Engine House Number 9

User Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

This place is more of a Bar than a restaurant, and they have a micro-brewery there as well. However their food is awesome. My wife got a sirloin, which was cooked perfectly and she says was the best she has ever had. Their Garlic smashed potatoes were delicious. I had one of their specials which was their play on a philly cheese steak with thin prime rib, grilled onions swiss and blue cheese dressing and came with french fries. It was quite good and I couldn't even finish everything on my plate! The beers we tried were a red rowdy dick and a belgian white. Both were rather good, but not as good as their food.

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User Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

My brother and I are total fire geeks and we were all excited about exploring when we stopped in on Friday night. It wasn't very busy at 8pm, but I'm guessing it was because it was too stinking hot around this town to be out and about much!! The staff were very obliging letting us do pretty much what we wanted and we took pictures and had a great time exploring. Finally we settled down and sat outside to take advantage of the breeze. To start with, my brother ordered a guinness (not from a tap) but I ordered a hard Raspberry Cider. It was crisp, tart and light and I forgot it was hard until later! Delicious and refreshing. I highly recommend it. We both ordered mushroom gorgonzola burgers and they did not disappoint. They were prepared well. Fully cooked but juicy. There was no skimping on the mushrooms or the gorgonzola either! We substituted onion rings for the fries. We were glad we did. Nice thick cut, battered, not breaded onion rings and served in abundance. For dessert I ordered a chocolate chip cookie. It was okay, but I've had better! The waitress even took the time to sit down and listen to us ramble about the fire service, my firefighter wannabe status and how that had inspired my brother to become a firefighter,and the privately owned former city of Tacoma fire engine my brother was planning to buy in the morning (retired from station 10 22 years ago!) She was most obliging and we felt very at home. The prices were amazingly reasonable. The atmosphere perfect, if you are a firegeek like we are, at least. The only complaint is that a couple of the staff sat on a bench just outside the outdoor seating area in the front and proceeded to light up. YUCK!! We simply moved to another table but that wasn't really a cool thing for them to have done. Overall I would rate the experience an 8.5 out of 10. I would definitely like to repeat that experience (minus the smoke!)

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User Rating: 2 out of 5 stars

We recently visited this place for a late lunch (around 3 pm). The pub is housed in a converted fire house and has retained most of that look. Unfortunately, this makes for very echoey rooms and a resulting loud environment. We also had the misfortune of landing there when there was a VERY large group (at least 30). These considerations aside, we ordered lunch. I had the chiliburger ( a rare treat) and my dining companion had the baked italian sandwich. Both were accompanied by french fries. Both sandwiches were very good and well prepared. The french fries were abundant and crispy owing to a light coating. (Why or why can they no longer make a good crispy french fry without resorting to some kind of coating?) I cannot say that I really like the fries as I object to coated french fries; they should have to call them something else.

We were not in a position on this particular day to sample the beers, however, we expect to return shortly in order to do so., hence I will be updating this review.

The update:

We were beer sampling when we came here. In addition to the brews, we decided to sample the appetizers by ordering the amazingly named sampler.

This plate of food consisted of some wings, some rings, fried mozzarella, fried mac-n-cheese, and a kazillion french fries. The wings were acceptable but nothing out of the ordinary. The rings were also okay but I prefer not to have these thick cut (almost 2 inches thick) type. The fried mozzarella was also standard. I do not know how standard the mac-n-cheese was as I have never sampled this before. As with the rest of the food, it was acceptable and for me interesting. I would have to say it was the highlight of the plate. The iced tea had a ever so slight odd fruity taste on this day.

On to the brews. The beers were basically okay. Pale ale was ordered but an IPA was delivered, it was a bit dry but okay if you like it really hoppy. The rowdy dick amber and fire engine red were okay, The quality of the beer brings my rating down to a 2.and the scottish ale was mediocre at best..

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