minutes for our dishes to arrive. The service was poor and not up to par with the amount of time we waited. Hence, three stars.

Excellent meal for all 11 of us, including great desserts. We had salads, sandwiches, and mussels. The Huckleberry crime brûlée and cherry cobbler were particular dessert favorites!

Previously we had been «Rhody Café» fans for many years. In recent years, however, under the previous ownership, the food, while palatable, had lost some of the appeal we had felt before.
We hadn’t returned for a few years. Just this year, upon hearing of the new own/​chef plus a tout from our son had us returning for a Mother’s Day brunch. It was wonderful. I had the item I’m always drawn to but my common health sense had me eschew: biscuits with sausage gravy. Wow! Not greasy in the least but absolutely delicious. My wife found the waffles tasty with real maple syrup and the bacon «delish». The coffee unique (specially for blended for them I’m told). While there we perused the dinner menu. I was excited to see one choice was Jaeger Schnitzel with spaetzle. Oh, be still my beating heart! I will definitely return for that.
Today was Father’s Day. Off to the Rhody of course. I had the Rhody Eggs Benedict… delicious! My wife: the waffle again.
I am usually not an effusive person. A «4» is my usual highest score. Having moved north from Seattle some 10 years ago I was despairing of finding a replacement for my favorite there: the Five Spot Restaurant atop Queen Anne Hill. I am not equating the two, simply that the Rhododendron Café is very worthwhile and certainly a place we will be returning to in the coming days.

Haven’t been to the Rhody in awhile and I was super impressed by the service, the food and the friendliness of the owners. Risotto was beautifully presented with seasonal veggies julienne. The food tasted local and fresh. My husband had Jägerschnitzel and Spätzle. I was able to taste the Spätzle and it was super authentic. The finishing touch was the out of this world mint ice cream made from mint grown out back. I was in heaven! Can’t wait to go back!

I loved the Caprese salad, my bacon burger was outstanding, the crime brûlée was a perfect finish, and the last part of my wife’s king salmon and polenta was superb!

Everything here is fresh, fresh, fresh! Delicious beet salad, salmon special and coconut cake were all delicious– service friendly and laid back yet efficient.
A fabulous destination dinner on a beautiful night!

My fiancé and I were in Bow and decided to stop at this restaurant. It was about 3 PM and the signs as well as website stated it closed at four, but the hostess stated they were already shut down and wouldn’t open until five. However, they did let me use their restroom and as I was leaving there were two people that had just walked in the door speaking with the hostess and another person. I heard them talking about what food could still be made because some items were out and giving them seating options. There were still quite a few people in there eating.
Suffice to say, I wouldn’t recommend the restaurant and I will not be returning. I’m leaving a negative review because I don’t support businesses where they only will allow you there based on what you look like.

The food isn’t the problem. In fact that’s why we went back several times but its the service that is lacking on many levels. There is a sense of entitlement that trickles down from some of the more pretentious menu items and into the servers’ attitudes. We were asked to wait to be seated for 10 minutes in a half empty establishment. We were informed that they had run out of their signature burger meat for the meal we had ordered at 1:40pm. At 2:15 the waiter informed us that a new batch of patties had just been prepped and we could revert back to our original order. This was both good news and bad news, because while we really wanted the burger, it was obvious that the order had not gone to the cook for the half hour we had been sitting there. It took well over an hour for us to finally get our food and getting thanked for our patience wasn’t quite enough.

I didn’t have high expectation of this restaurant. But after I arrived, I really love this small but cozy place. I like the decoration! Food is great, especially in such a small town.

We stayed in B’ham for a couple of days and made the drive along the beautiful Chuckanut Drive, out to Bow, for dinner at The Rhody (aka Rhododendron Café) one evening.
Hub had filet mignon and I had a special which was a pork chop with risotto and veggies. We each had a house dinner salad, and my description sounds blah, but it was all just delicious!
Dinner starts with bread and olive oil with a touch of balsamic. The salads are fresh; not sure if they grow their own greens like the place did years & years ago when I first visited, but they must be locally sourced because they were so fresh and good. Great salads! Our entrees were very nice and even the side veggies were perf. DH got blueberry cobbler to go, for dessert, since we were beyond full.
The place was slammed with everyone coming in for dinner at once, but the service was attentive and helpful. I’d make it a point to go here again if I were in the area again.

