King's Hardware
Categories: Pubs, American (Traditional) [Edit]
Neighborhood: Ballard5225 Ballard Ave NW
Seattle, WA 98107 (206) 782-0027
- Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: No
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Dinner, Late Night
- Music: Juke Box
- Best Nights: Mon, Tue, Wed
- Happy Hour: Yes
- Alcohol: Full Bar
- Smoking: No
- Coat Check: No
46 reviews
Neighborhood: Greenwood
"Here's a story. What do you do when you have three STARVING people during half time of the NBA finals? Go get Taco Truck, of course. I…" read more »
99 Reviews for King's Hardware
Went here again for some birthday drinks after hitting the golf range. Absolutely perfect weather for sitting outside. It was packed but we found a seat and I wanted to stay there forever. Half of the outdoor area is shaded so it's nice if you don't feel like sitting directly in the sun. Had a yummy icy margarita followed by a couple of Pacifico's w/ lime. Great service - can't ask for a better outdoor area.
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1 Previous Review: Show all »
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07/03/2008
I walked in around 4:30 on a weekday to meet my brother for a drink and kill some time while getting… Read more »
PBR on Tap yo!! That's dooooooooooope!!
Yes this IS a fun bar. It gets crowded as hell and that's really fun when you want it. So go there when you want to have fun.
I was a patron of this establishment last night. Two PBR's plus some really great people equates heaven. Hot dog vendor outside please? As you wish. Pretty good food when the kitchen is open please? As you wish.
This place makes me smile and that's all that matters!!
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Borish, arrogant, elitist, snob factory where the burgers are only so-so, and the service is even worse. A Belltown meat-market in Ballard? How gauche.
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Good Fries, Nice Patio. Stiff drinks. The staff is a little sour, but I think thats their thing... All in all, an ok experience.
The Lynch burg Lemonade is great!
Linda's joints are generally hipster moth to light hang outs.. but Kings is a bit of a special place for me. The staff is great, weather or not you know them from working on the street anyway. Skeeball's always fun.. always. The juke box is okay, I'd actually recommend leaving it alone and listening to the staff's iPod selection. The drinks are spot on, but you can't get a vegetarian bloody mary. No more 3 dollar bloody mary sundays for me. If your not a veg, go for it. They are delicious. Sweet potato fries are the key menu item, everything else is alright. The outdoor seating is a bonus year round.
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I got weighed at the doctor this morning, and while it was still around 20 pounds more than I'd like to be, it was about five pounds less than I expected, and considering I ate dinner at King's Hardware last night, this is a really, really good thing.
I had the classic burger and yum -- just your basic burger, but yum. And it wasn't super-grossly-oversized, which I actually appreciated. It was plenty of food, but it wasn't over-the-top, Red Robin-esque, you-wish-you'd-never-tried-to-finish-it size.
I got the onion rings and they were really good -- really onions but you could actually bite into them without the entire onion sliding out of the crispy coating.
The place is super super loud, but that can be fun. I don't mind taxidermy as I'm thinking all of these animals would have long since expired of natural causes. And that Dark and Stormy drink is just something else. Something good!
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I was warned before going in that the place might be a little "douchey," and was not disappointed in that regard. They do seem to have been using up more than their quota of the local self-important and pretentious jackasses (and I'm coming from Miami Beach, where self-importance and jackassery is High Art).
Fortunately, the servers were efficient and pleasant, and the food quite good, so the overall effect was positive. On the recommendation of one of my lovely and talented dining companions I had an After School Special, a hamburger with the usual trimmings -- tomato, onion, pickles -- plus peanut butter and bacon. Wipe that horrified look right off your face! It was delicious, if a bit overdone for my carnivorous nature.
But to be fair, my opinion may have been somewhat clouded by the two Dark and Storm cocktails I imbibed, a delightful concoction of various rums and ginger beer. They were oh-so-tasty, and reasonably priced. Why, if I'd had a few more of those I might have even gotten along with some of the other patrons.
Hah! No, they weren't *that* strong.
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This was a good place to meet hang out crew #2 of the night after my roommate got "bored" as I was making friends at Bal-Mar and went home. So I am chatty... Bite me.
I really don't have much to say but that I liked the vibe and lay-out. It was pretty crowded for a Wednesday night. My wine was served to me in an IKEA glass. The bartender was cranky and didn't like my drink selection. I sat at a soda fountain style bar stool so there was no escaping her. There seemed to be free nuts being given out.
