Chop Shop Cafe & Bar

Full disclosure: The first and only time I have eaten food from here was take-​away. So I can’t comment on the ambience or the wait staff. And the juice I bought was great. That’s why I gave a 2-​star instead of a 1. Picked up the food, drove all the way to my office, an item was missing. Went back, got the item. It happens. Dig into my burger. Cold. But it’s take-​away, you kind of expect that. What you don’t expect is a completely raw burger. I’m not talking rare. I like rare burgers. I’m not talking just raw in the middle. I’m talking completely raw from inside out. I ate less than half of it. And raw meat notwithstanding, the overall burger was meh. The other people in my office seemed to like their food. But no one was raving about it. For the price I would expect a lot better. I might go back again to give them another chance, but then again, maybe not.

I dont know what happened to this place since the last time I was there but oh dear I had to remove a couple of stars because of my last visit. The service was impeccable but the food was a terrible disappointment. I had the octopus again and it wasn’t cooked as perfectly and looked like a terrible hot mess exploded on my plate, nothing like the previous presentation or ingredients it didnt taste that great and that is supposed to be their signature dish! We also had the special that evening, these really fresh delicate spot prawns and unfortunately they were really overcooked. I am never going again life is too short, wonderful options near-​by are a plentiful. This is such a beautiful venue and a wonderful concept but the more I walk by there the less patrons I see at this place. its not going to last long unless they up their game.

What is it about some restaurants thinking a well-​designed space is where their effort can stop? I really wanted to like Chop Shop. I really wanted it to not be another instance of style over substance. But alas… Indifferent staff, glacial pace of service, overpriced and pretentious menu (for the result)… the list goes on in how this place disappointed. I was embarrassed to have brought my parents there. Not enough to cut it in a great food town like Seattle. Hope they can figure it out.

Amazing service. I worked in the restaurant business for many years so I know how the end of the night can be. It’s easy to be irritated with new customers coming in late but they were welcoming and more than accommodating. Karina was our bartender and she was an amazing «mixologist» aka a mad scientist of alcohol.

What can I say? Try at your own risk: Slow service, ice cold food and a nonchalant owner for brunch.
Service: 1 hour to receive our food order. It was biscuits & gravy. This alone was not an issue, but certainly there was a lack of attention to our table.
Ice cold food: This was perhaps the most amazingly cold food we have ever been served. Food was cooked but tasted refrigerator cold. After asking for it to be heated, it returned with hot dishes but equally cold food. How is that possible, I ask ?!? The food was returned and I left without eating.
Nonchalant response: The final straw was that the owner, who was directly behind us (and folding napkins) witnessed our experience and didn’t intervene except when decided to stand up and leave. She didn’t introduce herself and while she offered and apology and comped the 1 drink we had (we returned our meals uneaten) it was not at all the response from an owner interested in resolving the situation and ensuring we return.
Try this place at your own risk but I suggest you save your coin and move on to the next!

Finally was able to stop in with some girlfriends for dinner last week. I work on the hill so try and hit up new places each time I meet up with friends. I was told by a coworker to try out Chop Shop & he never misses, so I knew it was going to be good. We were greeted right away and since it was pretty warm out, we were sat outside. We started w/​the bread & butter (Butter was to die for… yea I know, it’s butter, but not just any butter… super soft, salty, and rich) and the burrata. I’ve only ever had burrata one other time, but I thought it was good, but not mind blowing.
The three of us shared the pork chops, nettle linguine, and the brussel sprouts. Pork chop alone gets the prize — AMAZING! Served with sauteed kale and apples — perfect combo. The nettle linguine was insanely good as well. Never had any of us tried nettle before, but the sauce was so creamy and just divine! The brussel sprouts were just OK. I would’ve been fine without them, but felt we needed something «green». I felt like I could have whipped them up at home better… sauteed with pork/​bacon? and something else, but could not put my finger on it. The brussel sprouts were the only thing we did not polish off completely.
Overall, I thought the food and service was great! A smaller than normal menu, but what we had was fantastic… minus the sprouts, but it did not ruin my meal what so ever! I will be back after I have this baby so I can try a cocktail… they looked AMAZING!