One of the best drives you can take in this state, connected to one of the best meals you can eat in this state. Unilocal still calls this place «The Rhododendron Café,» and I can’t help sticking with that name, either. But their website and their sign outside now call it The Rhody. Good to know when you’re looking for it.
This is a ways out of town. Plan on spending 60 – 90 minutes on the road from Seattle, depending on where and when you leave. You can get a little more scenic if you veer away from I-​5 toward the water, and you can get a hell of a lot more scenic if you spend the day in Bellingham and come down Chuckanut Drive before your meal. You feel like you’ve gotten away from it all, without even driving for all that long.
You’re making good time on Highway 11 when you go by, but they do their best to stay visible. They painted the outside a crazy turquoise color, which gives it a kooky tourist trap vibe, like a seashell shop or something. You get closer, and the window trim is this purple color that makes it even more outlandish-​looking. It’s kinda cool, but it’s good to prepare yourself for the idea that the food here is way, way, way more serious than the style of the décor.
In fact, once you get up the weather-​beaten old stairs, you go through a flimsy screen door, and into a dining room with some worn linoleum on the floor and some old maps on the walls. The walls are old floral wallpaper and some tongue and groove wainscoting. This seriously looks like your nutty old grandma’s beach place or something. Again, don’t let the goofy visuals dissuade you from indulging in the food.
There are two little dining rooms, mixed with tables and benches and chairs. Past these, there’s a sunroom with plenty more tables, and a patio with a couple more. A bit segmented, but that sunroom really looks charming. We took a table inside, up by the windows, and watched the sun set. Gorgeous – the water is only a few hundred yards away here.
The menu is short, and constantly changing. We checked out as much food as we could hold. The mussels are a regular; this week’s had a saffron cream sauce that was sparkling yellow with visible strands of saffron all over the place. The mussels were plump and juicy, with not one grain of sand anywhere in the dish. The sauce was fantastic, and the bread soaked up lots of flavor from it. The mussels had a clear flavorful note without even the slightest hint of fishiness. Some of the best we’ve had.
The salads were wonderful as well. I had the beet salad, with tons of fresh greens in great shape, plus some tomatoes and thinly sliced prosciutto. The chevre salad was equally good, though it didn’t have the variety of flavors that came with the meat and meets added.
The entrees were fantastic. The salmon had great texture – a bit of crispness here and there on the outside, with great firmness and flaky slabs under the fork. Wonderful herbaceous seasonings, and great risotto underneath. Highly pungent and very fresh pesto on the side.
The filet mignon was a small softball steak, perfectly medium rare, melting in your mouth from center to edge. Amazing piece of meat. Great potatoes and vegetables beside it on the plate. Fresh, brightly flavored chanterelles with both earthy and tangy notes mixed in. One of the best steaks I’ve ever had in my life.
No room for dessert, but no knock on their offerings there. We had wines by the glass throughout; you can get a bottle for the exact price of four pours, or you can just keep trying stuff. We had a couple glasses of a nice dry beaujoulais, a solid Powers cab sauv, and an interesting, earthy, dry Spanish wine whose name escapes me now. These guys find nice wines that work well and just keep serving them – this isn’t a place with dozens of cases in the basement somewhere. But they pick very, very good wines, which goes all the way home for me.
It’s a long drive, and you don’t get the superficial signals that fine dining lies ahead – you’re not listening to soft violins or standing on plush carpet or brushing up against fine carpentry. This is a place for people who like to relax and eat in a beautiful area, where they can add a great meal to the other parts of a great day. You’re listening to The Boomer Mix (Simon & Garfunkel, some Motown, the Dead, a Miles Davis tune here and there) on the house hi-​fi, and you’re talking to funny, fun, relaxed people on staff. It was fairly quiet the night we were in, and I imagine the fall and winter months often make it pretty easy to get a table here.
I highly recommend you take the leisurely drive and have a meal here. This will quickly become a go-​to out of town destination for me.

Super cute, quaint café which is now called The Rhody!
We stumbled in here for a late breakfast/​brunch on our way back from Samish Island, and Rhody did not disappoint.
First glance at the menu would lead you to believe it’s just another small town place with standard breakfast fare: eggs benedict, sausage and eggs, biscuits and gravy, etc. Upon deeper examination, I realized — there is much more to Rhody than meets the eye.
Fresh, seasonal ingredients and carefully crafted dishes with a touch of homeliness. My eggs benedict came with a house made English muffin, perfectly poached eggs and a creamy, lemony sauce — just how I like it. My friend had a goat cheese omelette and loved it. Even a side of breakfast sausage tasted homemade.
Lovely brunch, I would return for more. If you get a chance, sit outside in the garden or veranda.

