I very much wish that I could give this place an extra pity star. There are plenty of subpar places I'm willing to tolerate if they offer some little glimmer of promise, pride, joy, or desire to provide a good customer experience.
Unfortunately, this is not one of those places.
We've been to the location in Edmonds a few times, and I would rate it a solid 3. Decent food that comes up quickly and efficient staff are it's high points. My family loves all things dumplings and boba tea, so when Dumpling Generation took over the space in Third Place we were stoked.
But it's been consistently disappointing.
Not only is the food not good, the service is terrible. It doesn't seem to matter who is behind the counter. I've been barked at by grumpy older men, ignored by high schoolers, and flat out ignored by older women.
Our last visit will definitely be our last. Two older women sat behind the counter, riche near the order window, eating food. They didn't make eye contact with my or my son, and instead ate and chatted with one another while we just stood there, obviously waiting to order. Finally, one of the women stands up with a huff, and just stands in front of us - no greeting, no "may I take your order," and still, no eye contact. I should have walked away, but my son really wanted one of there drinks, so I placed an order anyways. She she didn't tell us what the total was, just flipped a screen around for me to enter my card and sign. No further instructions, no "it will be about 10 ten minutes", no anything.
When our drinks arrive, she doesn't call to us to let us know, just plops them down at the pick up area and then sits down again to resume eating. We take our drinks and say "thank you." No acknowledgment was returned.
We sit down at a table to enjoy them, and my son takes his first sip. His face freezes. He stops drinking, looks at his drink, and then looks at me. "What's wrong?" I ask. "This doesn't taste right." Keep in mind, this is a kid who dumps sour gummy worms into his buttered popcorn, dips pickle spears on mustard, and uses A1 Sauce for salad dressing. He pushes towards me, and even though I'm not big on the sweet drinks I try it. How can I describe the taste? A disgusting amalgamation of powdered plastic, sugar, and something medicinal with a hint of... soap? I taste mine, and it tastes like - nothing. It's opaque, so I know there's something in there, but it lacks any flavor whatsoever. Maybe my taste buds sustained damage when I tried my sons drink, but that's seemed improbable.
We didn't even ask to have them fixed. Why bother? In the bin they went.
We are at Third Place Books a lot, and oftentimes someone in our group is hungry, so we've given this place plenty of opportunities to redeem itself. I'm not even sure how this place stays in business. Maybe a steady supply of customers who are none the wiser? It's a mystery.
Hopefully this review will save you from having a bad experience. The adjacent gyro place is delicious, and Honey Bear is pretty solid too, so you do have options. read more