I have to give the horseshoe five stars because for me it's become somewhat of a regular stomping grounds over the years. Â Whether it's early morning, hungover, White Russians with friends, late night post-party cheesy fries, or a long night studying in the company of a good friend, chicken strips, and a Bloody Mary- the shoe has been there for me. Â The odd characters that frequent its booths, sidewalks, and wait staff all add to the character of the experience! Â The food is greasy goodness, perfect for an afternoon craving, morning hangover, or late night snack. Â Obviously it's not gourmet, but that's the beauty of it! Â The drinks are the pretty well priced, especially on happy hour prices, and they always pack more punch than any other bar in the area (except maybe Rumors). Â Although it may take you a few times of coming to the shoe to really understand the appeal, beauty, and character of the place- I recommend you try it time and time again. Â FIVE STARS!!!!
Review Source:I love coming to the Horseshoe for breakfast or brunch. However, I will never be caught here for dinner or in the wee hours of the morning. It's unsafe,and populated by boozy panhandlers.
Also the staff and cooks are vastly different depending on the time of day. Save yourself the headache and stick to daylight hours only.
Be advised also that the bathrooms aren't recently renovated. They are clean, if dim, and odd-looking.
In my opinion the best foods on the menu are breakfast. Love the wheat toast with blackberry preserves!
A cool diner thats open 24 hours so you can stumble in any time and feed your late night hunger. A few friends and I stopped in and shared a patty melt and a ham and cheese sandwich. It was all satisfactory. The waitress we had looked as if she hadn't showered in a while and the place wasn't exactly sparkling but that's to be expected from a 24 hour diner in a college town. Otherwise it was good! :)
Review Source:It's like the late night staple of any self-respecting Bellinghamster. Go with the cheesy fries every time! It is never a bad choice! Also, the bar tenders tend to be awesome, some of the servers are a lil' on the snarky side (but in a good, charming way) and it is always an adventure in the bar!
Review Source:Bellingham is beautifying itself: Are the owners listening?
Take a look around downtown Bellingham and look at the beautification taking place. Â New small businesses are opening up, the City is putting money into the downtown curb appeal and then you have the Horseshoe.
Unless the Horseshoe is pronounced to be a historical building or business plan is sound to propel this venue into another 20 years, I suspect Bellingham will outpace this business.
All the businesses around the Horseshoe look great and attract great customers. Â I understand you can't control people flow i.e. where people migrate and want to be, but I sure am disappointed each time I walk by this establishment and am asked for change, a cigarette and lighter (I don't smoke) or a sip of my coffee. Â Furthermore, this doesn't happen as frequently just 25 feet in both polar directions.
Horseshoe owners: I hope you are earning a decent paycheck, because if you don't grow with the times, Father Time will be smacking you in the face.
And then there's the food: Â It's for drunk people.
this one asian chick that i met on craigslist took me here and it was the greatest date ever. she didn't speak english very good (and my korean is not what it used to be), but we ate the giddy-up special and drank budweisers and she seemed like she was super into me and it was awesome.
Review Source:Ate here a few months back and got the worst bland food. Paid for a steak and when I got the check, I was charged for a more expensive one. I told the waitress and she said you were all out of the original one and just charged me the extra $2. Then ASKED if I wanted her to cover it (with an attitude like it wasn't her fault). DUH. WTF? Maybe tell me if I'm going to be charged extra for something I didn't order. The hashbrowns we got were boring and under-flavored. Literally everything was barely mediocre. Getting our food and being helped took forever. Disappointed by the customer service and the food. Never coming again.
Review Source:My friend ate here a few nights ago, and she got such bad food poisoning. Just because you are a greasy spoon doesn't mean that you have no pride for the product that you serve out. Some of the best food I've ever had came from a greasy spoon that actually cared about the food and their customers. I'm recommending that my friend call the health department. AVOID!!! Run for your lives!!!
Review Source:This place is kind of a rip off. I payed 6.99 for two alright scrambled eggs, dry toast, and two tiny sausages. The lady that worked there was very nice, but seemed really busy even though there were hardly any people in the place. She didn't even refill my water once... and I needed more because of the dry toast. Overall, kind of disappointing but I can see how it would be good to go from 6am-11am and get good deals on probably great hangover food. Probably won't be going back anytime soon.
