The Bair Bistro

This is my second time here in as many weeks. Sarah is legit and the food is amazing! I’m very thankful you guys are right around the corner from me. You have a regular in me!!!

A neat little place to stop by. The décor is very cute. The first time we went in, we did a To Go order and everything was super tasty and perfect. So I decided to go here for lunch with a friend. And I probably won’t go back. It was slow in there as usual. There were three other tables who’s orders have already been taken and they were just waiting on them to be delivered. We sat for quite a period of time before the only waitress came to take our order. I ordered the Cobb’s cousin salad which comes with chicken. When brought to me thou, there was some other funky meat on the salad. I asked the waitress if that was chicken and she said «I think it’s ham, but let me ask.» When she returned, she said they ran out of chicken and so they substituted with turkey-​which I do not eat and they didn’t even ask if that’d be okay. When ordering, I also asked for NO blue cheese or red onion but extra avocado instead. When I received my check, there was a charge for the substitute/​extra avocado. So not only did I not have my chicken, I got charged a fee for substituting two ingredients for one. Very disappointing. We won’t be going back, which makes me sad because initially I thought they were great…

Been to this place a few times! Took the hubby today for the first time today. I love how close it is to our house and the old town feel. The atmosphere is great, good service and good food. My first time here I ordered the Florentine and had coffee. The seasoned potatoes reminded me of home fries my dad made for us growing up. Also, this place is in the downtown area so feel free to walk around before or after to explore the town and maybe catch a pretty view on a sunny day! It’s a block away from a park where you can see across the water to some islands and the Olympic Peninsula.

This is such a lovely place. The history. The support of local artists. The food. The service.
I brought my daughter in for a mommy-​daughter date and had to chuckle when she was concerned that we were eating at a drug store!
It wasn’t busy and the lovely server said we could sit anywhere. We first chose a little two-​top but it was wobbly so my kiddo chose to sit at the counter. I could sit there for hours reading all of the antique pharmaceuticals in the display cabinets.
The food. The food. The food. They are a gluten-​free friendly joint and that is soooo very appreciated! It is so refreshing to be able to order just about anything on the menu in a gluten-​free form. So I ordered the Rueben… Because I love them and haven’t had one in years. Ohhhhhh Lawdy! Their sauerkraut is not the standard stuff out of a jar (or bag). It’s a cider kraut of some sort that brings a lovely sweetness to the saltiness of the cheese and corned beef. And the corned beef… Not an ounce of fat on any of it. I’ve never had corned beef that was so lean and delicious.
My kiddo had the Bair pancake and was in chocolate heaven. Seriously. There was sooooooo much chocolate in that thing! She loved the whipped cream ears and the face drawn with chocolate syrup.
There were a lot of other items on the menu that I wanted to try, and the kid’s menu is definitely a hit with my kiddo, so we will definitely make this our go-​to spot on our way to Tacoma!

Quaint little diner with good breakfast and friendly service. Interesting memorabilia to look at. Coffee is ok, but not great. Try the salmon hash — it is my favorite.

Loved this little gem, visiting my folks I’m from San Diego and stumbled on Bair’s. Was in route to take kids on a ferry ride, the town is cute and Bair’s had amazing food and a great museum of old pharmacology. Don’t let all the spilled milk cry babies whining about service take you away from a good food experience. Great food and ambience trumps slow service. Go visit this place and enjoy AMAZING French Toast and salmon scramble with smoked Gouda cheese. Biscuits are great too with homemade jam… Definitely coming back!!!

Most frustrating experience. Ever.
Had to ask multiple servers for a table when no one acknowledged me at the door. The first girl said she had no idea what the process was for seating and then left. I had to find a second server on my own.
Had to get my own menus, after waiting a good while without anyone even talking to us, and at a dirty table.
Had to ask two separate waiters to place an order, the first one said she’d be right with us but never came back. In the mean time, new people had already been seated around us and brought coffee.
Had to ask two more servers for our coffee and waters.
We had to ask for silverware once our food was up. She forgot it multiple times until a different server noticed and brought some. Never once were we asked how anything was or asked about our day, anything.
We asked again for waters but eventually only got one. Our server disappeared and a different one had to give coffee refills and bring the check.
The whole thing was incredibly non-​efficient. No one used trays, they would go get the hot sauce and then take another trip for ONE water and so on. It was insane, everyone was stressed, we’re never coming back.

I have been to this restaurant twice, both times for breakfast. The first time was a generally positive experience despite the fact that only one server was working. I ordered an omelette and didn’t wait long for it. I will say that I met my group a little late and they ordered for me beforehand which is probably why it didn’t seem long for me as they waited quite a while for their food. Today the experience was quite poor. I was the first person to arrive when they opened at 8am and I was part of a group of 8. The first thing I was told was that I should have made a reservation so that the restaurant could have been prepared. I apologized and assured the server I’d call ahead next time.
Again, she was the only server on shift and due to that service was quite slow. Another group of 6 – 8 came in which seemed to totally overwhelm her. My group waited around 30 minutes for our food and mine was outright cold. I didn’t send the dish back because I understood that the issue was that this restaurant just can’t handle much business during breakfast on a weekday.
The Bair is located in a quaint town on the back side of a large military installation. It hasn’t taken long for people to find out about it and start coming in larger groups for breakfast. That being said, the Bair should adjust to the level of demand possibly by putting more servers on shift and possibly another cook.
If there was a military discount my server didn’t know about it so I paid full price. I consider myself pretty forgiving when it comes to restaurants as I paid my way through college as a server for 4 years. Therefore, I didn’t make a fuss and I paid for what I ordered. I did let our server know that my food was cold just so that she could be aware and hopefully fix the issue for future customers.
I do not think that I will be back unless they find a way to improve service because no matter how the good the food is, eggs benedict is never good served cold.

