The Bistro at Shuksan

I flew into bellingham on this friday to visit my daughter who resides in bellingham. i am celiac and was looking for restaurants whom are gluten free and found this property online and it was exquisite. We had the beets to start. very fresh and put together well with local ingredients. I was offered multiple gluten free options as well as burger buns and po boy bread. I ordered a burger of course. it was some of the best beef i have had in quite a while. the service was quick, extremely friendly and knowledgable. the pot de creme was top notch. this is a beautiful property and i recommend anyone goes and to see it. we are looking for destinations to do my daughters wedding coming up and were completely suprised when we got there one was taking place. it was very hot in the building even with the temps being in the mid seventys. we are considering booking in the future for a wedding here but our only concern is if this building has air conditioning and how hot is will actually be in the middle of summer in the building. im not sure as all the doors were open for there evening. totally recomend aside from the building temperature.

We came here for lunch on Sunday, and had the place entirely to ourselves, except for one other couple in the bar area. The place doubles as a conference center since it is located at the club house of a golf course. The view is nice, but the ambiance does not entirely feel like a restaurant. We ordered the crawfish etouffee and the gumbo for $25 each, which seemed reasonable. The service was great when the server was around. It seemed that the place was short-staffed since there was only one server/chef/host. For example, we were waiting around by ourselves for 15 minutes to be seated before I finally went back into the bar area to look for an employee. Our first set of bowls had dried onion and carrot stuck in it. We got a new set that was clean after bringing it up to our server. The etouffee and gumbo tasted good, 4.5 stars. However, 5 minutes into our lunch, we found a piece of hair in the etouffee, which damped our appetite. The entire lunch was comped and they even gave us an extra order of etouffee to go. The service is 4 stars. If they had more staff, it would have felt more like a restaurant, but I didn't mind. I liked the serenity. It just too bad that we found the dried food scrap in our bowls and the hair, which were serious issues. Otherwise, everything else was great.

Ate here after a round of golf. I think I'd come back just to eat here. Chicken sandwich was the best I've ever had!

I had high expectations for the Bistro at Shuksan. I visited in a day when the owner was offsite doing a cooking demo and there was a large party going on in the event section of the restaurant, so I will take this into consideration for my review. I had the shrimp and grits. The shrimp were perfectly cooked, but the dish was a bit blah. I love shrimp and grits, but this one was just lacking in flavor. My mom had the Beets by Matthew (skyr | fennel | housemade farmers cheese | holmquist hazelnuts). The beets were delicious but the dish felt just thrown together. Maybe it was just an off day - so I will give them another shot and hopefully can update my review.

A word on ambiance - there was none. The server, however, was very sweet.

Great food and service. Chef is gluten free so there are lots of options and little worry about cross contamination. Ambiance was better than expected based on reviews. Window table, white tablecloth, linen napins.

We live just 5 minutes away from this amazing spot and finally got to have a kid free evening to take ourselves out on a date. We called a day or 2 before and reserved an outside table by the live music..so glad we did this it was beautiful out no need for a sweater. Music was wonderful! The service was on point my only tip would be to not ask if we want the bill til our food and drink was gone, but that's it. The food was beautifully plated, the wedge salad with picked blueberries was amazing I would get it over and over again! The mushroom risotto was so good, my husband doesn't like mushrooms so I never cook with them, so it was nice to order a me meal. His dinner was amazing he thoroughly enjoyed it as well, and we ended with the strawberry basil cheesecake and I could ear that everyday I'm a suckered for cheesecake and the crust was on point literally couldn't do it any better..we will be back thanks Chef Matt for coming and seeing how everyone's meal was bravo cooking such a beautifully delicious meal!!

Tried this place one Sunday afternoon, and we were quite pleasantly surprised. The food was really good, the plating was beautiful, the service was pleasant, and the view was pretty. It is a bit "out-of-the-way" but we plan to come back for our after-church brunches again, especially as spring and summer arrive and the view will be even prettier (and maybe we can sit outside). Quick review o the dishes we tried:

BEETS: very good. (But to be honest we prefer red beets over golden beets, as they are more flavorful in our opinion.)

FRIED GREEN TOMATOES: really delicious! Getting this one again!

WEDGE SALAD: this was okay. Gotta admit, we have a favorite place for our favorite wedge salad, and we had just recently had that a week or so prior, so it would be pretty hard to please us. We probably shouldn't have even ordered it. We actually didn't care for the pickled blueberries, and the bleu cheese was a bit assertive for our taste.

OSPREY HILL FARM CHICKEN WINGS: we ordered 2 plates -- one "fish sauce" and the other "hot" and they were both good. But we especially liked the fish sauce version. Would order again.

GUMBO (or was it JAMBALAYA?): by this time, we were getting pretty full, so we ended up taking the two main dishes home to have for dinner. I can't remember what hubby said about the gumbo.

PORK CHEEKS WITH GNOCCHI (?): this is the main dish that I took home for dinner. It was really good.

CREME BRULEE: Hubby said that this was "fine."

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING: I am a sucker for this dish, and always get it when I see it on a menu. It was really yummy.

Ok pictures looked amazing! But you walk in and it's this weird retirement cafeteria vibe. Food was about the same. I had high hopes based upon reviews and pictures of food. But high priced for lack luster food. Waiters were nice but unfortunately highly don't recommend. Atmosphere was extremely strange.

Shut the front door! What the heck is great Cajun cuisine doing out at a golf course in northern Bellingham? Best jambalaya I've had in a very long time. Portions were healthy but not over the top. Good value too. Service was fantastic and the cocktails and wine were excellent. Hidden gem????. You bet! Super happy that we listened to the referral to come out here. I'd come back in a minute!

Amazing food!! Service is top notch. Everything we have tried is worth having again.