The Brickhouse Bistro

My boyfriend and I are locals and went there the other night for our «date night,» that we get the pleasure of doing ever so often. We heard the food was really good and that they made their pasta from scratch. My boyfriend was excited about something on the menu as well so we decided to check it out.
1. We came through the door, and it smelt really musty.
2. The hostess wasn’t very inviting. She didn’t even make eye contact with us. She was not enthused. And was kinda bitter.
3. As I said, my boyfriend was excited to order something. And they were all out. Who is out of something at 5:30 in the afternoon, on Memorial Day weekend.
4. We ordered polenta, expecting firm pieces or balls of the stuff, or something dryer, and it was the consistency of gooey bean dip. We didn’t know what it was at first. And were half way expecting bread or something with it.
5. We got our main courses. The noodles were over cooked in a microwave, and my boyfriend’s dish had a giant hard glob of pasta in it… that basically took up a quarter of the serving of his pasta. And I had very small shreds of chicken in my dish.
The only good things there were the waitress we had (that was not the hostess), and the non alcoholic drinks/​we had.
Our total was $ 51… for two mediocre main dishes, a terrible appetizer, and two drinks. That would have been like $ 32 at Applebee’s. If this would have been something we were saving up for months or was for a more special occasion, I would have been absolutely floored. But since this was a casual evening out, and we weren’t saving up for this, it wasn’t as bad and we laughed when we walked out.
We gave this place the benefit of the doubt. And it has a lot of potential, but needs a lot of work. It needs Chef Ramsay.
I’ve heard their Pizza is to die for though. But thats up to you to go back there and find out.

Really enjoyed the hand made pasta and wood fired pizzas. They have improved a lot since they first opened. Give them another try it will be worth it! Service was good, loved the chicken marsala.

We walked all over Port Townsend looking for somewhere to eat that was open late (later than 9!) We finally stumbled upon this place, only had 30 minutes before they closed. They still let us order, and didn’t give us attitude for being late arrivals! I don’t quite understand why such bad reviews. I thought it was good, I would give 3.5 if I could. Better than a 3 but not quite as great as a 4.
Most italian restaurants have bread as a starter, but this place didn’t. I missed that, cuz I was hungry!
My husband and I both decided on the calzone, but they only had enough to make one. I decided I would get a pizza instead. I got a pizza that had ricotta, fontina and romano cheese and I asked if I could add some sausage, he said absolutely.
The food came out pretty quickly. My pizza was pretty good. In my opinion, ricotta cheese makes anything better! The sausage was weird though, I imagined it would be bid discs of sausage, but it looked like the crumbled sausage you get on a Totino’s pizza. Which is definitely not my favorite.
My husbands calzone was good, it had large hunks of sausage in it.
We paid $ 26 for our food, we didn’t get drinks or anything with it. Eh, I guess $ 13 each is a standard price for dinner.

Definitely doesn’t deserve such poor reviews. We had great service, could tell the pasta was homemade. Delicious food and the only smell we got when walking in was cooking garlic.

Great pizza !!!
Wonderful, friendly service!
Our new favorite in PT

The overwhelming problem with this restaurant is location; it is very difficult to create an airy, romantic atmosphere when you are in a basement and you don’t have the benefit of natural air or ventilation. Previous posters have commented on their musty basement odor; obviously the owners are paying attention to Unilocal reviews, because there was a cloying air freshener pointed straight at our table. I feel bad bringing it up, actually, since they are so obviously trying, but the scent did change the way I experienced my meal.
The food was good, with opportunity to get better. We had a mozzarella stuffed breadstick appetizer that was essentially pizza crust folded over mozzarella. Was it edible? Sure, and I cleaned my plate, but I think it would have benefited from being brushed with olive oil or butter — something moist and flavorful. My pasta was delicious. I ordered the Pasta Carbonara. They make their pastas from scratch here and it shows. The texture of the linguine was perfect, just the right amount of chewy. The sauce was not too thick, and I was served a sizable enough portion that I wandered up and down Water Street afterward mewling about never wanting to eat again. My partner ordered the potato gnocchi with cauliflower. It was very tasty but she only got about 8 actual gnocchis on her plate.
Service was friendly and quick… emphasis on quick. We were served faster than you’d like for a romantic dinner, although romantic seems to be what they are aiming for.
I wish I could half-​stars. I feel that, with a little bit of effort, this place could be quite good.

