Westward

Slow service. Slow bar service. Small portions. One of the items, Shrimp Fraiche, contains fish roe which is not listed on the menu. Pretty fishy. They did take the shrimp off the bill. But left hungry. Expect a lot more for the price.

Was a super romantic restaurant. Beautiful ambiance and view. Oysters were amazing!

Popped in here for a quick drink with a girlfriend, so this review doesn’t include any commentary on the food.
This is a fabulous little spot! It was a rainy day (hi, we live in Seattle), but that didn’t diminish the experience. In fact, I think it just made it cozier!
Since it was wet and cold outside, we sat in the bar facing out the windows looking toward the city. We got to watch the rain clouds roll in.
The service was appropriately attentive since we were just having drinks.
I love the décor and ambiance. I will certainly be back to try the food, but I know the parking will be tough on a nice day. Boooo!

I made reservations for a late Saturday lunch in honor of my mother’s birthday. I made it clear on the phone that I wanted it to be special since it was my out-​of-​town mom’s 60^th bday. When we arrived, it was not busy, and we were seated immediately.
Once seated, it took 15 minutes for our waitress to arrive. She had a huge attitude and did not even take our drink order. When we asked if we could order drinks, she snapped at us, and then proceeded to take 15 minutes to deliver iced tea and soft drinks. I went up to the hostess and told her that our service was bad, and if we could get the manager to speak with his server. The manager approached and was very rude, saying «what’s the problem?!». The waitress thereafter was even more rude. Downright mean. We were scared to eat our food in case they had spit in it. We will never return again, and my mother’s 60^th bday brunch was awful. Thanks, Westward!

Came in for a casual dinner last night and everything tastes awesome
Get a dozen fat juicy oysters and the gravlox for sure (tahini, beets, worked together really well surprisingly)
Skip the Brussels sprouts and scallops with pork belly (of the four scallops, one was HUGE and one was tiny)
I will say they have slight issues with delivering food to the wrong table – someone else got our bottle of wine and we got someone else’s potatoes.
All in all yummy food and decently priced at $ 130 without tip for 2 including a bottle of wine

Loved the atmosphere of this place. We had dinner reservations with some friends in the area. Since my husband and I got there early we decided to wait outside by the fire pit. The couples there were given a warm blanket so they can stay out and enjoy their meal. I seriously consider eating out there too.

Inside we were seated in the wall to ceiling enclosed window patio. So we still got to enjoy the view without the chill. We had a sample of 4 oysters, Brussels sprouts, smelt, and lamb shoulder. Next time, I don’t think I would order the lamb shoulder. The lamb alone was pretty plain and I was expecting more for $ 42. You needed the pita, tzatziki and onion relish for flavor. Westward seem to have more to offer with their seafood items. With the combination of the food and the view, this is great place to bring visiting guest.

You cannot beat the location, right on lake union with a view of the seattle skyline. Unfortunately, we visited on a rather gloomy Seattle day on a date brunch. The brunch menu offerings are unique to what you typically find on Seattle brunch menus with a lot of Mediterranean flavors.
I started with a pineapple lemon soda like drink but it was so citrusy that I had to send it back to balance it out. I had high hopes from this restaurant but we found the flavor profile on the dishes a bit underwhelming. We ordered the Shakshouka with eggplant but it fell flat and did not excite our taste buds. The tortilla espanola also was insipid in taste. About the only thing we enjoyed on their menu was the house made pastry.
Overall, I didn’t get what the hype was about this place that Bön Appetit chose it to be on the best new restaurants list of 2014.

We loved this place. Great atmosphere. The cocktails were creative and very tasty. The apps and mains were great. And the service was perfect.
We started with the olives, which had hints of rosemary and citrus (really nice), then the pumpkin soup and an appetizer of Steelhead caviar (a daily special). The were both fabulous, but for the price I would have liked more caviar. We finished with the lamb shoulder which was probably the best thing we’d had in an already very satisfying evening.
Highly recommended.

¹⁰⁄₁₀. We ate there last fall and just getting to the review. I’ve never experienced a 10. And I haven’t since. It was so good we went back a second day for lunch. The atmosphere is a 10 as well.
Highlights-​oysters, steamed clams, lamb, green beans and the most delicious pot de crème ever.
I’m guessing from mixed reviews it depends on the day. As a matter of fact, we’ve thought about flying to Seattle for a weekend just to eat here.

