Via Birch Bay Café and Bistro

Stopped in for a beer after clam digging. Place was empty, amazing view. Nice beers on tap, shared the Captains Plate, was yummy. Great music.

Your female bartender tonight was absolutely, the most unprofessional person that I have ever encountered in my life.

Had a wonderful experience here with a late lunch. The 3 kids had fish and chips and the wife and I had the steamed clams & mussel appetizer. Kids are still raving over the fish and chips. The clams and mussels were steamed in white wine and pesto. The price was a bit high but I would do it again. Can’t wait to try other offerings from here.

Coffee u got was ice cold and son really didn’t like the spaghetti when I took him out for a nice lunch.

As soon as I walked in I was greeted very genuinely by staff. I was ordering to go (staying at the condo across the street) was given a menu and advised what the soup of the day was. I was not bugged while deciding what to get yet they stayed close by to answer questions. I ordered the popcorn shrimp, chicken portofino and lemon drop martini. While i waited for my food I was engaged in a friendly conversation with a staff member and another customer it was great. The sauce on the popcorn shrimp is AMAZING the chicken was awesome, garlic asked potatoes and steamed vegies were perfection and the martini well made. I will be coming back and suggest if u r in the area you will want to stop in.

Staying at my timeshare I found my way to this little place. I had the seafood mitkof — amazing. Clams mussels shrimp white fish in a creamy cheese sauce. Came with slices of garlic banquette. So yummy! Not too salty or too cheesy. Perfect. It was the appetizer and more than enough. I’ll be back.

Lets start with they have really great drinks. The staff is always welcoming. I have tried their fish and salmon sandwich and they are pretty good. The crab cakes and fish and chips are also good. The shrimp is pretty average however and i wouldn’t recommend it. All in all great place to hangout with the ocean view and always calm and chill.

Now I know this place is not a 5 star restaurant, but read on. Our window seats seemed to be 3 feet from the water, but I later outside saw we were actually hanging out ABOVE the water. Sunset views = perfect. The place seems a little run down, but very popular. We compared traffic with the other restaurants in town, and this place was crammed with locals. It seems they have a new, quality chef. I had a sweet peanut chicken curry that was as tasty as it gets and presented like the French Laundry (look it up). The standard salad was well above average. They have good local beer on tap, very fresh. The mac and shrimp was also tremendous, as was everything everyone had. The price for four with tip and shared dessert and a couple of drinks was about $ 100.
The bar is a folklore place worth visiting, I won’t say more. We found this place when we were walking up the street to a competitor and we asked where the (nameless competitor) was. The grizzled painter says «Are you going there to EAT?!». Which led to a discourse on value and quality and where we should go for bargain, plain fish and chips and where we should go to eat good food and he mentioned the chicken curry, so… we turned around and came here.
We were served by Stephen, the manager, who was funny, friendly, competent, informed, and non-​intrusive.
If you want local ambience, this is it. If you want quality food at excellent prices, this is it. Now, if that chef leaves, don’t hold me to this review.

What a filthy dump! I, along with some local friends, stood in the doorway for 15 minutes until someone sat us at a greasy table. Thankfully, I didn’t trip over the beer kegs. I chose a bottled beer because the bar looked unsanitary. Staff seemed disorganized & confused. Food wasn’t spectacular. When this place first opened, it looked promising. What happened?

Started off questionably when the waitress came across quite off putting, but either she had a change of mood or someone gave her a change cause the service picked up shortly after.
Sticky tables, chairs, etc, but cool interior and a good looking menus with some great specials.
No drink special tonight.
At the table we enjoyed the steak and Lobster special both the sirloin as well as the New York option and steaks cooked perfectly.
Also ordered was the fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp added. Very good with a great cheese flavor added that we couldn’t place.
I opted for the Sriracha Shrimp and Scallop extra veggies, no starch and it was amazing.
The starter salads were a disappointment all around with dried cucumbers and less then crisp greens.
Great view of the sunset tonight.

