Water Street Cafe

Just had another incredible meal at Waterstreet! The menu is unique, and everything so well prepared. The clams are amazing, with tiny cubes of bacon and white beans in the beurre blanc broth (satisfying enough to be an entrée). My salmon was cooked perfectly and the risotto to die for. My hubby’s ribeye was delicious in a wild mushroom reduction sauce over smashed potatoes. Molten chocolate cake was yummy, too. I would give this a five, but both the entrees and then dessert were placed on the table before the utensils, leaving us to stare longingly at the food while waiting for a steak knife or fork. Otherwise, the service was great. This place is a bit pricey, but I describe the food as «special,» and worth every cent.

I really enjoyed my meal here… Came for a late lunch. They are doing it right. The food was excellent — we ordered a few things to share, only one dish I was not horribly fond of but the others were so good it made up for ir two fold. Great wine selection. Impeccable service. Was very impressed and would highly recommend. This place will now be my stop in Olympia. Thank you d

Lovely find even tho Unilocal review was not great. Beautiful space with kitchen in view. Good patio space, probably delightful in the warmer months.
My girlfriend and I shared a belated birthdays dinner.
Started with goat cheese & thyme fondue. Big yum! Perfect with bread. They had poached veggies that were better with the cheese.
She had seafood stew, all cooked to perfection. The broth had an amazing depth of flavor and full bodied. I had a grilled shrimp salad that may sound boring but it was with fresh butter lettuce, goat pepper (spicy), fresh veggies and Marconi almonds. Perfect light dinner. Shrimp cooked to succulence.
Would defiantly go again!

Had a lovely time there last night after Dillinger’s refused to let me keep spending money. Water Street was the original plan but loyalty to that tiny little hip spot originally discouraged us, although cutting off our eating and drinking because of other reservations is a frustrating reality of them desperately outgrowing their space. We asked Water Street if we could just have coffee and dessert and they gladly accommodated us. The coffee was hot and plentiful, which I appreciate at the end of the night, as I know it’s hard to keep it brewed at restaurants since not many people order it at night, and the desserts were fabulous. I definitely want to return for a full dinner. I might be switching loyalties away from that little bank vault in downtown proper.

Absolutely amazing. My partner and I were seated immediately. I had the seafood stuffed cannelloni special which I will seriously dream about. Great wine and a fantastic server. He was new and I forget his name but he was so friendly. The manager cleared our dishes and was also extremely friendly and everyone who talked to us seemed in such a good mood. Such a wonderful date night.

Extremely rude service, very condescending waitresses. Not child friendly and not accommodating. I will never bring them my business again, nor will my friends and family. We thought we would give Water Street a second chance last weekend with a large group of family for a birthday party, they limited out menu choices to 4 items and wouldn’t accommodate our children with other menu items. The waitress was very rude and made us feel we were waiting her time.

My wife and I stopped by for light dinner and found the menu somewhat limited but the chef did an excellent job presenting alight fare into an elegant meal I would go there again

After a day at Mount Saint Helens, we decided to have a late dinner here on our way back to Snohomish County. Great food. But a bit noisy

Regularly disappointing – slow service, dirty and over-​priced entrees. So much potential here, but inconsistency of food and aloof service are the hobgoblins that keep them from moving to the next level. We like the more-​casual cousin Acqua Via better.

5 stars for food and 3 for service…
The food: Fantastic! We got pork belly over kale for an appetizer and omg orgasm in my mouth. The kale tasted like bacon– who knew that was possible. I got some sort of seafood thing and it was perfect. They also had a great wine selection.
Only downside was that I had to flag down any waiter I could get a hold of for another glass of wine and the first one took forever to get to my table. Maybe it was because I drink fast IDK (not thaaaat fast) but check on your tables honeys– the tip will reflect the service even if people look young and casual.
I highly recommend this place for a classy dinner, though, because the food was great!

This is a nice restaurant in Olympia. We would have given it 5 stars but my hubby thought it was kind of noisy and my entrée wasn’t as good as the rest of the meal. The salads were absolutely excellent. The wines are pricey. We like the fact that they change their menu often. The service was good. We’re going to return for happy hour and hor d ouerves since that was the best part of our meal!

Seriously, I don’t know what has happened to this place. They used to be one of our favorite restaurants in the area. However, the last 3 times we have dined here over the past 9 months the food and service have both declined immensely. I didnou ‘t see a lot of the old servers or bartenders we used to and perhaps that is telling. The quality of the food doesn’t come close to their prices anymore. I’m not sure we will be back. Beware If you choose to dine here — or better yet, go with another more consistent option in town where at least you’ll get your money’s worth. We used to tell everyone we knew to come here, not anymore.

By far the best happy hour in town. Quality drinks and delicious food. Classy but relaxed atmosphere.

Update: went back there again upon the urging of a friend, and the menu was much better and the food was very tasty.

Hopefully you get Haley Joy, she’s a great waitress. Great food and drinks you won’t get anywhere else in Olympia

