Rediviva

Warning; all of the reviews stating a potentially VERY LONG WAITING PERIOD FOR YOUR FOOD ARE LEGIT. Short review: the food is exquisite (it is pricey). The food portions are QUITE adequate (I noticed a few reviews previously that said the portion were on the smaller side....maybe the chefs noticed and changed things by this point, but if not, the portions are quite satisfying as they were). The staff need some serious tightening up/training. That aside, let me explain to you our experience. We reserved ahead and upon walking in a few minutes early, we were immediately seated. The restaurant was maybe 1/2 to 2/3 full at the maximum of our stay. Water came. Kind service came; our waitress explained how the menu worked (which was nice!). OF COURSE the menu was not the same as what we saw online as this restaurant is very vocal about a potentially daily/weekly menu change due to whatever is fresh and locally available (so it often can change daily). So we knew that. No docked points there. The music was kind of loud for me personally, but ok. It was savvy. No points docked there. The environment was comfortable. We ordered drinks and food. The drinks are YUMMY. Strong enough to notice the alcohol but balanced and tasty and unique. We waited approximately 45-50 minutes for our sides/appetizers to arrive (both of which were the same kind of soup). It was annoying a little, but the food was exquisite. I have not had such a tasty soup in 15 years. We ate and again found ourselves waiting quite a long time for the main course. So my partner asked a particular waitress staff member who had been seen hanging around the bar but not doing a whole lot to set up another drink for him. She literally ROLLED HER EYES and SHOOK HER HEAD as it was, i guess, an obvious annoyance/inconvenience. It's been while since I felt so....bad to ask someone on the clock to order something as our waitress was clearly busy. If we weren't spending nearly $100 per person, maybe I wouldn't have minded but BOY was it a bit much to swallow. We waited quite a bit more (a table that entered after us got their food before us, but maybe their orders were less complicated than ours (and yes, he got his drink in the mean time)). Our waitress offered their sourdough bread starter as a comp for our wait. We accepted. Our dinner ended up coming right before the comp; we turned down the comp at that point because we're were so full and offered it to another table. The dinner? Some of the best food we've ever had. Delicious (I wish I asked for a spoon to slurp up the juices/sauce). Perfect. Fun, different, natural. We WILL be coming back again (5☆ alone), if nothing else excited about the next different menu. Upon receipt, the waitress forgot that the comp was a comp (and that we ended up turning it down) and had the cost added to our order. We had it corrected with ease. Maybe the restaurant reads their reviews; I SO BADLY wanted to give the restaurant a 5-star review because the food was mind-blowing. It was inventive, fun, local....the kinds of things we see in cooking shows. But the 3-star service made me feel compelled to settle at a 4 star review. As a local, we WILL be back and will be excited for what the menu holds. I hope the service is a bit tightened up. Also though, as a local hiring manager, I understand how hard it is to find enough quality employees in the area to run a smooth shift 🤷‍♀️. Thank you for bringing this level of cuisine to Aberdeen, WA.

Fantastic food. Adventurous, bold and beautiful plate presentation. Lovely cocktails. Adequate service for the times. I’d enjoy an evening there again and recommend it to friends. One small thing I would say, and it’s the other customers, not the staff or food at all. Men of Aberdeen, take off your ball caps when you’re sitting at the table of a fine dining establishment, it is gauche.

I hate being the last group before the kitchen closes, but the Chef assured us he was happy to have us - I'm so glad he was! We couldn't believe how good everything was: the steaks were unbelievable, the bread and leek butter (so good I wanted to sneak some out in my pockets) was amazing, and the "Harpoon" was a perfect drink. Who knew I'd be pampering my pallet in Aberdeen this weekend?

Wow, what a great place! Small, intimate setting, with good service and great food to boot. There were honestly only a couple things I dropped a star for, and really if I could only drop a half star, that would probably be more appropriate. The cocktails were all outstanding, especially the "I'm on Fire" and I would highly recommend that be on a regular rotation if not a full time selection! Starting out with the first course of Hazelnut-potato milk "soup", king trumpet mushroom, and herbs; it was impeccable and this was my first time having trumpet mushroom, it was delicious. My second course was the seared scallops, accompanied by a celery root puree, arugula, hazelnut, and brown butter; it was simple perfection. For her second course,my date had the roasted beets encased in pastry, cave bleu cheese, beet espuma, and beet caramel; this was so delicious we are planning on recreating a variation at home. My main course was supposed to be the Braised foreshank of lamb, corn polenta, chimichurri, and baby beets. This is were things diverge slightly. Reason being, above is how it was worded on the menu, but not what I was served... However, the lambshank I got was freaking delicious in its own right. In the spirit of full disclosure, I did not ask the server why it was different, but only because it was still divine. There was no chimichurri or beets to speak of, rather what tasted like a five spice braise. I would have appreciated it if menu changes were made, that I was told when ordering, but again it was so good, it was immediately forgiven. Wrapping up with the dessert course, the french press coffee was top notch, and it was a good thing because the Mascarpone mousse (Red fruit cake, fresh berries, mascarpone mousse, and raspberry powder) was very lacking of flavor and the cake was absolutely arid. Again, the divergence here is that the dessert my date had, the flourless chocolate torte with hazelnut crust, tamarind, and black sesame caramel, blew my mind with flavors and texture. The service was great, even with the lamb shank oversight, and the courses were timely without being rushed and overall we had an amazing evening with plans to go back again soon. I highly recommend and would say my final star rating is more like 4.5 - 4.75 stars and definitely a gem in the heart of Aberdeen. Kudos to the team at Rediviva!

This was a really unfortunate experience because this place started out with a 4/5 review and quickly dropped two stars based on the chefs responses to a comment. We ordered 5 dishes and 4 of them were great, well executed and nicely plated. The 5th dish, was a cod dish that was SO SALTY it was not edible. We're not talking about slightly over salted here. After you took a bite, you had to immediately chug water to attempt to dilute the tsp of salt you just consumed. OK, so not the end of the world, mistakes happen in the kitchen. Our server saw we hadn't touched the cod and asked if it was OK and we told her it was inedible because of salt and her response was "ohhh, yeah Andy really likes salt, that's the way he likes that dish." Our server had her hands full and said she'd come back to clear plates but another server beat her to bussing our table, saw the untouched cod and asked if it was OK... We said the same thing to her and her response was virtually the same as the previous server "ohh yup, that's Andy for you, he loves salt!". wow. We then made our own mistake in retrospect by ordering dessert (miso crème brûlée) and (shocker) it was also inedible because the burnt custard was likely a layer of PURE salt from the miso. After another comment from our server about Andy's love for salt and "how he likes to season things" we were done. It's really unfortunate because the staff was overall nice, attentive and dishes were executed well. Cocktails were OK for Aberdeen but unfortunately, the staff need so coaching on responses and Andy needs to dial back on the salt significantly.