The Wandering Goose

The food was so-​so, menu misleading, overpriced, and the staff was unfriendly.
I asked if I could substitute one meat for another in a specific dish and got a flat-​out no, not even a ‘sorry we can’t’. The guy at the counter looked pissed that I even asked! I don’t mean to criticize someone working in the service industry but when you are charging $ 14 for eggs and potatoes with some meat, the least you could do is be remotely polite.
So instead I ended up getting a biscuit with some sides. The egg in the egg+cheese biscuit was undercooked (they didn’t ask me how I’d like the egg done) — I could barely eat the bottom half of the biscuit as it was smothered in raw egg white! Grits were nice but had way too much butter. Collard greens were good.
Friend got their grits dish which the menu said came with a spicy gravy and grilled pork loin. The spicy gravy was actually just a spicy marinade sauce, not actually a gravy, and the grilled pork loin was just little pieces of pork in that non-​gravy.
Other friend got the bubble+squeak which was ok enough.
Wouldn’t come back here and wouldn’t recommend!

I’m tempted to not write this review just because I feel like this place is my best kept secret! One of the best little spots on Capitol Hill.
I have come here many times and never once have I been disappointed. Try the sweet blonde, or any of the fried chicken biscuit Sandos and send your tastebuds into the south! Sweet, rich, savory and mouth watering describes everything on the menu. They even have a fried oyster po boy, not to mention the classic collards and a pimento mac & cheese!
Even if you just want a quick coffee & biscut with jam on the way to work this place is worth the stop. Homemade, delish food with sweet service!

Food is usually delicious. Haven’t any complaints. Biscuits are definitely the best I’ve ever tasted. Would come here more often if some of the staff weren’t total snobs.

Quick, delicious food.
You order your food at the counter, and they bring it to you at your table. You wait max 15 minutes for hot items so its great if you’re in a hurry.
The food is high quality and tasty. The biscuits are large and have a great consistency. The fried chicken is moist and crispy.
The prices seem a little high for what you get, maybe $ 2 or $ 3 more expensive then it should be.
It’s pretty busy and there’s limited seating, so you fill rushed when people are looking for a table.
The staff are kind of quirky, but friendly!

Good Food! The Wandering Goose reminds me a lot of something that is out of a children’s story book (Mother Goose). It was very cute inside and had a southern feel to it. The food was also good. The inside space is a little small. My husband and I must have got there at a good time and day because I overheard some people next to us talking and they said it’s packed and line out the door on the weekend.
My husband and I both ordered Aunt Annie’s Breakfast Sandwich and shared a side of roasted potatoes. We also ordered a fresh pressed juice called Daily Squeeze. The breakfast sandwich was made up of a piece of fried chicken, butter pickles, house mustard, and honey. I normally do not like pickles but it added the perfect crunch and sourness to the sandwich. These were more like sweet pickles but they still had a tang to them. This sandwich was very good. The chicken was cooked perfectly and seasoned very well! The combination of this sandwich was great! Overall a good sandwich. The potatoes were typical roasted potatoes. Nothing special, but nothing bad. The fresh pressed juice was also good. I don’t remember what was in it but I remember it had ginger and apples. We enjoyed our breakfast!
After breakfast, I couldn’t help but notice ALL the yummy looking desserts in the display. I saw these gigantic whole cakes and noticed one was Carrot Cake, so I had to try. The cake was very good. The cream cheese icing was nice, smooth and creamy. The cake itself was good. This cake had some high notes of an orange taste. A lot of carrot cakes have a higher note of cinnamon but this one had a high accent of orange flavor. You could taste cinnamon but the orange was stronger. It was still good although a little different taste than what I’m use to. Overall the cake is moist and good with a good icing.
Overall, my husband and I really enjoyed our experience and breakfast at The Wandering Goose. I would definitely recommend this establishment to others.

