Ivar's Salmon House on Lake Union Review

Checkout the Walemaker lounge. Good chowder. It's Ivar's

Has NW Coastal art, delicious food terrific service both indoor/outdoor seating by the water

Man you can not visit Seattle without hitting up Ivars. Chowder must be near the best I have had. Clams and fish are great. Not too greasy and great fresh flavor. A must go if you visit the Seattle area. Great view on the waterfront. Won't disappoint!

We loved the restaurant, the good service and the delicious food and the view from the windows. We have really enjoyed. worthwhile

i've loved this restaurant and have been going here for many years. The food and view are great to be sure but....here is what is not so great...they've Jacked Up the prices to the point of absurdity.

My husband and I went here for a late Valentine's dinner, mid-week. I ordered the Sockeye Salmon with Crab Cakes and mashed. $37 and if you'd like bread well that will be an extra $4. You're kidding me right?! What would Ivar Haglund say to that ??? Probably won't be back anytime soon. Love ya but get over yourselves.

Great place to take visitors for some NW seafood. Design is really cool, like a Native American long house.

Hands down the best brunch in Seattle! Amazing selection of seafood, breakfast favorites, a build it yourself Bloody Mary bar and a chocolate fountain to boot!

Fabulous seafood dinners to celebrate a special birthday. The service was excellent with all requests taken care of promptly.
Will definitely return again and recommend to others.

Great happy hour menu affordable with good atmosphere.

Docked my boat to this place and have dinner there. Waiter was so nice and the foods are so good! We are definitely coming back again!

The grilled salmon was worth every penny, great few, cozy and clean inside. The service was great as well, and they recommended some amazing red Wine. Would definitely go back!

This has to be the fancier version of the other Ivar based resturants in the area. I was trying to just go for their fish and chips, but ended up a this resturant. I will give it that it has a good view of the Needle, if you sit by the windows. I was also here for their all you can eat buffet, which was delicious. You can also go out through the back which they have a plane outside docked out.

The fish was good. French fries too mushy and coleslaw DISGUSTING

Good food. Both the claim chowder and salmon chowder were delicious. The salmon sampler entree was also good, which they split it onto two plates for us to share. On the downside, the service was spotty, with the staff seemingly overwhelmed. They were slow to take our order, unable to keep water refilled and so on. Still recommended for the view and food.

Always a great experience here! Our server this evening, Aaron was easy going, had a great sense of humor and provided excellent service.

The Salmon lunch I had was cooked to perfection and tasted delicious.

Overrated. Original waiter was so rude and therefore another waiter ended serving us. Everything that could go wrong, went wrong. We have 5 people in our group and didn't mind squeezing into a table for 4 so first, we asked for an extra chair. Guess what... waiter forgot. We waited for a while when he finally remembered. After we ordered our food, the waiter was suppose to bring out some cornbread but that never happened until almost an hour! We didn't get served until over an hour later with our meal. The pink river salmon just arrive so, of course, we ordered that and the outcome was a great disappointment. They overcooked the fish so much that they tasted dry and burnt! For $42 a plate, could they serve squash as vegetables on the side other than potatoes?

Great view, friendly staff and best clam chowder I have ever had!

Salmon was pretty decent but every dish looks like it was slapped together in a hurry. Too much grease under the salmon. The restaurant is way too big and doesn't feel like the waiters have time to be personable, probably why they messed up our order. Worth going to see what all the hype is about but I'm never coming back. Not worth the time and money for some average service and food.

Food was very good, service was pretty good. First time there. If you want to keep your pocketbook in check go during happy hour which I think starts at 3. Sat out on the patio which is a beautiful view, but is loud due to the freeway. Luckily it was one of the last warmer days in Seattle. Not too bad though, unless on a first date or something like that, then I would sit inside. Definitely a place I would go back to though.

Best grilled salmon ever with a zest of wood smoke.

Worst service we've ever had. Food wasn't worth the price as the quality wasn't there. We had a reservation for 7:15 and they made us wait almost a half hour while walk-ins were seated before us. We won't go here again.

Went to a wedding rehearsal dinner here. Fantastic food, service was delightful!

My girlfriend and I got extremely sick from eating hear. Overpriced, crappy food.

Food was good. Setting is great, staff and service were exceptional. Happy hour sharables were reasonably priced. The main menu is a bit pricey.

This doesn't rank among my favorite local restaurants. I went with a large group as part of an event. The food is fine, but nothing special for the price. Service was slow and scattered, but that might just have been because there were 14 of us.

A Seattle favorite!! The food was delicious and the views are great. It s a little loud at peak meal time but it is well worth it. The prices are on the high side, but also worth it.

Fish and chips and the fried oysters were really bad. Not even crunchy.

Always a favorite for my family. We especially like sitting at the bar and ordering shareable off the Happy Hour menu.

Since we made a reservation the wait time was not long (15-20 minutes) but it looked as if, even on Mother's Day, that they were able to call people up at a good clip. It's a bit dim in the dining room but if you're there in the day/early evening it's great. There is outdoor seating (separate host than dining room).
Our waitress was very kind and enthusiastic as well as apologetic for the wait time for the food to come out to our table (again Mother's Day and it was packed). The sourdough was okay (cold and kinda dry) and the butter was on the tasteless side, but not horrid. Calamari was okay as well but they had wontons (more like empanadas) that had halibut and prawns and it was delicious. Chowder is always a good option here. Wine and beer selection was small but they had a solid selection to choose from.
Fish and chips is a great and always good choice here as well, but their other entrees are good.
Getting a seat window side is always prime so you can watch boats and the water for a bit while waiting.
Overall, good choice for a Mother's Day dinner as long as you dont mind a little waiting due to a packed restaurant.