I've heard that there is such a thing as happy hour here and good beers to try- but I will have to experience that later.
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Well the sweet potato fries might be worth a visit but the burgers are overpriced, overcooked, and under-delicious. The hipster taxidermy setting seems really contrived and not that interesting. If you want to go there, just go once for sweet potato fries and skee-ball. After that initial trip there are a lot more interesting places to go in Ballard.
What is there new to say about King's that hasn't been said 85 times already?? They have a good jukebox. Other than that, I got nothing...but I will tell you anyway:
-Sliders and sweet potato fries are awesome.
-Happy hour from 4-7pm.
-Skeeball and Donkey King can't be beat.
-Great deck if you can find a seat on sunny days.
-Avoid like the plague on weekend nights.
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Sweet Potato Fries = delicious.
SkeeBall = entertaining.
Chalkboard = fun! I am quite the artiste.
Only drawback - too crowded on a Saturday night. We were lucky enough to get a table last time but if we hadn't I would have had about two inches of personal space. Very relaxed and casual... cheap beer, always a plus in my book. The animal heads on the wall just seemed like it was trying too hard to be lodge-y, and I couldn't stop staring back at them... and wondering how you mount a fish.
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Yes, yes, yes. I am going to say the exact same goddamn thing that everyone else says.
Go on a weeknight. Do not go on a weekend night. My god, I haven't seen that many douchebags and their female equivalents (trashy, drunk, stumbling, under-clad young ladies stinking of desperation) since I saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers back in '94.
But I have a soft spot for this place, as I met my boyfriend there. So, go on a Monday, put a couple bucks in the jukebox, and have a Dark n' Stormy for me.
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I've been here once on a Saturday night, which was crowded but fun, and twice to eat burgers after work on a Friday, which was not crowded and pleasant. Their burgers are amazing--especially the one with goat cheese, roasted red peppers and whole cloves of roasted garlic. The bull rings (onion rings) are great too. I don't eat red meat, so I love the option to have any burger be a garden burger, turkey, or organic beef. I alway choose the turkey. They have so many different dipping sauces to choose from too for fries and onion rings. Good service, hot waitstaff.
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King's is always great whether you're coming for a happy hour on Tuesday or in the middle of the swarm during a weekend Ballard bar crawl. There's the skeeball of course, but what makes King's great is it's a good combination of dirty old pub and popular hotspot. The food is good old bar food (the After School Special burger is not to be missed), the drinks are pretty cheap, but it's in Ballard so you get the trendy crowd as well.
I like it best during the downtimes when you can just sit and have a beer (they've got a pretty good selection). But King's is really the kind of place where there's something for everyone depending on when you go.
Gotta love Ballard.
A brand spanking new bar that tries to look like a dive always makes me suspicious. The animal heads and old-looking (but not old) paintings of Rainier attempt to give King's Hardware the vibe that places like Hattie's Hat or the Lock and Keel really exude. And why does every new joint in Ballard have to look like a set from Northern Exposure? Enough with the wood already. We get it. We live in timber country.
That being said, the service was friendly, it was packed on a Thursday night, and the burgers were fine. Not great. Just fine.
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Love this place. Had the opportunity to meet some of the staff this winter on a slow day. Great hard workers who want you to have a good experience. Place gets damn busy though as the night progresses. So if you want to eat on a saturday, pony up at the bar and let Mandy the super sweet bartender take care of your orders and serve up some great drinks. Be wary she has this sexy, sassy attitude about her. Food is great, get the sweet potato fries. Mmmmm!
I made it here on a pub crawl and I have to say I actually "remember" this bar. We had some food which hit the spot and the skeeball was just an added bonus. How much fun is it to drink and play skeeball? It just might be my ideal Saturday night!!
On a warmer day it might be cool to sit out on the patio too. This is definitely a place you should check out!
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Dude all i can say is "SKEE BALL"
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We rolled in to King's mid-afternoon Friday and had a fabulous lunch. The burgers (made with beef from a local ranch) were de-lish, and I liked the onion rings--even though the batter is just a tad too sweet, they were fresh and crispy. So: This is a place where you can indulge and not feel greased-out. We were impressed with how friendly and attentive the staff were, willing to customize our orders with things like salad instead of fries. The place is set up like a big lodge, complete with ski-ball and Donkey Kong. It's a very relaxed vibe.
