Red Bicycle Bistro & Sushi

Best bar on Vashon Island. I’m not a local just happened upon it by luck while driving around the island.

The only reason I even came to Red Cycle Bistro & Sushi was because I looked at the website for Vashon Island Brewing, also known as Cliff’s Beer and they had this place listed.
Since Cliff’s does not have their own taproom on Vashon they produce and distribute their product to about three places on the island, the ferries and one or two places in Seattle and Olympia. I figured I could get a good sampling of this Cliff’s Beer by going to Vashon. That theory did prove to work out and we went to all three places that served it on the website’s list.
Here they had an IPA from Cliff’s that I haven’t had before and so I ordered that. As a light snack we ordered a couple of sushi rolls. While the service was decent the food and beer just didn’t live up to par. Red Bicycle was my third and last stop for Cliff’s Beer and I already knew it was quite good but this beer tasted flat, flat flat! I’m not sure if that was intentional since some beers are supposed to be flat but I would think a disclosure would have been made.
Maybe the staff didn’t know that much about the beer and maybe that could slide but the sushi wasn’t really all that fresh either which was a disappointment. They do a kind of Asian Fusion deal with some of their sushi. I got the «Mexican» while Steve got a more traditional roll and both were not as fresh as they could have been so it wasn’t a matter of inconsistent quality on one menu item over another.
Meh. I’ve had better.

Came in the afternoon, and the waitress was so sweet! The french dip was a bit grisly, but the tuna poki salad was amazing!

I have been meaning to write a review since my visit here in the summer. If I could give a zero star, I would.
1. Poor service and uncaring waitress should have been the first clue.
2. Food order coming out in shifts even at 6 with only three other tables. Fish chips came out promptly and sushi was over hour later, even though there was ONE sushi order before ours. Fish order was eaten while my spouse had to wait for one roll over hr later. Asking the waitress, when we did flag her down got a curt reply, «he is working on it» …how do I know there was only one sushi order before ours… I took a walk around at looked at the orders and there was one sushi order. So, eating in shifts and poor sushi coordination and waitress not telling us made for a poor rating. I did not see any take out order for sushi either
3. Quality of food. Fish was greasy and no flavor. Sushi was grocery store grade. Grade of C… at best… lots of fake krab
4. Waitress seemed to not like her job. Poor service and didn’t get out water refills. We wanted dessert but at 7:30 and her disappearance most of the time, we forgo on it… do they hire folks who don’t care about their jobs or the customers?
5. Sushi chef was not smiling and didn’t seem like he wanted to be there. His general demeanor showed he must hate his job or would rather have his wisdom teeth pulled than make sushi orders. I saw him make our order and it was slow and a few breaks.
How this place stays in business is beyond me. Maybe the locals are willing to have sub par sushi and slow service since they are trapped on the island?

We have eaten here before and it was decent but the last visit was one of the worse dining experience in my life. Three of us went at 6 on last Friday night (9÷11÷2015) and there was about six tables of folks, some had food and some just seated. We ordered a burger and two chef sushi special, nine pieces and lemonade and a beer. And miso soup. The waitress said the food may come out in shifts… as there are two kitchen… well, I have worked in the restaurant trade for years and learned to stagger my orders so the food would, come out close to each other. I can understand if there is a little delay but it was over 90 min ties between the two meals… really? The place was not busy when we got there so there is no excuse
Apparently not here. Customer service is non existent. We got our soups and my friend got her burger in ten minutes and we waited and waited for our sushi. A table sat down and gave their sushi order, well after we ordered, got their meal and left within an hour. 90 minutes passed and no dinner and meanwhile my friend who got her burger was done eating.
The band had set up as it was close to 8 by this time. And was doing the sound checks… we were about three feet from the speakers and it was loud… no sushi. and she had forgot about us and the refills on the Lemonade after she gave us one refill. we tried to flag her down but she refused eye contact… I went up to ask at the sushi bar several times about our sushi and got… he is working on it… meanwhile other folks who had arrived after us got their sushi, maybe as it was smaller orders? What happened?
So close to 8, we finally got our sushi and ate it in less than ten minutes as the band was doing louder sound checks… it was horrible that it took close to two hours for our meals, and being ignored by the waitress. We asked for separate checks and she couldn’t even do that right. Lack of service, sushi taking 90 minutes while other sushi order were done, waitress disappearing and not giving refills or caring make this this a one star… oh yea, the sushi was ok, nothing grand, just medium type of sushi… don’t recommend as they don’t care about you at all… waitress never came back as asked how the food was… just dumped it and left. Burger was good though. Do not recommend unless you want to wait FOREVER for your sushi… and poor service.

