Munchbar

Well a murderous thug, ruined everything. Thanks asshole. Think of all the people that lost their job because of your insecurity issues, a handgun, and a skank.
Go rot in Hell dick.
To the Munchbar owners… have better security… IDIOTS!

RIP Munchbar.
I rarely do reviews on clubs.
I had more bad nights than good nights here. Drinks was always too expensive. think Vegas pricing and service to be slow. The menu was revamp couple of times but never impress with the mini grilled chesse sammies, crispy mac n’ cheese bites or sweet potato fries, but it got better especially the burgers.
It struggle to find it’s identity in the beginning with a piano bar /​club scene /​sports bar /​lounge /​restaurant –bar.
The crowd was always on the stuck up side but the girls alway look nice and the staff is beautiful especially the vip bottle service ladies.
During Friday nights, my friends did a nice job promoting here but it was called Mirror Ultra Lounge… still not able to save this place.
The music was always good and the staff did a good job of treating me right during the times I got bottle service here. I still do not like the bottles which we paid for being lock up and only being pour by our server… more a WA thing than a fault to this place.
After Christmas Eve a fatal shooting in the early morning left one person dead. Police caught the suspect and his girlfriend. Soon after, Munchbar/​Mirror announced that that the restaurant-​bar would not reopen as it would be «best for the community, guests and the families involved.»
I did have some good times here. RIP Munchbar.

Food was good.
Thai BBQ popcorn chicken — 4stars
Grilled cheese appetizer — 3.5 stars
Garlic French Fries. — 4 stars
Watched the UFC fights here. We got reservations around noon and were told we were lucky as reservations are usually about a month in advance.
The staff made sure we had a table with a view prior to arriving which was nice. 4 stars for that.
The sound was a problem though. Feedback frequently occurred. A guy in a suit would walk over and pretend he knew what he was doing until it went away but it frequently came back. — 1 star for that douchbaggery.
Lastly as the main event approached music was progressively getting louder from some near by club. At times louder than the fights. I’ve never watched UFC to techno before but now that I have I can’t say I liked it.
DRINKS — 4 stars

Went into Munchbar after work for a quick bite and this place sure does have a great feel to it. The prices are competitive, even more so during happy hour. The food tastes very fresh and the menu variety is pretty nice. They offer build your own burgers and the base price and included toppings seem to be a great value for $ 9.95 plus tax, something I will be sure to try next time!
The chicken quessedia was bursting full of flavor, of decent portion size and had a wonderful sauce to dip in. The price is $ 8.00, which is inline for what places like Applebees would charge, but the quality and ambiance of the establishment is so much higher at Munchbar. As others have stated though, the service is still where Munchbar lacks greatly. During lunch hours, I think the staff still thinks they are only a night club and that restaurant service is not important, very sad… The service is the reason I WILL skip Munchbar more frequently then not and head over to Pearl at the Westin instead… Little things like how long it takes to check out, that the server never checked if my meal was good (which it was though) and things like immediately when the check was delivered, I set my credit card down in front of the server, yet it took over five minutes to pick it back up to process…
Food, Prices, Location, and ambiance is 5 stars
Service is 2 stars as no one was rude though
Combined Unilocal comes in at 3, its A-​OK, but not something I would say I am a fan of as Unilocal would say…

3.5 stars
Z’Tejas had too long of a wait for happy hour so we came here for happy hour.
Pleasantly surprised by the HH drink & food selection and prices. And how the place looked in the light. Very classy lounge. I had only previously been at night when it was a dimly lit nightclub environment.
I got an organic lager, which was quite delicious, and shared some nachos with a friend. As you may have caught on from my reviews I am a HUGE nacho lover and these didn’t disappoint. Only issue I had was the low table, that was in between a set of booth seats, was pretty far out of reach so I had to heavily lean forward when I wanted any nachos.
Service was friendly for our large group. I would recommend stopping by for happy hour moreso than later at night when it’s crazy packed, loud and dark.

