The Salmon Cooker

One of the few affordable places to eat at in Waterfront Park. Located next door to the crab pot.
It seemed like the restaurant was undergoing some kind of maintenance because they only had a partial menu available. Service was ok. Server forgot to give us glasses for water despite asking. Food was served on paper plates. And cutlery was self serve. Nothing fancy shmancy!
Tried the clam chowder bread bowl, which was extremely delicious, and perfect for the cold and rainy weather. Bread as well as the chowder were spot on.
However, SO tried the steamed cod which was sub par, cold, and bland. It was served with jojo’s (which are actually thick and cold potato wedges) and coleslaw, which was passable at best. Needless to say, he hated it.
They also have an icecream bar where sugar cones and cup single scoop are $ 4.38 and waffle cone single scoop is $ 5. Tried the butter pecan flavor. It was pretty good.

Please be very careful about eating here. I took out of town guests, and while their fried popcorn shrimp, half dozen TINY oysters for $ 13, and smoked halibut were in turns plentiful in size, tasty, and amazingly delicious and not breaded, my chicken strips were served to me raw.
If this weren’t enough they also recooked the SAME CHICKEN, since I could see which piece I tore apart (which isn’t that bad) but THEY SERVED THEM TO ME ON THE SAME FRIES THAT HAD RAW CHICKEN TORN APART AND SITTING ON THEM. Did they want me dead?! I like to think I am a nice person…
I am probably going to call the health department, now that I think of it. I would have just handed this to my 7 year old if my sister hadn’t asked me for a bite, leading me to tear off a piece for her. See my photos. GROSS.

Smoked salmon was ok but customer service is borderline. Had to go through line several times to get drink as ordered and was asked for the receipt which they did not provide.

The very first time I ever went to the Salmon Cooker at the Seattle waterfront was in 1973, and I’ve been hooked on the place ever since. Even though I don’t live in Seattle, I have gone back to the Salmon Cooker many times when I’ve visited the city over the past four decades. I judge them based on only one menu item: the alder smoked cod accompanied by the large wedges of skin-​on potatoes.. .because that’s the only thing I’ve ever ordered there. This was the first place where it occurred to me that «fish and chips» didn’t HAVE to be battered and deep fried fish with ordinary French fries. The unbattered smoked fish was a revelation to me. Just shake some malt vinegar on it, and it is such a simple and delicious treat. And, yeah, I guess it’s healthier too.. .but that’s just a fringe benefit. As decades go by, the traffic and parking situation gets more difficult at the waterfront, but I manage to keep going there. The only change I anticipate is that someday I may try the halibut and salmon in addition to the cod.

Great seafood! Huge prawns and cod deep fried was amazing. Large portions and the fries are to die for as others have stated! They could work on customer service a little to amp up sales.

My heart is broken. I’ve been bringing my friends and family to this restaurant for 26 years. The remodeling has taken the soul out of my previously favorite restaurant. Gone are the picnic tables, decoratively carved wooden fish, heaters, and pump your own tartar sauce and ketchup. Instead of getting my food served to me on my own tray, plates were combined on trays for my entire party of out of town guests by food type: all salmon and chips on one, all chowder cups and bowls on another. No tartar was offered, once we realized we couldn’t get our own we had to go back to the line and ask. The half steamed crab with spices and melted butter was served cold and bare at almost twice the previous price. The tables were all filthy with smears of grease and other food remains from previous customers, the plastic chairs are uncomfortable. The bathroom isn’t open. Worst of all, the alder smoked salmon, normally so moist and delicious was dried out and unpalatable. I wanted to cry. What a huge disappointment.

Great little spot near the water. Chowder is delicious! Also ordered off the kids menu for my afternoon snack — popcorn shrimp, which came with gigantic fries! Good spot to chill hang, out with a beer without paying ridiculous waterfront restaurant prices.

Really awesome place to grab something quick. I order the oyster shooters, clam chowder and calamari with potato wedges. Everything was pretty good and the staff is really nice. They let us sample their beer before purchasing. They also have an open sitting area which was nice to be able to sit down and enjoy our food. They getting ready to close so they gave us an extra oyster shooter.

We ordered the smoked cod. It had a good smokey flavor, but nothing else. The fried oysters and chips were okay, but nothing special.
Also ordered the sundae, which was not good.

This place was such a rip off. If you order calamari, you’ll get 1.5 piece of calamari and a whole bunch of potato wedges for $ 8.95. Really? I would never come here again!

Great for a little pit stop before doing an argosy tour. Fresh oysters on the half shelf and a brewski to go along. Just right.

