Blue Dog Kitchen

Not good but Great French Toast Yo !!!
So this place is under new ownership but has the same staff and menu, they also changed the name to «Mars Café» it just says Mars over the front door, had a little trouble finding it as I didn’t write down the address just had Blue Dog in my head, but we finally found it and oh so glad we did
I had the Banana and Chocolate chip French Toast, and a side of two eggs plus a side of 3 Sausage links, and a cup of brewed coffee, they have a full espresso bar also
now the menu says the French toast and Pancakes are made to order, and take about 20 minutes and they do, but they are oh so worth it the Bananas for mine were cooked with a fresh syrup, so they were nice and soft and complimented the French Toast instead of being hard and sticking out, they offer a short stack on French Toast as well as the Pancakes, that was a first to see a short stack French Toast, but if you are in the mood for sides it is the way to go
they also make these little Frittata scrambles and they are damn good also, ask for there home made hot sauce to go on your eggs it is hot but packed full of flavor
go and give them a try you wont regret it

The conundrum of Blue Dog?
Great food and open early make it a perfect hangover option, so I keep ending up here. Then the service slowly drains away all happiness gained from the delicious omelets and I wonder why I’ve submitted myself to this torture again.
Pros: The food is great (especially the omelets and the fried potatoes).
The place is comfortable and unpretentious.
Prices are fair.
It’s open early.
Cons: You can’t get omelets and their potatoes together without ordering potatoes on the side for like $ 3.
The service is some of the worst I’ve ever encountered on a regular basis. Be prepared to ask multiple times for more water and coffee.

My sister was in town recently and I was giving her a tour of Ballard, starting with breakfast. I had heard good things about this place, and being a breakfast connoisseur I had always wanted to try it. Foolishly, I took my sister there instead of going with a tried-​and-​tested Ballard breakfast place like the Smoke Shop.
Service was agonizingly slow. I sincerely hope they were short-​staffed that day because someone was out sick, because one cook and two waitresses on a Sunday morning is ridiculous. I am normally totally okay with slow breakfast service, because I enjoy sitting with coffee and chatting with my companion, but we were there for an hour and a quarter, and kept being told our food was «less than five minutes» away.
After three such assurances, we stood up and walked out (leaving cash on the table for our drinks — we’re not total jerks). I have never walked out of a restaurant after ordering before, but it was just too much.
The menu sounded good and I liked some of their options (real syrup!), but I can’t imagine going back, quite frankly. The only good thing was that the foam art on my cocoa was extremely pretty.

I found Blue Dog on Unilocal to fill a strange time slot between dropping the SO off at work at 8 and a sugaring appointment at 10.
Blue Dog was nearby and served breakfast w/​free wifi, so I decided to give it a try.
The service was pleasant… not overly pushy, but very friendly and pretty quick.
The food was really good. I had a Blue Dog’s Special, which is basically a scramble with egg, cheese and veggies or meat and a pancake. The eggs were the best I’ve had out in a long time. Creamy and flavourful. The pancake was good… not too fluffy. The wifi was slow, but good enough for an hour or so of getting a couple things done while eating.

This place would have gotten 3 stars, until my last experience there. In general, I like the atmosphere… mismatched tables and cutlery and it’s a small place. I generally like the food. It’s simple, but good, and comes in proportions I think aren’t ridiculously big but aren’t small either. The service has always been terrible, as others have said. Every time I’ve gone, I’ve had to wait for menus, wait for my order to be taken, wait for food… and it’s never with a smile. Not necessarily unfriendly, more like bored.
Anyway, this last visit was awful! Over the course of the hour it took from ordering our food to getting it, I asked for my water to be refilled (empty cup, on the edge of the table) four times and finally walked up to the counter. My friend ordered a pancake and I ordered a grilled cheese with tomato. It took 15 minutes to flag down the waitress to take the order, and then an hour for them to cook it. A pancake and a grilled cheese sandwich. In a half-​full restuarant. Then, my grilled cheese came without tomato. After waiting an hour, I thought it should be right, so I sent it back and the waitress said she’d have to the cook make me another pronto. I know what you’re thinking… but the sandwich did get back within five minutes. But that’s the problem, the original sandwich came back to me… cheese congealed, hand print in the bread where someone had clearly opened the sandwich to put in some sliced tomato. I mean, a grilled cheese sandwich… how hard is that to remake?
I was willing to put up with slow service from time to time, but that last visit was just gross. No thanks, plenty of other places to eat in the U district.

