Mike’s Cafe & Wine Bar

Yum. Yum. Yum. We didn’t know when we got there that the place served only vegan cuisine. But I love anything vegetarian. Bob, however, is a devoted carnivore and he loved it too. He kept saying, «Next time we come…» So, yay. It’s a wonderful place – the ambience is lovely, the food fabulous and the service and price, great. We’ll be back! –Susan Wingate

Excellent lunch. I had the Thai crunch salad and it was delicious. Service excellent and ambiance charming. Will definitely be back the next time I am in Friday Harbor.

What a great find on a winter night! I had fun chatting with Mike and met a few of the locals — the wine was delicious and I am planning on visiting the Woodinville location.

We ate here twice during a recent few days in Friday Harbor — it was so good and with such a large menu the first night that we had to back the second night. If you’re vegetarian or vegan, the menu is a godsend with a huge array of great choices.
Everything we tried was super: pretzels, vegan cheese plate, truffle popcorn, two different pizzas, veggie burger, Southwest salad, Szechuan sizzle, and wines.
As for wine, they specialize in Northwest Totem wines — where Mike is the winemaker — and although this means the selection is more limited than many wine bars, it has two advantages. First, the wines are priced at retail pricing, so they are a bargain. Second, you can taste any of them in $ 2 pours for 1 ounce, so it is easy to sample a few and pick one you prefer.
I’d suggest to be aware of two things. First, the food albeit vegan is not light and the portions are large. You might not need to order as much as you think. Second, many of the dishes feature vegan «cheese» and «meat» — which, if you’re not accustomed to it, can create indigestion. Go light with those and try the salads or appetizers in addition.
We look forward to returning on our next trip!

Our best dinner experience in the island. The owner is the bartender. I should say wine tender and pours wine he actually makes. Relaxing environment and a beautiful bar.

I was a bit apprehensive to try an all vegan restaurant, but based on the reviews I decided to give it a shot. I’m so glad I did! I had a roasted/​salted edamame appetizer, the pasta special for the night, shells in a spicy tomato sauce with onion, pepper, mushroom, and Italian sausage, and a chocolate mousse dessert with a raspberry reduction sauce. All of the food was excellent, I did order a cider with my meal, it was okay, but as that’s not their specialty I wasn’t too surprised. The portions were large and I did end up taking a to-​go box home. The bill came, and I guess I should have asked the price of the dessert or said yes when she asked me if I wanted a receipt, because it was a bit more then I was expecting, after having done the math in my head.

The brat! The vibe! The bar! Everything made from fresh wood. And the service wasn’t bad either. Cool place!

I love vegan food and wine, so thought we couldn’t go wrong with this place. I just don’t understand the positive reviews… everything was subpar from the food to the service. The server appeared confused and didn’t do a very good job explaining items on the menu. The wine list had no descriptions and the server didn’t seem to know much about those either. The spanakopita was oily and bland, and the BBQ chicken pizza was heavy and overpriced. I found better wines at other restaurants and cafes on the island. Skip this place!

This place had great food and wine. The fact that it is vegan should not be a deterrent to all the meat eaters like myself. I can’t speak for any of the meat and cheese substitute type foods offered here. But I have tried the mushroom medley and the ethopian stew and they were both delicious. Mike is really friendly and they were very accommodating to my wife’s special order food requests.

Amazing food! This place is better then the vegan restaurants in Seattle. Nice ambiance, attentive waitress. Lovely wine selection. All our food was so full of flavor, anyone would love this place. We ordered the spanakopita, brat, philly cheese steak and chocolate mouse for dessert. Everything tasted so good we cleaned all the plates!

It was fantastic. This was our first time visiting Friday harbor and we just recently started a vegan challenge. This place was a great find. We started with the warm bread with the garlic spread. I had the crabby cakes which was delicious for being imitation sea food. My wife had the Thai chikn peanut salad and we shared a poached pear at the end. It was a wonderful.

