falls terrace restaurant

poor steak restaurant. nice view of the deschutes river. nice settings in the restaurant. wait staff were very nice and attentive. mywifeordered the mediterranean chicken while i ordered the rib eye steak. her meal was great, but my steak arrived barely warm, grey and unappealing. i had ordered it chicago style, charred medium inside and it was awful. i told the waitress and she fully understood my request and promptly took it back. a few minutes later she brought the same steak back in the same condition. she explained that was the best her cook could do and the real cook was off. i was hungry and ate what i could. the vegetables and baked potatoes were cold and was i thoroughly disgusted. i discussed the poor quality with the manager who was completely disinterested in fixing the problem. explaining it took a special pan to prepare the steak that way, and he didn't have his own ranch to get the meat from. which made no sense. i didn't complain about the meat, just their inability took cook it. at $30. a plate plus drinks you think they'd put more effort into learning how to prepare beef right.

an institution. many decades ago my mother worked with one of the people who started falls terrace. 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 tumwater falls adds 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. mywifehad the tuscan chicken. the pork porterhouse was excellent, with a homemade apple/honey glaze, so i did not miss the oysters. mywifereally like the tuscan chicken. my mother really liked her choices. mywifegot 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, falls terrace delivered a fine, upscale meal today.

poor quality, high price, big letdown. mywifeand 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.
mywifeordered 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 to falls terrace. .