Dunbar Room

I had a great experience dining here at Dunbar Room. I ordered the Macaroni and Cheese for an appetizer and it was delicious. I then had the pork with potatoes for my entrée. It was pretty good as well. The potatoes could have used a bit more seasoning but it was still pretty good. Our server Seth was super cool and very attentive. We did have to wait about 20 minutes for our first round of drinks which they happily covered for us since we had to wait. The location is super easy to find, but it wasn’t too busy there, which we liked. I would definitely recommend this spot for those looking for a happy hour spot. The Dunbar Room won’t disappoint.

I have been to the Hunt Club at the Sorrento Hotel, now renamed the Dunbar Room, many times for business dinners as it is down the street from my office by Swedish Hospital. It has always been a great atmosphere and fine food and service. We had a party of 5 there on 12÷29÷15 to woo a candidate for employment. The atmosphere and service were still fine, but the food was very disappointing. Two of us ordered the halibut entrée. It was one of the more pricey entrees at $ 36, but nicely prepared fresh halibut is worth it. Both of us were shocked that it came out way overcooked to the point of being dry throughout and quite hard on one side where it had apparently been left in the pan too long. Frankly, it tasted like it had been prepared the day before. I have eaten halibut in many restaurants before and it is always moist and delicious. Fine restaurants in Seattle can’t get away with serving poorly done fish. My colleague choked his down, but I sent mine back. They brought another one which was only slightly less cooked. Not wanting to make a bigger fuss in front of the job applicant, I just ate it, but I was very disappointed in the restaurant. Two of the others at the table had the salmon and said it was ok, but nothing special.

I I came here with my wife and we always have the Eggs Benedict. The server told us that the chef was too busy to make hollandaise sauce so they could no longer serve the Eggs Benedict. We had come runny and watery eggs and I left unhappy and won’t be back. The manager did come talk to us and made an order of Benedict but I had already eaten, but I did raise stars to two for her effort.

This review and rating are for Christmas dinner only. This is my first review and I am disappointed that it has to be so negative.
We came last year and hoped to make a stay at the Sorrento and dinner a tradition. We will not be back. Last year there was an amazing buffet of crab, excellent salads, prime rib, etc. This year it was a prix fixe menu. We knew this before coming so the menu wasn’t originally the problem.
Unfortunately nothing went well. We arrived on time for our reservation and were told they were running a bit behind. We came back nearly 30 minutes later and were told that they didn’t know when our table would be ready because he servers needed time to clear and reset. The hostess didn’t apologize and simply looked at us as if we owed her an explanation. We waited another 20 minutes and then were lead to a table that had been sitting open the entire time.
The food was abominable. Everything tasted like it had been prepared the day before and reheated.
We had to ask for our courses, more water, the check, paying the check, basically everything because the servers were too busy or over it to check on us.
I really do appreciate the fact that this was even an option on Christmas Day. However between this and home (or even take out Chinese food) we know what we will pick next year.

We came here to have lunch because we were considering the Sorrento as a wedding venue. However, the food was disappointing enough we decided it wasn’t an option as a venue for us.
We had a variety of things from the lunch menu — soup, salad, crab cakes, mac & cheese, and roasted carrots. The soup was fine, if on the salty side. The crab cakes were also salty and a bit too fishy. The mac & cheese was the worst I’ve had at a restaurant — completely under-​seasoned (bizarre since it had chorizo in it), with broccoli florets that look like they came frozen. The roasted carrots were fine, but nothing to write home about.
Service was also slow — I had to ask for all our courses to come out at once and for the check when they brought us our food because it took a good half hour for everything to come out.