Great place for food. We sat outside and the view was nice, albeit a bit chilly. They could add a heater or two outside. Marcus was our server and he did an awesome job!

The outlandish prices listed stems from the tantalizing offer of fresh seafood but in reality, fresh seafood means nothing if you can't make it taste good.

Love that this place is still around so many years later. But the traffic nearby has grown exponentially and it's incredibly noisy here nowadays. Food is okay. High praise for proximity to water and tolerance for dogs (outdoors anyway). I do miss Ivar, so I'm glad to stop here for a bite.

Good food and service. Though was surprised that they close by 10 on the weekends.

Happy Hour was the perfect time for some tasty appetizers! Delicious.

A little dated and over priced but great location and good food.

On Friday night it was crazy busy and our server was streched too thin but the view and food and wine were delectable. I love the coconut prawns and the blackened salmon Caesar had a huge chunk of amazing fish. Love this place.

The fried food was very delicious. It was crowded because it was noon on the weekend. Terrace seats are recommended when the weather is nice.

Fish (Salmon (Coho & Sockeye) and Halibut) are always spot on, cooked perfectly, large portions, consistent over the course of many visits over several years. Strangely enough, tonight I was underwhelmed by the Salmon chowder, which was bland and somewhat gelatinous - but that should not detract from the consistently excellent fish. I love the outdoor barge on the water under the bridge watching the boats and city scape at sundown (but the traffic noise from the bridge is deafening). Go, have great fish.

Splendid atmosphere with rich wood and PNW tribal decor. Food is delicious as are the drinks, top notch service and the view is spectacular to boot!

A large group of us went to this place to celebrate my nephew's pending nuptials last week and half of us got FOOD POISONING! The service was not good either. Very slow and kind of rude. Never ever again!

This was an excellent choice for having a memorable family reunion! Fantastic service, incredible views, and good food. However if you're on the landing with the pluthra of other guests, make sure that you repeat your order back to the wait staff. It is an efficient way to make sure that you are given exactly what you are trying to order.

Even though dining was available outside, our friend was unable to bring her small dogs.

As with the Mukilteo location, the dining room is airy and sports a fantastic view. This time, you are settled right on Lake Union, looking south at the skyline and Space Needle. Food was overall above-average, though the calamari was still dripping in grease when it came to the table. I knocked another star off for one glaring change they have made: Bread is now $4. I've never been to a restaurant that charges $15 for an appetizer but still says they are losing money by providing free bread. Hopefully this is a one-and-done experiment and they'll go back to giving out free sourdough, but sometimes it's the little things that can drive a customer away. Overall, not bad, but I'll be sticking to the Mukilteo location.

Great place, great location, great food. Service is good but slow when busy.

Still and always great salmon, except the occasional over-cooked dinner. Request rare if you want moist salmon!

Always great staff and delicious seafood with a view.

Great food, great service, amazing building, gorgeous views. Highly recommended.

Awesome. The place is great for out of town guests and those special evenings. Food is great. The atmosphere is so relaxing. I just can't say enough good things about this restaurant. I love the place.

I m a seafood lover and go out of my way to get some. Ivars was recommend by a local and it didn t disappoint.

Over priced but I suppose you pay for the waterfront view

Service was slow as a tortoise....and it wasn't even busy!!! We've been there multiple times..service is hit and miss. A big miss tonight..we ended up walking out because it was so slow!!!

Our food was fine, and the service, while slow, was adequate. The only reason for 4 stars was the amazing location on the water, under the ship canal bridge. It was beautiful

Delicious salmon, but also have vegetarian options. Beautiful spot and decorations.

This place is one of my family's favorite places to eat my dad has beeb eating here since he was a kid and its been a precious childhood memory for me. I highly recommend this waterfront restaurant with its quick serve fish bar out front and a 5 star quality restaurant inside with a beautiful view of the space needle.

Haven't eaten yet But having to wait for a table after pre booking days prior was not a great start.

Great location, great service, food was just okay.

I ordered the lunch special, Alder Grilled Alaska Troll King Salmon, thinking that a restaurant with "salmon" in the name must know a thing or two about it! Turns out it was a little dry and not very flavorful. Surprisingly, the accompanying seasoned rice and broccolini was delicious, but not enough to entice me back.

We had 22 people for dinner for a family celebration. It included peoole of all ages & out of town guests. Food was served timely, hot, and service was great!

Just get the king salmon! The sampler is the same price but with less king salmon. The king salmon is so good you don't need to bother with the lesser salmons.

The best clam chowder I've ever tasted!
the calamari was slightly overcooked but still very tasty.

Ate at the salmon house attached. Great view of waterfront. Excellent food. Good service, even though we brought three kids (well behaved kids)

Their brunch is ok. Good value but not the best quality you will find around the area. Part of the restaurant also feel dated as well.

Amazing service. Excellent salmon. I would definitely recommend Ivar's salmon house.

Good service, great atmosphere, good reliable seafood. You can't go wrong.

It's hilarious that they have a walk-up restaurant (with small enclosed seating area) where you can buy the same signature fish & chips for $8, whereas inside in the sitdown-with-servers restaurant you ll pay $20. But sitdown place has more menu options and the servers are friendly. Very small parking lot for the size, esp since you can use it while taking the walk-up option

Great place to stop by with your boat for lunch or dinner