I love chop shop!
The burger is hands down one of the best I’ve had!
I sat right on the line and chatted with Jhonny and Dustin, the cooks. They are great at what they do so it’s fun to watch them prepare everyone’s lunch. Plus they are super friendly so it makes sitting on the line all the more fun.
Jeffrey my server was just as great! He was very nice and quite helpful.
My whole experience was great! I’ll be back soon! My only wish is that I lived closers to capital hill: p

Daaaaaamn. now, this is a brunch spot! Chop Shop will be my go-​to brunch spot from now on, but it looks like I also need to check out their dinner too. No, this is not another hipster brunch place. The space is simultaneously cozy and sophisticated with a rustic Hamptonesque charm meets raw, utilitarian design feel to it. The ambiance has an understated, effortless swank, reminiscent of the Upper East Side. There are 3 small tables on the «patio» that are perfect for brunch with your four-​legged best friend on sunny days. There is also a big communal table, window seating looking out onto 11^th Ave, and cozy, dimly lit tables in the back. It wasn’t super busy, but I recommend making a reservation. If there’s no open slot on OpenTable, call them.
I opted for the duck egg with duck confit, which came with an array of sauteed vegetables. James opted for the biscuit brisket. The portion is not large but very satisfying. Our dishes were both hearty, delicious, and yet, in some ways, light. My duck egg and duck confit was perfectly cooked and seasoned, even the vegetables, my arch-​nemesis, were good. Don’t miss the freshly made juices, they’re the real deal. The pastries are worth the calories, I definitely recommend ordering at least one to share. Service can be a bit slow if you sit outside (like we did). It felt like we were slightly forgotten at times, but otherwise, the food came out quickly and service was friendly.
Great for: dates, foodie brunch, brunch with the ladies, brunch with your dog, brunch with parental units.

Would be back for the food, but not for the service. Servers were SO spacey. We made reservations which was on the books, but they didn’t have anything set up when we arrived. Stuck us in the corner against another brunch table — but it was friendly enough convo. Extremely so service… And again, maybe servers were still recovering Sunday morning? But, delicious food! Table next to us had brisket and banana bread pudding. Everything is freshly baked. I suggest getting some of the pressed juices — great pick-​me-​up for the morning. A little bit more on the expensive side — but with the good food and atmosphere, we were a little bit more forgiving with the service.

Four of us did dine around here for dinner. The space is fun & industrial… a lot larger than we would have guessed! Food was awesome. Two of us got the pork chop (and the others had a taste of it) and we all agreed it was the best pork chop any of us have ever had! The cavatelli bolognese was also delicious — the pasta tasted homemade. I would highly recommend either of those!
For dessert, we all tried the salted caramel tart. It didn’t say anything about chocolate, but it was a slice of chocolate pie-​type thing with salted gooey caramel and whipped cream. Much better than what we were envisioning!
I had the burrata appetizer and it was good, but not as impressive as the mains & dessert — I’d say 4 stars still! And as surprising as this might sound, the butter in the bread and butter was also one of our favorite things! It had herbs and salt and we were wondering what else we could put it on (or maybe just have a little spoonful!)
Others had mentioned bad/​iffy service, but we were fine. Our server was nice and took time to answer questions. There was one part that was a little delayed, but she apologized, got it right away, and gave us a free side dish to make up for it. Definitely a good experience overall!
One thing I will second from other reviews — the floors are so slippery! I had to be very very careful walking to our table. Kind of odd!

Came here for brunch and was pleased by the atmosphere, service and food. I had the duck egg over hash and pork confit and left filling full but not gross. It seemed like a lot of care went into the ingredients, preparation, and presentation. I really liked the atmosphere — lively but not overwhelming, with lots of natural light in the front and cozy in the back. Open kitchen adds to the awesomeness as does communal seating. I’ll be back to try drinks and dinner!

Came for brunch with 3 adults and our 15 month old daughter. Delicious and exceeded my expectations.
The brisket biscuit and duck egg hash were delicious and in our opinion, well worth the drive from Ballard. Very friendly staff, kind to our daughter, and didn’t seem to mind our continual requests for one-​offs, like potatoes for the kid.
This is a fantastic brunch that we’ll come back to! Again, just my opinion and your mileage may vary, but I think I like this brunch more than my old favorite, Lola’s!

I’m giving this place a 2 for lunch and dinner selection and a 4 for atmosphere.
First, this place is beautiful. I love the design of it and honestly, it’s look is what bookmarked this place for me. I had been looking at brunch items for weeks, wanting to try them out. We visited in for our first brunch as husband and wife, post-​wedding and to our dismay…
No brunch on Mondays!
LUNCH
Behold… the tiny lunch menu.
The food wasn’t fantastic in taste but gets a gold star for uniqueness of flavor.
I had the grilled cheese and parsnip soup. I don’t know if my experience was biased because I came originally for brunchness, so keep that in mind. But I was not impressed. The lunch menu was not very big, either. Maybe about 5 items.
DINNER
The dinner menu is just as minimal and OVER PRICED. The flavors just weren’t right for the 5 things we ordered and portions were small. We felt robbed. Appetizer sized dinners. Awkward dinner time servers and hostess. Made us stand around in a weird spot while he figured out where he wanted us to sit. Waitress got us confused with another table and carried on a conversation we weren’t having after we were seated.
We will be coming back for actual brunch — the place is just so darn beautiful that I want to love the food and so… my mind remains open, as does this review.
Stay tuned.