We went to the Sorrento for a family Christmas. To begin with, we sat out in the fireside room anticipating good cocktails and snacks before dinner. The Dickens Carolers were the highlight. Service was poor. 1 waitress for the room. Drinks took forever to be served. How long does it take to pour 5 glasses of wine? Snacks were cold. On to dinner. We waited for cocktails out in the fireside room, which didn’t come, until it was time for our dinner reservation. We decided best to get on to dinner, which we did. We headed into the Dunbar Room which was lit up like a IHop in the 50’s. beautiful wood walls, poor choice in lighting fixtures. Dinner. Ordered pork loin, halibut, tri-​tip and a burger for the table. Starters, crab cake and tomato soup. Again, service was not good. 2 soups came out, a kale caeser salad (chunks way to big for a chewy vegetable) with bottle dressing, and then we had to remind the waiter to bring the last soup. Crab cake was good. Halibut, was good, nice portion. Burger was mediocre, fries and burger cold. Pork loin, dry, tasted more like over done pot roast, served tepid at best.(waiter was kind not to charge us for the dinner) OK. Dessert.
Kind of a spendy place for bad service and cold food. What? no complimentary parking when you spend that much for dinner… Ah well. It was a Merry Family Christmas despite that. We decided we will not go back.

What the heck happened to the Sorrento? Was there on Sunday night. I knew something was amiss when the valet completely ignored me at the door. The ‘remodel’ is junk, the food awful, and service mediocre when you were able to find waitstaff. Seems like the days of elegance, great service and ‘specialness’ are gone. Sad to see another wonderful part of Seattle gone.

Thought I was coming for a Thanksgiving fest buffet with everything from prime rib, crab legs to Turkey dinner and was left with a 4 choices of entrees that were quite lame and uninspiring; ravioli, salmon, turkey or ham. Surprised not to find chicken and rice as not one of the choices.
The turkey was obviously not from a whole bird, no dark meat, ½ inch slices of dry tough white meat needing a knife to cut. Not expecting the salad to be the highlight of the meal.
I was quite disappointed that a top Seattle Hotel that charges top dollar has such a lame Thanksgiving 4 choice entrée dinner while advertising a buffet. Just didn’t satisfy as cost to happiness ratio was too high.
We won’t be back next Thanksgiving.

From the beginning, it just was not a great experience. From poor directions and mediocre food to an inexperienced wait staff, it just is not my kinda place.
My husband and I made reservations for Dine Around Seattle. I chose the Dunbar Room, at the time when I made the reservation, because it had at least 4 stars. We had difficulty finding the restaurant so called for guidance. We were told we were close to it, but the obvious missing piece of the puzzle that would have helped us the most, would have been to inform us that they were actually INSIDE of a hotel.
When we finally found the place, we were seated, but not given a menu for Dine Around Seattle; I had to request one. It was dinner time, but we were handed the lunch menu. i had to request a dinner menu. The server took our order, but did not write anything down. We waited a long time. The server came to assure us our appetizers would be out soon, and asked me to refresh his memory about what we had ordered. I suspect that he did not put out order in at all, and even forgot what it was to begin with.
I had a pear and apple salad, tri tip steak and cheesecake. My husband had the crab and avocado on toast, roasted chicken and cheesecake. Everything took forever and bread would have been nice while we waited, but the hard, cold bread was served with our appetizers. I liked my salad. My husband thought his appetizer was good, but said he would not be surprised to learn the crab was not fresh. My steak, although it had good flavor, was extremely chewy, full of gristle, and not served with a knife. The potatoes were very good. My husband enjoyed his chicken, it was moist and well-​seasoned. He also like the roasted garlic, but the potatoes and gravy lacked flavor.
The cheesecake was not what we expected. We thought it would be dense like a New York cheesecake. Instead it, was much lighter and creamy. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what was expected. The berries on the side did not taste fresh and we chose not to eat them. We ate about half of our desserts and asked that the rest be boxed up. Our server boxed them up together. That was a bit off-​putting to me. I opened the box, expecting to see the cakes separated by parchment, at least, but they were not, they were within contact of each other. And the berries we had chosen not to eat were poured over the top, smothering them both. Gross.
No, I truly do not think we will be back.