Review Source:My friends and I used to eat here very regularly for the 4.00 potato burritos. Â This is supposed to consist of potatos, beans and cheese. Last time I ate there our whole table ordered one each. About half way through, my boyfriend choked on a gigantic chicken bone! This experience would be gross for anyone but it especially grossed me out because I have been a vegetarian my whole life, and this burrito is not supposed to have meat in it- or bones! We brought the bone to the waitress and they just looked at us like "so what do u want me to do about it?" we said since we all had these burritos we don't agree with paying the bill. The waitress said if we dont pay than it has to come out of her own pocket and she would only give us one for free. They never apologized and that was the last time I've eaten there.
The same waitress that night has been extremely rude on several occasions before as well.
It's a fun place to go at night for drinks once in awhile but they obviously don't follow health code.
I love the 'Shoe. Â Open 24 hours, I loved when I was a student at WWU being able to walk downtown anytime of the day and into the 'Shoe. Â It's one of those places that you, and everyone else, use to end your night. Â You wouldn't ever begin your night there, but it's the perfect place to end it. Â Food is greasy, their sweet potato fries are good.
Review Source:This place is quite the dive, and with quite an eclectic clientele.  Patrons look to mainly be interestingly dressed and tatoo'd and somewhat drunk college kids, but I must say, the food here is quite good  The kids all also really mind their own business, so there's no issue at all enjoying your meal here at a table or at the bar.  I think it's only one of three diners that's open 24 hours in Bellingham, and I'm told (and now believe) with the best food.  It really met my late night needs, and I did enjoy the people watching here on several visits, besides the good breakfast and bar food selections.  I've had their bacon mushroom cheeseburger, chili omelette, and a 14 oz steak breakfast style - with eggs and toast.  All were quite satisfying.  Their beer is also dirt cheap at $3.50, with good selections like Mack and Jack's african amber ale, Diamond IPA, Guinness, and Widmer Hefeweizen.
This place also claims to be the oldest continuously operated restaurant west of the Mississippi, and started in 1886. Â It's also one of the most interesting places I've ever dined in, and I liked the uniqueness of the place. Â I will say and acknowledge though that it's not a place for everyone. Â Despite any outward appearances, folks in the Pacific NW are generally amongst the most courteous, polite, and welcoming that I've ever met anywhere, and this place might be a somewhat extreme example of that.
A place that's been in business 114 years must be something right!
It looks like their last remodel was in the mid 1960's: buckaroo chic. I love this throw back greasy spoon that specializes in hash browns! SPECIALTY HASH BROWNS. YA FEEL ME??
We're talking two-cheese HB's, Jalapeno HB's, O'Brien HB's, etc.. HUGE PLATES OF HOME MADE HASHBROWNS. HAVE YOU FAINTED YET!!??
We had some service mis-haps, but who cares. The environment is great, the food was slaphappy old time breakfast. Yeah, I dig it! Its a Bellingham treasure.
Although I didn't have the opportunity to see the famous "Rowdy Buckaroo" (The 'Shoe's proud mascot), I did enjoy a decent meal in very interesting surroundings!
I grew up in Bellingham and am not embarrassed to say that I spent most of my years too afraid to even slow down when I walked by The Horseshoe Cafe. Â Now, I have been there twice in the last year. Â Is it growing on me? Â That might be a stretch, but the shiny green vinyl upholstery is getting pretty comfy on the 'ole derriere.
The server on my most recent visit was nearly a diner caricature: Â friendly, funny, brusk, and just scarce enough. Â The food was passable, certainly not the worst I have ever had, but not the best, either. Â A simple sandwich with a side a cottage cheese came on simple plates that had likely been used for most of my years, and (refreshing!) the servings were nice-sized (not super-sized).
If the conversation lags a bit during your meal, not to worry, there is plenty going on at the front door of the 'Shoe. Â Besides the ever-present group of folks mulling around outside the front door, there is a constant stream of people coming into the bar "The Ranch Room" and leaving. Â It can be quite distracting...or entertaining. Â We fabricated stories about the folks who seemed to be a bit to agitated to not be picking up a drink to calm their nerves.
It is a legend and it is a decent place to grab a bite, but don't plan on finding me here after dark, that's not gonna happen. Â Just sayin'
SUCH a dive, SUCH good times. People who expect five star service and five star food with a five star atmosphere need not come here.
Which is why I'm giving the Shoe four. Five would mean the bathrooms would be cleaned at least every few days. Five would mean I would actually profit off of their pull tabs. Five may even mean my drink was stiff or I was not harassed on my way in.
Everything else is just details. This is one of the oldest bars/cafes in town and it's not likely they're going anywhere soon.
