The Splintered Wand

A "new" wizard-themed bar and restaurant called the Splintered Wand opened in Ballard last fall, and the demand for it was crazy because well, it looked neat and there were covid restrictions on capacity. Reservation were hard to come by though, so much so that I booked a table for four LAST OCTOBER for yesterday! In any case, the reservation has been on my calendar for a while now and I had been looking forward to the visit.

When I made the reservations, I opted for the first seating because I figured it was the easiest ressies to snag and would hopefully be the least crowded. We got there 3 minutes before it opened at 4:30, stood in line to get in for about 5-10 minutes and then were seated on the second floor of the 4 story (skinny) restaurant. Service was very slow but we enjoyed ourselves by oggling all the different decorations and took our time exploring the other floors of the restaurant. Downstairs was the main bar area, the 2nd floor had tables, the 3rd floor was dedicated to their wand shop, and then the top floor had more tables but looked like it was set up mainly for large parties (tables of 10 or so).

I knew the restaurant was a gimmick but we were all pleasantly surprised at how good the food was! I don't think it was just because we were hungry, but I very much enjoyed my mushroom-and-leek shepherd's pie. The girls each got their own shepherd's pie (sloppy joe for Evie, Beef Bourginoun for Nora) and Scott got the Short Ribs plate. I also got a fancy cocktail that the girls were impressed with because the liquid nitrogen made for a very cool effect.

Even in non-COVID times, this would be a special treat to go out to a "fancy" place like this but I think made even more so lately because we haven't really gone anywhere cool in a long time. The girls absolutely loved it, even though they were rolling their eyes at the very obviously fake wizard and wand decorations. It was still fun to pretend for a little bit!