The Lockspot Cafe

They have the best Seafood Fettuccine. This might be a seasonal dish so I would get it soon before the summer. It’s really a beautiful plate. Friendly atmosphere and great staff.

We decided to try out this cute little place, and we ended up pretty disappointed. For a place being known for their fish and chips… Yikes! They were so tough and they seemed old. I don’t not recommend this place to anyone.

This is in regards to the INDOOR Dining experience, not the outdoor which is markedly different. Stay outside and order your food from the window unless you are into stale dry skimpy sandwiches, coleslaw soaked in sugar and mayonnaise, horrible loud radio with commercials and then getting a tiny order of shrimp all for an exorbitant price. My seven year old was still hungry after her meal there, and it was not the kid’s menu. Five small shrimp? It was like a joke. We went outside after and got an order of happy hour shrimp for her for half the price, she got more and it was better quality!
The kitchen’s are clearly not the same for the window and the indoor.
Also indoor you are forced to listen to loud radio music full of annoying adds, LOUD may I emphasize, with some top 40 record company spin off you are only praying for it to stop because its so painful.
I will NEVER go indoor here again, I don’t care if its a blizzard outside.

The service is terrible. Our waiter was ignorant, forgot things and just wasn’t friendly at all. Salmon Chowder is really good. Fish and chips greasy and soggy fries.
Décor and atmosphere is very special so I would recommend coming here for a beer on tap and chowder!

Great place to watch Seahawks games and good happy hour! Back porch area is also a sweet perk!

Just get the chowder. This place is awesome at that.

Good clam strips and fish and chips. Service was fine too. Not many customers on Halloween. Clams strips were mostly clam and the fish was not some farmed fish. Music a bit loud. Steppenwolf, Van Halen etc. looks like a good place to watch sports.

Nothing special — regular food, frozen fries, decent English muffin (possibly homemade)
Eggs Benedict — hollandaise sauce was seriously lacking. Ham was nasty — home potatoes were previously frozen nothing home about them.
It strictly served the purpose of filling our stomach.
Filet mignon was ehhh rubbery — the flat iron wasn’t much better both were rare.
Fish and chips were greasy with I think Panko breading.
BLAH FOOD ALL AROUND .
Service: we had a meek waitress who didn’t want to have anything to do with human interaction .
Atmoshpere: dark. Too many different things trying to go on in one place, café, bar, dive, restaurant didn’t blend well & the offerings cause the demographic to largely vary.
I enjoyed my company not my food.

Great fried clams. Tuna was slightly overcooked, but thats all it takes with tuna. Excellent Dr. Ed’s Tonic. Overall good. Would stick to fried stuff or burgers next time but the veg was cooked well. Clam chowder slightly bland, gluey and not enough clams. Bar and quiet atmosphere early evening. Will come back. Worth the price if you stick with the bar type foods. Service staff seemed slightly irritated but maybe that’s just the vibe here. He was fast and professional otherwise.

Some of the best fish and chips I’ve had (and I’m British) not to mention a hop skip and a jump from the Ballard Locks and Botanical Gardens.

