Pied Piper Ale House

It’s possible that I’ve become biased towards this place as a result of the Wednesday night Geeks Who Drink pub quiz, but there are a few dishes that I absolutely crave every week. The spicy chicken pasta is fantastic, as are the Drunken Onion or the Hot Chick burgers. They were doing wraps for a while that I also dug on pretty hard. They’ve revamped the menu once in the time that we’ve been going here for quiz, and there is always the possibility it will get even better in the future.
I admit their selection of beer isn’t as large as I would have imagined given their name, so this would be a nice thing to try and remedy in the future.
Their desserts, while few, definitely hit the spot. The ice cream sandwich (decent ice cream sandwiched between two delicious cookies) is my favorite when I decide to splurge for desert.
The soup of the day when I stop by tends to be a bisque, which I’m not a huge fan of. I have had a bowl of chili on the side a few times though and I god damn loved it.
4 stars for awesome wait staff, mostly better than average pub grub, and an awesome wait staff.
5 stars if they bring in some new types of beer (a solid rotation could be nice), a slightly revamped menu, and a couple of regular wraps versus a ‘wrap of the week’.

I came here once before, I think it was shortly after they opened just for dinner. Nice place, clean, quaint, good neighborhood vibe, and decent burgers, however nothing to write home about.
I recently went there for their trivia night which is put on by Geeks Who Drink. The trivia was great, the young lady who was our server was good too, split our bill for our group without us having to ask. The food though, uggghh, not so good, really barely even edible.
I arrived a bit later than everyone else so I didn’t see the first round come out. As soon as happy hour began I ordered a hummus plate, pretty hard to screw up, but they managed it. Let’s start with the hummus, so soupy it was as if it had been watered down. If it wasn’t in a bowl it would’ve spread all over the plate. It also had absolutely no flavor, like they just put a can of bean strait into a blender with water and dumped them in a bowl. The accoutrements… standard fare, toasted pita bread, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, olives, pepperoncinis, and artichoke hearts. The cucumbers were cut into half moons, really would’ve been less work for them to just cut slices which would’ve made it easier to scoop some of that «soup», the tomatoes were dices pieces, which included two that were the core/​stem from the top of the tomato.
Someone else ordered their corn/​bacon fritters/​hushpuupy things. I didn’t try them myself but they didn’t look too appetizing and surprise, no flavor. They had to be drenched in ketchup just to be edible, basically they were just a vehicle for the ketchup.
Another person ordered the nachos. Pretty hard to screw up but apparently they were only so-​so also. The chicken on top was cold (maybe they put the chicken on after they cooked the nachos?
Either way, the beer and the trivia is decent and it’s not so packed and loud that you can’t hear the trivia or have a conversation, but don’t come hungry or you’ll leave disappointed.

I had the most amazing dinner here last night-​so good I had to Unilocal this place for a second time, which I rarely do. I had the San Diego Gem, and it is by far the best chicken sandwich I have had in months. All of the different textures made this the perfect sandwich, and there was an impeccable balance between the chicken, cheese, avocado and spiciness. It was simply amazing. I absolutely love Nutella, so I couldn’t resist this dessert called the Nutella Banana Panini. Just try it. There is absolutely no way to regret ordering this. I am going to post a photo of this dessert-​so beautiful I had to take a picture! I never thought an ale house would become my new favorite restaurant. I am going to be so sad when I have to go back to San Diego in a few weeks!

I want this local neighborhood place to be good. I have kept trying it for a few years in vein. I finally gave up.
The food is consistently bad. I have tried burgers, appetizers, salads, and soups. Not once did it surpass fast-​food quality. Usually it was far below. The only saving grace was the 9PM-​close happy hour during which you could get a microwaved frozen plain hamburger for $ 5. It was worth the money to have someone else do the effort and clean up the dishes. They no longer offer this lazy-man’s «hold the taste buds”-style happy hour special. The last straw came two days ago when I ordered french-​onion soup that was inedible. Aside from having just a couple small bits of onion, it tasted like bad soy sauce. $ 6 for a small bowl of bad soy sauce.
The prices aren’t very good either. For $ 11-​$ 13, you can get much better burgers just about anywhere in town. For a little less, usually. The beer is slightly on the pricey side for a poor selection of mediocre beers.
The atmosphere could be good if anyone were ever there.
I considered giving two stars in support of the friendly staff. But the place is otherwise too miserable to justify it.

