Sip

great food. close to home. easy parking. nice environment. great for date night!

Our server Jesse was great along with every other employee that served our table– 5 stars to the staff. and the atmosphere and wine were good too. The food was a 1. Spicy shrimp which was not spicy at all was probably the worst meal I’ve been served at a restaurant. Every component tasted the same– unwashed shrimp. Bread is fresh but blah. Comments from the table is the filets and sides were under seasoned and lacked flavor. Brussel sprouts opposite– completely over dressed. Maybe it’s a miss with this chef.

I am sorry to have to give this review, but I have eaten at Sip many times and every time is the same, I leave feeling hungry and ripped off for the price. The portions for the money are to small and everything is ale cart.
The wine by the glass is costly as well. The management has to increase the portion size at a minimum, and or add a salad with the entry like Jaks Grill in issaquah does. Paying 25 — 36 for an entrée alone that is small is disappointing at best.

I went there for my birthday. Husband ordered a steak medium rare and got it medium well. Not only did they apologized, they cooked him another steak, gave him a soup so he can eat something while I ate my meal and they packed the other piece of meat for us to take home and they didn’t include him in the check.
That is what I call awesome customer service! I will be coming back, no doubt.

I’m a little dissapointed with the service at the Issaquah location.
Came in with five of my friends the other night and was told the wait would be 15 minutes. Turns out we waited 40 minutes.
We got our table and then looked over the menu, gave our drink and food order and then waited. Each of us ended up getting our food first before our wine!
Dissapointed with the $ 8 french fries which were way over cooked and lack of service.

Sip in Issaquah has changed their executive chef and it made a huge difference! The food quality has been great with their new farm to table concept. I recall coming here a few years ago and never returned for dinner, until this week. We had the filet mignons which were awesome. They also have a great selection is wine with we appreciate. The pumpkin s’more was amazing! Props to the new executive chef and pastry chef! The service is always great!

I’ve lived in issaquah for for 12 years, and we eat out a lot. Needless to say I’ve been to most places in town many times. Went to this place for a family event, and while I’m very tolerant of less than amazing service. This was pretty horrible. Someone in our party had to share a chair with someone else because there wasn’t enough chairs, they took ages to bring anything, and best of all… They confiscated the little happy birthday chocolates my wife brought. Only to offer to sell them back to us at $ 2.50 each… Management said they have to make money. And I have to say… You make money with repeat business. This is one local who won’t be back. Try chinois down the street if you want great food and great service.

My favorite place for a sip in Issaquah. Great care in the details, great seating at the bar, awesome décor and staff. Not cheap and excellent wine selections and pairings. Highly suggest you use the corporate card. Parking and location need a lot of improvement.

We’ve been here a number of times and Airways walk our with the same comments. Excellent food but very, very pricey and way too noisy. Honestly, for$ ³⁰⁰¹⁄₄ People, I want a more

Had dinner with friends here tonight. 3 tiny mediocre sausage meatballs as an appetizer for $ 14 allowed for 2 small bites per meatball. $ 8 hand cut fries were the best part of the meal. My wife had the 6 bite $ 24 chicken that was average. The ambience was excellent. Too bad the food was served in such ridiculously small «art» portions and wasn’t any better.

Get the jidori chicken!
My absolute favorite. Although, since they switch up their menu constantly to use fresh and organic ingredients, it may not be available. but, I am sure you will be able to find something just as amazing there.
My girlfriend and I went on our very first date here 3 years ago. They were so accommodating. Now, we go back on the same date each year to celebrate. They always help us to make it special. A huge thank you to their great team and amazing selection of wine.

I will NEVER GO BACK. First of all, if I’m going to come and pay to have wine and cocktails and tapas, that’s what I want. They refused to serve us because someone in our party had a vertical ID, they were 22 about to be 23. Excuse me? What kind of place doesn’t want money or business?! Apparently this one. Not only would they not serve us they actually told us we couldn’t be in there at all, all of us. So I suggest they get it together and learn customer service and the laws of Washington and its alcohol policies. We took our business to Agave instead and had a great time. See you never, Sip!

Very sad to say this restaurant now sucks, this use to be our place to go every weekend. We literally live 2 blocks away. They have ruined their menu, taken away the best items and lost their best chef to Saltys and brought on the Chef from the horrible Cantinetta in Bellevue. We unfortunately will no longer go like just about all our friends. Misguided ownership ruined an Issaquah gem, what a shame.

Good food, good service, great wine list. Unfortunately the Wine is way over priced like most restaurants. Would do a lot better and probably sell more if they were more competitive. Can go to bevmo and get 3 to 4 bottles at the same price as Sip is charging for their wine.
Go for the food and atmosphere. Drink your own wine at home.