Oh what fun!
Came here because the place we wanted next door was way too busy and had a long wait. What a pleasant surprise!!! Turned out to be a great experience.
Love ~ the décor, the bartender and the staffs!
Also love ~ food and their amazingly delicious drinks! Green juice with alcohol? Say whattt!!!
Brunch menu is great. It has a bit of everything. Savory, sweet, meaty, octopus! All! And the best part? They make the tastiest cocktails. I’m all about cold pressed and green organic juices. They have an adjacent juice bar and the bartender came up with a great green juice and alcohol concoction. Result~ amazing for meeee! Love that it comes with kale! Now known as my favorite drink! Pretty epic.
They also make pretty mean and spicy bloody marry as well as green tea infused glowing cocktail! Yummm!!!
Eggs and grits ~ rich and tasty!
Octopus ~ done just right. Not over cooked. The egg sandwich was nice.
And that green detox drink! So good I had it twice :)
Our bartender was funny and friendly. She suggested and made few cool things for us.
We left when the happy hour started. It’s like brunch with deals. If we didn’t spend a good few hours plus, we would’ve stayed longer. But then again, we might stay past dinner. Who knows! Came in here planning to wait for our table next door, ended up leaving hours later happily! Love when a place surprised me in such a good way! Thanks guys! :)

I can’t seem to get myself out of bed and ready to go to brunch. I missed brunch at Chop Shop and ended up here for lunch instead, and I’m glad I missed out on brunch. As much as love breakfast items, the lunch menu was speaking to me. It’s emptier than I thought it would be, but hey, more room for me!
My steak sandwich was so good, even though it was falling apart. The steak was a lil pink and the baguette was amazing. I had a bite of my boyfriend’s chilled pork sandwich, which was a little off putting at first because it’s grounded up (like tuna consistency) so I was a bit hesitant. It tasted really good though, but I had the same problem with my own sandwich. Everything was falling apart! I appreciate the variety of pickled things that come with each sandwich. I’m not exactly sure which pickled vegetables I was eating (my server never explained and I never asked), but that’s okay because they were all good.
Also, I haven’t had very many bloody mary’s (lightweight), but I had a pretty good one here!
I don’t think I’m exactly cool enough to be hanging out in Chop Shop row, but I’ll probably be back anyways for more of Kurt’s ice cream.

I love Ericka Burke — I have been to Volunteer Park Café and Canal Street Market and her businesses are always tastefully designed with the perfect northwest selections.
Chop Shop sounds very ‘butcher like’ when I first read about it in the new Seattle Met magazine… however, I was so surprised when I came here for my birthday dinner.
These are on my list as «restaurants I want to keep secret» but I will share all the great highlights from my meal.
MUST get these:
Grilled Octopus: oh man… THE most TENDER octopus… SOooooo Amazingly Delicious and fresh
Gioia Burrata: it’s the softest, freshest lightest cheese I have ever tasted… with the pear and honey combo– I felt like i was in cheese heaven… could be a dessert dish even!
Mad Season Cocktail: My absolute favorite champagne cocktail– so fragrant with lemon and pear notes shaken with Brandy
I love the space and service… capitol hill is full of great new restaurants– this is on my list of favorites

Came here with a group of my girl friends for restaurant week and this place didn’t disappoint. There were 6 of us total and had our table ready. one of my gfs were running late so we ordered a bottle of wine while we waited. I was craving a red that was lighter in flavor and our waiter made a suggestion and it was great and reasonably priced. We had some bread while waiting for our very late friend and it was delish. they make a chive butter with sea salt that was amazing.
First Round:
My friends and I got at least one of each appetizer that they offered. I got the buratta because I love cheese and came with pear and bruchetta so eat together. it was delish. I tried the pork shoulder and it was also very good. Another gf got the pear salad and it looked good.
Second Round:
They offered pork, octopus and a pasta. I also got to try all of them and they were all delicious in their own ways. The pork was tender and the potatoes and other veggies that came with it was well seasonsed. the octopus though, wow, that is tender. It isn’t even chewy, what? how? I would come back here for octopus. the pasta (cavatelli I think) was also good. the sauce tasted like a mushroom marsala sauce and had great flavor, yum.
Third Round:
Dessert! One thing about restaurant week that I love is that you always get dessert so you don’t have the excuse of «i’m too full for dessert» They offered a honey panna cotta, a coconut sweet potato sorbet and a chocolate mousse and I got the sorbet. Wow, that was good, you can taste both the coconut and sweet potato and came with a shortbread cookie. The cookie was a bit hard to bite into though. I got to try the other desserts and my 2^nd fav was the panna cotta, came with pear which was good with the honey.
Ambiance here was nice and welcoming. the smell from the kitchen was great and the seating was bigger than I thought it was (I thought it was only that first room when you enter). Everyone working here was nice and very accommodating. I would come back again.

