Why Canlis isn't great.
The restaurant has a beautiful view, the building is a classic of the northwest style. There is something timeless about the place. And that's the problem with it, in an age where Seattle hosts such restaurants as Lampreia, the Herb Farm, and Rovers, Canlis seems like a place stuck in time.
The service was good but not impeccable, but that doesn't matter, what matters is the food, and the wine. When we got there the Maitre D' after learning that the reason we were there was a special occasion said that we should try Krug, "the Champagne of Champagnes", at 30 dollars a glass I was having a hard time with that. Sue me, I'm cheap. To me this wasn't an auspicious beginning I'm not used to (outside of Greece) to being pushed things from the menu unasked.
We ordered a cheap bottle of Sparkling wine (it was only $60, and worth every drop. Next time I see Krug on the menu and someone not at the table isn't pushing it I'll try it.) Then came the rest of dinner. Appetizers? Of course, to me the appetizer offers the chef the chance to show me some adventure, because it's a low risk item, it costs less, it's not the main part of the meal. It's optional, and thus a good occasion to excel. I've been to many restaurants that have had great appetizers and so-so main meals.
The first appetizer was shrimp in a sweet and sour sauce. The auspiciousness wasn't getting better because I really felt I could have gotten something just as good in the ID (Seattle's International District). That's ok, Canlis has an Asian bent to it, so that it was faithful to the genre. The next dish was in a similar vein but for French food. It was Escargots with phyllo puff pastry to help you soak up the yummy butter sauce. Here we are at this world class restaurant being served up the same fair that a run of the mill bistro would. Ok that wasn't quite accurate. The little escargos tasted great, and fundamentally that's what separates good restaurants from world class ones, the ability to turn fundamentally yucky food into something wonderful (I think there is a whole other post in that one sentence). Americans are no longer satisfied with eating food out of can, so it ain't hard to find good places, places that can turn a decent septet of snails drowned in butter into a good dish. Canlis here is really barely keeping up with the Jones. If you've never had snails in butter, go there. If you've had your fill, don't, you'll be bored.
The main dish came after a little hiccup, and a sad excuse (I pressed the wrong button.) Really? (Remember we're paying about $100 in tip). Ok no big deal - bad things happen. I ordered the Filet Minion. I ordered it "blue" - that means it's raw. The first time it came it was cooked all the way through. I almost kept it. My S.O and dinner companions noticed my sour face and immediately rescued me from myself. I returned the steak. Why am I burning words on this? Because when the steak returned it was perfect. I'm not a steak connoisseur, so bear with me while I try to describe it. It was a cube of meat, soft, perfect on the outside and actually cooked all the way through - and yet still raw. Ok we have a good steak, make that a perfect steak. What's accompanying it? Greens, perfect and little potatoes. It was again, boring. Is perfection boring? Yes it can be.
By now, my expectation that I was eating in one of the U.S's top restaurant completely dissolved. Was the steak worth $40? Yeah, sure. What was I expecting? Arzak, Lampreia? Rovers? I wanted something not humdrum. For example at Arzak (this was an appetizer so it's going to be more interesting than a main dish), we had a dish that was like ravioli, instead of pasta it was melon, the filling a local ham. It was sublime. But that wasn't the end of it. As I chewed on this wondrous packet something dropped into my mouth - it was pop rocks! Yep. Pop rocks. That is an adventure! What did Canlis have to match that? Nothing.
Any service reflects their clientèle. The Canlis crowd didn't seem that much different from Arzak's or any other fancy-pants restaurant I've been to the usual set of blue hairs, birthday groups, big shirted businessmen and everything in between that could blow a couple hundred bucks on dinner. But they are different from the Arzak crowd, from the Lampreia crowd. They go there either as a safe bet, or to soak up the experience and perhaps the tradition. Either that or they don't know that out there there are some great places.
Where would I go in the Seattle area for the same level of cuisine?
