There's not many bars open in the morning in the West Seattle area but it's become a place my coworkers and I go to regularly after a rough night shift. I have never been here any other time of day so I imagine the morning crowd is quite different. Most of the people we've met there are those who also work nights or really early morning shifts. It's got a casual day time dive feel. The breakfast food is pretty basic but definitely edible. The servers are chill and friendly. Bonus: Sometimes there's still unclaimed money in the jukebox/picture booth, so we've definitely taken advantage of that to get our post work haggard semi drunk group pictures taken. read more

If you are into the greasy spoon diner thing this is your place. I've never had a bad meal at the Chelan Cafe the service can be hit or miss but it's because the waitress are talking with customers about how they've been. read more

Your typical greasy spoon diner. 3rd star is for good bacon, lack of 4th star is for mushy hash browns. Unlike the similar (or inferior) quality diner-adjacent-with-record-store at Alaska Junction, we didn't have to wait to be seated on a Sunday morning. Service was okay, and portions were generous. We may or may not return in the next 6 months at some point. It is worth noting that they have a parking lot for your pet car. read more

Good greasy spoon and strong drinks. However.... I've been here several times over the last few months and the service keeps getting slower and slower and slower. When it's not cranking busy, it should not take 10 minutes to get a menu (thank god I know what I want) and another 5 to 10 to get a cup of coffee. Ever since the owner passed away I've noticed that the food's not consistent and service is going downhill. I would hate for our neighborhood to lose this little gem. read more

I have gone here a couple times over the last two years and it gets worse every time. Today I went in during a busy sunday brunch, but they looked like they couldn't handle a full house. Service was very slow, messed up my order, food was cold, undercooked... Why have a 6 oz coffee cup if you never come around to refill? I'm done with this place for good. read more

Old town hospitality with good food at great prices!

Breakfast at the Chelan Cafe is everything you would want, excellent service, pleasant staff, good coffee, varied menu, clean. special call out for the veggie omelets and Mateo and the team making them. They are light, large, generously filled with every vegetable which are just perfectly prepared. these omelets are light and NOT greasy. Absolutely outstanding, with a sausage patty on the side, this is a breakfast to power the entire day. read more

I've been coming here for the eggs benedict on weekends off and on for a decade. This is a West Seattle institution. If you like down to earth local joints, good food and spicy servers this is a great spot. Parking is tough on weekends during the morning rush. read more

THis place has great food and great service. The breakfast menu is plain, but everything is good every time. There is never a crowd of hipsters, and the coffe is good. This is one of my favorite breakfast spots. Oh, and dont forget about the bar. read more

I love a classic greasy spoon diner w/ traditional breakfast. Good points - reasonable prices. Not so good points - overcooked eggs, cheap bread, extra greasy hash browns, no real feel of unique character... read more

Very basic old fashion. Food is good. Prices standard for Seattle. Busy but lots of tables. If you want a fancy upscale restaurant. No. But basic ambiance and a filling breakfast..this is the place read more

The food is good old American comfort food. The service has always been good for me even when it starts to pick up. The atmosphere takes you back in time on the original side of the restaurant. The parking doesn't adequately cover the expansion. It can be a pain to park. read more

My husband I went here for the first time last night and had a wonderful experience. The manager (I'm assuming) was so friendly and the food was great. What a nice, homey-feeling restaurant! We will definitely be back! read more

If you're looking for a classic american style breakfast diner where you can also get a shot of whiskey, look no further. The food is good, and best of all they know how to cook a breakfast steak. The bar is nice, good service, good atmosphere, decent prices. There are a lot worse ways to spend a morning. read more

We love this place. Good, simple food (I'm a big fan of the Corned Beef Hash) and GREAT prices. Yeah-we've had to wait on weekends. But we plan accordingly and always seem to get our table fairly quickly. It's worth it to us. read more

Average place for breakfast. Staff was not prepared for the place being half full. I asked the hostess to fill my coffee and got nothing. I had to find a busser to fill my coffee. Only got a portion of my order. I won't be back Thats for sure. read more

Ok, so it's probably too pedestrian for you, but they are nice folks and their breakfast business is brisk for good reason - great food and coffee. This is a working person's value stop for a solid meal, served by a friendly and talkative staff (once they figure out you are not an arrogant snob). read more

We love it here! The food is decent and the old, salty folks in the Ebb Tide Room provide some entertaining conversations.

