Flowers Bar & Restaurant

Nice atmosphere, but may need two bartenders? There was only one and it was quite busy…

Aesthetically appealing bar in a former flower shop right on the corner of 42^nd and University. To the best of my knowledge, you can’t beat the drink specials they serve throughout the day here anywhere else on the Ave. Large veg/​vegan menu. I would argue it’s a bit overpriced but then again, this is Seattle, and I’ve seen people happily pay $ 11.00+ for a plate of steamed kale before. Every time I’ve been here, the bartenders have DJed with their own music which makes the vibes pretty decent. They offer table service, but only have two people working the front of the house. Adjust your expectations accordingly, or order from the bar. Take a lesson from the French and don’t expect people to bend over backwards for you just because you came with a wallet in your pocket.

Great drinks, good food, though the bartender kept throwing lemon wedges at us.

Could use more condiments, music & someone happy at front entrance. Food is great! Owner is nice! Needs some good vibes!

Very poor experience. I have been here before and had a good time and a decent meal but this evening it was SO loud that we literally sat mostly in silence since we couldn’t hear each other. There was a table of 15 or so who weren’t eating and stayed for 40 minutes or so with no drinks (they seemed pretty wasted already judging by the volume) yelling at one another and shrieking like harpies.
The food was OK if you like cheaply prepared sandwiches in what seemed like a Franz bun (I don’t). When the server came to refill the water glasses she had the jug angled in such a way that water dripped from the bottom of it into the middle of our plate of fries.
The loud lunatics left eventually after ordering a couple of beers and the server gave them to us so I appreciated that. I won’t be going back though, sorry to say.

Came here on a weeknight. Margaritas were on sale for $ 4. That sounds like a great deal, however, it was horrible. It was made with mostly cheap tequila and not much else. My wife and I decided to order the bruschetta to make the margarita a bit more palatable. The bread on the bruschetta was soggy, the cheese on top was cold, and the flavors were horrible. If you have no tastebuds but like food with fancy words or are just looking to get drunk really cheap, Flowers is the place for you. I’ll pass, though.

Big portions and pretty good food. The seafood stew was hearty and yummy and the falafel salad was great! Their menu has a lot of options. One of the few «restaurants» on the Ave. You’ll definitely still see a lot of characters coming in here.

Maybe it was late in the lunch hour or maybe it just doesn’t appeal to me but it was all to easy to pass up the lunch buffet just by glancing at it. I’m glad we did! The sandwich selection is fantastic. I can only speak for the steak and Brie, which was delicious and came with a good pile of what looked like fresh cut French fries. I will have to go back and experience more.
The only drawback was that our bill never came. We had to find the server to get it; which wasn’t too difficult as we were one of three tables in the place.

I’ve come here a couple times– once during the afternoon with a group and again with another person on a holiday evening after dinner. Both times I had positive experiences, but neither time did I eat their food. So this is my experience with their drinks and service only.
The restaurant is wall-​to-​wall windows so during the daytime it is very light and cheerful but at nighttime, it is incredibly dark. I actually like that kind of ambiance. I think it is great if you’re going on a date or having drinks with a small group of friends.
During my latest visit, I noticed they were severely understaffed. There seemed to be only three people working in the entire restaurant: one at the bar, one server, and one in the kitchen. When we first came in, there was hardly anyone there so service was fine but as it got busier, we had to work to get our server’s attention. I can’t really blame her for that– she had the entire restaurant to herself! But management should have planned to have more people working.
We took advantage of the $ 4 margarita drink special. I knew it wasn’t going to be the world’s best margarita at $ 4 a pop and it was definitely underwhelming when it came to flavor. It mostly tasted like cheap tequila. So even though it was cheap, it definitely was strong. I don’t know if I’d go for that again, since they have other drink specials going on as well.
If I come back and try the food, I’ll update my review but it seems like the food is the weak spot of this place. So maybe not…

It says vegetarian buffet but when I asked the waitress what was vegan and she said it all was. Most everything was delicious. I’d say take a tiny bit of everything that looks good first to try it, some stuff had very interesting (sometimes amazing sometimes not) flavor. I loved the hot curry and the green bean casserole type thing. Definitely worth the price and will definitely return.