Stopped in at this little café after our original destination was closed (only on Mondays, the one day we decided to go!). I had an eggplant panini, which was delicious, and the friend had a cup of the vegetable soup, also delicious… it had a sweet-​potato base as opposed to tomato, which gave it a wonderful sweet flavor. They had a pretty extensive breakfast menu, and lots of options for lunch, including vegan options. Service was a tad slow, but that may have been exaggerated by how extremely hungry we were. The café itself was super casual but very bright and homey and cutely decorated with vintage table/​chair sets and cool lamps.

The four stars is sort of an average between the review of the food, and the review of the service.
Food = 5 stars. I had a delicious cup (OK, three delicious cups) of coffee, served up in an Ohio mug – the best mug in the establishment, according to the waitress – and a cute little plate with sugar and cream in vintage dishes. Then I had the Bluedog’s Special: eggs scrambled with cheddar cheese and veggies (you could choose bacon or sausage, but I wasn’t in a pork sort of mood), fresh fruit, and a buttermilk pancake.
I had to abandon my Rule of Halves, where I usually only eat half of what’s on my plate, because that pancake was So! Dang! Good! The thing was at least ¾ inch thick, shaped all wonky-​like, with just a little crisp on the edges. I ate the whole thing. The eggs were good too, but I really did limit myself to half of those.
The Boy had his standard bacon, eggs, and potatoes, but it was served up in a bowl like a breakfast shepherd’s pie or something. That threw him off a bit at first, but in the end I think he liked it.
So we were both members of the Clean Plate Club, definitely a good sign.
Service = 3 stars. After we finished eating we sat there with our food comas, waiting for our check. And waited. And waited. It was odd, because up until then we’d had good service. The food had taken longer than usual to get there, but had been worth it. So it was strange when they didn’t check on us to see if we were done.
Finally, at least 10 or 15 minutes later, we decided to just go up to the counter to ask for our check and pay. Turns out that’s what you were supposed to do all along. Now, I know that it’s customary to pay at the register at lots of places, but don’t they usually bring the check to your table first? Instead, they just had a menu sitting by the register and you told them what you had ordered. Which seems like bad practice, because we totally could have lied and said we’d had less than we did. (But we didn’t, don’t worry!)
Oh yeah, then we noticed the sign that said «Bus your own table.» Which, again, might be customary at a coffee shop, but I’ve never seen that before at a sit-​down breakfast place. Make up your minds, Blue Dog! Which do you want to be?
I don’ t know, maybe it’s our fault for not knowing the procedure. But if you ever go there, at least now you know what to do when you’re done!

Pros: Fantastic décor and delicious pancakes. They also have lovingly handmade pastries, cheesecake, and cinnamon rolls.
Cons: Their coffee sucks. Café D’Arte? About the worst coffee in Seattle. If you’re going to run a cozy coffee shop, you need to get some decently-​sourced coffee. You can tell a coffee brand is crap when they go on and on about Italian espresso but don’t tell you where their beans are sourced. Most of the major coffee roasters in Seattle — Vita, Vivace, Victrola, Stumptown, etc. — tell you about the people who make the beans, whether they’re shade-​grown, organic, fair-​trade, and so on. These beans are available at restaurants and coffee shops all over town, so there’s really no excuse for drinking less-​than-​great coffee in Seattle.
Sadly, Blue Dog fails the coffee test. You can do better.

I agree with some others here that the service can be frankly rude (until they know you, but it’s still not an excuse), and depending on the day, you may wait only 10 minutes or up to an hour for your food.
I would like to say however, that this place serves some of the BEST vegan tofu scramble I have had in my life. It’s expensive and can take a while to come to your table, but once it’s there it’s heaven. Their veggie sandwich is pretty killer too.
If the food wasn’t so good I honestly would probably never go.

