Northwater

Stayed at the hotel and saw high marks on open table a decided to try.

First time at the restaurant, overall very good dining experience. We will definitely be back, and would recommend. Went on Valentines evening, and the lobster and Prawn dinner special was very good. Impressed with quality of the food, kudos to the chef on duty. Also, the seafood chowder was really good!

Imaginative food, with only one dish a bit subpar, excellent service, and tremendous Happy Hour value! We will be back.

Food is great. Very creative. My steak was cooked perfectly. The prices are really reasonable for the quality. The servers were very competent and friendly (without being that annoying saccharine sweet I’m often annoyed by.) Try the clams! And the deviled eggs! And the cauliflower!

Prime rib was good. Difficult to cut the meat as they have these weird curved plates that tip when you try to cut your meat . Meat was served on top of the vegetables. When you moved it to the side to cut the plate spun around on the slick table. We had to ask for steak knives that were awkward and not helpful. We put a napkin underneath the plate, that helped a little bit. Also the booths had a step up and they put all the handicapped older people at these dangerous step up booths. The hostess should take that into consideration when she is seating older people with canes.
Server was cheerful and we thanked her for working on Christmas Day. She agreed the plates were a problem for some people.

All of the reviews and pictures fail to give you the hint that this is a Holiday Inn restaurant. So let's just say my wife and I were a little surprised when we drove up for dinner and realized this wasn't a standalone Pacific Northwest restaurant.

We were pleasantly surprised with our meals. All around it was delicious, well executed, and worth the price paid. The server was especially friendly and helpful. The decor is very Holiday Inn -- but do not let that scare you away.

Normally, we have had an outstanding experience here. But, this time, the halibut seemed over cooked and dry. We will go back again because of our prior experiences.

The food was amazing not complaints. The drinks were ok over priced at. The service on the other hand left a lot to be desired. Our 1st impression of our sever was when she spilled water all over me and the table. As this was all going down another service walked by and made a comment "it's only water" and kept walking. Didn't offer to help. Our server took a while to come back to check on us and take out order also had to come back to let us know a couple of times to let us know what we ordered wasn't available.

The food was excellent and well prepared. We particularly enjoyed the fact that the noise level was very low, so we could have a conversation without shouting. That alone makes this one of our favorite restaurants in our area. The decor is low-key but very attractive.

The food and drink for our party of 5 was great. The waiter very attentive. My cocktail was excellent. I'll definitely come again when in town...

Service was meh. Food quality and flavors were very poor and excessively priced.

We visit Northwater fairly regularly because the food is almost always terrific. There aren't many excellent restaurants within 20 minutes of our home, but Northwater is one. We have been delighted with this spot since our first visit. Food, ambiance, service, unique beverages...all very good. Occasionally service is a little slow, but only when they are especially busy. Our favorite appetizer is the roasted cauliflower with embellishments. Yum! The burgers and salads are great, as are the entrees! The menu has changed over time...we miss the fish and chips...best ever!

I made a reservation for an important occasion and the restaurant cancels on me only a few days prior

The service was great and the food was cooked perfectly. The bison burgers are amazing.

Surprisingly creative dishes that delighted the palate and senses!

Excellent service and the food was great! I’d highly recommend. We had a large party of eight and had limited time. They let us preorder prior to us arriving so they could get our food and drinks out on time. Stellar service!

The waitress dropped our food on the floor, never came back to check on us or refill drinks during the meal, and the poor service wasn't because they were busy. We were seated immediately and would not have needed a reservation. The food was just okay.

We have had many great meals here! The king salmon is the best in town! The pork chop is also outstanding. Nice portions and a great visual display! The prawn pasta is a great dinner, hard to pick from the menu. The beef fillets is a winner every thing!

Very comfortable and enjoyable. Great happy hour deals

We were shocked when our Uber pulled in to the Holiday Inn Express. I found no mention on the website that this was a hotel dining room. We honored our reservation but felt mislead. We went safe on our ordering (burgers) which were OK but definitely felt mislead.

Enjoyed our dinner very much. Good service and choices.

Went with a small group for weekend dinner and enjoyed our time there. The food was all very tasty. We had a variety of menu items: hamburgers, Alaskan halibut( yum), & woodfire flatbread. Everyone enjoyed the food and drinks. My halibut was prepared with quinoa yam cakes, kale and avocado salsa and was wonderful. My rating was lowered a little, as we went on New Years eve and they were a bit short handed, due to the special parties and busy evening. All in all, I would definitely go again.

Our server Stephen was wonderful. He has a great sense of humor, was there when we needed him, and I hope he is our server for our next birthday party.

