falls terrace restaurant

i met a cousin here half way between seattle and portland since we couldn’t arrange to meet elsewhere. the restaurant has a view of the tum waterfallswhich in itself is overrated, but so is the restaurant. the menu was ordinary. the food we ordered was nice but nothing special or great about it.

an institution. many decades ago my mother worked with one of the people who startedfallsterrace. it quickly became "the place for an upscale meal" in the olympia area. it has had its ups and downs, but mostly has been a good place to eat. the view of tumwaterfallsadds to the appeal. today we went with my mother. my mother had a bowl of clam chowder and the cheesecake of the day. i had the special pork porterhouse, the server said it was a better deal than the grilled oysters i was thinking of having. my wife had the tuscan chicken. the pork porterhouse was excellent, with a homemade apple/honey glaze, so i did not miss the oysters. my wife really like the tuscan chicken. my mother really liked her choices. my wife got a bite of the cheesecake, which is made right here, and said it was excellent and not like others. the service was also very good. at least for us,fallsterrace delivered a fine, upscale meal today.

poor quality, high price, big letdown. my wife and i decided to have dinner here for our anniversary. upon arriving i provided the reservation name, but they could not find my name for some reason even though i had called that same day and even spelled out my name. fortunately they were not very busy and we were seated with a nice view of the falls. we ordered an appetizer- batter dipped avocado, which turned out to be the only good dish either one of us ended up having.
my wife ordered the sole amandine. the plating was amateur, which ended up showing the quality of the food before she even tasted it. there were two large filets of sole piled onto each other, and they were completely covered in some sort of egg batter (mostly egg). it was very unappealing.
i ordered the ribeye steak and was disappointed. they over-seared the steak, leaving a very bitter burnt taste. maybe they need to clean their grill? both dishes came with sauteed vegetables that were very bland. the garlic mashed potatoes tasted like they came out of a box.
overall, the service was o.k. but not great, and the food was grossly sub-standard especially considering the price. the atmosphere was put off by the lack of passion in the staff and at times we felt awkward being there. we are not considering returning tofallsterrace. .

needs updated. for an expensive restaurant, we were really disappointed. the decorations were boring and seemed like it had been that way for a long time. the food was about the same too. my filet mignon was pretty bland as was the rest of our meal. they need to freshen up both their menu and decor. yes, the view of tumwaterfallsis beautiful, but thats about the only thing this restaurant has going for it. i just recommend coming in for a drink and the view---not the food!