Charmers Bistro

Had a wonderful breakfast at Charmers on Saturday. Terrific service, and Marsha was truly
kind and attentive. My crab cake benedict was a generous portion with perfectly poached eggs,
delicious hollandaise sauce, and served piping hot. My companion was equally pleased with
her croque madam. Our mimosas were delightful and made with fresh squeezed orange juice.
It was a truly enjoyable experience and I look forward to going again.

I had an «Oscar» — steak with crab cake on top, mashed potatoes and asparagus. The flavor was good, but the steak was full of gristle — way too much given the cost of $ 26. I did tell the waiter. My dinner companion was also disappointed. The service was good and the little stove was cozy.

I have eaten here many times since they opened in October 2014. The front of the house is FINALLY getting organized. Staff has been friendly but very disorganized & unable to provide the service customers expect. Coffee refills, water refill, prompt delivery of food etc. Food portions are large & prices reflect the quality of food being served. Happy to see the wait staff have improved. Half priced bottled wine on Wednesday. Soups are creative but can be hit or miss. Penny is a MUCH needed addition to the staffing.

Don’t be fooled by the outside. The food is fresh, delicious and reasonably priced. The wine list is also very good. We will be back on a Wednesday for half priced bottle night. Perhaps the dinner menu could be expanded for more choices of cuisine. We will be back.

We move to Whidbey a few months ago and this is one of the places we frequent the most, the staff is really great and the food is so good. The chicken/​avocado sandwich is delish and the fries are my favorite anywhere. Clams with linguine is really good with tons of clams. The atmosphere is casual and comfy. Stop in you’ll like it.

My husband and I had the muscles and they were very tasty and fresh, the service was great and seating is not cramped we love charmers

The food here is consistent, and consistently good. We’ve eaten here several times, but last Friday, 8/​28, we waited an hour for our meals. They weren’t slammed, and there appeared to be plenty of kitchen help. I hope this isn’t a trend. We’ve quit going to Glass Alley because of long waits after ordering, and inconsistent quality.

These guys are doing a great job with the new restaurant. Food is very good and reasonably priced. We’ve been here twice now since they’ve opened and plan on going back many more times!

Good service, good food with lots of organic ingredients. My whole family loved the food. Will be coming back again! We tried the pizza, burgers and the poached pear salad. All items were great!

The location is great … But building/​décor could use an update. Waitress was pleasant and accommodating? Food was delicious. I would return…

First visit, we live in the area. We will definitely return. Nice volume of background music, jazz this evening. Great outdoor seating. Inside is open and not crammed.
Decent wine selection. Menu selection is very good.
We enjoyed the Italian summer salad (shrimp) very tasty with good presentation. The linguini Clams was very good, mass amount of clams, sauce was drinkable. Garlic bread
Wait staff was very friendly and appropriately attentive.
Place was ¾ full (9 tables) and service speed was acceptable for a Tuesday night.
I hope when I return when it is busy and a waiting line, service does not suffer.
Although you are on Whidbey and Island time is real.
They have a bar with about 10 stools

Stopped in on a beautiful day to get bite at Charmers Bistro.
Ordered the Charmers Burger with a side of BBQ sauce. The burger came with a plate of extremely crispy shoestring fries. While the burger could have used a bit more seasoning, it was fresh and cooked to my specification. (Medium-​well)
Outdoor seating is quaint. Overall, great little spot and check it out if you’re driving by!

Really enjoyed the food. Went for a quick lunch and sat with no problem. The waitress was very nice and seemed on top of it. I will return.

We went for dinner, and were disappointed. Nice space, mediocre food that is not cheap. Fried artichokes appetizer was very good (we shared). I had crab mac n cheese as a main. Sauce very good, but almost no recognizable crab. My hubby had short ribs with mashed potatoes. Little flavor in either. Doubt we’ll ever go back unless something changes a lot.