Strange name for this place, being that they only had 5 beers on tap and only one was an ale. The didn’t have any IPA’s or Lagers, and the pale ale they had was VERY forgettable (although I wish I remembered it so that I wouldn’t get it again).
The service was pretty slow and the place was mostly empty on a Saturday night. The food was ok, not amazing. It’s a nice facility in a good area, but there are several other great spots within a couple of miles that I’d much rather go to. I doubt I’ll ever make it back in here again.

Great place for drinks and darts, and we’ve never had to wait for the dartboard (there are two but they’re close together so it would be snug if two groups were playing). I haven’t eaten anything here, but I’ve been for drinks a few times and the staff is friendly and efficient. I’d probably give it 3.5 stars because it has a lingering smell of fry oil, but I rounded up because I think the current average is a little unfair. It’s a pleasant place to hang out, and it’s not too dark or quiet, making it good for groups. Also they have games to play!

Well, it turns out that no one goes here on a sunny Saturday at 7:00. Unless you’re me. The Boy and I wanted to watch the Seahawks game, and the bartender/​waiter was more than happy to change channels for us, rip on the Vikings, and otherwise take care of us.
We had a pitcher of summer ale for about $ 13 and a «Gigantic Plate of Fries» for $ 7. The fries were amazing – hand cut, extremely crispy on the outside and creamy inside.
While we waited for the game to come on, we entertained ourselves with a board game from their shelf-​o-​fun. They even have some tables with chess and backgammon boards painted on, for your convenience. (If you’re like me, you carry a chess set around in your purse.)
Only downside was sort of dingy tables, but since we had the place pretty much to ourselves, we were able to pick the cleanest one.

I understand the low overall rating. The people who work here are friendly and conscientious but the front of house staff has to make up for the amateur timing of the cooking crew. Cooks, have the burgers ready when the fried food comes up.
Why are the ratings so low? Because the pub food takes too long. I am not looking for red robin 15 minute turn times but please learn to time apps with entrée’s. Don’t use the excuse that a large table is in front of you. A good BUSY place should be ready for that. Otherwise, you are running amateur hour.
It is children friendly but if this place ever became busy, there would be aisle accidents for sure. Children friendly is a place like the RAM or red robin. Child friendly places keep the children interested by getting apps out fast, burgers out fast and drinks filled up. Cheap toys and old couches doesn’t qualify you as children friendly in my book.
Perhaps management should eat out once in a while to experience how it is done so they could pass it on to the staff.
Also, try your burgers and own food some time. The meat is dry. Try 20% lean rather than 90% since you have to avoid red in the middle. Your fry oil is either dirty or you are cooking to long. The onion rings cracked as you ate them.
You can do it but you have to try.

Man, I just don’t understand the low overall rating. The people who work here are friendly and conscientious, and (more important to me) they serve the best ribs in Seattle (among the dozen or so highly recommended places I’ve visited). That’s right, the best. I had a brief chat with a regular; he says the chef works on barbecue technique at home. Just try the ribs. And the steak at the top of the menu is also tasty, and at a very reasonable price. This is my new favorite neighborhood joint.
Why are the ratings so low? They must be improving. Also, it’s a very family friendly place – kids running around is not unusual in the mid-​evening hours. So, if you’re not bringing kids, early (happy hour) or later in the evening is best. Oh, and no outdoor seating. (Something I don’t care about, but others do.)
Why no five stars from me? Because I haven’t been there enough to rate them that highly. But the ribs definitely get a five.

1 Star. This place is terrible. I showed up right before a large group came in. My table ordered some beers and some food. The waitress came back several times saying how she is sorry and should get the drinks soon. 50 minutes later I was fed up. I went up to the waitress and told her that I still haven’t even gotten my beer much less my food. She apologized, said it was her fault and then I canceled my order. I gathered my stuff and all of a sudden the bartender walks over and yells out «who’s last name is [my last name]». I assumed he was going to apologize, but instead he is extremely hostile and says «Just so you know, this whole thing comes out of our tips. Your food is coming up right now.» I responded that we have been waiting almost an hour and I haven’t even gotten my beer. He says that this huge group is causing delays, my wife then tells him that we were here before the big group got in, and is willing to pay as long as he doesn’t make a scene. The bartender then becomes irate and cusses at my wife and says something to the extent «If you cause a scene I’ll kick you out, and I’ll call the cops!». I get my stuff and say we are leaving and he decides to escort us out.
The whole event was extremely embarassing and the bartender handled it very poorly. He could have apologized and comped me a beer or some other small token, but insteads gets defensive and threatens to call the cops. I will not be returning. ever. Although I think he said that I am never welcome there again.
In retrospective the whole event is kind of comical because I am one of the least confrontational people that I know.