I’ve had bad experiences at the Munchbar in Bellevue before, but my friend and I decided to give it one last shot, unfortunately we got the same server, Jamie C. I didn’t think it was possible, but she was actually worse this time. So much so that I was compelled to write this review.
After being seated, the hostess asked what we wanted to drink and then 10 minutes later someone showed up with the iced tea. Really? Did they have to brew it fresh? Mind you, it was around 5 pm and the place was empty except for 2 other parties of 2 and a few people at the bar. Finally our server managed to tare herself away from what must have been a very interesting conversation with the bartender and come see how we were doing. I guess it didn’t occur to her that we would want to order food, despite us sitting in the restaurant section with menus, so we had to catch her as she started to leave to tell her that we were ready to order. At this point it was almost 13 minutes since we’d been seated. Good thing we weren’t hungry. Oh wait, we were.
Jamie than went back to her conversation at the bar. While we waited for the food, we emptied our glasses and again, waited. I’m sure they would have stayed that way if we hadn’t managed to flag down the busboy (I’m only assuming that was his job, it wasn’t very clear, but he definitely wasn’t a server) who promptly refilled our drinks.
Finally our burgers arrived with cold fries. I’m wondering if the food had been ready for a while but Jamie was too preoccupied with her engrossing conversation at the bar to notice. The food was delivered by the busboy who then told Jamie it had been delivered, I’m assuming that’s what he told her because of the look of annoyance on her face as she, once again, was forced to tear herself away from the bar to do her job.
I could keep going with the complete lack of service, but I think you get the picture. I bused tables when I was in high school and waited tables when I was in college, so I understand a certain lack of attention when things are busy, but there was no excuse for this other than pure incompetence.

To preface: This was NOT during the bar/​club time. This was a Friday lunchtime outing, so my experience may not be like a lot of the others.
We were a group of 7, and they seated us immediately. It was pretty empty. We were told that our server was just starting that day, but that they’d keep an eye on her. Absolutely no issues… except my boss’s burger was the last one to come out. Oops. The fry trio was excellent, the wings were very tasty, and my truffle mac and cheese was very yummy. It wasn’t the least bit truffley, but for regular mac and cheese it was good.
All in all, I did enjoy my experience, and I’d definitely be back. Be sure to check out the lounge in the back. It wasn’t open, but those couches looks so nice!

Why would I come here despite ALL the horrible reviews? Because my friend who is moving wanted to check it out, and he knew how bad it was too. I guess we’re gluttons for pain.
First off, poor service. It was relatively empty and our server took forever to get to our table. Even after we ordered, she disappeared. Waters didn’t get refilled and no check ups for the people who wanted to order more.
Lastly, they stated that an automatic 18% gratuity will be added for parties 8 or more. We had 8 people, but only 6 people ordered food, the other two didn’t even ask for water. When the checked arrived, yup, 18% gratuity for terrible service.
The only thing saving the experience for me was that the western burger was decent. This will probably the first and last time I eat at Munch Bar.

The décor at Munchbar is so tacky. They’re trying so hard to be fashionable but failing miserably.
No comment on service or food as we only stopped in for a quick drink before lunch.

Attended a team morale event at Munchbar during happy hour. Hadn’t been here until this event. My first impression was that this spot was quite massive. Makes sense since this becomes a Vegas style club in the evening. During the daytime, it is a restaurant/​lounge.
The space has an upscale feel to it. I like the graphic art on the walls. There is even a chalkboard wall to draw on. Though it seems weird to see kids here during a happy hour as it feels more like an adults only type spot.
My group hung out at one of the VIP booths. If you are sitting in this area, they card you even if you are not ordering a drink. I hear that after it becomes a club at night, they charge a lot of cash to sit in this area. Not sure if it is worth it on a weekday evening, as the place was not particularly happening at around 5 pm. It did seem to pick up at 7 pm however as I left.
Our group practically ordered almost everything on the happy hour menu. I tried a few things including the tater tots, chicken & waffles and chicken quesdailla. For a drink I got a beer named Irish Death as the first two beers I requested were out.
The tater tots were good and tasted like I would expect to them taste. Nice that there are several dipping sauces to use, not just one. The chicken & waffles was okay. Everyone was going gaga about this offering, but I thought it was alright. The chicken just didn’t do it for me. Not crispy enough for me. The chicken quesadilla was okay as well. Nothing out of the ordinary. The food here is typical happy hour fare that are crowd pleasers, but perhaps not as exciting as other happy hours in the area.
As for the beer, the Irish Death which is a dark brown colored beer turned out to be a good choice. And the size of the beers here are huge at 20 ounces served in a large and heavy mug.
Definitely learned a bit more about the people that I work with everyday. And one thing not to do. Don’t agree to anything when you have got to go to the john. That beer definitely went through my system real fast. When I returned, I came back to a chaser of whiskey and pineapple juice sitting in front of me to down.
Never had whiskey before, but it actually tasted nice. But then again I didn’t down it in one gulp. Yes, I am a sipper. Thank goodness I didn’t stay much longer and thank goodness they don’t have karaōke here. I would have probably done a silly rendition of «Low» or gotten into some other Vegas type transgression.
For happy hour I think this place is good. It has a lot of space so it can accomodate a large group. Plus the food is comfortably safe and crowd pleasing.