We tried the Dunbar room for the first time with the «dine around Seattle» menu. The food wasn’t spectacular, it was semi edible but left us feeling unsatisfied. Two of us had the tri-​tip, one had the fish and chips and the fourth person had the roast chicken. The best out of the three different entrees was the mashed potatoes with cloves of roasted garlic that came with the roast chicken. The tri-​tip was ordered medium and medium rare, while cooked to specification the meat itself was full of gristle and the silver skin wasn’t trimmed off prior to cooking. The fingerling potatoes that came with the try tip were good. For the fish and chips, the batter was perfectly crisp and delicious. However the fish itself was the fishiest fish I’ve ever had. If that makes any sense.
The drinks were delicious, our server seemed rather young and unsure of himself. We asked to explain what the blueberry buckle dessert was and he advised that it was like a cobbler. When we received the blueberry buckle, it was nothing like a cobbler. It’s like a coffee cake.
The lighting is super muted, not like in a romantic atmosphere sort of way more like in a dull halogen light in a hospital corridor way. It takes a while to adjust.
I don’t think we will be back but it’s always good to try new places.

We came here for Dine around Seattle, however we had to ask for the dine around menu. We had a reservation and were seated right away, however it took us almost 15 minutes to get water. There was someone who looked like a bus boy wondering around not doing much. The wait staff looked like they were moving through molasses. The food was ok, but it doesn’t warrant coming back with so many other great restaurants in Seattle.

I sat at the bar and the atmosphere was great, just casual, but really as upscale as you’d expect in the Sorrento. I was there for happy hour, the ‘deals’ were not super plentiful but the quality was great. I had a drink off the special menu and the bartender ended up tweaking it to my tastes (that’s good service) — didn’t order food but I’ll be back and update when I do.
Best for: great date spot, craft cocktails (especially good at prohibition era ones) and a relaxed but nice place to hang out.

We went here October 27, 2015 at around 6:15PM. This was a special dinner as my mother was going in for surgery the next morning and wanted a great meal before being bed ridden… 5 stars for location next to the hospital.
However, our waiter was very overwhelmed and tried to get our food orders right after seating us — before we had looked at the menu. Took him 20 minutes to come back to take our order.
Food arrived 45 minutes later… My mother ordered the roasted chicken — she loved. I ordered the baked salmon — in my opinion it was very over cooked/​over seasoned/​dry. My dad ordered a salad and the mussels — our waiter brought out all of our entrees first– and the salad arrived 15 minutes after our entrees… At which point he didn’t even want anymore. We also ordered the broccoli (which came out still raw??) and the mac and cheese which was delicious.
Lack luster experience, high-​lights being our own wine that we brought, the mac and cheese, the roasted chicken, and the location.
Hope they improve as it was a very neat setting!

The bf and I came for date night looking for a romantic dinner. Based on the Unilocal reviews we thought the Dunbar room looked cozy and had an interesting menu.
Both of those things are true. The fireside room was a warm, inviting atmosphere and the menu itself did look interesting. Unfortunately, that was where the good part stopped.
The service was quite bad. It wasn’t so much that the servers seemed rude (they didn’t), just really inexperienced. I waited a long time to be seated (it was not crowded), we didn’t receive one of our appetizers until after our entrees, etc.
The food was ok but definitely not worth the price. The fries were not fresh (again, 5 on a Tuesday… If the place had been busy I could understand). Bf got the halibut which was good but not great, he said. I had the pork which consisted of loin and shoulder, one of which was super tender and the other pretty tough (they didn’t bring me a sharp knife so I may be biased as I had to sort of rip it apart with a butter knife and my teeth — classy lady!) So half of the pork was good. It came with roasted carrots that were overdone and wheat berries (yum), but all drowned in way too much sauce (which according to the menu is cider-​braised– but it was definitely stronger and more than I expected).
Both entrees were $ 30+ and that was really way more than they were worth. Maybe at $ 15 – 20 this would be a reasonable deal. I will say the portions were generous.
The cocktails were again, just ok. The special was $ 9, the regular priced were $ 11 – 12. Mine was a French 75 with Campari and it was kind of cough syrupy. The bf did better with a nice orange-​anise drink of some kind.
Oh, and they said we would get a free tarot reading with dinner but I guess we didn’t stay long enough. Bummer because I thought that would be kinda fun.
I might try it again just for cheese and drinks, as the cheese selection looked tasty, but wouldn’t return for dinner. I keep doing this in reviews, but I can’t help but compare it to Betty — better food, better drinks, better service and better prices.