This is a go to breakfast spot for my boyfriend! The pastries are AMAZING! We frequently get the sawmill… And I’m not a fried chicken fan usually but this stuff is so delicious!
There’s always a line but it moves quickly.
This place is also one of the best values I’ve found!

Oh my God! The food was so good, nothing on that menu will leave you wanting. The only complaint I have is their method of service. For the price full table side service shouldn’t be a problem. It gets more than a little chaotic when busy and if you happen to be seated on the aisle side of the table be prepared for the occasional bump in the head from an elbow.
All that aside, don’t pass up a chance to try this place out. And the fried chicken is astounding. (get it to go and take it to nearby Volunteer Park for a picnic!)

Wandering Goose provides a decent, quick breakfast option on Capitol Hill. My first visit here was a couple Fridays ago. I arrived mid-​morning, and about half of the tables were taken. While the music was loud, at least the songs played were decent.
The cornerstone of Wandering Goose’s offerings is their signature biscuit. With a crunchy exterior this biscuit is tasty and excellent.
I ordered one of the biscuits with a poached egg and bacon. It was quite good, though the thin bacon had a rather overwhelming smoky flavor.
For good measure, I also ordered a pecan bar. The bar, with subtle hints of toffee flavor, was very very sweet, perhaps too sweet, though I did really like its shortbread crust.
The restaurant staff was not super welcoming, but they still got the job done.
Next time here, I want to try the Hangtown Fry (fried oysters, pork belly and poached egg).

Super yummy breakfast stop in Capitol Hill.
I came here with 3 friends on a Thursday around 1030AM and it was pretty busy. I got the biscuits and gravy with friend chicken, YUM! I will say that the biscuit was a little dry, but the gravy made it so delicious that it didn’t really matter.
All of the baked goods looked amazing too, but I was so stuffed from breakfast that I’ll just have to come back on another visit to Seattle.

Let me start by saying that the earlier you come, the happier you’ll be. Not with your food– that’s good all the time! But with your ability to get a table/​stand in line without bumping into hip strangers.
My sister got the grits when we were here, and loved them! She did say that next time she’d go for the breakfast sandwich though. I agree– I cant actually order anything else because it’s SO good!
I always get The Easy (egg and cheese biscuit sandwich), and then I lavish it with hot sauce. The biscuit is so soft and buttery-​good. I want to be here right now. If I ate meat anymore, you can bet I’d be all over the Sweet Blonde and the Sawmill. We ordered a Mac and Cheese (SO GOOOOOOOD!!!) for the table too, I recommend you do the same.
The coffee and service are both excellent! Please open 3 more locations OKTHANKS!

Third review update, and I’ve got to say: they remain a solid brunch choice and a great place to adjust your attitude, if you’re so inclined.
Food is delicious, atmosphere is a touch of the southeastern; a rustic-​nostalgic-​meets-​modern-​hipster vibe. Service is quiet and unhurried, which irks some of the neighborhood’s stress-​fueled urbanites, and that’s healthy; this place moves differently, has different priorities.
Don’t get me wrong: it’s not slow. They just aren’t in a caffeine-​induced frenzy. They don’t hurry you through the line like you’re some cow they must milk for money as quickly as possible. They want to give you what you ask for, and they’d prefer you were happy with it, so they are deliberate in their rhythm of service.
Missing star is for cleanliness details and self-​bussing. Attention needs to be paid to sweeping floors and detailing tables between uses. And I don’t mind cleaning up after myself, but I don’t like negotiating the remains of other people’s meals to do so. A pass-​through window, or better yet a busboy, would be preferable.
Switch gears, settle down, and appreciate the care and DIY bits and pieces here. It’s not a cookie-​cutter, franchised, antiseptic profit machine. And that’s a pretty beautiful thing. Recommended!

A great place! Some of the best biscuits and gravy around in a very trendy brunch area.

I would avoid eating here until they properly train their cooks and hosts. I ordered the Aunt Annie’s sandwich which came with fried chicken and a biscuit. Parts of the chicken was served raw and I could have gotten very sick had I not noticed. Mistakes like these are completely avoidable with the use of a probe thermometer and their cooks should know better when checking the food for doneness. If you choose to eat here I suggest you check the food first before eating.

