Red Wagon Burgers & Fish Restaurant Review

At the Red Wagon in Tacoma I had to bend one piece of fish into the take-home container to make it fit so I could close the lid. A recent comment about food in one of my articles published in The Suburban Times featured a remark from a reader about Red Wagon Burgers, but it wasn’t about the burgers. The comment was about the large portion of fish in the Fish and Chips served there. I returned from there with a take-home piece of fish for my wife. She loved it . . . there was enough to share . . . still.

Peg and I ate at Red Wagon in Westgate when it opened is 2016. The oysters were nothing to write home about. Peg had a mushroom burger, which she enjoyed and I had wished I had ordered. Our friend Donna enjoyed her burger too. Peg shared a bite. It was good, but gourmet burger? I don’t know. I’ve had as good or better in other restaurants. The Gourmet Burger Shop in Gig Harbor is better, but to be fair they cost about four dollars more but really seem worth it. Spanky Burgers on Sixth Avenue in Tacoma are a favorite stop-over for a late lunch or early dinner as well.

We have avoided Red Wagon for five years even though we get Valpak coupons every month offering a Gourmet Cheeseburger Meal for only $8.75 with fries and soft drink.

In celebration of vaccine and inoculations, my buddy Jim Harris and I renewed our monthly lunch get-together. I picked up Jim at his place and drove to Red Wagon on North Pearl solely based on a reader’s comment about a large portion of Fish and Chips. I ordered the fish combo, which included two oysters, two shrimp, and two pieces of fish. The oysters were small and only okay. Of course I had just dined the day before at Anthony’s for their Oyster Fest, so it was hardly fair to compair the two. The shrimp were straight instead of curly and better than the oysters. The fish, now . . . that’s a different story. There were two pieces. The smaller piece looked about the size of a man’s fold-over wallet . . . a stuffed wallet. I should have asked for a lemon wedge, but I ate the fish bit by bit. Jim managed to eat his entire burger (it looked a little rare to me, but I didn’t hear the order). I was surprised.

Red Wagon has restaurants in Tacoma, Puyallup, and Tumwater. I don’t know why they aren’t in Lakewood, Tillicum, DuPont, or Lacey. It would seem like a natural in each of those locations. – redwagonburgers.com

Red Wagon offers a small space. Currently there were only two tables for dining in. Most of the tables were blocked off to allow people standing (spaced out) in line to order. Jim noted the very nice and colorful comic book art on the walls. There’s a lot of red of course, but the art was great. We had excellent service by Natasha. She was very helpful and she made sure we were comfortable and had everything we needed. The fries were good. The second piece of fish is the one I had to bend so that it would fit in my “to go” styrofoam carrier. At home I laid out a plastic ruler to check the size. Straightened out it was more than nine inches long and the width was just over two inches to about four. Reheated with a squeeze of lemon and the Red Wagon tarter sauce it was still very tasty. Peg even saved a bite or two for a late night snack for herself. I will return with Peg and try out their other seafood offerings! We’ll probably even try out their burgers again, too,

For more of our local restaurant reviews please visit Eating Out Tacoma – eating-out-tacoma.com