I’m sorry, but they’ve ruined the Fireside room. This used to be the most cozy romantic place to get a drink this side of I-​5, while still being close to downtown. Someone had the bright idea to tear out the cozies around the center pillar, and put free standing tables. There are still couches around the fireplace, which is nice, but they are more communal than intimate.
I am happy that they now have some outdoor seating in the summer, but the place they used to shine was a cold winter night when a fireplace is what the doctor ordered.
I miss the fireside room.

Had dessert one night. The chocolate and peanut butter dessert was very good but the cherry and lime cake in the mason jar was pretty nasty. Zero flavor!
Also ordered room service for breakfast. The morning shake with Nutella is very tart so expect a very strong yogurt flavor. I liked it but my daughter did not. The eggs Benedict was fabulous!

I have never received such terrible service in my life!
I have a lot of patience with people working at restaurants because I used to. I get it – we all have bad days. But our server was just an outright jerk! There were 6 of us at the table and we ordered many drinks and 3 towers of food during their late night happy hour. Every time we ordered something, he acted annoyed by the fact that we wanted to order more things. We would have to get his attention multiple times before he made a stop at our table and then acted annoyed… It was SO unprofessional!
Our tower of food never showed up. I inquired about it after over 40 minutes of waiting for it. He clearly had forgotten to put the order through because he was at the computer for a while looking through orders. When he came back to the table instead of apologizing to us – he lied. He told us that the kitchen was being slow and tried to get us to repeat our order by saying, «Let me check on it. You had the… right?»
We said that he can go ahead and cancel it and he acted really annoyed, again. That was just the beginning of the night… He ended up putting extra items on our final bill. Again, acted completely rude about it. We are all pretty easy going people, but by the end we asked to see his manager 3 times. It was unbelievably bad service. I can’t even really explain it to you. You just had to be there — except not. I don’t wish that kind of service on anyone!
This guy was clearly just really pissed off and bitter that he had to wait tables late at night and taking it out on the customers. Dude, you’re not going to get very far with that kind of attitude! I wouldn’t trust you with ANY job. It’s really too bad because the food and drinks were great, but our server completely ruined our experience.
I would never go back to Dunbar Room again. Not worth it.

I’ve eaten here a few time already. The food and cocktails are superb.
My favorites:
Appetizers: crab cake, seared tuna with beets (both have amazing sauces), and the toasts.
Entrees: short rib (tender, tasty and filling) and chicken (downright mouthwatering). I didn’t try the secret burger, but my mouth started watering both times I’ve seen it.
Dessert: The two-​layer cheesecake is like nothing I’ve ever had. It’s soooo good.
Drinks, I can’t get enough of the Pacific Sour. I wasn’t crazy about the Perfect Tom Collins
I’m really impressed with chef and mixologist.
The bar room has this classic 1900’s style with a big, solid bar. The dining room is pleasant, with this cool tile pattern on the floor and it’s not overly loud place. The background music is this really fun 60s and 70s mix of songs that seem familiar, but also seem like I’ve never heard before.

Um, hell yeah. The Dunbar Room is exactly the style space I’ve been missing in Seattle. It’s new yet it feels worn like your favorite leather jacket. It’s hip but not hipster. It’s lounge-​y but it’s not a weird «ultra lounge» with white furniture and blue cocktails kinda way. It’s sort of like you’ve discovered your uncle’s secret bar and booze stash. It feels cool in a mature and sophisticated way but you can come casual and feel right at home. Am I making sense? Just come see for yourself, you won’t regret it.
It’s basically a sexy hang out for locals or visitors on the first floor of the Sorrento. Happy Hour was awesome, the drinks were great, and our server/​bartender was amiable and handsome. Exactly what you want out of an experience!

Love this place!!! The food is fantastic, really nice menu, perfectly executed. Killer craft cocktails, the bartenders here are the real deal. We shared a bunch of the toasts, octopus, cauliflower salad, clams and pasta and the short rib — all amazing. Stayed late drinking, great night. Really fun place, music was perrxfg!