A Serial Disappointment.
Apparently this place had very good rotating ethnic dishes under the past ownership. One reviewer thought the new owners are trying to coast, over-​pricing newly less good food, on the past owners’ reputation. Our experience was compatible with that theory. My «oyster po’boy» was served on a seriously hard crusty baguette – a total no-​no with oysters, which are soft and filled with delicious briny liquid if done right. Biting through a baguette would crush them. In this case the cook had already crushed them so that you could only taste the breading around them. I got one bite that tasted like oysters, the rest like fried breading.
I also ordered the Senegalese peanut stew. You could barely tell there were peanuts in what really tasted like cream of tomato soup with chicken in it.
My partner ordered the artichoke heart sandwich. It was lackluster. Noteworthy were the sharp leaf tips inexplicably included in the «heart» sandwich. We took half of that home and then felt compelled to throw it out.
The mussels we ordered to share. They were fine, cooked properly but in a rather weak effort at a pesto sauce.
My stepson had the burger, which he thought was fine. Our lunch came to $ 70 for three, which I’d have happily paid if the food were really good. It was not.
Now the service could have redeemed things but our server instead was aggressive and pushy and came by frequently to tell us, not to ask us, how awesome the food was. Hint: if your servers feel the need to do that, you have work to do.
Owners, if you read these reviews you really need to step up your game unless Edison is populated with rich people who have had their taste buds removed.

Ordered the apple cream pork chop and boysenberry chocolate torte to go.
The pork chop had spinach and pasta on the side. The hostess was worried that I was not able to cut the pork chop with a plastic knife, and she was willing to offer me a real back-​up knife to take home. lol! Turned out the pork chop was tender enough to be cut with a plastic knife. No worries!
The chocolate torte was rich and delightful topped with homemade boysenberry sauce that wasn’t too sweet or sour. Made me want to learn how to make that boysenberry sauce!
Best service I’ve received ever, and I LOVE that all their vegetables are fresh from their garden! Very impressive!
Remember to call and check if they are still open, and they stop taking dine-​in customers after 8 pm.

I one day will try the food here — but so as long as Tweets is down the street it’ll be tough trying something new as I’m addicted to Tweets…
However — Rhododendron Café… you have ruined me in a good way. All my life I grew up eating so-​called «mint ice cream» out of a box. Light green in color, minty in taste. And I was satisfied nonetheless! Until I came here and tried REAL mint ice cream.
Cold, cool, refreshing. Its like a blast of actual mint leaves in your mouth. A bit bitter the first bite as it takes a few bites for your taste buds to adjust to what is real mint. The next following bites are heavenly — sweet — fresh — crisp. Amazing.
I can no longer eat the pastel green junk they sell at the store. I will never eat mint ice cream any other way than the Rhododendron Café way.
Thank you for opening my eyes!!!
p. s. call ahead to make sure they have mint in stock and ice cream made!!! it is seasonal!

Isn’t the whole point of an excursion to Chuckanut Drive to do a little time travel?
This twisty coastal path was once part of the great Pacific Coast Highway that stretched across the entire West Coast of the U.S. from Washington to California. Today you can still taste the sea spray and soak up incredible views of the Olympic Mountain range and the San Juan islands. That is, when you are not getting carsick from all the tight turns and switchbacks.
As for time travel, the Rhododendron Café looks to be possibly an original stop on the road, that been renovated over the years. It serves up colorful, traditional fare in an old 30s roadside spot, decorated with hippie fabulous color and mixed with 30s verve.
We ate in the front café, a traditional diner with framed needlepoint of the «Rhody Robin», wood tables and food steaming out of the nearby kitchen. The back of the restaurant boasts a windowed expansion that is all indoors, and old enough renovation to be wood panelled, but which looks out over a blooming (this time of year) garden full of colorful rhododendron. .
The fare is fair, but all homemade. We enjoyed the cardamon coffee cake, fresh made child’s plate of waffles, and the traditional eggs benedict with thick slabs of ham. They also offer a very subtly flavored crab benedict, but based on taste, we prefer the ham version.
Friendly local staff and a nice traditional, but funky, diner experience. If you haven’t explored Edison and Bow, and driven down Chuckanut Drive, get in your car next weekend and head North! Its a cross between Big Sur, Marin and the Pacific Northwest in our book.