First time visit with some local friends. Amazing décor all around and the views of seattle were incredible from the patio and dining area. Food overall was very good including lots of fusion plates. Excellent service over all and will be back here again soon. Recommended.

Very surprised by all of the negative reviews. We were a party of 5 and enjoyed a great meal at westward. We arrived on time for our reservation and were seated promptly. Our waitress and staff were attentive throughout the meal, but were not at the caliber of a fine dining restaurant. Which is fine as westward is not a fine dining restaurant. We ordered plates to share and a few of the dishes stood out as being excellent. They included the potatoes cooked in the fire, the Spanish octopus and the whole roasted golden trout. The octopus and trout stood out as being special, unique dishes that everyone enjoyed.
Stop by westward if you’re looking for high quality and flavorful food and fresh seafood in a relaxed environment. Prices are a bit on the high side and you’re partly paying for the spectacular view of the city but I feel that it’s worth a try.

We ordered the olives, gigante beans, boar bolognese, and golden trout with hazelnuts. Can’t really say I was impressed with anything except the olives.
The interior and exterior were both quite beautiful. The exterior featured a nice bonfire and relaxed seating while the interior was cozy and had these nice artisan looking matching plates and dishes.
Expected a bit more from the food, especially for the price. The olives were good, the gigante beans was like big baked beans with bread crumbs and some tomatoes. There was as much as the other stuff as the beans, which didn’t have exceptional flavor despite the large amount of descriptive words.
The golden trout was an oily mess. The mushrooms were sad and soggy, the hazelnuts were so very potent and also covered in the greasy. Just typing out greasy smoky hazelnuts is a bit upsetting for me. The greens that came with the trout were nice though, and the meat of the fish wasn’t bad at all either.
Bolognese was nothing to write home about. Though hand-​made pasta, it lacked the nice bounce and munchiness I’ve come to expect. The sauce was nothing special. Apparently ground boar and ground beef are quite similar when you don’t work hard enough to isolate its flavors.
All of this for a lovely eighty dollars. Oof. Sorry, but I went in excitedly and came out disappointed.

I had high hopes for this restaurant after all the buzz I’ve heard…
I went there with a group and we ordered at least half the items on their menu.
The highlights were their grilled octopus and the wild boar bolognase. If those had been the only 2 items I tried tonight I would have rated them at a 5. Unfortunately, I tried many other mediocre under-​seasoned dishes.
Their chicken liver mousse was a great first and so were the pickles.
The chicken while perfectly cooked was unremarkable.
The lamb shoulder while again nicely cooked, an overall flat dish. Just a little salt and olive oil, would have greatly improved this dish. The flat bread and herb salad were nice, but not enough to complete this dish and at $ 42 I would stay away.
The sardine bruscetta was pretty good they put a nice char on the sardines that gave it some great flavor, but just a little more seasoning would have helped. They were kind of dry. I would have loved a little more of the Fava bean purée and some more pickled onions and I think it would have greatly improved this dish
The Gigante beans were recommended by our server and they sounded just like something I would like, but again just a one dimensional dish. I love beans but these were just okay.
Fried Chickpeas were pretty good, but something more suited to sitting at the bar and not necessarily something I would order as a starter.
The radishes were good, and the goat butter was unique, but again I felt like it was missing something. I completely understand the concept of simplicity, radishes were goat butter was good, but was it a complete dish?
If someone recommended that we go there again, I would go back only if I couldn’t change their mind about going somewhere else.

Stopped in for their two year anniversary week celebration last week. I was thinking great things when at 4:00 they had a line queued up to get in. This many people in one spot, things have to be great! Regrettably, that turned out not to be the case.
I was seating promptly at the bar and started to review the various menus. I wasn’t super hungry so decided on a couple things off the happy hour menu and a signature drink. It was one of the strangest bar setups I’ve seen. They had four people behind the bar, but only one of them was making drinks (not only for the bar, but the entire restaurant). Needless to say, this was not exactly the model of efficiency, it took forever to get my drink.
On the other hand, the smoked manila clam dip I ordered at the same time came in minutes flat. No joke, I was waiting for multiple minutes for my drink after the food showed up. The dip was average in terms of flavor (too much acidity), and overpriced in my opinion for the portion size. When the drink did come, it was nice, though not good enough that I’d wanted to stay and have another.
I was so hopeful that Westward was going to be worth all those people standing in line, but it missed the mark this time.

