Brandywine Kitchen

This is the Brandywine Kitchen. It started as a place that had a sandwich stand at the local farmers market and has recently moved into this new fantastic space.

The place is beautiful, they kept it clean, classic and simple. The atmosphere casual to such a degree it almost feels strange because of the size and presence of the space. The building gives you the impression that you should be dressed up for the occasion.

They get a lot of the ingredients and products they use from local Bellingham businesses.

This is a buffalo french dip sandwich. It is fantastic. I have tried a number of things on their menu and this is the one thing I keep coming back to.

They also score extra points with me for using mason jars to serve their beer in.
brandywine kitchen is open till 11pm every day of the week, something which I have found to very accommodating and convenient because late night places are far and few between in Bellingham. The food is wonderful, the facility is beautiful and the staff is friendly and helpful. Go here for an adventure in your mouth.

Fairhaven Fish N Chips

This is located in the historic Fairhaven section of downtown Bellingham. The place is run out of a old double decker bus.

Along with the fish they also have a HUGE selection of soft serve. 

The fish is really good. I got a variety basket which is a basket filled with fried things. It was damn good too. The salmon was probably my favorite. Their tatar sauce was also really good. Apparently they make all their sauces from scratch. You can tell too when you taste it, it's excellent. 

The cole slaw isn't as good as my moms but I still ate it. I'm a picky slaw person so that's saying something. 

This is a really good fish N chips place. If you're in the mood for fantastic fried food make a stop here.

RUDY'S PIZZERIA

Rudy's is located in downtown Bellingham and is a great place to go for tasty, filling pizza.  

The restaurant is well laid out and decorated. The walls are colorful and covered in artistic mosaic work and the lighting is warm and inviting. There is also an elevated seating area. Elevated seating areas are something I am a big fan of so this scored a lot of points with me personally. 

I have only seen a few variations on order markers, which you set at the edge of your table, the ones at Rudy's I thought were clever just because you can have up to 52 different markers and the material is inexpensive. 

There is a large list of ingredients to choose from when constructing your pizza. What I went with this time was: Pepperoni, spinach, broccoli, artichoke hearts, garlic, feta cheese, bleu cheese and of course bacon. 

There are many things I like about the way Rudy's does pizza. They lay the toppings out very close to the edge of the crust for starters. This way you don't end up with a breadstick and a half worth of crust, which is nice. The pizza is nice and thick. Just about everywhere you go these days everyone is doing New York style pizza. Nothing against New York but sometimes I get tired of being able to fold a whole, large pizza down into the size of one slice. There is an interesting cheese laying technique they use too. It seems they put down a very lite layer of cheese followed by pepperoni. Then they put more cheese on top which encases the pepperoni in a kind of cheesy cocoon. Then as you're eating all of the sudden...

BAM!

Pepperoni in a bite which looked like it had no pepperoni. 

They actually layer all the ingredients within the layers of cheese. It's pretty amazing. 

Rudy's also earned some extra points with me for carrying one of my favorite alcoholic beverages. Arrogant Bastard Ale is not something you find everywhere, so it was nice to be able to enjoy it with my meal. 

All and all I would highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a good pie. 

BOUNDARY BAY BREWERY AND BISTRO

(this was a rushed review photographically speaking so the photos are particularly horrible)

This brewery is nestled in the heart of downtown Bellingham. Along with great beer they also offer great food ranging from burgers and sandwiches to variations on traditional mexican dishes.

The building is amazing to start with. The bar area has lots of seating and includes a garage door which they open, giving you a pleasant street view while you eat and enjoy the outside air.

There is a huge dining hall and two levels of outdoor seating.

On the lower level of the outdoor dining area there is a stage set up and they almost always have live music going on during the weekend.

I ordered Yam Alechiladas which is "A mixture of American yams, cheddar & jack cheese, carmelized onions & roasted garlic, wrapped in corn tortillas & topped with molé poblano sauce. Served with beans & rice"

The enchiladas were great. The yam filling was creamy with a light sweetness and no starchiness. The tortillas had a distinct and flavorful corn taste (makes sense I guess since they were corn tortillas) and added a nice chewy texture. The enchiladas were served atop a bed of seasoned spanish rice and black beans which were seasoned with cumin and celery seed. This was all topped with salsa, which had a strong cilantro flavor and sour cream with chopped green onion.

The dish had a well rounded range of flavors which worked well together and played off of one another nicely.

The only negative thing I will say about my experience was the service. My server just needed to pay a little more attention instead of walking away right as my order was coming out of my mouth. Also had to wait for my check for way too long. They were a bit busy but that's still no excuse.

I would highly recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants to eat and grab a great micro brew. Good food, great atmosphere, live music, outdoor seating, this place works.

LONGHORN SALOON

My friend Sean and I had seen a good number of cows grazing in the pastures of the local farmland that day. I think some sort of subliminal suggestion was going on when it came to the idea of getting burgers. We stopped in the town of Edison, Washington. Edison is tiny and possibly one of the most aesthetically   pleasing places I've ever been. Sean decided to take me to this place called Longhorn Saloon.

It's pretty much your typical bar/restaurant set up. They have a TV with all the sports news going on and an average selection of beer on tap. The place was packed.

In one corner they have a mini arcade complete with a virtual golf game, hunting, and a dart board that isn't really a dart board.

Apparently there's this "trivia night" thing which is getting super popular at restaurants these days. Not really my thing so I've never gone to one. But tonight was Longhorn Saloon's trivia night, luckily we arrived at the ass end of it and didn't have to sit through much.

Except one of the teams, that tied for first, forfeited because they weren't secure enough to have a "dance off" against the other team. Kind of a bummer because I would have like to have seen that.

  

The kitchen looked well organized and clean. You can see it from the bar seats. I really like restaurants where you can see what the people who cook are doing. Mainly because you get to see how they cook and secondly because you can see if they sneeze or spit on your food.

The burger I got was a "Western". This means It has bbq sauce, bacon and onion rings on it. This is a pretty common recipe at most respectable burger joints these days. I normally don't order these kinds of burgers because I'm not a huge fan of sweet bbq sauce all over my hamburger. But for some reason my instinct pointed to this.

To start with their burgers come with curly fries. I'm a sucker for curly fries so, naturally, this made me really happy. The burger was great. The meat was good, the bacon, a nice combination of crispy and chewy and the union rings were fresh and crunchy. The real surprise was the sauce. This wasn't normal sweet bbq sauce, this was more like magic hotwing sauce or something. It was spicy with a sharp tangy flavor, slightly vinegary and a pleasantly understated sweetness at the end.

The burger was great, the music was tasteful, the atmosphere welcoming and one of their waitresses was scantily clad.

If and when you find yourself in Edison, Washington. Make your first stop the Longhorn Saloon. (unless you're not hungry, then go somewhere else first)