Oh, Chop Shop. I so badly wanted to like you, and still have a hard time deciding whether my visit was a three– or four-​star experience. Settling on three because I really was underwhelmed by the whole thing.
First off, the space is gorgeous. Beautifully designed in that faux-​industrial way that’s so trendy in restaurant design right now, with exposed beams and heavy metal framework, a glorious bar, and a little loft upstairs that looked so cozy. The little alley next to the restaurant is charming, although my friend compared it to a film studio lot — «it’s not an alley, it just plays one on TV!» Chop Shop really is pretty.
Unfortunately, it was all style and no substance. The food, while beautifully plated, was disappointing. We tried the Restaurant Week menu, and I was incredibly excited about the options, as they sounded incredible. Unfortunately, my massive hunk of pork shoulder turned out to be half fat (and I know that pork shoulder is a very fatty cut of meat, but I can’t stand the texture of pure fat) so I ended up performing surgery on it to extract the actual meat from the slab and left half of it to drown in the broth. The flavors were great, with the pork mild, the broth creamy and napa cabbage and peppers providing a little tang and spice. Still, I couldn’t get past the cut. My friend ordered the burrata for her starter and loved it.
For our main, we both ordered the octopus. The plating was stunning, and the portion generous — two sizable tentacles on a bed of roasted fingerling potatoes, with polka dots of squid ink aoili. The potatoes were absolutely delicious, roasted to perfection, but the octopus was sadly on the chewy side. The desserts were good — my honey panna cotta was delicate and well balanced by the apple compote, and my friend’s chocolate mousse was dense and decadent. A solid showing from the kitchen, but I wasn’t blown away.
The service was shaky — our server admitted that they were still trying to get their sea legs, as it was their first SRW, which may account for the food’s shortcomings. The host and bartender were both very friendly and personable, and our server, while very nice, passed our table a few too many times on his way to other parties while our drinks and water glasses sat empty. He did cop to it, and I understand a newer restaurant scrambling when dealing with the volumes of SRW for the first time, but… my drink should not sit empty for fifteen minutes and our server should inquire how our food is at each course in a restaurant that purports to be upscale destination dining.
My biggest pet peeve was the drinks menu. Not a single cocktail or glass of wine was priced in the single digits, and although they have four taps and a decent list of bottles, only one cider was on offer, so affordable gluten-​free drinks options were limited. I am really over the trend of the $ 12 – 14 cocktails and glasses of wine, places where you have to spend well over a Jackson if you want to have more than one drink (or stick to beer, which some of us can’t do). The cider on tap was $ 8 for a 14oz pour — ouch!
For its sake, I hope Chop Shop works out its kinks, and develops a little depth beneath its beautiful veneer.

Been wanting to come here since I saw it under construction. Finally got to come for breakfast one morning and got the mascarpone stuffed French toast and a fresh pressed juice.
I got the kiwi juice which consists of kiwi, Apple, cucumber, and mint. I wasn’t a huge fan of it at first but it grew on me a little. The cucumber flavor was more prevalent that I thought it’d be. The French toast was really good. There was a peach compote? on the French toast that I wasn’t a huge fan of. There were bitters in it that made it a little weird for me. I would have preferred it without it. The rest of the dish was really good though.
Solid experience and I really like the atmosphere of the place.

Ok before I launch into an explanation of my one star review, let me first preface this is not based on the food.
That said… let us begin.
First of all, someone needs to change the info on this Unilocal page because this restaurant opens at 9, not 8.
We showed up here at 815 excited to try this new restaurant in a very architecturally pleasing space. There was no one in the restaurant but the door was unlocked. Several workers milling around in the resto but no one greets. What happened — cat got your tongues? We stand around waiting to be seated. Still not greeting. One of the lady employees was cleaning the floors and she glances at us, doesn’t smile or say hello and says in the rudest tone «we are not open.» we said oh that’s weird because the Unilocal page says it opens at 8. Again, no smile, just «well come back in 45 because we aren’t open.» She doesn’t even have the decency to stop, sound even fake apologetic, or really acknowledge our presence.
Wtf lady — who hired you. You are rude and have zero customer service skills. The chef standing behind the counter just kept staring at us and couldn’t use that mouth of his to say anything either. I haven’t tried the food here but given the customer service, or lack thereof, I will not be returning and I will be telling others not to bother as well. It’s a shame such a pretty space is inhabited by such rude people.
Ain’t nobody got time for that.