Dislike: My first experience here was with a large group, probably about 20 of us. This did not make for a good experience, being that our waitress did not collect our orders in a timely manner. I’ve let her know that I wanted to pay ahead of time so that I can leave early and that did not go according to plan as well. I’ve ordered the mini grilled cheeses (not impressive), sweet potato fries with roasted garlic aioli (it is what it is) and the crispy mac n’ cheese bites (4 cheese, black truffle mayo). the only thing that makes this dish wonderful is the idea that it’s deep fried mac and cheese and that their mayo includes black truffle. i’m obsessed with truffle so i think this might add a .75 star to their already .25 of a star ranking that i’m giving them.
It took a very long time for the rest of the dishes to arrive.
oh. and another thing.
HAIR.
LOTS and LOTS of hair .My girlfriend found a hair in her sandwich. She ALSO found another hair. FRIED into her FRENCH FRY.
HOWWWWWWW the hell does that happen?
Second visit: Came with a friend. Sat at the bar. Made sure to have eaten a hearty meal ahead of time. nuff said.
Third visit: Came with a friend for Happy Hour. He was visiting out of town and HE suggested this place, and i did NOT want to be that ‘snooty little food critique who thinks everything tastes like shit’ so i agreed to meet him there. Since it was right after work, i was severely famished and decided to make the leap to order something. I ordered the crispy mac n’ cheese bites just to be safe. no hair. i survived. i wanted to save a little money so i ordered the wells whiskey for $ 4. not a good idea. i ended up not drinking it then spending another $ 10 on a not so much better premium whiskey.
i think the great thing about munch bar is that they have super cheap food and drinks during their happy hour. so if you don’t care what you eat or drink. then this place is DEFINITELY for you :)
Ambiance: interesting. Website: sucks. Menu: kinda cluttered.

Came here because New Boyz was making an appearance/​performing, oh I’m sorry I meant I came here because lack of ticket sales for New Boyz, they (Munchbar) said that Big Sean & Too Short were going to perform too.
When we got there, the little black light board above the check-​in desk said «FEAT: TOO SHORT & BIG SEAN.» they erased after they saw me & a bunch of people taking pictures of the board, sketchy sketchy Munchbar. Didn’t think anything of it. OH! They check the crap out of your ID, he like mean-​mugged my ID for a good 5 mins! Just sayin’
It was my first time here & the way they had the place set-​up, if you don’t have a booth you don’t have a place to sit.
The bartender hooked it up though. We got a couple rounds of Crown. She poured doubles the whole time & just said «oops.» I guess we tipped her good. Their lemon drops were AMAZING!
The bathroom is somewhat confusing. When I went to go wash my hands. I found it difficult to located where the water was suppose to come out of. Since it’s motion detected & there’s no visible spout. Apparently now, they made it SUPER classy & put painters tape where the spouts are located making it easier to figure out where to place your hands, very classy Munchbar.
OH, how was Too Short & Big Sean’s performance you ask? OHHH, that’s right they never performed. In fact, Twitter made it easy to find out that it was a lie when Big Sean tweeted that he was Portland… MAINE! Liar, liar, pants on fire! Shame on your Munchbar.
New boyz did perform if that’s what you call a performance, no wonder they had to put Big Sean & Too Shorts name on the line-​up because NEW BOYZ, you suck. Big time!
Haven’t been back since.