What a find! We stopped in for dinner when staying at the University Inn and were so impressed that we returned for the lunch buffet the next day. That’s a pretty high compliment since we were only in Seattle for two nights and had a list a mile long of places we wanted to try.
There is really only one vegetarian option for dinner but it’s such a winner: a really delicious polenta with well-​seasoned vegetables (my omnivore husband admitted that he wished he had ordered it, too). The real star here is the vegetarian lunch buffet which includes 30 or so dishes, spanning the globe. I think they are very wise to stick to traditionally vegetarian dishes instead of using fake meats; everything was incredibly flavorful.
A real highlight was the mojito which was a steal at $ 5 for a pint glass (I think this was just a special through the summer, though). It was perfectly mixed and the mint was incredibly fresh. It’s about a 50-​step process to make but the nice waitress/​bartender didn’t bat an eye when I asked her for one right after she’s finished making one for somebody else.

I hadn’t come into Flowers in almost a year and I must say, they’ve improved like crazy. The salmon sandwich was phenomenal, as were my fries and salad, sides I generally eat only a few bites of. My mojito was yummy and very strong, especially for $ 5. I’ll admit, it seems their service is inconsistent. The mojitos next to me looked sad compared to mine, but if you’re nice to your waiter and order a whole meal, your experience will be phenomenal.
Place is definitely quirky, but you can’t beat good music, delicious food, and only paying $ 15 for salmon and a mojito. I’ll definitely be back.

About the dump I expected, but for some reason I wanted to give it a try.
Expensive pours considering this venue now resides in the husk of a 1980s Pet Shop Boys video. First time in a while I’ve heard of a place that makes a margarita with sour mix.
I’m not sure that eating anything here, veggie or no, is a very good idea. The appetizer assortment I had was pretty pathetic in any setting. Perhaps the veggie lunch buffet is okay, but I’ll never know.
I’d come here for the daily drink specials as there are limits to how bad a $ 4 drink can really be.
Not sure about the weirdos in this place who are always looking for someone. I suspect this venue is a front for the local street crime game as clearly no one should be eating or drinking here if they can help it.

What a waste of a star I even have to give to this place.
I typically hate writing these reviews because I go in to every place with the expectation that the food will be great and the service will be even better. It honestly doesn’t matter if the food is the best thing you’ve ever put in your mouth when the service is worse than a Mcdonalds drive thru.
We stopped in here tonight to grab dinner before hitting up a show at the Neptune. I’ve had friends rave about this place and have been meaning to try it out for years. The ramen house was closing down so we walked past Flowers and decided tonight was the night to finally test it out. When we got in there were a few tables leaving and we sat ourselves. We gave the waitress ten minutes to gather herself and wrap up her tables only to discover that she completely ignored us. I asked for menus and she said she would bring them over in just a minute and after ten minutes and grabbing waters and greeting a large party that had walked in, Erica finally came over and gave us menus.
We ordered quickly before she walked away because we were in sort of a time crunch and we didn’t know if we would see her again to actually order before she walked away. Mojito ($ 5 summer special that we learned about from the window, not from any inside info she offered us), flank steak sandwich and turkey sandwich. Okay. Go. The mojito came in about 5 minutes and 15 minutes after that still no food, no waters on the table or any acknowledgement that maybe we were ready for a second round or that my friend MAY be thirsty for that water she asked for 25 minutes prior. All the while we sit here and listen to all the drink and food specials and recommendations that Erica was offering to the other 2 large parties around us. She finally stopped by and noticed my drink was empty and offered for a second. In which I agreed and asked for our food.
Our food came shortly after and we closed our tabs and that point because again, I don’t know when I would possibly see her again before closing. The food was decent. My order was wrong but I didn’t even muster up the thought to hassle her to make it correctly because that would be another process all in itself. Instead we devoured the food and had a «manager» approach us to ask about our experience. We began to tell her how we were never greeted, didn’t know our servers name, the amount of time we had waited for everything and were in return paraded with a few empty «I’m sorry, we are really busy» replies before she scoffed at our remarks on the experience and stormed away.
Not only was this the worst dining experience I’ve had in a while, I’m impressed with the lack of care and emotion behind the business that the management team has here. I can’t fathom the idea of running a restaurant based around these practices or even treating customers that way. I didn’t ask for compensation, I didn’t complain about the food, only gave honest feedback that was asked of us and treated poorly in return.
I’m embarrassed to say we walked away paying only the bill and not leaving a penny behind because I’ve never done that in my life. But this place needs some serious turn arounds with their staff before I would ever think twice about coming in here or recommending anyone I know to come here. I don’t expect the red carpet treatment when I go out to eat, just the common courtesy to be treated the same as every other patron in the place and not profiled or ignored because I’m not in a large party of 8+ or in my older 40’s and look like I’ll tip well. I never tip less than 20%, so don’t be so quick to assume people aren’t going to give back if you treat them nicely.