This is a go up and order, find your own seat brunch spot. It gets pretty busy, but seems to move faster than a traditional sit down place. I came a few years ago and then again recently.
Confirmed, I do not enjoy the hangtown fry! Fried oysters and pork belly sounds super enticing, but you literally get one piece of over fried oyster and one piece of dry pork belly over a lot of potatoes and two poached eggs. However, the sawmill sandwich (fried chicken biscuit sandwich w/​gravy) was delicious!!! The gravy was really good. I would get this again. With a drip coffee and orange juice, our bill for two came out to be $ 36 w/​tip. Seattle brunch is not cheap.

Came here for lunch with a friend a while back. It was a weekday and so we didn’t experience the long lines mentioned in other reviews. The food was pretty good, but it was somewhat overpriced as others have mentioned. The restaurant itself tries to have a folksy rustic feel to it, but it lacks the warmth of an actual country restaurant both in décor and service.
The fact that they described their po boys as served on «ba minh» (shouldn’t it be banh mi?) both made an interesting statement on the parallels of French colonialism in Southeast Asia and North America and earned an eyeroll.
Anyway, will probably not come back here again.

My wife is always big on finding a great place for breakfast when we travel. On our recent trip to Seattle, Wandering Goose was the find.
We went on Sunday, late morning. Call it brunch time. We were able to find free parking close by. Inside the restaurant, the place was packed and the line was to the door. At this point, we were starving, so we committed. The place is really cute, pretty quaint, and quite tight. The setup is long benches lining the length of the walls on both sides of the restaurant, tables lining both sides, and chairs facing the walls. This leaves an aisle for an ordering queue of about three feet, give or take, right down the middle. Enough for one person to stand there without elbowing the back of hungry patrons’ heads, but if (really when) someone needs to crowd back down the aisle to leave or from ordering, that’s when things get less-​than-​dignified.
On this particular morning, most everyone was acting with a lot of grace in trying to fit into this biscuit-​specializing eatery. The line gave us time to thoroughly peruse the chalkboard menu up front. I ordered a Big Trouble with bacon (sweet biscuit dish) and a Sweet Blonde (savory biscuit dish), and wifey ordered the Sawmill.
Let me first say that you get a waaaaaaaaaay larger «biscuit» than you would normally so with most any other place. I over ordered in a big way. One plate easily would have been enough. However, this was vacation, and both looked amazing. And wifey would help, right? WRONG. Her Sawmill was the biggest platter at the table. She had enough on her plate (pun intended).
I gave it my best shot and finished about 90% of both. They were both good, but I liked the Sweet Blonde better. My only complaint is that the biscuits, while good, seemed a little overcooked. This could be (probably is) personal preference, but I love very soft biscuits with minimal «crust». These were soft in the middle, but had a distinguished crust from top to bottom of the entire biscuit. Likely a personal preference, but a big enough one that it slightly affects the food rating (below).
I had a coffee, which is worth mentioning was the best coffee I had at a coffee shop or restaurant on our entire trip. They French Press the coffee for every cup, and whatever roast/​blend they use is top notch. That stuff was friggin’ D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S. You most certainly taste the extra quality from the press, as opposed to using a cruddy-​old Bunn drip machine as so many breakfast places do. Big props on the joe.
Food = ⁴⁄₅
Facility = ⁴⁄₅
Service = ³⁄₅
Ambiance = ³⁄₅
Value = ⁴⁄₅