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Best place to show up to with a solid buzz. Nice decor, looks like a dive but isnt, good food and yeah, they got skee ball. God forbid you go to kings with out a stash of quarters. Drinks are cheap and they have a diverse beer selection.
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I agree with most of whats already been said on this place. I do like that they have $2 tallboy Raniers and up at the bar there is a jar full of what looks like an old sliding book of wooden matches. I was drunk there not too long ago and was digging in the jar fishing out what I thought would be a cool set of matches. The bartender was trying to tell me something and I just gave him the 'yeah, yeah, yeah' nod and scored my matches. Then as I was walking down the street I pulled out a cigarette and my new matches and to my drunken surprise it wasn't matches at all, but a book of toothpicks. That must've been what the barkeep was trying to inform me of. So now I have a cool book of toothpicks which is a much healthier alternative to fire.
Also, unless your a hipster/scenester asshat, don't go on all the 'amateur' nights, because it'll take forever to get a drink.
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I agree with Mr. D. that Linda's is better than her brother King's. Maybe King's and Smith are having a bro-mance; why are Seattle establishments so incestuous?
That said, I've been here many times in the night and had a swell enough time with great service. A recent Sunday afternoon didn't prove to be the same however. The place was pretty quiet and there were plenty of servers on deck but they seemed much more interested in talking to one another than taking our food order, bringing that food and grabbing the bill. I don't have all day King's!
I do love the wedge salad and cheap beer though. I'll be back.
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King's Hardware is like a younger Linda's Tavern. I say so because King's is cleaner around the corners and has a brighter smile but god damn Linda's is still one smoking hot mama!!!
Yes King's got's skeet ball, buck hunter and even a Donkey Kong video game machine but some how it still lack's that Linda's magic. Maybe if they turned down the music a bit and added Lagunitas to the tap I would be a happier camper.
But don't get me wrong I love their menu(same as Linda's) and the margaritas at King's rocked the house. And Jesse our server at King's totally kicked ass so maybe I will learn to love King's. But maybe Linda's will always be my baby's mama!!!!
Linda and Charlie forever!!!!!!
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$3.00 Bloody mary's on Sundays.
That's why I like King's that and their Nacho's. I find myself ending up here after a long weekend to "recover" with a few bloody mary's and some food, the food always good, and the drinks are strong. They have friendly servers and some nice outdoor seating when it's nice out.
Good Sunday morning bar.
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King's is a newer place that tries hard to look old school and lodge-like. Generally, I'd say they pulled it off pretty well. Good beer selection, and the wait staff has been attentive in my experience, although not terribly friendly. Burgers are OK. But they have Donkey Kong, which earned them an extra star. This place gets too busy on weekend nights for my tastes.
The douchebagary is in full effect here on Friday and Saturday nights, but go on another, and you'll be golden.
I love the patio, and the decor is up my alley, but dammit man, can I get some friggin' service?? Twice I've gone, and the first it took 40+ minutes to get some sweet potato fries for a friend, the second time I ordered them and NEVER got them, even after asking a waiter AND a runner where they were after my hubby got his burger...
...sigh...
**updated 5/17/08**
went here again last night, and wow, still the same as I remembered. It took the better part of an hour to get a small Caesar salad and some sweet potato fries... SERVICE SUCKS! At least our waitress actually apologized this time for it taking so long. Kudos to her.
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Pros:
- Sweet Potato Fries
- Burgers, with the option of Turkey and Garden
- Skee ball for a quarter
- Lots of great beers
- A nice outdoor seating area (with heaters in the winter!)
Cons:
- On weekend nights it's pretty packed and often gets Belltown overflow. That means douchebags in Kenneth Cole shirts "on the prowl"
Really, if this place was a little more unknown I'd rank it a 5 for every night of the week. As it is, only Sunday - Thursday get 5s... Friday and Saturday get 4s.
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I was in town visiting and wanted to hang out with some friends. One of them recommended grabbing a beer at King's Hardware. Drinking at a hardware store? Must be a new thing in Seattle.
I arrived and found a old fashioned pub with a bunch of dead be-headed animals mounted on the wall. The sweet potato fries are friggin delicious and go well with a pint of 2 Below. They've got a peanut butter and bacon burger... weird. Maybe I shouldn't knock it till I try it.
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Not sure that King's needs any more great reviews but what the hell...Hands down a cool-ass bar to just hang out with friends and enjoy a few drinks. During the summer the outside seating is great, the food is decent - good for a bar (great onion rings and sweet potato fries!) and the service is always very friendly. Had another epic night at King's after a long week and met up with some friends for some food and beers. And it seems like you always run into someone you know at Kings so it wasn't a surprise as our group grew in numbers and great conversation ensued. They always seem to play really good music there as well.