Was a little weary due to the Unilocal Rating, but this place was fun! The crowd was considerably better looking and definitely much more classy than Downtown.
I was introduced to Scooby Snacks — green shots, that taste bomb!
Music was fun, but lots of remixes!

My girlfriend had her birthday dinner here this past weekend and she was REALLY excited. Sadly, she didn’t get the experience she was hoping for.
Service: I am hoping it’s because it was a holiday weekend and they were planning on not having very many customers as there was only one server for the entire restaurant. Needless to say, the service left a LOT to be desired. She was nice enough, but not attentive at all. It was a REALLY long wait between cocktails and an even longer wait to have our orders taken. Since we had a big group there was an automatic 18% gratuity. I get it — just give me service that I would have tipped 18% on!
Food: I have to say — my salad was DELICIOUS and my husband was a fan of his burger. That’s about where the compliments stopped. They have what they call ‘Munchies” which are basically appetizers. Well, for the price, I would hope you’d get more then 6 mac and cheese bites, or a small ramekin of artichoke dip. They have a deal where you can get any three munchies for $ 18. The waitress say they’re a quarter of the size of the regular order — so you do the math. You basically get less then a full munchie order for twice the price. How does that work?
Drinks: $ 6.50 for your basic domestic (Miller Lite, PBR) and $ 7.50 for the more expensive brands. $ 26 for a pitcher. That was NOT a typo — $ 26! They had specialty cocktails which are super small (shortish thin glass). My friends cocktail was gone in three sips. Adiós $ 9.
I understand Bellevue is supposed to be hip and trendy and cutting edge. I get it. Just give me my money worth. Is that too much to ask?

No wonder this place only has two and a half stars.
The graffiti décor is awful. The service is awful. Those girls just stood there and flirted instead of making drinks. And it was a Thursday night so it wasn’t crowded at all. I finally waved another bartender over and she was not very nice either. I guess I really interrupted her shameless flirting. Also my vodka-​red bull was something like $ 7.80. Hah!
I’m giving this 2 stars because the bathrooms are cool, there’s a dance floor (though no one was there on a Thursday night) and I want to like it because Bellevue desperately needs a night life scene. Oh! The bathroom attendant lady was nice (pretty much their only nice employee)…

One star up until the reason I went to Munchbar in the first place: TABLE TOP S’MORES! They get a star just for that! We just wanted a few bites of food and weren’t really hungry, so it seemed like the perfect time to try this place and it was probably an off time for the establishment too.
Going to this place should probably be for those looking to get drunk on pricey alcoholic beverages and then just have some munchies as an afterthought. Unfortunately, we went hoping the food would be better than we thought, and it wasn’t. We ordered a «munchbox» which was 3 of the small munches all of which were not very good (popcorn chicken was dry, overly breaded; the slider was the best of the 3, I did like the brioche bun!; the taco thing was just wrong… I think it almost made me sick as I started to feel kind of queasy).
We had lots of fun with the s’mores and even imagined how much more fun they’d be if surrounded by drunken friends playing with fire! You get a little «hibachi», marshmallows, chocolate fudge, graham crackers and even rocky road ice cream — fun and yum! One order of s’mores is good for 2 people for those curious.

Eh. Came here to catch the last part of a playoff game. Missed happy hour so for dinner we had the munch burger and the chicken burger.
Food wise– it’s decent, but certainly not anywhere worth the $ 12.50 for the burger and $ 14.50 for the chicken burger. You’re basically paying an extra $ 4 for presentation.
Add in a beer at $ 7 and the total for a burger and beer was a whopping $ 22 BEFORE tip.
Service wise– it was pretty good except our waiter was a bit slow. I had to ask 2x for lemon slices and it took a while before he realized we were ready for the bill.
Would I come back? Maybe. The graffiti wall paint and purple lights might not be my thing, but the booths are comfortable and there are many tv’s to watch sports events.
But would I come back here with the intention of eating dinner? Nope.