The Technicolor acid glow of the haphazardly arranged Blue Dog kitchen triggers LSD flashbacks, and in its disarray I discover a small slice of extra-​dimensional chaos and breakfast foods lurking in the U-​District. And it serves these breakfast foods into the afternoon, as if time has any meaning here.
Perhaps the hallucinations were just due to a severe state of hunger and exhaustion – a malnourishment that a three-​egg eggplant-​and-​basil omelette and well-​brewed coffee teamed up to vanquish.
After all, some weekend days begin after noon, so a gigantic, late breakfast is necessary. The Blue Dog kitchen is a reinvigorating pit stop on the path from late night to late afternoon, but not a mecca all unto itself.

I remember having decent or good food and really old fruit on the side. The fruit was a big bummer! I’ll probably have more to say if I go there again, but I’m not particularly motivated to do that.

Lots of family meals out and a couple summers on the road with my long haul trucker grandparents means I have some pretty high breakfast standards. Breakfast foods are the ones you can often do just as well at home as at a restaurant. Blue Dog is good and the price is right, but it’s not great and it’s not better than what I can do at home. You’re going to get a meal that satisfies you, but doesn’t leave you eager for another visit. I’ve been there 5 times for breakfast now (only because it’s near my house) and I’ve never been impressed by the food.
The service isn’t bad so much as it’s awkward. Some of the people who work there are really sweet, but most of them seem apathetic to the whole process. Also, the whole busing thing is confusing. I’d say service just feels off because they’re going for a level of funkiness that doesn’t click with everyone. Perhaps I am to lame to appreciate their coolness.

7:27pm — Enter this place excited by the sandwich board and the oppertunity to trying new food!
7:30pm — Finally acknowledged by the only female who seemed to ignore us with the words «sorry we stop serving sandwiches at 7:30» .
Are you serious! You wait till the clock reaches the 7:30 marker so you can tell us that we are shit out of luck because your lazy ass doesn’t want to make us a sandwich! Thanks for loosing our business for life, I’ll make sure to spread the word for you!

I’ll say what we’re all thinking: I miss the Sandwich King hard, yo.
Back in the day this place had a violent red setup with rotating artists to match the violently good food. The owner was a badass who loved two things: Sandwiches and metal. I loved this place.
Then it was bought by Blue Dog Coffee (who I previously liked as a separate enterprise) and it just went down the toilet. First the motif became totally changed. Then the menu was «merged,» which felt like they just tacked on a bunch of pancakes and salads and crap like that. Around this time I was like, «meh, I still like the sandwiches.»
And then the sandwiches started sucking more… less meat, different proportions, general suck. If it ain’t broken don’t fix it. Additionally, the staff (bizarre as it sounds) became scarier and creepy. I miss the badass previous owner, who had nonetheless inspired trust and confidence in the food, the sanitation and the business. So long, Brooklyn Grinder… I miss the old days.

I was a huge fan of the old Blue Dog coffee house a bit further North on University Way. I used to spend hours there doing school work over coffee and the most amazing snacks. The service was always a bit hit or miss… at times they would forget something here or there. However, the very nice staff who were very warm and loved to chat would always apologize and set it right. The food, coffee and ambiance made this one of my favorite places in Seattle.
However, since closing the coffee house and opening the Blue Dog Kitchen in the current location, this place has gone seriously downhill. Now, don’t get me wrong… the food is still amazing. However, the service now is downright rude and incompetent. Every time I’ve been, the servers have forgotten some aspect of the meal, haven’t come to check for refills, haven’t taken orders for a LONG LONG time and are never apologetic about anything.
I basically count on having to go interrupt someone at the front counter for something they’ve forgotten each time I go. So, why do I reference me eating there multiple times? Because the food is absolutely amazing.
However, no longer. Until I get some verification that the owner has fired the people working there and hired some people who know how to actually take an accurate order, can apply basic tenants of customer service and make eating there an enjoyable experience I’m going elsewhere.