I recently ate lunch here with my wife and a business friend. The place has a nice layout and the tables don’t feel cramped together. The servers were attentive and the food came quickly (though there were only a couple other tables). I had the duck bacon BLT which was quite large and came with ample fries that were very good. Our friend had the burger which he said was also quite tasty. We also decided to share a pizza and went for the baked chicken with pesto. They have a very eclectic selection to chose from and were 10″. This was probably the best thing we had and we agreed we would go back for pizza again sometime.
The only disappointment was the calamari my wife ordered. You have two options here, either deep fried or a sauté with garlic and crushed tomatoes. What came was in a soup bowl almost completely filled to the top with a broth, more like you would expect with mussels or clams. The broth had not cooked off the wine and when you fished a piece of calamari out of it was washed of almost any flavor. I picture a sauté as having a thicker sauce with pieces of tomatoes and garlic sticking to the calamari. The bread that came with it was very good and we wouldn’t be opposed to trying the deep fried version.
The menu is both lunch and dinner and has some selections that I am pretty sure you won’t find anywhere else,

My wife and I have been here a couple of times and really like it. They did have a rough opening with too few servers and chaos. However, we stopped in last Friday night and the service was great, food fresh and tasty. It is a bit over priced but what on the South end isn’t?

way to expensive for what you get, and they are still trying to figure out the service order –salad for dessert isn’t right.

I was so excited to have a new restaurant in Freeland and Charmer’s Bistro did not disappoint!
I’ve eaten breakfast & dinner here and both were delicious. The breakfast menu has great variety. I usually get the two eggs, hashbrowns, and toast. The eggs were poached perfectly and the hasbrowns were great also. The staff is friendly and enjoyable. Newly opened, so a few kinks had to be worked out and now it’s smooth sailing. The dinner was excellent as well. I had the chicken parm and my husband had the steak. Both were melt in your mouth good!
The bar is great and it’s so nice to have a new place in Freeload with a full bar! They are open late on Frudays & Saturdays — which is something that the south end definitely needed!
I encourage everyone to try it out for themselves! You can’t go wrong!

Well, I have visited this place a few times now. I never went to the location it used to be, so I really didn’t know what to expect. The pasta sauce and sauce on short ribs and even the salad dressing was watery. The pasta was like the kind out of a box and the Parmesan was like the kind in the green shaker. The chicken was rubbery. I also ordered two different salads because I wanted to try both, but as u can see they are the same salad -!!! They didn’t bring me water, I had to ask… I give this place two stars because the staff is friendly and they have a full bar. Lastly, the atmosphere is definitely not «charming» as everything is grey with fluorescent lighting… YIKES -!

My daughter and I tried Charmer’s Bistro for dinner tonight. It is very oriented toward seafood, especially shellfish, like oysters and mussels, which I don’t care for. I ordered the Caesar salad with grilled chicken. My daughter ordered chicken Parmesan with pasta.
The Caesar salad had no flavor. I was expecting a creamy, lemon-​y, garlic flavored dressing. It looked like oil with grated Parmesan out of a can sprinkled on it. I asked for fresh ground pepper for my salad, but they didn’t have a pepper grinder. WHAAAT? The salad was smallish, served on a regular salad plate for $ 11.50, plus $ 4.00 for grilled chicken. The chicken was tough and without flavor and cut so small that I could not tell if I was eating a flavorless croûton, or a flavorless piece of dried chicken. There was a lettuce core included with my salad… YUK! They served two small slices of dry french bread, with no butter and no dipping sauce. I was ¾ through the meal before the waiter came around again, so I didn’t bother asking for butter at that point. I could make a delicious Caesar salad in about 15 minutes at home, so this was a disappointment.
My daughter did not enjoy the chicken Parmesan. The chicken was tough and the table shook when she tried to cut it. The sauce tasted like it came straight out of a jar. She ate about half of it and will likely toss the rest.
The restaurant has just opened, so I don’t expect perfection, but I’m afraid if they don’t improve, they won’t be in business six months from now. We need a good, reasonably priced neighborhood eatery. This place lacks variety in the menu, and the quality of food is not worthy of the high prices.