I was so excited to see a vegan restaurant on our recent trip to Friday Harbor. We were not disappointed. I had the crabby cakes. Fake seafood often has a strange aftertaste, but these were nothing but delicious. I was so pleased. My omnivorous husband had the special (a Fra Diavolo pasta with «sausage») and declared it excellent – not excellent for veg food, just excellent. He even went through and ate all the remaining sausage when he was too full to finish the pasta.
The décor was also neat and the wine good. The service was a little slow by normal standards, but it wasn’t any worse than all the other restaurants we tried on the island (maybe it’s an island time thing?). Looking forward to going back next time we’re in Friday Harbor.

I’m not vegan. I don’t think I ever could be vegan. That being said, Mike’s Café makes eating like a Vegan a wonderful experience, even for an omnivore. In the 40 hours we spent on San Juan Island, we visited Mike’s twice — the first time to dine in and the second to grab food for the ferry ride home. Everything we tried was delicious, most notably so the artisan ‘cheese’ which I honestly don’t think I would have been able to differentiate from milk cheese in a blind taste test, as well as the ‘szechwan sizzle’ which I devoured despite being completely full. While I myself didn’t try it, the pie my sister had was so good in her opinion that she had to return for a second piece on our second day. The food I tried at Mike’s didn’t convince me to become Vegan, but I now believe that I could still be happy if I made that decision down the road.

First place we hit for a drink and fish tacos. Friendly, fun outdoor seating, convenient location.

First of all, they would not let my boyfriend in because he was finishing a meat sandwiche. I understand that they want to keep it close to a meat free zone but the way he told us was confrontational and patronizing.
Secondly, it was way over priced. The portion was small. The menu said I would get fries with my sandwich, however when the meal arrived, our server said that the specific meal I got didn’t come with fries (even though the menu didn’t indicate that this was the case.)
All of this being said, my meal was delicious, even if it was as filling as eating a bag of chips.
I was so excited to see a vegan restaurant in Friday harbor, but ultimately it was a major disappointment and I felt I had been conned out of my money.

This place has great and filling food! We were looking for a unique experience and this was the spot. Will definitely go back

Got stuck with a flight delay that had me arriving during rush hour. Decided to widdle away our rush hour times with early dinner. Everything was amazing. Great service. Great food. Hot and well cooked. The Mac and cheese side dish is life changing! Great wine list. Dog friendly! I kind of wish all cafes were this impressive! Will recommend to friends, will come again.

Could not have been happier.
Ambience: 5
Food: 5
Service: 5
Definitely coming back next time we’re in town!

Sweet island establishment. Cozy, creative, and lots of pride — Mike’s is a vegan restaurant for non-vegan’s. Really. I had the Szechwan sizzle on rice noodles. Our waitress asked how hot I wanted it on a scale of 0 – 5, which I thought was a nice way to handle personal tastes. The dish had a delicious sauce with red peppers and faux beef strips. My wife had the Island Burger, which she also reported was as good as any burger she’s had on the island. And that sums it up — yes the menu is vegan but the customers do not have to be vegan to enjoy it.
Other nice touches were a bowl of killer truffle-​oil popcorn and an excellent piece of faux cheese-​cake for dessert.
Lastly, Mike’s cares about their service. Interestingly, right after I was served my meal, the waitress returned and said that the chef had realized that he had prepared my meal with rice rather than noodles. She pulled back the plate and I could tell that the chef remade the dish completely. They were so apologetic for the mistake that the cheesecake was gratis. These are nice people…

My boyfriend & I just had a wonderful dinner here! Oh my gosh, it was DELICIOUS! I have to say, when I arrived at Friday Harbor yesterday, I was disappointed at the restaurants here. Everything seemed so fried & very «Applebeas-​like», yuck! Today I discovered Mike’s & I have to say, I was very impressed by how high of quality the food was. They had a really busy day, so they were out of pizza dough & pasta, but, that’s okay, we had 4 different plates. We had the Bruschetta Trio, Spanikopita, the Hummus Platter, and the Pretzels w/​Savory Mustards. It was all delicious! When I went in there, I had no idea that the whole menu was vegan! How exciting! My favorite were the pretzels! I also ordered the brownie & that’s the only thing that I didn’t like but that okay, everything else was amazing & I am so happy my boyfriend & I had my pre-​birthday dinner here.