The Lockspot Café is an old school seafood restaurant located on the Hiram M. Chittenden Locks (a.k.a. Ballard Locks) in Ballard. According to the front cover of the menu, this restaurant has been around for over 90 years. Wow. Upon stepping foot inside, the traditional sea house look and feel of this place instantly reminded me of The Crazy Crab on Hilton Head Island (
).
The dimly lit, cozy confines somewhat resemble a house. There’s a bar, multiple sections of seating, a brick fireplace, and all sorts of vintage nautical décor. Out back, there are take-​out windows as well as a small espresso and ice cream stand with picnic table style outdoor seating.
Our group visited for dinner on a Thursday night. The restaurant wasn’t busy. The food was lackluster to okay and the service was subpar.
The Lockspot Café is known for it’s «world famous» fish & chips. Some appetizers offered include steamed clams, fried calamari, cod cakes, and popcorn scallops. Most apps are priced at $ 8 – 11 each. Entrée-​wise, they’ve got clam chowder, clam strips, halibut, yellowfin tuna steak, salmon, and fish tacos. These mostly range in price from $ 12 – 17 each. They also have salads, steaks, chicken, burgers, and sandwiches in roughly the same price range.
I tried the following:
* Deep Fried Cheese Ravioli ($ 7.99) — served with marinara sauce
* Fish & Chips ($ 11.99) — lightly breaded Alaskan cod, fries, tartar sauce
* Super Clam Strips ($ 13.99) — served with fries, cocktail and tartar sauce
The Deep Fried Cheese Ravioli came out piping hot. They weren’t bad. Par for the course when it comes to typical bar food. Crispy breading, tasty, melty cheese, and a thick marinara sauce that contained grated cheese. About 5 – 6 palm-​sized pieces came to an order.
The Fish & Chips were alright. They weren’t kidding when they described these as being «lightly breaded» on the menu. The thin, golden brown coating was barely noticeable in some spots, making this one of the meatier and less crispy fish & chips I’ve tried. Two fish fillets were served atop a bed of crisp, thick-​cut fries with a small container of tartar sauce and a lemon wedge. Both the fish and chips had a subtle oily sheen to them. If you’ve made it here, I say give them a shot.
I was underwhelmed with the Super Clam Strips. I was looking forward to trying them after reading its menu descriptors: «big, tender, & delicious!» The clam strips were neither «super» nor any of those adjectives. What I got was unappetizingly crunchy, rubbery, and greasy. The clam strips looked like shriveled up chicken fingers. There was too much batter and not enough clam meat. Some morsels tasted like 99−100% batter and 0−1% clam. In other words, batter chips. This very disappointing dish went unfinished.
Each table has a small set of trivia questions. We had fun playing impromptu trivia while waiting for our food and drink orders.
Service was not good. When we arrived, we took seats at tables that had not yet been cleaned (these were the only tables that could accommodate our group). Even after our tables were cleared and the tops wiped off, the tables were still sticky. A dirty rag sat on a table next to ours for the duration of our dinner — not the most appetizing thing in the world. The food came out in a reasonable of time. However, after our entrees were delivered, our server went MIA. Our group completely ran out of water including the two pitchers left at our table. Luckily, there was a pitcher of water on the mantle above the fireplace. I grabbed it and started refilling everyone’s water. At this point, I think the server or someone else on the staff noticed and the server came running back to our table. By that time, I had already refilled everyone’s water for them.

We’ve been to The Lockspot three times. The first time we sat in the bar. The food was delicious and the service was great.
The second time we went we sat in the restaurant. The service was good. The food was terrible. I ordered a club sandwich and the bread was so soaked in mayonnaise it was inedible. My boyfriend ordered the clam chowder and it was all potatoes; very little clam.
We went a third time today and grabbed a table in the bar. It was covered in water puddles but we didn’t mind and snagged the table anyway. 10 – 15 minutes later the server came by and we asked if she would wipe off our table. She did so with a sigh saying, «it’s just water.» Then she threw menus on our table saying, «If you know what you want tell me now otherwise it will be awhile.»
As I was saying, «I know what I want,» she walked away. No water, no drink orders, no food order. My boyfriend and I sat sort of stunned for about five minutes. Then we got up and left. Being spoken to in that manner is completely unacceptable. We’ll be hard pressed to go back.

I stopped by with my daughter for some fish and chips and ate outside. The fish was $ 12 and had two pieces and the kids at $ 7 had one piece. The fish was very good but the size was small for the price. So I dropped $ 20 on 3 fish and fries. The guy working the window did not care about me or my business! There was no one else to serve and he still acted like (why are you bothering me) my dish came with one small tartar sauce and so did the kids size? I went back to ask for more and the guy gives me the stink eye and says «we normally charge 25 cents for extra tartar sauce… «REALLY! $ 20 for 3 pieces of fish and some fries (not a lot by the way) and you want to charge me more for tartar sauce? Your ketchup is free? Way to leave a bad feeling as your last impression. Cheap and uncaring! I will never go back here and the fish was good. 8 PM on the 21^st of July 2015.

Delicious Bloody Mary that can only be paired with their fish and chips! Also, if you have time, play a game of PAC-​MAN near the bar before you go to the Ballard Locks!

the sole star is dedicated to a chill location, but everything else was a bummer– $ 7.99 for a measly amount of average onion rings, no drink specials and brisk (rude) service. Echoing other reviewers– I feel like the lockspot gets away with their prices/​service because of it’s history, proximity to the locks, and $ballard$ clientele.

If I want good food in a comfortable place without the pretentious vibe of most Seattle restaurants, I’ll go to the Lockspot. This is a hometown establishment that has great seafood. Go in, sit down, order your food and enjoy. No hovering wait staff to assault you with a pepper mill.
Recently, my True Love and I checked into another nearby seafood restaurant to find a two-​hour wait, so we headed to the Lockspot. We had an amazing meal! Simple, tasty and satisfying. Sometimes I get tired of the fluff that comes with some of the Seattle eateries. It distracts me from just enjoying good food.
If you’re craving fish and chips, fried clams, or another seafood staple, head to the Lockspot Café. It’s good food and good service in a traditional fishermen’s diner environment that Seattle was built on.

