Rhododendron Cafe

Tenzing and I travel and enjoy many wonderful restaurants in this world. Fortunately for us our favorite restaurant is right down the road from where we live. The menu changes monthly, the food is organic, fresh and you feel so after you've had a meal there. We have something more important to share with you though - there is a group of us who live(d) down the road and the house caught fire. There was many different people who rented rooms and everyone (including us) has had to vacate the premises. We went to take one of the roommates down to the Rhody to eat and Carol the owner returned our money and said that anyone who lived in the home that burned down has been given a free meal. It turned out others from the house had gone there the night before and received the same treatment. The owners Don & Carol are such amazing people, community conscious and always is figuring out what they can do to make their service a better experience for all. We are all overwhelmed with their generosity and appreciate who they are in the community. more

The "Rhody" is a wonderful restaurant on Chuckanut Drive between Bellingham and Burlington, WA. We have eaten there over the years ( more than 20!) and it always has wonderful, innovative food and the prices are very reasonble. Each month they feature a different cuisine and we are always surprised by the unique dishes that are presented. the freshness is always appreciated and they have their own garden and buy from local farmers and feature fresh seafood! more

This is our favorite restaurant! They make everything from scratch and even have their own garden. Great salad greens, veggies, and a great selection of herbs. The monthly theme for their blackboard specials is great as well. Each month they focus on a different ethnic area and do a great job with all the different cuisines. In March for the American Regional Cooking the Memphis Ribs were amazing with a great BBQ sauce on the side - complete with cornbread, cole slaw and roasted garlic mashed potatoes. They had several Cajun specialties and the High Desert Prawns were to die for. Give it a try - you can take scenic Chuckanut Drive and they are about 12 miles south of Bellingham! more

This was my third visit to this restaurant and each time I have been disappointed. The concept they have is good. Each month they have a different theme for the menu. This month (July) it was the Bounty of the Pacific Northwest. I thought, how could they go wrong? The ingredients ought to be local as they often strive to be at this restaurant and they can't help but be in season. Well, the same problems I encountered the last two times were in evidence. The food is boring! It is prettily presented, but lacks oomph. I ordered the ling cod stuffed with crab and shrimp topped with an arugula pesto. It was served along with plain white rice, three asparagus spears and about 2 tablespoons chopped pickled beets. White rice is fine if it is accompanied with a sauce of some sort, but otherwise it is uninspiring. The asparagus was a little tough and I think three spears is a little sparse. The pickled beets were quite tasty. I wish there had been more. I ordered a green salad to go with it with balsamic dressing and it was good. There was a nice mixture of greens and the size was adequate. My dining partner was similarly disappointed. His chicken was lacking in flavor, the garlic mashed potatoes were watery, and the veggies were the same. His salad had a creamy cheddar dressing which also could be described as watery. He found the portions a bit too small Besides the food being boring the prices are a bit high. My entrée was $20 and it was another $4 for the salad. A bread basket came with dinner with 2 kinds of bread in it. The French bread was okay, but not great. The olive bread was very good. The problem: if I wanted more bread it was $1.75. Why? Why do restaurants persist in charging for items which are relatively cheap? Wouldn't they prefer their patrons to fill up on the cheap food so that by the time their entrée arrives the patron will not be disappointed if it is less than generous? Bread, vegetables, and the starch all could go under this category. We chose to not order dessert as we did not want to buy something for $5.50 and be disappointed and still hungry,. On the plus side, the atmosphere in the garden area is quite pleasant. It is indoors so cool weather is not a problem. The was nice, although might have wondered at our faint praise of the food which we said was fine without much enthusiasm when asked. I doubt we will return. more

Located on the south end of the AMAZING Chuckanut Drive (Washington Route 11) the Rhody's incredible handling of local fare and a rotatating ethnic menu means there's always something comforting (pan-fried local oysters) or exciting to try.

Save room for dessert and try the caramel ice cream.

Saturday and Sunday brunches are anything but standard and worth rising early for (but not too early since they start serving at 9).

http://www.rhodycafe.com/ more