Mmmm... and their nachos @ 1am...
I've only eaten here once, and I'm never eating here again. I ordered breakfast one morning, and the woman behind the counter put her finger in her mouth before she served me my food. She at least could have washed her hands before doing so.
A long while after, I went to have a drink with some people I hadn't seen in a long time. It was my first time on the bar side of the place. Well, let's just say I THOUGHT I was going to have a drink. The bartender had an attitude, and told me to sit and wait for the waitress to come by. After about 15 minutes, the waitress came nowhere near our seating area.
Let the local dive-bar aficionados have this place. For me, never again will I darken its doorway.
I feel like i time warped into early 1900s! Â Just your average diner, but totally retro--and I don't mean flashy retro diner with all those neon lights either. Â I think it's a better place to go for breakfast. But we went for dinner and I ordered the club sandwich with coleslaw and potato salad. Â The club was pretty good--one of the best clubs I've had. Â They used real turkey meat carved off the bird. Normally restaurants use deli meats. Â But the coleslaw and potato salad were quite bland. Could have used a lot more salt and pickles and umph.
Review Source:I've been visiting the horsheshoe since I was in high school. I love the gritty greasy decor, and the cheese fries always hit the spot. Service at night  is what you expect from a 24 hour diner that has to deal with drunk kids with the munchies (that happens to be me from time to time :)).
I really like the daytime bartender (the short nice guy) and the drinks are very strong. Kind of sketchy, deal with it.
Dive bars don't get darker or funkier than The Ranch Room, nestled in the back of the Horseshoe Cafe, in the center of downtown Bellingham. They've got the cheap beer, but it's the potency of the cocktails that really defines the atmosphere...that, and the huge murals of cowboys and wagon-wheel chandeliers. The jukebox selection is excellent. No pool tables or live music, but that's OK. The Ranch Room is better suited to being a hide-out during bad weather, obnoxious college kids, and just about anything else that ails the mind or body.
Review Source:Biscuits and Gravy at the Horseshoe Cafe
(Part of the Biscuits and Gravy in Bellingham project! <a href="http://www.yelp.com/list/biscuits-and-gravy-in-bellingham-bellingham">http://www.yelp.com/list…</a> )
If you like your biscuits and gravy in an old-fashioned diner setting, you need go no farther than the Horseshoe Cafe downtown. The gravy is homemade and savory, with a decent consistency and nice chunks of unbrowned sausage in it (It's the same gravy they use for their chicken-fried steaks). The biscuits themselves, however, come from elsewhere (probably frozen and then re-heated), and have that bland, unremarkable texture that machine-made biscuits so often have. The portion size is good, and at $4.49, it's CHEAP! (though adding 2 slices of bacon will set you back an additional $2.) The Horseshoe is open 24-7, so this is the place to go for biscuits and gravy in the middle of the night.
Old-school and unshiny, that's the way I like my diners. We don't get many of these kinds of places in Canada, where you can either sit up front in the booths or cool off in back in the dim recesses of the bar at 11:30 am on a Monday morning. Spied a few cowboys doing just that while on my way to the loo.
My boy and I came for lunch, so we sat up front and ordered cheeseburgers, coffee, and a strawberry shake - the three litmus tests for a good diner. Cheeseburgers were deelish with juicy patties and melted American cheese slices; the fries left something to be desired. The strawberry shake was heaven sucked through a straw. And the coffee was okay. I could have used a refill or two, but it was never offered. The servers never came by, even for the cursory "How's everything?" check, come to think of it.
I'd probably go back next time we're down that way, but with so many cute and cool options for eatins' in the neighbourhood, it might be a while before I head back to this ranch.
I'm going with three stars here even though I should probably go with two- I'm giving the third star because at the end of the night people started taking off their prosthetic legs and putting them on the booth dividers...that's worth an extra star in my book.
Seriously, why were there so many people with prosthetic legs in the Horseshoe at 2am on a Sunday night?
Seriously?
Me and the Girl too an impromptu trip to Bellingham- it was the first time either of us had ever been- we're big "check out the locals" folks so we walked around town and settled in on the Horseshoe to get a couple of drinks before we went over to The Wild Buffalo for a show.
The bar is cool, in a 1950's depression era kind of way. I don't think the place has been washed in 50 years- the giant yellowed mural that acts as the backdrop is proof of that.
The bartender was nice enough, but a little weird- the tab seemed a little high for a few Coors Lights and a grilled cheese- but nothing out of control.