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For some reason, I had just never made it here, and then when I did, it seemed a little out of place in Ballard but at the same time, nice to add it as an option.
It's got that energy that I think you want in a crowded bar.
So you want to use the skee ball table on the right only as the one on the left has greasy balls and the 50 tends to stick now and then. As far as drinks go they have Rainer tall boys so you really dont need much more unless you are one these new Ballard people who have bought a condo on the former sight of 3 bedroom home, then you might need something a little more fruity, and expensive in order for you to feel ok about your sad life. Last but not least the wait staff rules my favorite is, well I don't know her real name but me and my friends have dubbed her "big boobs baby face" also "Punky Brewster" is cool, see you on thanksgiving!
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King's has an amazing selection of beers! I also just realized that most of the places I review sell alcohol, and I'm not sure how I feel about myself after that revelation. Oh well.
Back to King's. This place is crowded, loud, and fun. There is outdoor seating, which is nice even on these chilly winter days, and it makes for great people watching.
Something else to be noted- King's has Klsch! If you've never tried it, do it now!! I have a soft spot for this beer since it's from the same part of Germany that I lived in, but it's also tremendously tasty.
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My husband Mark has been in love with a very special sandwich he's been making since childhood. Peanut butter, bacon, and cheddar. I know, it may sound off-putting at first, but I was surprised at how good it really is. Super savory!
So last Sat night, we were doing the whole Ballard artwalk thing, drinking, and drinking, and drinking, and after OKOK, we see kings. I'd been hearing about the taxidermied animals and skee ball and wanted to check it out for myself.
We actually procured a seat right away and were given menus. I'm looking at the burger list and my husband gasps. "read the after school special". PB & bacon burger. We got cheddar too. I actually ordered a bleu cheese bacon burger and sweet tater fries that were not so memorable. the after school special has got it goin on. Add the onions and sweet pickles and ketchup and mustard. Fucking brilliant!
I'll be honest: I've been thinking about this burger A LOT since Saturday. I convinced Mark to go back last night for late-nite-post-furniture-assembly dinner and beer. it was just as good. I've got to start making my own or this could be really expensive.
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Good beer on tap and quarter skee ball. You can't beat that combo! I suck at skee ball, but this place is 5 blocks from my house. Hopefully with practice I'll be better soon. Also, this place is right by the Tractor Tavern. You can see a really good band at Tractor and between set breaks you can go to Kings and play skee ball.
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Went here for a study break (and in my land that means full on beer and huge meal) while in the quirky neighborhood of Ballard. Immediately upon entering I knew I would love this place. Various animal heads on the wall and super dark wood paneling...Rock On!!
I ordered a King Burger, with hand cut fries and a 2 Below to quench the old thirst. The Burger was pretty above average and the fries were great (especially with their awesome Ranch dressing). The beer prices are great and HH looks out of this world. 8.50 or something along those lines for microbrew pitchers....Where do I sign?!?! I am definitely dragging a crew here sometime...most likely not Friday or Saturday for some cheap beer, good burgers, oh and I almost forgot...SKEE BALL!!
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I spent Thanksgiving night here and we had a blast. Everyone seemed to congregate here after dinner with the fam. The entire staff was friendly and cheered everytime someone entered the bar. The drinks were strong and prices were great! I have to give 5 stars simply because they have skeeball which makes it that much more awesome :) And the jukebox had a pretty wide range of genres and good songs at that which really surprised me.
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5 stars for the gentleman working the "yuppie dork" look with cut off dockers and sweater vest striking the Captain Morgan pose at the next table. (cuff links? Yes! Hilarious!)
Minus 3 stars for waiting FOREVER for our food.
Plus 1 star because it was a Friday night and I know it's busy. But still.
I don't think I'll be back on a weekend, weekday afternoon/evenings are definitely the time to go here. Don't tell anyone.
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They don't have much in terms of hardware here. You can get a Rusty Nail, you can get hammered, maybe even a screw. But that's it. The rest is good old fashioned booze. Some skee ball action, Donkey Kong, sometimes girls you don't know kiss you when in line, and like any bar owned by Linda... Dead animals on the wall. Oh yeah, and a big outdoor deck that's heated. So yeah... 66 reviews already. What else is there to say.
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