We went for our 20th anniversary. We put that on our reservation as the reason for dinner. Nobody said anything to acknowledge it. Why ask on the online reservation if it doesn't matter to you? Other restaurants have done something special for lesser occasions. The cocktail was mostly ice, the flat bread was ok, a little burnt around the edges. In the shrimp pasta, the shrimp was fine, but the sauce had no flavor and it tasted like plain noodles with a little spice. And the salmon was dry. The restaurant has a great, trendy feel to it, and the menu is fun and unique, but with the quality of food they use, and the prices they charge, we would have expected it to taste better. Maybe we went on an off night, but we were very disappointed after reading so many great reviews.

I was really surprised at the quality of this restaurant, which is inside an airport Holiday Inn. The food was delicious and the service was great. I had a Caesar salad to start and meatloaf as my main course. Loved both.

Great service, terrible food. Ribs were very dry and bland! Same could be said about the salmon. My shrimo pasta made me very sick almost immediately after. Stick to drinks if you go! They are weak but won't make you sick!

Another great meal at the Northwater. You just can't go wrong here. We will be back soon.

We met with some friends for dinner and were pleased with the food and the service. Northwater has a varied menu using fresh local ingredients. The menu changes seasonally. Our server was attentive but not overly so. It took a while to get our food, but we enjoyed some wine and conversation. The food was worth the wait. I had the ribs which were meaty and "fall off the bone" tender. My wife had the meatloaf and loved it. We are going back next week for dinner with another friend.

We have also been to the bar for happy hour. The menu is loaded with creative dishes to tempt you. Reasonably priced happy drinks also.

Unusual dishes beautifully prepared. Menu items change regularly.

When the hostess greets you with, “Oh, you have a reservation?” it should be a sign to turn around and leave. Sadly we did not.
Our server arrived a few minutes after we were seated, came back quickly to get drink orders, and then disappeared for ten minutes! It should not take that long to pour two glasses of wine! When she returned with our entrees, she admitted that she made a mistake - but couldn’t recall what it was. (It was substituting my husband’s rice for mashed potatoes.) She also messed up by telling me the ribs were baby backs when they were spare ribs - and very tough ones at that! I may have gotten 2 ounces of meat from 8 ribs - a disappointment, since the flavor was so good. On an upside, the Brussels and horseradish mashed potatoes were great.
When I told the server about the ribs, her consolation to us was to offer a free banana cream pie. Ten minutes later she came in with our coffee and a creme brûlée , because they were out of the pie! Really?
In the end, she comped the wine, dessert, and coffee. In the end, it was still mediocre at best.

Made a reservation for 8:45, when my wife finally found someone to help her at 8:51 we were told they wouldn’t seat us because the kitchen closes at 9:00

Sat in the lounge instead, waitress got my wife’s order in, food was awful, server was overwhelmed but friendly, we had to go to the bar a few times to order our drinks ourselves. This is the 4th time we’ve been there and we always look forward to it. Not again

Very pleasantly impressed with this restaurant in an airport hotel.

They did a great job handling 21 people for dinner and 10 for breakfast the next morning. The beet deviled eggs are delicious!

The food was amazing! It is often hard to find a restaurant that has great options for people that like 'traditional' food and vegans in the same location. Northwater surpassed our expectations. The only thing I would recommend they change is the decor as it is a bit plain and not a good representation of what their great staff and menu have to offer you.

We had a big group in the dining room which they facilitated easily for us. The food was wonderful and the service was great! Loved the atmosphere.

The environment is nice inside the restaurant. There is no view to look at and no reason to make it a destination other than a nice menu offering and nice looking restaurant to settle into. Staff was friendly and as we were told it would not be over the top, we got what we expected. We did enjoy our evening.

This time the service was the superior level of the last, but the recipe for my same entre dish had changed - for the worse. The chicken scallopini had too many artichokes that were just large chunks, and lacking the melding with the other flavors. The chicken, rather than improving, was drier than before. It was okay, just not as good as it could have been.
The real problem was that they did not have the same dining room open, so seated us in the bar. Fortunately, we got one of the two available tables that had some natural sunlight and were regular height. I do not sit on high stools - ever - and avoid dark, unwindowed spaces on sunny days. Certainly, it is not worth driving many miles to this far north Bellingham location near the airport, to be in the atmosphere of a bar, rather than the beautiful dining room décor I had so enjoyed last time. I noticed the wait staff had to come a long way to/from the kitchen, too. It would have been a better idea to seat everyone in the dining room, then get drinks if people are indulging at lunchtime.

Didn’t realize this was a holiday inn dining facility. Service and kitchen was very slow. Took 1.5 hours for breakfast and food was cold or not cooked well (eggs ordered as over medium were barely cooked).

First time trying after hearing rave reviews - did not disappoint. The cocktails were amazing!! Great service & delicious food. Will definitely be returning!

Nice place , service and staff. Didn’t like that you were nickel and dimed for asking for extra sauce for the fries. Basically offset the happy hour price.