Still a regular hangout for me and my kiddo, even now that we’re island residents (probably more so!). Service is slow, especially in the evenings when they’re packed, but I know this ahead of time and plan accordingly!
Still a great place to grab a bite, have a cold beer, nosh on decent sushi (no, it’s NOT equivalent to the best in Seattle quality, but remember too you’re on an island and the fact that we have it at all makes this Fish Fanatic very happy, also I’d argue that 80% of sushi IN Seattle ain’t that great either), and/​or see a great band in the evenings.
If you’re in a rush, I definitely recommend eating here for lunch instead of dinner, or at least come in early for dinner (no later than 6p or you’re gonna be waiting awhile, especially for sushi as there is only one chef handling those myriad fish orders). Sushi is NOT served on Wednesdays.
The kids menu is still the best value on the island. They get an entrée, a drink, and dessert (sorbet or ice cream cup). Drink refills are free. Price is about $ 7 on average, which is awesome for parents who are sick of paying $ 10+ and having their kids eat all of one bite before pushing it away.
Yes, the decore is tired and shabby. Yes, the paint colors are horrendous, yes it’s hotter than an oven inside on a hot day (no AC, no fans). You can complain, or you can suck it up like the locals and have a cold adult beverage to cool off, kick back and enjoy the ride.

Passable food. Ordered a hamburger and the bun was dried out and crumbly. Service was slow and no refills offered on the sodas. They automatically added a gratuity. Won’t be going back.

How does this place stay open? Temperamental sushi chef, stressed out waitress,
so-​so food. Given it three tries and won’t return. One order of sushi arrived long after the rest of our party had finished their burgers! While we were waiting the sushi chef was nowhere to be seen. Then finally the order appeared only to just sit on the counter undelivered.
The last time we ate here the sushi chef was peeved at someone and left the restaurant! No excuse for this weirdness. This sushi chef should be fired and the restaurant closed. Give someone else a chance to open a new place here and run it the way a restaurant should be run.

Yeah… no. Wow, really? They call this a restaurant. Haha. Just because you have an Asian guy making food doesn’t make that sushi, either. Unless you are dying from dehydration and need a pint of beer, you are better off elsewhere.

20+ beers on tap and regular live music! We went here on a Saturday night and it was packed! We loved the atmosphere and enjoyed the variety of fresh good beer.

Yes. The Sushi is good. But it’s probably a bad idea to order off the regular menu and the Sushi menu in the same meal because you never know what’s going to come out first. Both times we’ve done this and our waitress has tried to time the sushi so that it comes out at the same time as the regular menu food. She says the Sushi chef runs his own show and it’s hard to get him to be in sync. The first time the sushi came out long after our other stuff, this time a loooong time before the Portobello burger which was my item so I had sit there watching my wife eat her sushi.

Short story:
Drunk staff? Check! Awful service? Check! Mayonnaise on sushi? Check, please!
Long story:
One of the employees was stumbling drunk around during the whole meal. The main waitress made comments on it but he stuck around the whole time turning a bad meal into a sad joke.
When we entered and sat at the bar, we were not greeted. The server noticed us and told us nothing as we looked around unsure about where to sit. She asked one of the other staff to get us menus and water, which he did, placing the menus beside us without a single word. In fact, none were exchanged at all until we got our check. No napkins, no silverware, no refill, no inquiry as to if we would like anything else to drink (we did). Abysmal. The sushi chef kindly asked us what we would like, and we ordered from him.
The sashimi was good. The two other rolls were not as described, and one even had a sauce so suspiciously flavored like mayonnaise, that I started looking around for the Candid Camera crew. Unthinkable.
We asked the sushi man if he would tell the others we wanted to place a drink order. They never responded. He said goodnight and shook our hands, and we were all of a sudden abandoned by the one caring being in the restaurant with nothing else to observe but the drunken, cackling, arguing staff half-​assing it.
Maybe this is a case of expectations of a sushi restaurant not being met. Maybe! Hahahahaaa just kidding. This dining experience was unforgettable in the worst sense of the word. The sushi man had a cup for tips, and we wish we had tipped him before he left. He was the only one who did anything beyond acknowledging that we were alive.