This place does not have the best food. HOWEVER, the trivia night is fantastic. The people who work there are friendly and they always have good, local beers on tap and tasty drinks. I always felt at home at this place, and it is a five star because of this.

I’ve been into the Pied Piper many times because I live right next to it. I was, initially, not impressed. For the concept: a pub that serves good beer, is family friendly, and a place where you can watch the game and/​or work, it’s a fantastic location. Wednesday night trivia is tons of fun and always fills the place.
Where they fall flat is following Gordon Ramsey’s consistent advice: «Keep it simple! Fresh Ingredients!» As a result, some of their higher-​end dishes come out only so-​so. During our first visit, my sister ordered a Caesar Salad that was just.off.something about the dressing. Another night, my girlfriend ordered the fish and chips (good) with coleslaw featuring… fennel? (yuck). I understand a chef that likes to experiment… I’m all for it, but keep the flavors simple and tasty.
Which brings me to where Pied Piper truly shines: it’s hamburgers. They may be some of the best in the city (though not quite up to Wedgewood Ale-House’s amazing burger). You do, however, pay for quality, and I would argue you pay too much. A burger, fries, and a beer will run you nearly $ 20 (the burgers alone run around 11.99, with Fries). This seems way too steep for what the place promises: good pub grub, good beer, and a good atmosphere.
My Advice: Check them out on Monday for the ½ off burger special and bring some buddies for trivia on Wednesdays, otherwise, spend $ 20 on food somewhere else where the value might add up a little better.

Here I am, a year after my first visit, still making occasional special trips to this part of the city to kick my heels up on the opposing seat and order a pint (pitcher) of something rotating. I can think of no other place in the city that you can casually grab a table, order a clean-​tasting draft, chow down on a consistently tasty simple burger or complex chicken saltimbocca, and play Chutes & Ladders! OK, maybe you’ve opted for Monopoly, Trivia, or no game at all, but in any event, Pied Piper has mastered the fusion of pub, «Pizza» joint, and family friendly (and believe me, they advertise that they are — and they are!).
Keep up the good work with the «pub grub». I have yet to drop in, during any of those few, meager hour you opt to be open, and not had a good dish. But as I said last review — 5 to 11? Really? Anyway… My last trip added a new dimension to my opinion. I noticed that your menu has expanded from those existing wallet friendly under $ 10 dinners, to include an expanded over $ 15 option set. That is OK if they those offerings are good, and as I discovered: they are. Perhaps due to that bookshelf of cookbooks you have in the kitchen?

We always feel like a beer and casual fare when we decide to walk here from our house nearby, so I can’t comment on the fancier menu items, but generally the burgers are good. I once had a steak sandwich with grilled peppers and onions which was just «meh.» Kind of underseasoned and slimy. Once my burger’s ground beef tasted a bit over the hill, but the accompanying seasonal ale was great, and I didn’t suffer any illness after, so let’s call that a wash.
I admit that I’ve refrained from branching out to the entrees in part because of the price, but also because I look around at all the empty tables and wonder about the stock rotation schedule on the less popular menu items; is that justified? Maybe we just go at off hours, but the only time I’ve seen it crowded was on a trivia night.
It IS difficult to try to pin down exactly what vibe this place is after (like, last time I nearly drowsed off to the epic classic rock ballad playlist), but I’m not sure that a label is important. I want to support my neighborhood businesses, so I’m rooting for this place to succeed. My knee-​jerk, unsolicited advice is to maybe expand the beer selection (to walk the talk), and maybe pare down the menu for now, focusing on quality. Possibly adding an earlier happy hour to get some new bodies in? Oh, and recently I found it to be closed on a Sunday afternoon, which didn’t compute. Aren’t weekends kind of primetime for a pub?
Oh! And these are little pet peeves: When the manager has served us, he has never said, «you’re welcome,» when thanked, but instead, «not a problem.» This is obviously just a habit of speech, but I keep noticing it, and it doesn’t feel super gracious of him to reassure me that I have managed not to annoy him, you know? How about a similarly casual, yet positive, «you bet!» or «sure thing!» or, «any time!» or «my pleasure!» or «enjoy!» Pet peeve #2 is the 5 – 6 misspellings on the tabletop drink menu: Guiness, chardonny, Frambiose… can’t remember the rest.