The Herb Farm, Rovers and Lampreia are local. Arzak isn't, it's in Spain.
I would also recommend Lark - 3 days after Canlis we went to Lark. And you know it was great.
The service was good but not impeccable, but that doesn't matter, what matters is the food, and the wine. When we got there the Maitre D' after learning that the reason we were there was a special occasion said that we should try Krug, "the Champagne of Champagnes", at 30 dollars a glass I was having a hard time with that. Sue me, I'm cheap. To me this wasn't an auspicious beginning I'm not used to (outside of Greece) to being pushed things from the menu unasked.
We ordered a cheap bottle of Sparkling wine (it was only $60, and worth every drop. Next time I see Krug on the menu and someone not at the table isn't pushing it I'll try it.) Then came the rest of dinner. Appetizers? Of course, to me the appetizer offers the chef the chance to show me some adventure, because it's a low risk item, it costs less, it's not the main part of the meal. It's optional, and thus a good occasion to excel. I've been to many restaurants that have had great appetizers and so-so main meals.
The first appetizer was shrimp in a sweet and sour sauce. The auspiciousness wasn't getting better because I really felt I could have gotten something just as good in the ID (Seattle's International District). That's ok, Canlis has an Asian bent to it, so that it was faithful to the genre. The next dish was in a similar vein but for French food. It was Escargots with phyllo puff pastry to help you soak up the yummy butter sauce. Here we are at this world class restaurant being served up the same fair that a run of the mill bistro would. Ok that wasn't quite accurate. The little escargos tasted great, and fundamentally that's what separates good restaurants from world class ones, the ability to turn fundamentally yucky food into something wonderful (I think there is a whole other post in that one sentence). Americans are no longer satisfied with eating food out of can, so it ain't hard to find good places, places that can turn a decent septet of snails drowned in butter into a good dish. Canlis here is really barely keeping up with the Jones. If you've never had snails in butter, go there. If you've had your fill, don't, you'll be bored.
The main dish came after a little hiccup, and a sad excuse (I pressed the wrong button.) Really? (Remember we're paying about $100 in tip). Ok no big deal - bad things happen. I ordered the Filet Minion. I ordered it "blue" - that means it's raw. The first time it came it was cooked all the way through. I almost kept it. My S.O and dinner companions noticed my sour face and immediately rescued me from myself. I returned the steak. Why am I burning words on this? Because when the steak returned it was perfect. I'm not a steak connoisseur, so bear with me while I try to describe it. It was a cube of meat, soft, perfect on the outside and actually cooked all the way through - and yet still raw. Ok we have a good steak, make that a perfect steak. What's accompanying it? Greens, perfect and little potatoes. It was again, boring. Is perfection boring? Yes it can be.
By now, my expectation that I was eating in one of the U.S's top restaurant completely dissolved. Was the steak worth $40? Yeah, sure. What was I expecting? Arzak, Lampreia? Rovers? I wanted something not humdrum. For example at Arzak (this was an appetizer so it's going to be more interesting than a main dish), we had a dish that was like ravioli, instead of pasta it was melon, the filling a local ham. It was sublime. But that wasn't the end of it. As I chewed on this wondrous packet something dropped into my mouth - it was pop rocks! Yep. Pop rocks. That is an adventure! What did Canlis have to match that? Nothing.
Any service reflects their clientèle. The Canlis crowd didn't seem that much different from Arzak's or any other fancy-pants restaurant I've been to the usual set of blue hairs, birthday groups, big shirted businessmen and everything in between that could blow a couple hundred bucks on dinner. But they are different from the Arzak crowd, from the Lampreia crowd. They go there either as a safe bet, or to soak up the experience and perhaps the tradition. Either that or they don't know that out there there are some great places.
Where would I go in the Seattle area for the same level of cuisine?
The Herb Farm, Rovers and Lampreia are local. Arzak isn't, it's in Spain.
I would also recommend Lark - 3 days after Canlis we went to Lark. And you know it was great.
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