An amazing dinner at Water Street Café last night. We had a party of 9, the service was exceptional, and the food was some of the best we’ve had in all of our travels.
We started with appetizers, the meat and cheese antipasti were beautifully presented and contained an amazing assortment, including… fiddlehead ferns! I was shocked they could find them. They were slightly pickled and incredibly delicious, and it was fun for so many of our party who had never had the opportunity to try them before. On the meat platter were slices of think cut, perfectly cooked bacon… maybe pork belly? Whatever it was, it was rapidly consumed.
Several of us got the same entrée — the shrimp salad. It had 6 – 7 large shrimp, crumbled cheese, that thick bacon, salami, and a delicious dressing. Portions were large and the combination of flavors was excellent.
A couple of people got the Zabuton (I think I am spelling that right) which was some kind of cut from the rib/​back of a Wagyu beef. It was outstanding! Everyone who tried it commented on the buttery flavor and tenderness. They cooked each order perfectly (one was medium, one was medium-​rare).
The clams with nettles was another standout dish that was unique in its presentation and flavor.
Chef was nice enough to prepare mac n’ cheese for our 8 y.o. and 5 y.o. at the table, even though it wasn’t on the menu.
The wine list is one of the highlights of dining at Water Street, we had several bottles of the Uncle Cragg’s Pilgrim which is an excellent wine for the price point. I am continually impressed with Water Street’s wine list and how they are able to find delicious wines at an affordable price, both by the glass and the bottle.
Our server was exceptional, very knowledgeable about the wine list and the menu items. She did an excellent job with the right amount of attentiveness.
If you want a special evening with local food that you can’t get on any other menu in Olympia, Water Street is the place to go.

I’ve been here a few times recently for dinner, and it’s quickly climbing my list of favorite downtown restaurants. The service is always excellent and the layout and design of the dining room is surprisingly comfortable and inviting.
The roasted Brussels sprouts are incredible and I order them almost every time. They change them up a bit from time to time, the ones I have liked the best have some sort of smoked ham/​bacon mixed in with them. The cheese plate appetizer is also very good, it’s quite large and comes with a ton of bread and a good variety of cheeses.
What I love most is that they sell Lucchetti Lacrima di Morro d’Alba by the glass. I haven’t ever seen it on another wine list by the glass. If you like dry reds and you haven’t tried this varietal, I highly recommend you try it while you’re here.
If you don’t mind spending a bit of money for a nice dinner, take your time and enjoy this place once in awhile.

I had some «meh» experiences a few years back but Water Street seems to have hit their stride again. They have reliably great cocktails, good variety of menu item sizes /​flavors, and clueful waitstaff. Expensive, but by and large worth it.
NB — Truffle fries are not as truffle-​y as they once were, but remain tasty.
The only quirky downside is apparent if you show up at the tail end of happy hour:
They seem to either not give you a HH menu if you walked in ~15 minutes before HH ended or they give you a menu but then not come around until after HH has ended. It’s happened three times! The happy hour food is not particularly stellar, but dang… it feels like an upsell to not get a shot at something.

Absolutely wonderful food and atmosphere! We will definitely be back! I had the chicken and waffles and my husband the meatloaf. Both were large portions and delicious! The wine paired with our meal was great as well.

«New» American seems a bit of a stretch, and I’m disappointed that like most of the local-​and-​seasonal restaurants in Olympia, their food isn’t either of those very much. I’d so love to see true seasonal food available at some of the nicer downtown restaurants. Why, they’re putting ~crimini~ mushrooms on their $ 16 pizzas like that’s some kind of interesting thing, and not pretty much just something between a button and a portobello, neither being particularly-​interesting, and the midpoint being somehow even less-​so.
Which is funny, because their pizzas are so decidedly-​Russian, and yet their mushrooms are so blandly-​American. And that’s the point I really want to harp on.
You see, pizza in Russia is shocking for an American. The crust is dead and lifeless. The cheese is in massive amounts, and the of it texture is all wrong. Between the two there is a sauce which is sweet, almost like ketchup (which Waterstreet Café ~delightfully~ calls «That Tomato Stuff»). And that experience is everywhere from Kursk to Krasnoyarsk, and points beyond, and somewhat-​uniquely here at W.C. in scenic downtown Olympia.
While you take in the view of Captiol Neither-​Lake-​Nor-​Estuary and your dining companion gazes wistfully upon the faded western exterior of the Governor Hotel (replete with depressed and/​or undressed guests on balconies aplenty), you will be treated to a pizza that’s more at home in Chelyabinsk than it is in Cascadia.
The crust is spongey, oily, firm. It is a focaccia crust if I am being generous, but really it reminds mostly of the lousy crusts one gets from cheap boxed pizza crust mixes. The sauce is sweet, smooth, and devoid of any character whatsoever. No spice, no herb, no anything much, just tomato, sugar, salt, and maybe just a dash of oil. A dash, because there are greater things to come.
The cheese is either lively or lifeless, depending on your timing; so much cheese it will ooze and slide and slither, and then congeal and stand firm and fast. So, so much cheese. Not a smattering of high-​quality cheese, nor a helping of an East Coast four cheese mix, but a great heaping helping of an unremarkable mid-​moisture mozzarella-​alike.
The cheese, though, does not stand alone. Oodles of oil splashed hither and thither across its mighty heaps. So much oil. You could suffocate a horse with the oil, applied with appropriate skill and intent. (Perhaps they accidentally splashed it with Holy Water and, concerned that they may have unintentionally-​baptized the blasted thing, decided to go the distance and seal it with a generous helping of oil. This probably isn’t helping my argument, but hey.)
If the crust and cheese had both been thin and tough, it might have belonged in Ukraine. If the cheese had been weirdly-​runny and the crust more strangely-​soft, it would be a dead ringer for a Mongolian pizza. But no, their pizzas are true and red, devoted forever to Mother Russia.
It is still a wonderful place to go, but the food never quite manages to impress. The desserts, too, are a little underwhelming. But most of it isn’t remarkably-​bad, and they occasionally do show forth some glimpse of cleverness. It’s really comfortable outside, despite the view. The drinks are perfect, and the dessert wines sublime, and at reasonable prices. Likewise the cheese plates, which are really a bargain, even as their contents so consistently resemble the standard yuppie’s selections from Trader Joe’s. It’s nothing to complain about, if your expectations are properly-​set — but maybe do avoid the pizza, unless you hail from Omsk or Ufa or Zhukovo.)
Make an occasion of it, but not one that is really centred on the food.