Sit outside and look at the view while having a cocktail. I think we had some oysters there too. All is good.
It’s weird how it has a very small and limited grocery in it. I guess you just need to be a nautical type to get it.
It’s fine, no complaints. Just get a drink and sit outside the view is beautiful on a sunny day. Oh, they have a gas fireplace outside at night too.

The lamb shoulder is absolutely delicious and big enough for two normal appetites when paired with an appetizer. It is served as basically a deconstructed gyro which you can reconstruct on your own.
As for appetizer, I personally think the clam dip is way overrated (hard to tell it is clam dip and the chips are just chips, not even warm) and will try something else next time around.
We came in late Friday night without a reservation and was able to sit at the bar by the window. Service was very good.

The view of the outside patio was gorgeous but it had no shade (and seats) so my friend and I sat inside at the bar. At the bar where they were shucking oysters, one of the servers accidentally dropped two pickles from the pickle jar order. He threw away one pickle into the trash and the other pickle back into the jar (why not throw away both?).
Clam dip was yummy but had no visible signs of clam. There was not enough substance of food, so we ordered an additional plate of bread. Everything was overly sour. We drank a bottle of white wine. That made it better.

I have yet to have a meal (or anything off the menu) that I haven’t liked here!
Reservation not required, but recommended. If you plan to sit in the bar or at the patio, they do seat you and need at least ½ of your party there. Totally do-​able.
Smoked Clam Dip FTW always, with home made chips how can you go wrong? The gents at the oyster bar are super educated on flavor (salty/​briny? A little sweet? Size?) and can make great recommendations! Per one of the men, they aint nothin to «shuck» with.
We had 4 and shared all our plates, one of our party was vegan. We had the bread, crunchy chick peas (YUM), baked beans (amazing, will recreate at home), oysters, fire roasted potatoes and the chicken. All was on point, and staff was super friendly.

My friend and I came here for dinner around 630pm on a weeknight — no wait for a table for two, yay! We did sit at the same table with another party though with one seat separating us, but it wasn’t a big deal. I can see this place getting really busy and longer waits though once summer rolls around because it’s such a cute place to be on nice weather days!
We got six oysters to share and thought they were really good! Yums, will have to go back to check out their happy hour oysters sometime! We also go two dishes to share:
Quick fried squid: $ 15, really good! As you can see in the pic, it’s what you’d expect to get if you ordered calamari somewhere. The squid was really tender, but sadly there weren’t very many pieces. I guess at least there were mashed potatoes with yummy seasoning and sesame seeds that came with it. Somewhat pricey dish for the portion, but the quality made up for it. I’d be tempted to get this again :)
Grilled halloumi panzanella (salad): $ 15, just okay. We chose this based off of our waiter’s recommendation, and it wasn’t what we expected. We didn’t know what halloumi was and had the impression it would be soft-​ish pieces of cheese since it’s grilled. However, this wasn’t the case — the cheese literally had the same texture as white chicken meat! I was okay with it, but my friend didn’t want to eat any after her first piece :/​The flavor of the salad was good though, and we could definitely taste the Mediterranean influence in this dish. I just wasn’t a fan of the olives or mint leaves :/​Oh and they used homemade croutons, which I liked since they were more like just small chewy pieces of bread. I wouldn’t get this again, but I had no regrets trying it.
Service was a let down. Our waiter was really slow in everything and seemed to have forgotten us or ignored us for the majority of our meal. It wasn’t until my friend gave him the stare multiple times that he finally came and tried to make it up… noo thanks :(
Overall, good quality food that I know I can’t make on my own at home and loved the enclosed patio dining. 4 stars!

Ambiance: The location is awesome! I came for dinner so didn’t get to catch the view of lake union much, but it was still really nice inside. Would totally return during a sunny day or when it’s warmer out for the patio seating.
Food: I looked at their list of cocktails and nothing stood out to me. Sea Cow oysters on the half shell were good. $ 3 each. This is a sharing plates kinda spot. We tried the sea bass which was good, but it’s a whole bone in fish. Sorta a hassle to eat. Also kinda pricy ($ 30ish?). Also tried another meat dish, but kinda forgot what it was now. It was also just ok and kinda expensive. Honestly nothing on the menu really screamed out at me. I think it’s a bit pricy for how I felt like the food tasted here.
Overall, very nice spot! Dim lights. On lake union. However, food is just ok and kinda pricy for being ok. Id come back just for the location but probably not for dinner again.