Fantastic fish & chips and gorgeous view! We’ve eaten here several times and also gone just for drinks (I’m pretty sure they have every type of flavored vodka available). Everyone that waited on us was very friendly and accommodating, which is awesome because I am kind of high maintenance. Their salads were very fresh, you can’t say that about every place you go. So glad to see this place doing well. We go up to Birch Bay every year at least once. This place will end up being our default restaurant.

Time to try somewhere new and untested (at least by me).
Greeted at the front by a girl who didn’t really want to seat us. Suggested we sit upstairs and then looked put out when we asked how to get there. We ended up staying down because it seemed more «alive» downstairs. Entry rating ²⁄₅
Ordered a New England clam chowder soup that came out a little on the cold side. Unfortunate that it couldn’t be hot, or even warm. It was tasty, but I must say that I’m a soup snob: a soup meant to be hot should be hot. Appetizer rating ²⁄₅
Ordered the «you’ve gotta try the $ 20 steak and lobster» special. 6oz sirloin and a 6oz tail. Hopefully, can’t go wrong with a price like that.
The steak and lobster is great. Steak is tender, came out as ordered– rare– and seasoned perfectly. Yummy. Lobster is a brutal seafood to cook. It goes from raw to perfect to rubber in a flash. They got it right here. Perfectly tender and juicy. Yummy. Unfortunately, my wife likes to butcher her meat with sauce. She asked our waiter for a bottle of HP sauce and was told they only have A1. She said that would be fine. It never came. I finally got fed up with her waiting as the steak got cold and she ran out of other items to eat. Stood up and walked the 6 feet to the table of sauces and brought her one myself. I’m going to break this part of the review in two, kitchen and server… That is only fair. Kitchen main meal prep: ⁵⁄₅. Server: ³⁄₅
Ultimately, when you go out for food, you have to weight the price, quality, and service. It is possible to have a dip in one or two areas and still have a good time. It is all about the diner’s personality.
When I walked into the place, I wasn’t expecting a 5 star Michelin dining experience. So I was ready for it (thanks to prior reviewers for preparing me even more then the facilities did)
I was ready for so-​so service. I was ready for a beautiful view. I was ready for a good meal.
I got what I was expecting. So even though I’m tempted to drop a 2 star review here, that would not be true to my expectations. So I’m going to stretch it to a three. A great price on a good main course bumped them up because I was ready for the service level here thanks to Unilocal.
I would like to suggest to the waiter: carry a cloth with you and wipe the sweat from your face before you leave the kitchen. It is a little bit of a turn-​off, even if it is record-​breaking hot outside.

I really enjoyed my lunch at Via! A friend and I were looking for something to fill our Thursday afternoon, since we both had taken some time off for the long weekend. We have both tried all of the other dining options in the area, as locals, so we headed to Via.
We were seated by the window, which was an absolutely wonderful view. I think watching the sunset here would be just about perfect. I needed my sunglasses for the second half of the meal, as the sun got higher– but I wear my sunglasses just about any time I am outside, so that’s not their fault.
Service was funny and friendly. We got local beer and an entrée each. But, I was quite tempted to order a crab cake starter. Next time!
She ordered the fish sliders and I had the Fish&Chips (but we both got a salad instead of the fries — so I cant review the french fries.) My fish was cooked perfectly, and was delicious! It was a light, crispy batter, and I got 4 decent sized pieces. It was actually more than a generous portion, and I could have stopped at two pieces, but it was so good I finished it all. The lunch prices are really good for the area, I was happy to see I was paying less than $ 10 for really good fish and chips. my bill for fish and chips lunch, plus beer, and generous tip, was less than $ 20.
Although I haven’t gone in the evening myself, it looked like a really nice place to have drinks with friends at night, too.

This was a great place to enjoy a wonderful view and a drink. The food was good. And my daughter loved there corn dogs.

«Do you have a drink menu?» «Well, we have a full bar…» Not the best service. Food was okay. Prices were okay but deff charge you for the view. I wouldn’t go back.