If I could give this place zero stars, I would.
I love food and I love trying new restaurants. I read an article in the New York Times that mentioned this place so I assumed that it would be at the very least, decent. Wrong. First of all, the look and feel of this place did not give me confidence in their sushi, which was what I wanted, so I ordered a burger instead. However, my boyfriend ordered sushi. He and I then waited a full 30 minutes for our drinks and another ten for water. After 45 minutes, still no food but the waitress assured us it was coming. We were very hungry after a day of sightseeing but we were patient, especially given that there was only one waitress for seven or eight full tables, far too many tables for one person to handle.
As we waited, we noticed that the order for a table close to us had been mixed up and that the table had consumed the food erroneously given to them. We feared that this was our food and since we had already been waiting for an hour at that point, we feared that we would have to wait another hour for our meals to arrive. This wasn’t the case and our food arrived just after an hour wait. Great, we thought. Finally. But there was a catch. Both of our orders were wrong, especially my boyfriend’s order: he asked for nine pieces of sushi and got only five. My order was only mildly screwed up — I asked for no onions on my burger and got onions, I asked for mushrooms and got none, and I asked for balsamic dressing and got creamy italian (they said they were out of balsamic).
We complained to the waitress, who was very polite and was trying to make the best of a bad situation, and she said she couldn’t bring more sushi because the sushi chef left for the night at 8:30 pm. I decided to speak to the manager. When I got to the bar, I was treated to listening to the bartender, Tony, as he yelled at our waitress. He was cursing at her and treating her in an abusive way; she was trying to defend herself and looked like she was going to cry. He seemed oblivious to the fact that a customer was listening to him. It was sad to watch.
I interrupted him to ask if I could speak to the manager. He said the manager was not present and that he was the one in charge. I told him the situation and asked for our meal to be comped. Meanwhile, a man seated next to me at the bar listened to the exchange, smirking and chuckling as he did so. Tony offered to buy us drinks to compensate for our dinner, which I refused.
Long story short, the waitress ended up comping our meal. The icing on the cake — as it turned out, the manager, Wilson, was the gentleman who was smirking at the bar. He followed us out of the bar to speak to us, claiming he wanted to hear what customers think. He really didn’t need to ask. First of all, I had already made myself pretty clear and second of all, he’d have to be in a coma to not realize that his restaurant sucks and would be better off if it were run by a team of monkeys. He ended his conversation with us by sarcastically saying, «I’m so sorry you had such an awful night.» Right. A little more icing, we saw Wilson yelling at our poor waitress as we drove off, blaming her, I’m sure, for his own incompetence. What an awful place to eat and what an awful place to work.

Three stars is about right. Had the burger. And clam chowder. Nothing spectacular. Great service even though we had a large party. Good beer selection.
Food. Ok
Cleanliness. Ok
Service. Great
Rest rooms C– C being average

Great ambiance, and the sushi was pretty good.
Service was a bit slow but it was a lazy Sunday anyway.

My husband and I are new to the island and we wandered into town for our anniversary dinner. The atmosphere was inviting and comfy and the server was friendly.
The menu held various sandwiches and types of burgers, some fish and chips and also an extensive sushi/​sashimi menu.
My husband ordered sashimi, miso soup, seaweed salad and I ordered sushi. So far, so good.
My husband’s soup was brought out. We were chatting along, relaxing, looking forward to our food.
Sooo…our order had been placed around 7:30PM. 8:00PM…no seaweed salad, no sashimi, no sushi. Our waitress told us that they were very busy for a Monday and the sushi chef was going as fast as he could. Also, our order was last in line. About 8:15ish…there was only one more sushi order ahead of us. About 8:25, the sushi chef was working on ours.
At about 8:30, the waitress comes to us to tell us that the sushi chef is refusing to make our order because he has a ferry to catch. Sounds like good business to me.
We were a bit taken aback, but were both hungry and generally trying to make the best of it, so the waitress brought us the menu again and we ordered from the kitchen side. It was finished in maybe 10 minutes, tops.
The saving grace for this restaurant, in this case, was the servers who were obviously very busy but also very friendly.

I had never been to Vashon Island before, until one day I rode my bike to the ferry dock in Tacoma and hopped aboard. Vashon sucks for bike riding, but that’s not the point.
My first stop was the bike in the tree and then the Red Bicycle Bistro & Sushi. I was greeted quickly and served a PBR cold. My brain was telling me sushi, but my gut was telling me wings. I had rode from the ferry dock to this place and had worked up an appetite. I went with wings and devoured a plate. Generic at best, but on an island options are limited.
I’d go back to this large, dark and friendly place.

Good for a bite to eat. Not the best in town. Not great service either. I have never tried the sushi but I bet it’s good!
The bartender is great. Thursdays is ladies night so cheap drinks :) however, it’s a typical dive bar and can have some real creepy guys so watch out.

A small dive. Known by another name by the locals. Bishops
It’ll also likely get a few eye-​rolls when if you mention that they have sushi.
And honestly don’t expect much when it comes to their sushi.
Though, if you’re hard pressed, it’s really not THAT bad. Just really similar to what you’d expect to get if you got FRESH supermarket sushi.
(Meaning it’s high on the low-​end.)
Their Gyoza also leaves A LOT to be desired. Gyoza (pot-​stickers) are supposed to be pan-​seared wantons filled with a pork filling. Theirs are… except they deep-​fry them, which kinda ruins the texture.
If you go for a bar, and expect bar food… then you’ll be GREATLY pleased.
If you go for the (advertised) sushi, you’ll get a bar with bar-​food grade sushi… and will be GREATLY disappointed.
SO… this place totally depends on what you’re looking for.
More info (SPECIFIC info on individual food items).
You can see what items I reviewed there (including pics!):

It seems, contrary to what you may expect, the bigger the group I come with the worse the service. Which is not great to begin with.
What do business owners do to waitresses on this island? What had been done to break their spirit? I do not enjoy it here anymore.