I've been here three times, and every time it's been pretty busy. This third time was our last time; I'll get to that in a moment. It's a popular place for families, and is a great place to bring your kids for breakfast. The food gets four stars from me. Nothing spectacular about presentation (although the kids do get special-shaped pancakes) and nothing amazing, but pretty good in my opinion. About what I can produce in my kitchen. The first two times I had the special; I don't remember what they were, but I remember liking them and being happy that I ordered it. The service, however, gets one star. As I said, they're busy. So busy that the last two times, we've stood by the "wait to be seated" sign for five minutes while the hostess(es) are running around helping other customers. Unfortunately, both times families that have come in after us have been greeted and seated before us. I don't know if it's a racial thing or what, but there are lots of other places happy to have my business. I can take the hint; if you don't want someone who isn't white here, I'll spend my money elsewhere. read more

Normally, the Chelan offers straightfoward breakfast, decently prepared, and affordable. Good, but no frills. Not sure what happened today, but staff was harried and rushed. Food did not arrive at our table in sync. Scrambled eggs were under done and hash browns mushy. I like this place, but was disappointed today. Have other good breakfast options in West Seattle. Hopefully this was just one of those days. read more

Called in this morning to place an order for two eggs Benedict and an order of French toast. First, I was left on the line for 6 mins before someone came back to the phone, so I listened to the wait staff chat during that time. Finally somebody picked up the phone, screamed to the wait staff asking who is on the phone and for what? I took the opportunity to kinda yell, ' A TO-GO ORDER!'. I was given the opportunity to order, then after the first item was quickly being rushed off the phone. I had to interrupt her attempts to get me off the phone to give the rest of my order. I wasn't even asked my name. Anyway, was told it would be a 20 min wait. Yay! I'd been dying to try this place for a while, but at this point in a little annoyed. No big deal, we're getting food! Got to the establishment a few mins after the given ready time, but then had to wait another 10 mins in a group of people by the door waiting to be acknowledged. Literally ALL the waitresses avoided eye contact and didn't respond to being asked questions. This is a bad sign for a little place like this. I was about to walk out the door at this point, because I saw my food under the ready window of the kitchen and kept saying I had that to-go order. The waitress ( her name is Gayle) rudly snapped that the order I requested was NOT mine and that mine would be up. Okay, unless somebody else had an order which included a marked cup of hollandaise, the order had to be mine. I waited yet another 15 mins to be acknowledged again, and then had my credit cars snatched from my hand. Gayle came back with an order and tried to get me to sign the receipt. I noticed the order on the receipt was not mine, so I clarified that this was the two eggs Benny & French toast. I kid you not, she goes 'Ohhhhh! You're the eggs Benny?' Then grabs my cold food, which I'd been staring at for 25 mins (no visible heat lamp, and the food was cold once home) and charges me again. Yes, I'm the eggs Benny that you insisted I was not and snapped at me for even asking. Sorry for the rant, but oh my goodness.. This was a mess! Overall, the cold hollandaise was okay, which is why they got more than one star from me. Rude waitresses, overall meh food, and nasty wait times. Go to Luna Park! At least after the long wait, they don't treat you like garbage afterwards. I will never step foot in this establishment again. Update: I was charged for two peoples meals and was not refunded. I'll be into the establishment today and want to speak to a manager. Update #2: Scott, the owner, was absolutely the sweetest. He fully refunded me and was more than accommodating. The two waitresses there right now (5pm on a Monday) are also extremely sweet and helpful. My tip to you all? Go on a weekday and avoid Saturdays mess. Its apparently known how the waitresses act on the weekends, so avoid them at all costs. read more

My friend and I had breakfast here. There aren't many breakfast places in the north end of West Seattle and I think this is the best one close to Alki. This place was busy in the morning. We tried to find parking on the east and west lots but they were full. We had to park underneath West Seattle Bridge. We had a really nice waitress named Nancy. I really liked her joyful attitude and she was really friendly. Even though the place was packed, we didn't wait long for our food. I had an omelette and it was good. read more

This review is for their bar, the Ebb Tide Room, since it doesn't appear to be listed separately. I have ventured into this little bar a few times after work with coworkers due to it being extremely convenient. It's definitely a little rough around the edges but the people watching can be great. The bar tenders are friendly and make stiff and affordable drinks. The food is very hit or miss so I would definitely recommend sticking to normal bar fare- pizza, chicken strips, burgers etc. over trying something else like their steak which was very reminiscent of Denny's. If you wish to rub shoulders with our local longshoremen and truck drivers, definitely the place to go and you will definitely hear some great stories if you chat up the decently amicable crowd. read more