Get the smoked cod or halibut and a beer. Alaskan Amber! Seriously, nothing else. If you read bad reviews it’s probably because they got deep fried. The smoked cod and halibut are so. Damn. Good. The portion of fish is huge too. This is real food, no weird ingredients, just delicious, fresh, moist, well smoked fish. Well, the raw bar might be good but I’ve never tried it because I always get the smoked and rarely go here during the summer when it is open because it’s crowded with tourists. Also, it’s been here forever and barely changed. LOVE it

well it is one of my favorite places were if you order salmon and fries you get salmon and fries and not weird processed ingredients on top.
Its hard for me to dine out since I have a lot of food intolerances (gluten included)
but I was happy to discover that I can eat here.

Best smoke baked salmon and real thick potato chips, I have had in Seattle at that price. Great deal and kids love it.
4 star really by not 3 as posted if u order as above. Have to order that and fishermans chowder!

Service was very unorganized. Staff were all over the place in terms of each person hopping back and forth taking orders, payment, and serving the food. Where as it should be one person takes the order, one person handles payment, etc. Due to that our food got cold as we waited to pay.
The food itself wasn’t spectacular. I had the cod and chips and my friend had smoked salmon and chips.
For the cod and chips it was just served in a little paper bowl so there was no room to cut the cod or the extra large potato wedgies. The cod portion was a bit small for what you pay for and that fish separated from the batter as soon as you cut it.
For the salmon my friend said it was bland plus there were a few small bones.
Seating was a bit awkward since the trays your food is on cover over half the size of the benches.

Umm, no thanks, to say it simply, I don’t think I’ll ever eat here again. I ordered the smoked salmon and chips. I was served a very generous portion of bone-​in smoked salmon, and an extra-​large russet potato that was quartered, lightly fried and heavily salted on a flimsy paper plate.
The salmon was not to my liking, dealing the bones was inefficient. It didn’t taste good at all, a bit too moist for my liking, and not smoked long enough. Also, dealing with a huge plate of unmanageable, large sized fillets just slapped onto a paper plate is aggravating.
The size of the fillet, if unfolded, probably measured 10 cm by 30 cm, and about 1.5cm thick. With crappy plastic flatware unable to cut fish in order for me to consume in a civilized manner is frustrating.
Needless to say, I was just annoyed by the entire experience. It was like I was being served at a mess hall in government controlled building.
While here, I was suggested by all my friends, that the would’ve rather taken the tourist trap and eat at Ivars, which I will have to consider next time.

If you’re walking along the waterfront you might stumble among this place, but it’s a very disappointing experience all around. We tried the fish n chips and chowder.
The fish n chips were really badly battered — the kind where you take a bite and rip off a chunky of deep-​fried bread wrapping, and the fish plops back down onto your plate of fries.
The clam chowder literally had two pieces of clam in the entire bowl (large size). It was basically a cream of potatoe soup.

Should’ve read the reviews first.
I was out for a stroll and wanted a snack so I stopped here.
The food was highly overpriced and not good at all.
I ordered a crab cocktail and oyster shooters.
The crab cocktail was tiny and wasn’t fully deshelled, the oysters were bland.
Pretty sad $ 30 snack, I’ll never go back.
*Update* So, my receipt says «Crab Pot» but from checking out photos here and on the CP website I’m sure I ate at this place and not the pot. It is confusing though because they’re next to each other and apparently they share a debit slider thing.

Okay so this might seem like a high review. Its just fried seafood served up cafeteria style, right? But I believe if you take a place for what it is not what you want it to be you can utilize its best attributes.
For example, seafood, its all going to be fresh. Also location, there is outdoor seating right on the pier.
I came down on a Thursday afternoon and had a great Oregon IPA draft for $ 5 dollars and 2 oyster shooters, $ 1.50 ea. If you see the picture I posted, the oyster shooter does not look like much but it tasted amazing. The Oyster was super fresh and briny and the sauce was different than any I have had before. They mix their spicy cocktail sauce with a splash of Crab-​pot lager straight from the draft. mix it up and pour it in the shooter. It was surprisingly good and I eat a lot a lot of oyster shooters!
Don’t expect a gourmet meal. Grab a beer and some fresh seafood and soak in the beautiful scenery!

Fast food, fo sho.
The chunk of salmon they give you equates to about the size of two fists. The smoked salmon was under-​seasoned maybe a bit over-​smoked (is that possible??). My potato wedges were good, but nothing phenomenal.
My favorite part of the meal was the clam chowder. Great flavor with lots of clam chunks floating about. It’s not as thick and potato-​y as other clam chowders I’ve tasted, but I’d say this is more preferable.
My grand total was ~$ 14 for a slab of salmon, potato wedges, and a cup of clam chowder. I suggest skipping the fish and going only for the clam chowder!