Budd Bay Cafe

Where: 525 Columbia St. NW, Olympia, 360.357.6963

Hours: 6:30 a.m.- 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday, 6:30 a.m.-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday,  9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday

Cuisine: Seafood

Scene: Casual

Drinkies: Standard non-alcoholic beverages

Prices: $10-$30

I really wanted to like Budd Bay Cafe. I have gone twice for breakfast and once for dinner, the latter an attempt to find a meal that really worked for the restaurant.

We started dinner with the chicken Parmesan, which, as far as I can tell,  consists of well prepared, mass-produced noodles. The fettuccine sauce is average; not entirely inspired, but very edible. The chicken seemed over cooked: the breading came off easily, and it inspired me to cook the dish at home. The dish is served with a piece of kale and a Roma tomato that on our trip didn't seem in season or particularly delicious - which is saying a lot because it's currently tomato season!

The sunset dinner special is available Sunday through Thursday from 4-6 p.m. The package runs $16 and includes your meal and the option of one of three dessert selections. Sadly, we thought we were getting the sunset dinner special (we were a couple minutes late but the waitress said she would honor it), but we were a little bit surprised when our bill arrived at double the cost we had anticipated. Obviously, we would have ordered differently if not for the illusion of the sunset special. We thought we were adding on the "Bay Appetizer" for $1 to our dinner special, but in the end it appears we paid full price. That said, the shrimp included in the Bay Appetizer is fresh and tastes quite wonderful with the cocktail sauce. The chowder is made well and fantastically creamy; my husband gobbled it up.

We also enjoyed the lightly seared ahi tuna appetizer with sesame seeds and a teriyaki-horseradish sauce. This is one dish I think is especially worthy at Budd Bay; it is delicious and beautifully plated and presented. 

The moral of the story is that when dining at Budd Bay Cafe you should go with the seafood. In my humble opinion it's your best bet. There's the view, of course, which puts picturesque Percival Landing on display, but the seafood is really where it's at.

However, a note: the dinners are spendy. A small salad will run you about $13, and a full one is about $20, which seems a little bit pricey for a salad - even with seafood. A regular Caesar salad and a Cajun Caesar are featured and both include treats from the sea. The steaks range from $17 to $30, and the highlighted salmon dishes average about $23. There are about 32 wines, plus about seven featured selections.

On the kid front, my son loved the chicken Parmesan and the crème brûlée. The crème brûlée is good, though a little well-done. Still, that didn't stop my 2 year old from wanting "more, more, more."  He (and we) also appreciated the fact dinner for young ones comes with a little kid pack of waxy bendable things from Wind Up Here toy store. The fun pack includes a coupon for $3 off at the well-known Fifth Avenue toy store as a thank-you for dining and shopping locally. The décor at Budd Bay Cafe is really kid friendly too - there's a big ocean scene on the wall, including plenty of fish (appropriate) and nautical birds.

When we first visited Budd Bay Cafe we went for breakfast - which was  tasty at times, but in all fairly average. The Dungeness crab cakes and eggs Benedict seemed like safe bets, and the crab cakes were good, but not amazing. I guess, after trying the crab cakes from Olympia Seafood Company, I'm pretty biased when it comes to good crab cakes. The eggs Benedict is also serviceable, but I generally find hollandaise is not as lemony as I would like, being on the buttery side of things instead. At Budd Bay it's definitely the latter. Both dishes came with hash browns and toast.

In all, we definitely weren't blown away by the breakfast at Budd Bay Cafe. This restaurant has its strengths, like the above-average seafood, but it's also run of the mill in several categories. That said, there aren't many places for breakfast in Olympia, so it's nice to find one that gets the job done, which is certainly something you can say about this spot overlooking Percival Landing. If you just want a good hot breakfast you can count on, Budd Bay will deliver.

Or, if you're in the mood for seafood.