I did like the expericence of the Chelan Cafe. the service was up to speed. All of my friends have been raving about this place so I wanted to try it myself. I had the chicken fried steak and it was not bad, a little too salty but it wasnt the end of the world. The Chelan Cafe has the diner feel to it and I loved that aspect of it. I will be back real soon!!! read more

Place has really gone downhill looks like choose the cheapest option food from Sysco and the service is terrible a few years ago this place was not a bad greasy spoon maybe they can get there act together we waited for over 20 minutes to be acknowledged and the food came out in different times so all of us were looking at each other while waiting to get the rest of the order. read more

YUK. took FOREVER for the wait staff to come back to our table and even bring us menus and utensils after it took so long for them to seat us (there were tons of employees huh???) we ended up just leaving. greasy dirty gross. don't see WHAT others like about it. read more

I adore this place, it's a perfect ma & pa type diner. We love to grab a slice of their delicious pies to go at the end of our meals since we are always stuffed. They lose a star because their weekend hours suck. They close by the time I'm just waking up so we only get to go when we have a random weekday day off. read more

Great first experience at Chelan Cafe today - good food, good service, nice clean diner atmosphere. Think we have found our go to West Seattle breakfast spot. read more

If you're looking for an old school diner experience with traditional american food this is the place. I had their Country Fried Steak and had no complaints. My expectations were met for this type of dining experience. However, if you are there for their breakfast or are just looking forward for a cup of coffee, PLEASE AVOID ORDERING IT. Their coffee has been one of the worst cup of coffees I've had in my life. I couldn't even finish my first cup. I know for a fact, because of the quality, they are re-filtering their ground coffee and perhaps are watering it down. There was no amount of sugar or creamer that could mask the taste. Other than that, the staff was friendly. I would go back, but avoid their coffee. read more

Wish I lived closer to this place, love the breakfast here have tried many dishes and always good. Hash browns done right but coffee is a bit weak otherwise a good diner. read more

Good stop for brunch after church Gals give good service and fast and all over good food service and people read more

This is an OK place to eat, food is pretty plain and there wasn't anything special. Service was okay .. I wasn't very satisfied from my meal. read more

So I finally checked out the tide room (the bar attached to the Chelan Cafe) and it was pretty awesome! It's not super divey but just divey enough. Loved the fact that when we walked in, there was a guy karaoking Led Zeppelin (too bad he followed it up with Creed later, lame) and that the crowd was definitely local. The bartender was really tearing it up and was truly a one man show - bussing glasses, mixing drinks, ringing everyone up...awesome job! I would definitely come back and sing some tunes and enjoy some pull tabs! read more

My fiance and I went here last Sunday for the first time and had the best breakfast. Place was friendly and fast. I had the Country Benedict... yummy and a lot of food. He had the Western Omelet and that was good too. Very affordable and we will definetly be back. Since we have kids, I can see this becoming a new family favorite. read more

Under the bridge, classic greasy diner with greasy coffee. Breakfast is not so bad, if diner food is your thang.

If you drive by this place it looks like a little hole in the wall, but you walk in and its a roomy and inviting space. There are places for large groups but they also have an old fashioned soda fountain counter where you can relax and hang out as well. The food was great, service superb, and the retro vibe was outstanding. I like the high ceiling and open space ! Highly recommend ! I had the gravy and biscuits and it was fantastic! Coming from a Texas gal this is very high praise! read more

Food is decent, but the service is incredibly slow. The servers always seem to make you feel like you owe them something for coming in as a customer...like they are inconvenienced that you came in to the restaurant. read more

They serve a mean breakfast and the best french dip I've had to date - the waitstaff is generally worthy of a 20% tip - they're great with kids, friendly and upbeat AND they know their regulars. read more

I'd say they're pretty good. Not excellent, but decent. Food nothing amazing. I'm a person who actually LIKES gourmet breakfasts but I also like the greasy spoon kind. I prefer home fries to packaged hash browns but other than that, I've never had a bad breakfast there. read more

Went in today for a breafast since its was the only real place I could get to in the snow. Got in quickly and got a table right away. Good place to go if I'm not feeling like cooking breafast myself. Nothing extra fancy or special but just good old hearty breakfast pancakes. read more