Negative stars.
That is what Munchbar deserves.
After reviewing my credit card statement and seeing that for some reason I was charged a mere $ 3 for my meal, I decided to call the friend I dined with to make sure he wasn’t charged for everything… Turns out he was charged for our whole meal, and I was randomly charged $ 3.
Receipt in hand, I called Munchbar.
«Ooooo… Sorry about that. Unfortunately a Manager will have to help you and they aren’t here.»
I gave all the information to the woman who answered the phone and she promised someone would call within the hour.
One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six hours go by… I decide to call back.
Me: «Yes, hi! I need to speak with a Manager please.»
Girl: «What’s it regarding?»
Me: «I’m a customer who would like to speak to a manager.»
Girl: «The Manager won’t come to the phone unless I tell him what it’s about.»
Me: «I was undercharged, and my friend was overcharged and I need to get this fixed.»
Girl: «Yeah, that keeps happening, our computers have a lot of bugs.»
OMG! Really?!
*Manager gets on phone*
After a little back and forth, he asks for my credit card which I didn’t feel like providing him since WHEN THEY HAD IT IN THEIR HAND they couldn’t use properly. I asked him to possibly call his corporate office and retrieve it. He said «if you won’t give it to me, I can’t help you».
(Guess what? I called the corporate office and it is retrievable).
To make a long story short — we finally got it all squared away… On 03/​28/​2011, a month and a half after I’d eaten there.
This place is awful. Do not come here

You know, I’m not sure if people are determined to hate this place before they go in or what, but I can honestly say that people are overreacting.
Here’s the scoop.
I came here on a Friday night. It was SLAMMED, it was loud, and you know what??? Maybe service wasn’t the best (maybe because of how busy they were) but the food was tasty, the drinks were decent, and the music was GREAT!
As someone who doesn’t frequent the nightclub scene, especially in Bellevue, I was really quite pleased with my experience here. Sure it wasn’t the best experience of a lifetime but why are people knocking down a brand new business? Don’t we all know they have kinks to work out? Considering that, considering the atmosphere was fun, the music was great, the food was better than your avg greasy bar food, then what more could I have asked for?
Now let’s talk about lunchtime. I came through to give this spot another shot at another time on another day and had a fabulous experience. It was suggested I try the burrito, so I did. It was ok but the waiter raved about the burgers (a friend told me to try the burrito) and boy was that waiter right! I had them split the bleu cheese and bacon burger so I could try the burger too. It blew my mind. I think I may have only ever had one or two burgers in my life that could compare. I was shocked! Red Mill has NOTHING on this burger! I also loved the presentation and the show string fries. Now, I don’t go to Bvue often at all but if I am on the other side of the bridge I’ll probably be tempted to stop back in for that same burger.
Since it was the afternoon all of the tables were back in place (they remove them at night to make room for a dance floor) and little kids were encouraged to draw with chalk on the chalkboard walls. What a neat idea. During the day it’s a family friendly lunch spot and at night it’s 21+. They really do pull it off! It’s unique, it makes Bellevue more fun and it gives that sleepy town something to do past 9pm when everything else is closed. What’s not to like?

GOD AWFUL!!! that does not even begin to describe how terrible the food/​drinks are.
shucked shots: cocktail sauce slush tastes exactly like slush minus the cocktail sauce & horseradish cream wow, tastes nothing like horseradish.
crispy mac n’ cheese bites: made with four cheeses… where? how? tastes nothing like cheese its BLAND BLAND BLAND!!! and the black truffle mayo tastes no different from the roasted garlic aioli that came with the sweet potato fries, which quality is also lower than one of the frozen section isle in your local supermarket.
cherry limeade: disgusting & has no alcohol in it.
everything else we had, well based on what I’ve written so far you get the gist of it. Honestly, who do they think they are to serve us such subpar food. Coming from Vegas I understand if all the drunk people there had no standards or palette to discern good food from not, but this is just sad. Not to mention the prices are ridiculous for the kind of food they are serving, with no happy hour at that. I could get better bar food at applebees, for cheaper too. I can’t even say im paying for the ambiance, coz the décor is just distracting&playful.
I appreciate the whole concept of Munch Bar making a modern pub and bringing in good ingredients to the table, however there are far too many gastro-​pubs in this town, that actually take pride in the quality & taste of their food. I really thought Munch Bar would be a great new addition to the greater Bellevue/​Seattle area, but it just turned out to be quite BLAND for my taste. What a shame.