Fast forward to 2am- I'm drunk and I want breakfast- The Horseshoe is open 24 hours- we grab a booth and place a to go order.
Waitress is cool. Prosthetic legs come off. Guys next to us are drunker than me. A fight almost happens. It's packed. It kind of smells funny. Waitress brings food and tab...again, kind of spendy for a couple of omlettes...and that's it. If I didn't have a stomachache now I probably wouldn't remember this joint until I checked my bank statement.
It's probably cool for what it was and if I was a 22 year old WWU stoner, this would probably be my home away from home. But I'm not so this scene is a little wacky to me.
I guarantee you the next time I'm in Bellingham, I'll go back to this place again- they seem to have the market cornered on all hours food...and I'm a glutton for punishment.
I used to love love love the horseshoe but recently I have been feeling some changes.
The last couple of times I have gone there I haven't been getting very good service, and I had the last straw last time I went with my friend. On a Tuesday night he ordered 3 kamikazi's, which you would think would be like around $5 - $7 each, right? (especially at the horseshoe with monarch, their house liquor) but no! It came out to $37! Effing ridiculous. Not to mention the server, Kelly, was just rude. I am done with the horseshoe.
This place has character. i will say that for it. Sometimes the character is  scary.. those guys standing out front. thank goodness they are not interested in me.
On a trip to B-ham a year ago  I needed internet access and had no laptop and this was the place.. to go.
I had a few lattes and watched  a lotof filling delicious looking food go by.
Staff was kind of varied from wierd and sullen to friendly an dchipper.
But look at the crowd - mostly college students and sort of drop-out looking guys, some travelers.. "does anyoen know of a place I can crash type" and me and a few black labs sneaking in.
It was a godsend having it central for internet use, but the inside was a bi tdowner.
I love diners. Â Real diners -- not Shari's (vomit), Denny's (boring), or Village Inn (just meh). Â Late-night chains have the place, especially in the allergic-to-staying-open-late Western US, but honest-to-god, been-there-forever institution diners are on a whole other plane.
The Horseshoe is a perfect blend of tasty diner food, massive quantities, reasonable prices, and cute, friendly wait staff. Â It's pretty popular with the local college crowd, which is not a bad thing. Â It also appears to be popular with the local meth addicts, though they mainly seem to congregate on the curb out front.
My breakfast was ginormous, and my iced tea actually tasted like... iced tea.
They also offer pull tabs, though I had to go into the lounge to get them for my wife -- and my young, shorts-and-t-shirt-wearing-ass was NOT WELCOME in the bar packed with decrepit old bastards, completely lit by 11am. Â Stay with the diner, kids.
This place just adds to the culture of Bellingham. It's open fo-eva. Has just about any type of diner-y dish you could imagine. It's got a combination of people-like "the Ham"-from musicians getting a late night bite to eat after playing a show at The Rogue, to college kids also getting a late night bite to eat after an evening of barhopping to old people getting a cup of java and reading the newspaper to my posse getting a late night bite to eat after dancing the night away.
I shared some fries as I was not suffering from the drunk munchies and they were good. The cheese friends looked good too. My sister had the onion rings which looked greasy and huge, but legit nonetheless. Our server was fabulous and the people that work there look a bit scenester-like which is fine with me. This place is the only place I know of open after the bars close!
I have lived in Bellingham for 6 months now, and I finally made it down to the Horseshoe Cafe. Â I am a HUGE fan of 24 hour diners. I think that every city needs one...besides Denny's and Shari's. The fact that they have free wireless and serve decent coffee makes the place even more wonderful.
There is something about laughing with a group of friends over coffee and diner food at 2am that is just perfect. I am glad that I found it.
Personally, I think that the 24 hour diner is the closest thing that the United States has to the Parisian cafe (love that comparison, Mallory). Thinking back, it is where I have had most of my better philosophical and intellectual moments.
Oh, man.. this place is a staple of Bellingham. Â They have really cheap, mildly gross food - a weird bar - pool tables, etc. Â There's the section for those of age to drink and there are mostly arty, punky college kids who hang out there. Â Now, the horsheshoe is open 24 hours a day, so you can imagine the level of crazy that occurs between the hours of 1AM and 8AM... but, this place has been a salon of sorts for scenesters. Â When the smoking law wasn't intact, the horseshoe was always billowing in smoke. Â It was like an American version of parisian cafes. Â Drunk? Â The horseshoe always has a table for you! Â Oh, and I don't know if they still sell cigarettes, but they used to.
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