In the last 6 months their prices have dropped, but only because they give you half as much food now. It’s ironic the first pictures you see on Unilocal are of the two ice cream sandwiches, but they have reduced it to only one now according to «so many requests.» Also, the new menu items are lacking in description. For instance, I am a vegetarian, last night I ordered the Cesar salad which had no mention of meat, but came with a slice of meat on top of the half dollar sized salad ($ 10). I’m sure this is great for most people, but I would have requested no meat at all if I knew it was on there. Similar thing happened to my friend with both her ahi poke (they also prepare this differently with no mention of the changes) and sangria that says it’s «white and red» but only white. When we spoke to one of the waitresses about our concern she said, «OK perfect!» Which, it really wasn’t at all.

I LOVE this restaurant! …and just to give you a little background, I tend to have high expectations of restaurants, hotels or any other service oriented venue I spend my limited time at. I’ve been going to Sip since it opened and have had consistently great food, service and atmosphere.
The kidney shaped bar is located toward the center of the restaurant with tables/​seating all around which I think gives the atmosphere a great feng shui appeal and the right amount of energy w/​o too much noise. There’s a couple little nooks with booth seating for people who want more privacy, an area for events, perfect lighting, and a fireplace that adds nice warmth to the room. Outdoor seating offered in the better weather.
The His and Her adjoined hand washing area (sinks) are different and cool with video cameras of the restaurant to spy on your date, ha!
I’ve ordered from appetizers to entrees. The steak I had most recently was Perfectly prepared. It wasn’t doused in butter to coverup poor quality. It was cooked exactly how I ordered it, medium-​rare, delish! The ahi poke*, one of my favorite dishes, was excellent and the caesar was yummy. My son (4yr) loved the steak and mac n cheese and selection has good healthy choices.
The Wine selection is robust and I love the numerous wine flights offered. The Happy Hour is a good value w/​a quality selection of wine, drink and food. 4−6pm & 9 to close, Music on Thursdays is fun. I haven’t tried the 3-​course special for $ 29.95 looks like a good menu, I’ll add to this review when I do.
Highly recommend Sip!

I went in with low expectations and came out disappointed. Come for the reasonably priced bottles of great Washington wines, but definitely don’t come for the food. My suggestion, not worth the visit. Eastsiders, don’t bother, Seattlites, definitely avoid.
Pros:
A really solid selection of great Washington wines; the sommelier seemed knowledgeable. Didn’t see any Cayuse or Reyvnaan, but still had a wide range regardless. A good selection of cheaper bottles, medium priced, higher end ones from Washington and some solid choices from Australia & California as well. Only thing that got them 2 stars was the wine selection.
Cons:
Service was spotty and the kitchen needs better control or an expediter who knows what he/​she is doing. I’ll break it down:
Service:
Our server was friendly and our water came promptly. We probably waited 15 minutes for our appetizers (more on that later); we had to ask for bread at some point to appease our stomachs. Server never came to check on us until the apps arrived. Our water was refilled promptly each time however. Additionally, the biggest disaster was our dessert. We waited nearly 25 minutes. Our server came by to tell us that they ran out of whipped cream and was making it from scratch. Thanks, don’t lie to my face. Whipped cream does not take that long to make, ever heard of a CO2 canister? When we saw our lemon tarts, it was apparent that they were waiting for it to set. Just tell us the truth, we’re more likely to wait patiently.
Food:
Halibut Cake — burnt; flavor was solid though. How does this leave the kitchen? Who is expediting? The restaurant was half empty. We literally waited 15 minutes for this!!!
Vietnamese Meatballs — this was the highlight of the meal (not joking). The meatballs were a little dry but otherwise this was okay. Some suggestions, drain the pickled daikon & carrots so the liquid doesn’t flow all over the plate and keep the lemon aioli on just the meatballs as opposed to all over the lettuce cups as well.
Blackened Rockfish — Fish was cooked properly and tender. Burn the alcohol off the wilted spinach more and drenching the plate in roasted pepper coulis doesn’t mean the plate is going to be better. It was ridiculous and unnecessary. I have no opinion about the black bean cake.
Duck Duo — So salty. The star of the plate was really disappointing. The sriracha vinaigerette was really well done however. The soba noodles were just a tad undercooked but still okay.
Dessert — Lemon tart: no review. Didn’t bother; my dog is devouring it as I type this. Maybe he’ll have something to say later.

The food is insanely good. We had the fried oysters and the bouillabaisse. The favors were fantastic. I haven’t had a meal like that in quite a while. The chef came to the table and we got to talk to him for a while about their farm on Mercer Island and the local sourcing for all of their ingredients. They rotate me yes and we got a sneak peek at the next one. It looks just as good.
We had the wine flights and RJ came by to describe each one In Detail. They mix things up a lot and it makes it fun to try different types of wine you may have never had.
The service was very good. They were always there but not bothering you. You get to know RJ the sommolia, and Josh the chef. Seriously, just go. You won’t be disappointed.