We were looking for an adventure on a less then sunny afternoon. What we found was a dreary, musty, not yet fully decorated, bland, nicely renovated hole in the ground with only two other couples venturing on this new dining experience.
I am very disappointed to report that our dining experience was one of the worst I’ve ever experienced in my 49 years of eating out in restaurants from Minnesota to Mexico, Alaska to Hawaii… And I don’t say that with a light heart. I waited 24 hours to post this review, feeling that consumers have the right to know what others have experienced before spending their hard to earned income on an unpleasant, heartbreaking dining experience.
Our hostess was gracious yet uninformative. We were handed a menu, and set of silverware wrapped in a napkin sealed with a sticky. Not your fine dining experience one would expect for a «Bistro.» We were served a small plate with two dried thinly sliced pieces of bread, two pats of butter wrapped in tinfoil, and a small dish of vinegar engulfed sliced carrots, I believe the waitress said they were pickled. The smell was so overbearing that I asked my friend to move them to her side of the table. You’ll need the bread to absorb the strong bitter taste left in your mouth.
We found the menu to be well rounded and «appeared» to be informative. Our waitress struggled with the daily specials, but her sweet personality made up for her lack of knowledge.
Questions we had:
1. Is the food served from local vendors?
A. Yes, when we can!
2. How spicy is your sausage?
A. «Oh, it’s not that spicy.» She never mentioned that the crust is infused with a red pepper oil before the toppings are applied, nor was it listed on the menu anywhere for all of you who may have sensitivities or be allergic. I had to find this out the hard way when my mouth became engulfed with fire from the intense heat from the veterinarian pizza we ordered with sausage on one side. The heat was not from the meat!
3. Dose the pizza have lots of cheese
A. «Yes, it has lots of cheese melted on top…» (Not true!)
Our wait time was minimal. The tap beer we ordered was great tasting (local) but on the warmer side. Water was served in a plastic glass, another quality less then desirable for a so called «bistro.»
Our pizza arrived and looked uninviting. No serving spatula was offered, so we used our knife to finish cutting and dishing it up. Our toppings held some semblance of the listed ingredients, but I have to say neither my friend or I had ever tasted goat cheese that melted or tasted quite so blandly as there version. And when I asked our server for a side of ranch… I was quickly told «Oh we don’t offer any other dressings besides our signature Italian.»
It saddens me to say, there was nothing worth salivating over. The brick-​baked «wood-​fired» pizza promised was soft, doughy, and tasteless showing virtually no evidence of being cooked in a wood fired oven. To top it off our pizza was just barely warm. Oh, and the abundance of cheese promised, well, their idea of abundance and my idea are completely different. There was barely enough to call it a pizza.
When the «Owner/​Manager» stopped by and saw that we were disappointed, he did offer to re-​fire our pizza after I complained. In all fairness, we did refuse at this point… by this time we were so disappointed, our only goal was to pay the check and leave, but it didn’t stop there, oh no! It got worse…
I paid our bill with a local check only to be told after the fact that they do not accept any checks. «We only accept cash!» There was no mention of this policy upon our arrival or on the menu… After checking with her boss which took another 7 minutes, she said «As long as your name is on it, it’s fine!» She never did look to check it out, nor did she ask for my ID.
I paid for the bill and gave her a $ 6.00 tip (paying the inflated price of $ 30.00 for a small pizza, one beer, plus tip), figuring it wasn’t her fault that the food, smell or atmosphere were all less then desirable… She took the check, walked behind the counter which was less than 4′ away from where we were sitting and proceeded to complain to the pizza cook about us while we were still in ear shot.
You as the consumer deserve better service, better food for your money, and better respect than what we received at the Brickhouse Bistro in Port Townsend WA. I have never in my life experienced such disregard or lack of respect and consideration for my business, or as a human being while visiting a new restaurant. I hope if you decide to give this establishment a try you are treated better than we were. I also hope that maybe through trial and error they will learn from their mistakes and take to heart what we as the «paying» consumer deserve which is good food, and good service!
Either that or we’ll take our business else where. Sadly to say, we will not be returning ever!

I like their gluten free pizza. I hope this business does well.

After a matinée at the Rose Theatre across the street, we went into this two-​week old restaurant.
On the positive side, the hostess who greeted on us was very engaged with the customers and enthused about the restaurant; she was sweet and working hard to answer questions and sell the place. She’s a real asset to the business.
Additionally, the owners have done a good job in renovating the place; however, there was a distinct odor in the air that smelled of mustiness. It is an underground location and we know there hasn’t been any business open in that spot for several years, so perhaps that is why; but we also wondered why good smells from the kitchen weren’t covering that up somewhat… even a skillet cooking with olive oil & garlic would say «Italian» and lure people in, helpless to ignore it. :)
Anyway, we just got food to go as we wanted to eat at home. Sadly, the caesar salad and spaghetti & meatballs were not very good at all. There was too much dressing on the caesar and I’m not sure what it was made up of – maybe mayo; it was thick and just not a good flavor. Additionally, the kitchen had put a warm piece of bread & a foil-​wrapped pat of butter in with the salad, rather than with the spaghetti, so the warmth of the bread wilted the salad by the time we got home. The spaghetti & meatballs had an odd flavor too; the noodles were fettuccine or linguini noodles, not spaghetti; not sure if the menu noted that, but it wasn’t really spaghetti! My DH will eat spaghetti & meatballs just about any time/​any way, and never wants to throw food out. But he ended up throwing it out after eating some of it.
I don’t like to rip on a new business, but the menu needs some real improvement… at least on the items we hit on. I hope they make it, but after our experience there, I doubt we’ll return.

Our waitress was terrific and very attentive. We ordered a variety of food, appetizers, salads and wine for four people. The tomato bisque soup was awesome, the caesar salad was very large, a bit overdressed, and the wine served in chilled glasses, a nice touch. The main dishes were flavorful, served hot and plentiful. The pizza we ordered could have used a serving utensil, and the bread placed on the table with our salads was so-​so. Butter was served in cold foil wrapped cubes. I think they should have had their own flavored, whipped butter or something more appetizing than foil cubes. I also would have liked silverware not wrapped in a napkin. That screams cheap, family style restaurant to me. The thing I did not like at all was the scent of basement wafting in the air throughout the dinner. I think this restaurant has great potential and I hope they get rid of the damp basement smell soon. The décor was alright but I’d like to see some local art of italian photos.

Great food at a good price in this new restaurant beneath the street level. «Nobody goes there because it’s too crowded ;-)»

This was a disappointing experience as a local. We ordered dinner to go. It was 20mins late, lukewarm and very subpar. I would expect to pay about $ 9 for this level of quality and quantity, not $ 16.
For the same price Lanza’s offers way better food and a far more classy aptmoshere. The only advantage to Lanza’s is the BHB is open on Sundays and I imagine getting a table wouldn’t be hard.
I’d recommend either vastly lowering the prices to match quality and aptmoshere or improving the food and evolving this restaurant into a more classy place that takes advantage of its unique location.