Cool little spot, good food. But yeah, you are going to wait a looong time for your food. Here about 50 minutes before we got food, placed order 40 minutes prior. Waitress forgot our OJ. Good food, just be prepared to wait.

Terrible service. Have no idea how the sodas are because after 15 of random apologies about how the girls working didn’t know how to make any sodas, we left. All we got were two frantic and untrained idiots fluttering around. Will not be back ever and will make sure everyone knows what a crap place this is.

Sweet workers. Good food. People might complain about the pace of service but it fits our sleepy little town. Come knowing you’ll spend a bit of time there, but enjoy the time ;)

If you have 3 hrs to waste for breakfast then I would recommend this place. Worst service then a Korean BBQ. Is rather eat at I hop taste same but you save 2 hrs

Despite the many reviews regarding service, I decided to come check out Bair Bistro. Greeted the second we walked in the door with a rousing «Welcome to the Bair!», we were told to sit wherever we liked and immediately given our menus. Our server was named Tim, and he was great, so if he’s there I’m sure it will be fine. The staff here is very friendly!
The dark wood floors, building length counter, and white wash walls are immediately cheering and welcome you to the past, along with the many vintage pharmacy displays that make up this living museum.
The espresso drinks are wonderful, I had a great cappuccino. The food arrived in about 20 minutes and was flavorful and satisfying. I took some of my food home with me and it was great through next day.
The Bair is one of our top ten favorites now.

What a fantastic place!!! I have been coming here for years and the Bair never disappoints! I noticed that some reviews have claimed slow service as a detriment… when in fact; the relaxed atmosphere and family ambiance is one of the most appealing aspects of this wonderful restaurant. If you want a ‘fast’ meal; eat at McD’s!!! If you want good food, an amazing atmosphere, and friendly staff… then this place should most definitely be on your short list; clearly one of the best breakfast spots in the South Sound.

The ambiance was quaint and rustic… love the location but the service was painful. Here let me explain: I walk in to make an order to go. I knew within 10 seconds what i wanted. The server says, «you’re gonna have to wait because I have to ring up all these credit card orders». Now mind you, the most efficient thing would have been to take my order so the cook could begin the masterful preparation of my biscuits and gravy. But nope she instead had me wait while she tendered a stack of 9 tickets for a big top of military men in casual wear. They were chatting and telling stories. 7 minutes in with 4 checks to go i ask if she couldn’t put my order in… she says «well they have to leave», finishes her tendering and says, «it’s gonna take me awhile to figure out who is who»…walks away and begins to give the lovely, patient table of men their tickets by calling out their name. She returns, 13 minutes in, chef not having had any orders (she saw me and smiled thru the pass thru twice), and proceeded to put in my order of biscuits and gravy and 2 slices of lemon pound cake. She walks away and takes a new tables order, comes back and asks me if I want to pay and 1) not only forgets that I wanted lemon pound cake but 2) forgets I wanted 2 slices. It was utterly inefficient and painful to the point of comical… what else can u do, right? It wasn’t too busy and yes I tipped her, bless her heart. If you come in, make sure u have all the time in the world… you’re gonna need it.

There are not many breakfast places in this area. I discovered it on Unilocal and was glad to have another place to go. It says its a hardware store on the outside so it threw me off but its a nice little restaurant. I read some reviews and expected slow service. It was slower than most places but they refilled our drinks and were friendly. When the food came out it was so good! We were all impressed with our meals. If you aren’t in a hurry and want a good meal then this place is great

This was always one of our most favorite places to go for brunch. I always knew it took a little more time than most places, but over the last year, the service has just gotten miserable.
The waitress was nice enough, but extremely inefficient when it came to how she handled the few tables in the restaurant. There were three people dressed as the servers, but only one real person doing the serving. The other two were acting as «back-​ups» I guess. And we had a horrible time going back and forth with the «chef» over a minor change that had been requested several times before, without any issues. It took an hour from the time we ordered to the time we got our food, not including the wait time to get drinks and order food.
If they just had a couple more people to interact with the customers and someone to come in and teach them how to be more efficient in their service, this place would be so much better. Unfortunate, I don’t see us going back anytime in the near future. There are just too many places that serve food just a good with better service.

Came here for breakfast on Sunday. We were seated right away but the food took over an hour to come out. The service itself wasn’t any better. No one came over to us to apologize for the wait or check to see how we were doing, waters were empty and we didn’t have silverware when our food came out. When the food did finally come out it was pretty bland. We had the salmon pancakes and the eggs florentine. The only reason I’m giving this place a 2 star is because the old school charm and decoration was a nice treat.

The Bair Bistro has a great location on the waterfront and antique décor. That is where the positives end. We were ignored for 20 minutes once seated, never spoken to or given menus. Once we ordered, we did not get food or checked on for another hour. So after being at the restaurant for 80 minutes we got up to say we were leaving. They told us our food still wasn’t ready. The servers are very bad at their jobs. The restaurant defends it’s poor service by saying they are «not fast food» but they need to replace their staff and their attitude.

A great little spot! Love the décor! It’s in an old pharmacy and they have lovely vintage items everywhere. I had the 2 egg breakfast, it came with eggs, choice of meat (I got bacon, yum!) choice of bread (white toast) and potatoes. Everything was great, including the macchiato with vanilla syrup that I ordered. They brought out what I assume was homemade strawberry jam with the toast and I loved the thick cut bacon they served. My husband ordered the same items but added on sausage and pancakes. He loved the food too. Don’t forget to get the 12% discount if you’re military!
Now for the bad, they are understaffed and the staff they have are SLOW. Once they finally took our order, the food came out pretty timely though.
Overall we had a great experience and will be back!