Went in on a slow Sunday with my girlfriend. Greeted by a hostess with a «I’ve grown up in a small town, now I’m stuck working this dead end job» type of attitude, and had service as such. The restaurant was fairly empty, but It still took a good half an hour to get my fish and chips (four tiny pieces of fish with some kirkland signature fries), and my girlfriends salmon sandwich. If we had known the service was going be be that bad and the food was going to be that lackluster we would have avoided it — our mistake.
tl;dr avoid.

First time at Via. It was overall a good experience. The food was very good and served in an average amount of time. Our server wasn’t super attentive, but was friendly nonetheless. I haven’t eaten fish for years and it was so filling! I barely finished one of the 2 pieces of halibut served on the Halibut n’ Chips plate (see photo). I am a small women though ;-) I would recommend this place to anyone looking for a laid-​back atmosphere and good food!

What a pleasant surprise! (OK, we did read some Unilocal reviews first), but Hey! The food at this restaurant exceeded All Expectations! If you are looking for fine ambience then this is Not your place… But if you instead want exceptional seafood at very reasonable prices — this *IS* your place.
We stopped in during the afternoon to see if we needed a reservation. They put us down in their book, but I did note that at 3:30pm we were the only entry for Sunday evening — so reservations don’t seem to be required at all. But, that did get us a table right by the main window to watch the sun set behind Vancouver Island. That was spectacular.
My wife ordered the broiled wild-​caught Alaskan salmon dinner with a honey-​Dijon glaze and loved it. Her only regret was in getting the sauce on the side and being so distracted by the amazing sunset that she had eaten ½ her salmon when she first tasted this home-​made sauce. It was SO good, that she actually tried out using some with her baked potato!
I was a little leery of ordering the fettuccine marinara with sautéed seafood until it arrived. Mussels, clams, abundant large shrimp, scallops, and fish blended together with an assortment of lightly sautéed vegetables. Wow! The closest thing I can relate this to is a pan of paella I once shared with 3 friends in the South of France! But this dish, which came along with a nice cup of local clam chowder cost a grand total of $ 20! It felt like I had died and awoke to find myself in seafood lover’s heaven!!!
I started off by saying that if you were looking for ambience this was not the place for you, but I did want to add that our waitress was warm, friendly, and attentive. She seemed truly happy to see just how much we enjoyed both our meals and passed our thanks and kudos on to today’s chef.
Perhaps the planets were aligned just right, or the setting sun dazzled our senses, but we came away from this meal tonight thinking it was one of the finest we’ve had at any restaurant I quite a while!!! We’ll be Back! :)
(Pictures will get posted)

Went here with hubby on Thursday night. We were first seated in the restaurant near a window right by the water. It was a little warm as the sun was shining in through the blinds & there was little air flow in the corner. Hubby noticed that there was a football game on in the bar so we asked to be reseated. No problem.
Sat at a table near doors that opened to the street so we got some fresh air. (Well until the idiots smoking outside & the motorcycle idling arrived)
We had a sharp server named Mandy. She was all over it. Great Job! Hubby ordered the Caesar with shrimp & the calamari. He ordered the full size Caesar but I think the half would be plenty big. Calamari tasted good for being from a frozen bag. I had the amazing chicken portofino. Wonderful chicken breast smothered in a delicious mushroom, sherry cream sauce. I highly recommend getting it with their delicious mashed potatoes. Perfectly cooked thin asparagus with a drizzle of hollandaise completes the dish. Blue cheese dressing could be better.
We will be back. :)

Popular local spot I had never been to, despite being a local myself. The overall look from outside is dive-​y, but didn’t stop us; the inside is rustic & unimpressive, but the service was good & the crab sandwich & portobello sandwich were yummy! We were seated by a window for a beautiful sunset, however the shade was broken & we couldn’t get it lifted. When we were looking up at the shade, we saw multiple FULL spider webs in the corners of almost ALL the windows… how long would it take to run a feather duster around the windows from time to time? That was a turn-​off…