The Pied Piper is clean, quiet neighborhood bar. I went after work around 7:30 with friends and we were the only people in there. There was cagefighting on TV and Elton John playing quietly in the background. I’m not quite sure what mood they’re going for, perhaps I’m used to bars being a little more dive-​y than this place.
Foodwise I had the BBQ Blues burger which was good. The beer selection on tap wasn’t very extensive but had some interesting variety among the selection of 6 – 8.

We went for trivia night and I was greeted at the door by two toddlers pressing their faces against the glass. How are toddlers allowed in a bar? Once inside I would estimate that one third of everyone inside this bar was under 6 years old. How odd…
This being an alehouse with the walls decorated by literally hundreds of beer cans and tap handles, I expected a healthy selection of ale on tap. Six taps were all that was available. Those taps consisted of basic beers such as Guiness, Bass, Harp and Kokanee Gold. I’d expect that an «ale house» would at least provide interesting beer selections.
Then there’s the food. It’s not good, expensive and the portions are small. My burger was tiny and was basically a Dick’s single on a bigger bun. I love Dick’s burgers but they’re about a dollar fifty. This was $ 5.
My advice, if you’re in the Ravenna neighborhood and want a good alehouse. Go to the Ravenna Alehouse a block away from the Pied Piper.

A good idea poorly conceived. I think that’s the best way to describe our evening out at this establishment. I had a gift certificate so we thought we would check them out. It turned out to be their weekly trivia night so we paid our entry fee and decided to compete while we waited for food.
We started with an order of lumpia with chili sauce. As a Fil-​Am, I was curious to see their recipe and the rolls were meaty. My humble opinion was they would have benefited with more vegetables to break up the monotony of the unseasoned beef.
My friend ordered the burger + fries from the happy hour menu. She was disappointed because the burger was over cooked and salty but for $ 5, it was hard to complain. We split an order of onion rings. After we each had a couple, we saw the pool of oil at the bottom of the dish. They weren’t drained properly and were quite greasy. We didn’t finish them.
I had the shrimp po-​boy with spinach side salad. Maybe I’m used to Gulf Coast po-​boys but wow, I was disappointed. My roll was stale and un-​toasted, the five shrimp were bland, and the slaw was awful. I ate my salad drenched in the raspberry vinaigrette.
If you are wondering why we didn’t say anything, the place was packed and the single chef behind the bar was eating while he was cooking. Neither of us wanted to incur the pettiness of a cook who had to remake dishes.
It wasn’t all terrible. I’d like to commend the servers and wait staff — each and every one who we encountered was friendly and attentive. The trivia night was fun but some of the participants were covertly cheating with their cell phones.
I’d go back for drinks + maybe trivia but I’d eat before or after… seriously skip it. Spend your food budget elsewhere.

My husband and I went here because we were given a gift certificate to check it out. Though we very much appreciate the generous gift certificate, we don’t ever plan on going back.
The service was okay. Nothing special, I guess what we expected.
The food was way overpriced. Thankfully we had the gift certificate.
Fries were stale, burger bun was stale/​crunchy, and onion rings have no flavor. I couldn’t even taste the onion, as weird as that sounds. I had to keep dipping it in the tarter sauce to have some kind of tasteful experience. The monthly beer was almost flat even though it is on draft.
Don’t go here because you’ll just be wasting your time. The food is not worth it, and you won’t get much if you’re just ordering drinks.

I’ve had mostly decent food here, but a rather sad spinach and artichoke dip. I think one of the main ingredients was actually NOT in it, so my friend and I were rather disappointed.
They have $ 9 pitchers after 9pm (of the seasonal or something?) and that’s pretty neat (now that I’m slowly starting to enjoy beer). The game nights seem pretty crazy. I happened to end up here towards the end of Trivia night one time and it was super loud and then suddenly everyone was just gone.
I like that they have Trivia Wednesdays (8pm) and Wii Thursdays (8pm) because it seems to be a good way to bring a locals together to have a good time.

Microsoft Prime 2008 – 2009
Ambience: 4
Food: 4
Value: 4
A very clean local drinking hall, with a friendly atmosphere, good beers and weekly specials
The place is very clean and nice with flat screens hung all over the place. They the typical local beers with rotating guest stuff from little local breweries. There’s almost always some special (especially on football/​baseball days). There is also trivia night.
We had the pork chops and the pasta with chicken: both were tasty, not your typical bar food.
It’s a warm and relaxing place to go, with enough upscale touches to impress.