My friends get sick of me telling them this but this place has, hands down, the best pancakes I’ve ever had in my life. I can’t even begin to describe just how excellent they are. Rich and buttery, but no doughy. I usually get them filled with bananas and walnuts. Seriously, they are melt-​in-​your-​mouth delicious.
Before the Blue Dog kitchen split from its café counterpart, I used to really enjoy eating while sitting in a big comfy chair. Unfortunately, the hodgepodge furniture setup was abandoned and replaced with more traditional seating arrangements, but the pancakes are good enough to overrule all other factors. Trust me!
I can’t speak for the other food as I’ve only had the pancakes

What kind of breakfast place doesnt open until 8:30 and doesnt start serving until 9am ??
While the Blue Dog Coffeehouse didn’t open in a timely manner the Blue Dog Kitchen did.
Looking over the cracked menus, we decided to try three short stacks of pancakes and split them One of the best things I can say is that they sure have alot of variety. Banana pancakes in three varieties, build your own pancakes, french toast stuffed with fruits and nuts, and so on. We tried the standard buttermilk, «The blues»: Blue cornmeal, blueberries and blueberry syrup, and Banana Walnut. We also tried the homemade brown sugar syrup.
The kitchen was just clearly opening and service was a touch slow, it took about 45 minutes to get the pancakes coming out. The Blueberry pancakes were a touch dry, and were missing their syrup. The buttermilk were bland and nothing special. My favorite was the banana walnut with the banana soft and carmelized.
The coffee was decent and the cups kept being refilled. Its a nice place to stop in for breakfast if you are going to the farmers market. Otherwise I’d give it a pass.
They have a fairly interesting looking lunch menu and I’ll be giving them a try again.

I am ALL for local, funky coffee houses, but this one just didn’t do it for me.
About 4 months ago, my SO and myself went out of our way to go here, b/​c I love trying new places, exploring the city, etc.
Espresso — not good. If you want to have chai, this might be the place for you. They have an entire chai menu. The staff seemed friendly enough. Honestly, I can’t put my finger on it, just didn’t sync with it.
I didn’t eat any food, so I might have to go back for that. Give it another go.

I’m totally diggin’ on Blue Dog. It’s cursed with being at the dodgy end of the Ave (it’s all relative, really), but you should get yourself up here to try it. So far, I’ve only had the coffee and the pancakes on a Sunday morning, but those pancakes are some of the best I’ve had in a long time — and at a pretty reasonable price.
The coffee shop is a bit small, but feels cozy. There are some retro tables and chairs, as well as a few cushioned chairs for sitting. The back room is a bit cold in the winter, but the front is nice and warm. There’s free wifi, the coffee’s drinkable and the baristas are quite nice. They aren’t open incredibly late (9pm?), but it’s a great place to go on a Sunday morning for some reading, pancakes and coffee.
Bathroom: 3 stars. Clean and neat, but cold porcelain on the tush!
UPDATE (¾/​07): The comfy chairs are missing! Hopefully, this is just a temporary thing. Pancakes still tasty.

I’ve never been let down with how good the food is here. I love the grilled tuna sandwich. Large size and oh so yummy! Good coffee and wireless internet freely available. I recommend this good hearted place!
9÷4÷05
I just had their Banana Walnut French Toast and OH MY! So goooood! It came with fresh sliced apples and a slice of mango… WOW. Great food here!
9÷9÷05
I love this café and it is growing to become my very favorite. The food is wonderful and the service top notch. I fell in-​love with their banana walnut frenchtoast and now they make it for me even though it isn’t currently on the menu. It’s the BOMB! It comes with slices of fresh fruit and some pretty darn great syrup (it’s probly real maple). WOW. It’s really good. I’m about to eat it right now… OHHHHHhhhhh I just took a bite. It’s sooo goooood.
P.S.
Blue Dog just told me they are gonna try out mango and almond french toast soon! I can’t wait to try it out!