Go for the cocktails — would stay away from the food.
I love this place as a bar. The couple times I’ve been now, the drinks have been nicely poured — not too heavy and not too light with a good price. The staff are attentive and pleasant. Plus, I like the atmosphere by and large. It’s a dive bar. I like that in a bar. The music on the overhead sucked. Seriously, who wants to hear hillbilly music in a largely hipster college crowd? But, I had my drinks and my book so I could ignore the bad music.
I, however, would not eat there. The first time I went was at night in Winter and food just wasn’t what we were there for. The second time was yesterday, 500pmish, warmish day — door wide open. Key point, I think. The place *swarmed* with flies and gnats/​fruit flies. You had to walk through a cloud of the fruit flies (by the place where food is made, btw) to get to the restrooms. It was gross. There are measures that can be taken. They obviously make money in this place. It’s called air conditioning! Door closed, no bugs, problem solved.
Bugs = gross and dirty = not spending a dime on food. Bad for business.

There’s very little about this place to recommend it. And there’s enough to detract from it that I can recommend against Flowers.
The atmosphere is dingy — it feels like a dive bar but without any of the charm or atmosphere or graffiti. It just feels like a low-​quality place. The drinks are alcoholic, so there’s that. Mine was a bit strong though. But the most annoying part was the pushiness of the person working the bar. While my friends were outside smoking a cigarette he came to me and told me to get my friends to come back in and get their stuff. I explained that they were smoking and he said that it didn’t matter — that I needed to get them back in. The impatience was frustrating, and so was the fact that he was making me responsible for my friends. If he wants them out can’t he go talk to them himself?
Perhaps the bartender was just having a bad day, and perhaps there were other extenuating circumstances. But there’s not enough on the positive side to make me want to come back.

Favorite place on the ave. always very friendly, comfortable service. But that’s not even the important part: best burger in town. I’ve been on the hunt, tried lots of burgers. They’ve got the best simple hamburger. And that’s not even what they’re known for; their other food is great, too. Love the ambience in Flowers. Such a great place.
I may be partial because it’s where my wonnnnnderful partner and I had our first date. But hey, great date spot.

Love the ambiance here! We stopped in on a Sunday evening when it was pouring rain and it made this dining experience sublime. All the windows line the walls of the restaurant, the mirrored ceilings, and the mid century style chairs make the dining here extra sentimental. Sit by the window if you can. Its fun to people watch or just see the puddles overflow. Their happy hour deals were strictly alcohol related with wells at 3.50 and wine at 5. My well drink was strong and the bar tender was friendly even though he was working all alone! Every thing on the menu had been appropriately priced and looked delicious.
We order the pistachio chicken sandwich along with the flank steak sandwich. Both came with fries and greens. Great portions and delicious food. I loved that they put chimichurri on the steak sandwich. I wish I saw this garnish at more Seattle establishments. Great work, Flowers! We will make your acquaintance again!

The drinks are a lil big. The mussels are delish.
The lighting is cozy with a cool tiled mirror on the ceiling and some not-​so-​fancy tile work in the hallway and it has great big windows, cushioned chairs with arm rests (unusual, no?). It makes for a mental transformation when you enter.
The servers are pretty laid back, but don’t worry, just approach the bar and they’ll take care of you.
I went on a I-​need-​to-​tell-​you-​stop-​pursuing-​me here with my fiancé before we decided to tie the knot, so it reminds me of that time when I was just so hedonistic, yet trying to resist his European, gentleman’s charm. I was so vain I snuck to the bathroom to put on more mascara and why couldn’t I stop staring at his biceps through his cashmere sweater. The drinks were strong and led me to oogling at his hair’s natural highlights, listening to the uniqueness of his Czech accent and wondering why I don’t want beautiful things like his green eyes and positive disposition in my life. We talked about our passion for traveling and even debated going to Rome together even though the purpose of the conversation was for me to make it clear that I could NOT date him. I did tell him that it would be «wildly inappropriate.» /​fail

Stay in the University District of Seattle and you will find yourself in a sea of bar food and ethnic joints. You never know what you’re going to get. Either good… or really, really bad.
So, the fiancé had business to attend to at the U of W. One night about 9pm and desperately hungry, we saw Flowers and decided to give it a try. From the outside, it looks like an old Flower shop. We didn’t have much hope when we went inside and saw the checkerboard floor and old fabric office-​looking chairs that look like they’ve been recycled from 1985.
The fiancé got a pistachio nut encrusted chicken sandwich, and I had a tuna steak with eggplant couscous. Wow, were we surprised! The food was really good! Great flavor, spices and we got a fresh spring salad on the side with an interesting dressing. I can’t even begin to describe the dressing, but I imagine it was made in house.
Flowers is definitely a case where you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. Had we not been super hungry we probably would have passed this place by. I’m glad we didn’t!