If you want good food and don’t care about terrible service, this place will be right up your alley.
Went there for a semi-​late dinner. There were only a few other occupied tables. The food was great. The service was TERRIBLE! It was the very first time I’ve not left a tip. It was that bad.
We walked in and told the guy by the door (turns out it was the waiter) that we had a party of two. He was a bit curt in telling us to seat ourselves. As we were walking to a table, he just hands us menus with a «Here you go» type of comment.
We ordered fish and chips and an onion rings appetizer. Our onion rings came and we got no plates. The waiter disappeared so we used napkins as plates.
Our food came and he set it down with hardly a word. My water glass was empty and my daughter’s was half empty. We also had clearly dirty, bunched up napkins, but he just walked off.
He ended up standing off on the side of the room, just looking around. He finally came back after 5 – 10 minutes and asked how things were. We asked for more water, napkins, and tarter. You’d think the water and napkins would be obvious.
The bill comes and we discover we’ve been charged for the extra tartar. When I asked him about it, he just shrugged and walked off with my credit card. Incredibly rude.
Despite the food being good, I doubt I’m rushing back. There are plenty of places to get fish and chips where you don’t get treated like you’re an inconvenience.

So entered. Seated ourselves like the sign asked was really in the mood for some seafood soup. Ordered a cup of smoked salmon soup and clam chowder for my gf. Waiter talked extremely fast to understand. Anyways he brought our soups promptly but my god like other reviews here I probably had 3 – 4 pieces of salmon smaller than a dime. I wish I was exaggerating. I couldn’t taste anything. It was filled with potatoes. Smoked salmon soup what a joke. Waiter came out and checked on the two people by us and never checked on us. And as I am typing this review he still hasn’t acknowledged the fact we are ready to leave. I mean we only had two soup cups come on dude… Plus it’s expensive. And we continue to wait… Will update this
UPDATE
So waiter came 3 mins after a my first review. I asked for a manager he told me there wasn’t one… Wtf. 2 mins later a guy comes and claims he’s the manager. I was like dude I was just told there was no manager. Anyways the manager heard me out. I was very kind. Just detailed my experience he apologized. But I brought this review down to 1 star because apologies don’t do much and lying to me about no manager was the last straw for a 2 star. I highly suggest staying away from here

I’m Seattle through and through but had never been to The Lockspot until recently. I was a north Ballard gal as a kid and therefore never went with my parents, as I was older I always had kids with me and prefer to check out dives before taking them, and then in recent years have avoid it as it became a tourist destination.
Finding ourselves in Ballard and in need of a happy hour somewhere I suggested to the wife we stop in here. Upon entry I did a silent prayer that they not make me regret it — as it is truely and old «hole in the wall». They did not disappoint.
Friendly service! Good food! We got the spinach and artichoke dip and fish and chips on the happy hour menu. Both were delicious — even though the artichoke dip came with fried pita bread (which I doubted) it was amazing. As I ate it I literally said «who would do this… it’s delicious». Not fresh, not a chip, definitely a new thing for me.
The fish and chips while not gourmet by any means were good — better than good — delicious. The fries were delicious as well — which is hard to come by at most places as they overlook the «chips» part.
I’m sad I waited so long to go here, though now that Totem House is taken over by Red Mill, I will be back more often!

What a disappointment!!! The cod is fresh but the cooks turn it into the worst fish and chips around. I cannot believe anyone would vote this the best if Seattle. I have had way better in Seattle and better within Ballard.
The food was bland and tasteless. Sorry i take that back, the lemonade was good. The fish breading made me think the fish was from the frozen section of the supermarket that you bake in the oven. The only reason I can believe they prepare the fish there was I saw the fresh cod sitting on the counter. But maybe that was just for show. The chips were tasteless potatoes. I mean they tasted of nothing! The Tatar sauce I assume came from the store because of the cheap taste.
Lastly, I tried the clam chowder. I counted 10 pieces of finely chop clam. For a bowl of soup there couldn’t have been more the 2 whole pieces of clam finely chopped. I think Campbell’s Chucky Soup has to be making a better soup than the Lock Spot chowder. But maybe it was from Campbell’s, it tasted like it was out if a can.
For the people who enjoy the Lock Spot, I can only assume you don’t get out much or the only fish and chips you have ever end came for the cheapest the frozen food section has to offer.