Originally, on this night, we wanted to go to Jaks in Issaquah, however the establishment was closed because of their Salmon Days Festival. Go figure! We came here instead because we have had extremely pleasant experiences in the past. On this night, they were really off on their mark, so apparently things have changed. I really hate to drop the rating, but the service and the food have drastically declined. I’m disappointed because I used to love this place. My recent visit was after a long drive for my son’s birthday dinner. We arrived around 9 at night. They were at about three-​quarters capacity. We were seated right away. Then things went sour.
It took at least eight minutes for our server to greet us. *Yes, I kept looking at the time.* Then, it took another 10 – 15 minutes for our drinks to arrive. The bread/​cracker basket was placed on our table around then. By this point, we still haven’t placed our order. We were already exhausted. We also had to wake up early to catch our plane the following day. I was a little annoyed, but I kept it to myself because I wanted to give our server the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she was new, even though, it didn’t seem like it. Maybe the runners were new, I’m really not sure.
Finally, she came back to take our order. We placed our order for appetizers. As a server, when you take the drink order, you should also inquire as to whether the table would like appetizers. In fact, she seemed a little taken aback that we wanted them in the first place. What was that about?
Eventually we placed our order. The food took at least 20 – 30 minutes to arrive. I wouldn’t normally complain about food taking so long, but she didn’t even place the order until after about 30 – 40 minutes. That’s unacceptable. On top of that, she gave my just-​turned four-​year-​old a steak knife. She placed it right in front of him. My nine-​year-​old is allowed to use a steak knife, but not my youngest. Common sense would suggest that you not give a toddler a steak knife.
Let’s get to the food. For the small plates, we ordered the Sip Sweet Roll Sliders and the Cured Meat & Cheese Sampler. The sliders were sirloin mini burgers with pepper mayo and jack cheese on Hawaiian sweet rolls. I never eat mayonnaise because I don’t like it, but these were tasty. The sampler platter was just okay. It was small. I like the jam, but the variety of meats and cheeses could have been better.
Dinner arrives. I had the Jidori chicken. Some parts of it were a little on the dry side. Again, I was disappointed. I’m kind of a freak because I’ve ordered this every single time we’ve been here. This was the first time it was off. The mashed potatoes and asparagus were great.
The other entrees were the Ancho filet with an Ancho pepper rub, children’s grilled chicken, and a children’s tenderloin steak. I had a bite of each. The filet was cooked properly. It was okay. The chicken was dry and saturated with pepper. My toddler picked at it. I don’t blame him. I didn’t like it either. The tenderloin was okay.
Finally, we made it through the dinner. I wasn’t in the mood to order dessert, but my nine-​year-​old let it leak that it was my youngest son’s birthday. She brought him a little whipped cream in a bowl because he doesn’t like ice cream. My nine-​year-​old had a sundae. She also brought an ice cream sandwich, on the house. I tried to behave, but we were there for two hours. We didn’t reach the hotel until close to midnight. To say that I was a little irritated is an understatement. I’m sure she picked up on my feelings at that point because she had us out of there rather quickly.
The guests at an adjacent table arrived after us, probably didn’t tip nearly as well, considering what they ordered and their attitude, yet received more attention than we did. They even received their food first! I am more dissatisfied with the inattentive customer service than I am with the food. Although, considering what you pay to eat dinner here, the food should come out excellent every time. If the kitchen messes up, then they shouldn’t send subpar food out to the guest. Unfortunately, after this experience, I don’t think we’ll return.

I wanted to be more impressed with SIP in the Issaquah Highlands, but I just wasn’t.
The hostesses were a mess and had no clue what they were doing. When we walked in, they said that it would be about 15 minutes for a table outside, so we went to the bar to wait. About 10 minutes later they tell us that they are sorry but they just sat everyone (the remaining open tables) on the patio within the last 10 minutes (while we were sitting there, apparently?) so we could either sit inside or at the bar. We chose to move to a table inside, which was fine. Just a little annoying. They should have some kind of system and not just 3 16 year old girls running around trying to figure it out.
The bartender was great and friendly. No complaints there. 5 stars.
When we sat down, our waitress was great and very attentive. We ordered the burratta and it came out quickly. It was excellent and the pesto and heirloom tomatoes were very fresh and delicious. 5 stars.
The 3 of us got Dungeness Crab salads and it was just ok… WAYYYYYY too much bleu cheese dressing… it was a mayo based dressing, which I’m usually fine with, but the salad was drenched. A little overwhelming. There also was not much crab on the salad at all. I almost had to dig for it a little just because it wasn’t the big juicy chinks of crab you’d expect. It was just meh. 2 – 3 stars for the salad.
Dessert was hands down the best part. The menu had several choices and we each got something different. All three of the desserts were great and came out quickly as well. 5 stars on that.
Overall, I’m not sure I’d come here again and if I did, it would merely be for convenience because it is in such a good location. The patio is pretty small if you are trying to eat outside (and who isn’t when the weather is so nice in Seattle).