yards bruncheon

came in on a sunday and place was packed but we were seated in about 10 mins. we ordered the chicken and waffles, steak'wich and chorizo and egg tacos. overall the food was delicious, the tater tots that came with my steak'wich were cold but we let ourserver'jt' know and he came out with a fresh batch!

seriously disappointed, twice. my first visit was the 3rd or 4th week they were open. i'm retired and came in by myself on a weekday. the place is open and airy with a semi-open kitchen in a modern diner type of feel. the place was somewhat busy yet had a number of open tables, most of which were still dirty. as i stood there, a number of servers walked passed me, some more than once, all without ever saying anything to me. i looked around for a sign or something, but there wasn't any. after looking over the room for a bit, a guy comes out and starts bussing a 2 top in the center about half way down, next to a cleaned table against the wall. as i make my way down towards the table, the guy bussing sees me coming and stops to look over the table i'm heading to, then turns back to the one he's cleaning. i take my coat off and set it with my cane on one bench and then sat down on the other. the guy bussing turns his head and says "did you put your name on the list?" he backs out of my way, signaling me to get up and waves me towards the front. i asked him where, since there are no customers waiting as well as no employee not to take their names. he gives me a dirty look and heads over to another table and starts to wipe it down, having left the dirty dishes on the 2 top. i got up, put my coat on and took my cane, he was giving orders to aserveras i passed him at the door as i left. he never said anything to me. well, no one did.

my second visit was with my wife, 3 weeks later on a weekday. the place was full, it looked like every table, but there were a couple empty but dirty. however there wasn't anybody waiting to be sat. as we stood there, this guy in the kitchen, big guy with a beard, turns and stares at us. doesn't move, holding a towel, just standing and staring with a complete blank look. granted, he may well have just been looking right through us yet, my wife started to laugh when she saw some customers pointing at him and watching. that's when i saw the bussing boss coming out from the kitchen. he looked over the dining room, looked at my wife and i standing there, turned and walked to the very back of the restaurant, looks into an open door then starts to bus a table in the back. we are side stepped by aserverheading to the front booth, she kept going around us, back and forth, from the counter to the table, carrying only 1 item for each time, back and forth, never once saying anything to us. a quick check of the kitchen and sure enough, the guy hasn't flinched. amazingly, none of the other staff in the kitchen seemed to find this strange, because no one told him to move, they all just went around him as if this was quite normal. now the bussing boss is carrying a couple dirty plates. he's going to random tables adjusting chairs, but still carrying these dirty plates. between each table he's prairie dogging us, then turning to move to another table, as he slowly works his way up towards where we're standing. he stopped at 7 tables on his way up to the front, theserverhad walked around us 9 times, never once saying anything to us. bussing boss gets to us and says "we don't do waiting lists here you can just sit wherever" and walks away. i kind of chuckle and we head to the only open table, the one he bussed by the open door. we get back there and the table hadn't been bussed, he only picked up 2 of the plates and was just carrying them around. we stacked the dishes and sat down to find we're left looking into the open bathroom just steps away.
after waiting 10 minutes that way we left, walking right past the bussing boss (obviously some kind of person in charge) and 3 other servers. none of them said anything to us.

in fairness, they may have a sigh now, they may block the bathroom door or atleast keep it closed, and i don't doubt the food can be quite good, there seem to be enough reviews confirming that. as well, they seem to be doing quite a lot of business, so my lost business doesn't carry any impact.
the active indifference displayed constantly towards their guests shows me they are counting on a high enough volume that guests walking out aren't a serious consideration. and that model seems to be standing true.

if you go, you may well get to place an order and be one of the lucky ones to get a good meal, then again...

i believe very firmly in supporting our local restaurants and wish their continued success, and at the same time it was made very clear to my wife and myself that we are not the target market.
i can only hope they decide a different approach towards customers in the new place next door, we'll see.

fantastic. late morning saturday i arrived to this bustling little mildly retro diner. as with many of the popular places around town, i was informed that there would be about a 25 minute wait. while taking my ease i noticed that the staff count was notably high for the number of diners. for perhaps twelve-ish tables, i counted 10 people moving about. roughly 15 minutes later we were being seated.

the menu was almost too much to take in on the first visit, it is filled with dishes that you just do not see around spokane. i already knew i would be ordering the sweet biscuits (biscuits that peeled in layers topped with huckleberries and some very delicious whipped cream) as these were the impetus for the trip in the first place; being a sucker for sourdough, i added the sourdough waffle to my order at the last second. i was feeling hungry.

there was an average wait time before our food arrived, ourserverkindly explained the proper methodology in eating their chicken and waffles to my companion sitting across from me, and i promptly dug into the sweet biscuits.

these were easily up to the task of impressing my taste buds, if not filling my stomach (though not for lack of trying) and i moved on to the sourdough waffle. i will say that it is a rare thing these days to encounter a completely new flavor, yet here was another. while deciding what i thought about this new sensation i finished that plate as well.

my hunger had been sated, my mind was dazzled with fantastic flavors and the final pleasant surprise arrived in the form of the check. food enough to satisfy four rather less prodigious appetites and it just barely topped $40. normally for food this cheap you have to eat at denny's, for food this good you spend half again as much, but this was the best of both worlds.

this was definitely the first of many visits to come.

will wait & see. so, just had breakfast here today. i was really excited about this new venture of adam's and was an excited backer on kickstarter for the yards bruncheon and wandering table. first off, we were greeted upon entering and theserverwas immediately available. the menu shows a nice variety with good price points. the service was excellent and menu varied and interesting. they were very accommodating with substitutions which is always appreciated. for the most part my meal was good with the exception of the "browns". about half of them were burnt to a crisp and hard. i do think i just got a bad batch since i watched what other diners were served and they didn't seem burned like mine were. which was why when theservercame to clear the plate and saw what was left on my plate i mentioned that i didn't feel the plate should have been served with such a large amount of over done potatoes which she was in agreement with (however she had in fact served it to me and there was no compensation for such). i also had 2 other menu items that i wanted to go at the end of our meal. they came out before we even had our checks and we were still savoring coffee and enjoying a visit so of course by the time i got the meals home they were cold. i had assumed theserverwould ask if we were ready to have the orders placed rather than just bringing them out unexpected. not a huge deal just something that can be improved on. i will try it out again at some point i'm sure and hope for improvement since i really want to see these two places succeed.