Still not quite impressed with Wandering Goose after all these years. I stopped by again recently because I was craving some good biscuit/​southern food and was thinking maybe Wandering Goose would do it for me.
I recently had the biscuit with mushroom gravy with poach eggs ($ 12 w/​o tip) and while eating it, I definitely regretted stopping by this place. The flavor was so bland and the temperature of the gravy was just not hot… I immediately wished I went elsewhere instead.
The service is definitely what I hated and continue to hate. Just as expected, everyone is expected to bus their own tables. I don’t have any problems busing my own table, but the fact that the empty tables are not clean are unacceptable in my mind. There were leftover crumbs and trails of drinks on the table. I stopped by recently when the place was not busy, so I sort of expected that someone at the store to at least have time ensure the tables are properly clean so that the next customers have a decent place to sit. What really made it an unpleasant experience was when the table next to me asked the lady who brought them food if he could get either the hot water/​coffee. The lady said «sure.but you should come up to the counter.» The guy then got up walked after her to the counter to get his fill cup from her and actually said «sorry…» (instead of her coming back to his table to give the cup to him) …Honestly I felt bad for the male customer. The waitress then proceeded to stay at the counter to talk to another guy at the store next to her (since there wasn’t customers waiting/​needed anything to order). I get it that this is a self-​service, but when it’s not busy and when the credit card machine sort of default you to paying 15%-25% tip, I kind of expected that the waitress would have some courtesy to help customers more. The place wasn’t busy (there were empty tables and no customers waiting to order), so there just wasn’t really any excuse.
Given the price point, the super lackluster service and complete meh food, I’m probably not going to stop by again anytime soon though :(

You enter the place and it’s literally just a huge garage that they have turned into a restaurant. The ceilings are high, the space is narrow with the tables lined on the outside and only one middle aisle to walk up to order. The atmosphere is busy and loud-​but alive! There are limited tables, and the tables are super close to each other so you’re kind of sitting right next to strangers and sharinga table. But I loved the whole vibe of the place. I completely fell in love with the tables. They each have cute little phrases or quotes on them.
We started off with lattes, which were perfect with its latte art and everything. L ordered a chicken and biscuit dish which was HUMONGOUS! I ordered a skillet dish called their ‘bubble & squeak’, which was made up of pork belly (I think), potatoes, and a poached egg, all topped with this yummy tomato-​ey sauce. I would definitely come back here with another girlfriend, or maybe two, or three. But no more than a group of four, it’s too tight of a space and you’d have to end up yelling across the table to have a conversation with a group bigger than four!

Another hipster spot that is severely over-​priced and does not have the most friendly workers.
Came here Sunday morning around 11:45ish and it was completely packed. My friend wanted to leave as soon as we saw the line, but I suggested we stay since it seemed worth the wait. It’s very small inside, so someone is constantly bumping into you or vice versa. When the workers are coming by, they’ll often just gently push you aside instead of saying, «Coming through.» I would much rather someone say they’re behind me and to watch out then to be nudged out of the way, but whatever.
I spent a good 30+ minutes in line waiting to order. When I got to the counter, I smiled and told the girl hi and she walked away to go put a receipt up or give it to someone, I forget. It was awkward though, so I wasn’t impressed with her lack of friendliness. She never smiled and it was clear she was just there to do her job. After giving her my order, which consisted of: The Sawmill, The Hangtown Fry, a side of Mac and Cheese, a Lemonade, and a Mimosa; the total came to $ 50. WTF??? Most expensive breakfast I’ve ever had!
It took a good 30 – 45 minutes after getting out of line to get our food. The food was good, but not worth the wait or $ 50. I mean, mine was eggs and potatoes for the most part, come on! The Mac and Cheese came out room temperature; definitely not hot, nor warm. The gravy on my friends biscuit was pretty good, but the meals weren’t very filling.

My husband and I got really really tasty chicken biscuit sandwiches here– satisfying our southern food cravings! Plus, the grits and pimento Mac & Cheese were amazing!!!
Each sandwich is about $ 10 each but doesn’t come with a side ($ 5 – 6 additional), so lunch could get a little spendy. However, the atmosphere was so warm and cute. The food was solid– so I can’t wait to be back!
I’m really looking forward to trying their Friday fried chicken dinner special!!!