mistral kitchen

for the mips. my firstexperienceat mistral kitchen was great. because we go to the theatre quite a bit, this was a perfect choice again for us. i made reservations in advance. the restaurant accepted the reservations. i later got a voicemail that the reservation for a table was to be turned into a reservation for a spot at the sit up bar because they were overbooked. arriving at the relatively empty restaurant, we were accomodated and given a table, albeit, right at the front of the restaurant with staff swishing by the table constantly. the other "reserved tables" that sat empty during the entire course of our meal next to the windows were for mip (i.e. more important people) and not us. ok, fine, but lets get to the food. the cheese selection was quite nice. the fazzoletti was absolutely and utterly tasteless. it was lukewarm, no just room temperature. the desserts looked more divine than they tasted. the latte was not hot and quite weak (isnt this espresso?). as we were leaving, a huge tour bus of seniors were flowing into the restaurant. perhaps they were the mips, but i doubt it. this restaurant is delightfully urban with an industrial flair. but the food needs to be etched up a notch. what is it with the cooking staff also chowing down the entire time? i might taste the food in my own kitchen, but it really puts me off seeing the cooks taking tastes here and there. not that it does not happen behind closed doors, but be more prudent. perhaps they should take some more time and be more creative and spiceful in their cooking. i will move on to other restaurants before my future theater events. if i cannot secure a good table and have to eat bland food, i will leave this restaurant for the mips.


-----05 dec, 2010-----

good urban restaurant. there are two parts to mistral - the casual (open kitchen) side and the plush jewel box. having theatre tickets and being in a slight rush, we opted for the casual side. we were very impressed. the drinks were good, the food hot, delicious, savoury and unusual. the casual side is built around an open kitchen where the young chefs appeared to have great passion about their food. not like some open kitchens where a fat greasy man with a long mustache cooks. no, mistral is most definitely young, urban, hip and forward thinking. plus, the food is actually good. the menu is not your same standard fare, but offers some interesting choices. this is a great restaurant also slightly off the beaten path of downtown where one can come for a great meal. next stop on my list, the jewel box of the restaurant where the menus are fancy and are mostly tasting variety.

great lunch. had a nice ladies lunch at mistral on friday. what is awesome:

- they have a 3 course lunch for $21. a steal for downtown and for 3 courses anywhere.
- they also have a full menu of lunch options that are sometimes also on their dinner menu, but for less = great value.
- they can serve you a 3 course lunch in an hour (or not). so you don't have to worry about rushing, or not going here because you don't have the time.
- the food is delicious and flawless.

i can go on and on, but those are the highlights. cannot wait to return.


-----17 oct, 2010-----

must dine here. the dining room is super chic and modern. the evening we were dining, the other guests must have got the memo to dress their swankiest. the atmosphere is gorg and sexy.

we sat up at the chef counter and chef william was there. huge plus! he prepared a 4 course menu for us with wine pairing. 1. 3-oysters with accoutrements (yum), 2. hamachi crudo (delicious!) 3. seared foie gras with plum and croutons (unbelievably rich!) 4. crispy chicken and lamb duo (omg). for dessert we split the milk chocolate pudding with caramel and bourbon foam which put us way over the top.

the wines were spectacular. i don't think there are many places that offer you grand cru chablis, 1993 sauternes and 1999 torres for your wine pairing.

truly a grand diningexperienceand we loved dining at the bar. you must dine here.

ps: i loved it so much friday, that i came back monday for cocktails and snacks. if you're a bourbon person, have the chasing rachel. the presentation alone is worth the $12.

mistral kitchen is fabulous! the staff are friendly, the food amazing, and the atmosphere relaxing. i love the sense of pride the chefs have in every dish they make, truly care about yourexperiencewhile there.

it's no big fish and seattle is no small pond. mistral feels like the kind of restaurant that, in a smaller market, would be king of the mountain. i mean who amongst us hasn't thanked their lucky stars when encountering some fine dining establishment when the only other choices were taco bell and red lobster. the thing is, seattle isn't a small market and mistral is up against exceptional talent.

to be fair the food was very good. the kitchen delivered well prepared dishes: delicate scallops, crisply seared foie gras, and melt-in-your mouth spare ribs. but none of them really stand out; they were technically well executed yet indistinguishable from preparations you might have in any other fine dining restaurant. and absolutely every dish was accompanied by the same sides: quinoa and some kind of grapefruit-like citrus (you can see both in the attached picture). by the time the desert menu came around we were worn down by our own indifference; nothing was really that impressive so there seemed little reason to continue.

mistral kitchen's real fail, though, is service. our server seemed to avoid us for extended periods. ti took ten minutes before i got water. another ten before i got a drink - and it was prepared incorrectly. food runners were helpful and polite but our main server never really seemed to care if we were being taken care of. she was, however, fast on the bill.

finally, the environment is not uniformly cool. the main room is nice but we were seated in the back and it both felt and looked like a spare room. there was an unused prep station, replete with boxes of foil and other debris. there was the server station with a peeling countertop. there was the noisy espresso machine. and, of course, the large party next to us that talked shop - loudly - all night. if it weren't for the nice view onto westlake i'd say there are sbarro's with more ambience.

in the end the front-of-houseexperiencedidn't justify a $100 per-person ticket. there are many exciting restaurants that deliver the goods at similar price points and, ultimately, we just aren't impressed enough to consider coming back. perhaps, like so many other touristy or corporate venues, that's something mistral kitchen simply doesn't care about.

very disappointed. my friends and i were looking forward to a lovely new year's eve dinner at mistral kitchen's jewel box and were so disappointed with the experience.

although some of the food was quite good - the black eyed peas with perfectly soft boiled egg and braised pork belly were delicious, other dishes were just not good. none of us could finish our portion of musky lamb...and our drinks from the bar were poorly made.

the food would have brought me back to try again; however, the service was terrible! our water glasses were left empty for long stretches, and we had to ask several times to be served our bottle of wine. our waiter never checked on us to see how our dinner was going. food was slow to arrive, and our empty plates were left on the table for 20 minute stretches.

but the clincher is when a diner caught a napkin on fire at another table. the diners extinguished it with their water (good luck getting more), and not one staff person came to find out if they were okay! the burnt napkin and two other dirty tables remained uncleaned for over half an hour.

the restaurant was not very busy this evening, so i cannot comprehend why the service was so dismal.

to top it off, when we told the hostess that ourexperiencehad been "fine" and described the problems to her, she responded by saying, "we'll take fine". what? this seemed unacceptable to me.

for such an expensive dinner, we all expected much more. why pay $700 plus for dinner when there are such better options out there?

$4 can of diet coke. i just dined at mistral kitchen for restaurant week and while the food was decent (not great) theexperiencewas ruined when the bill came and the can of diet coke was $4!!! i even asked if it was correct. yep, $4 for a single can of diet coke. my friend in nyc verified that's an outrageous price even by ny standards.

i will never eat there again purely on principal.

wow, we ate brunch here for the first time. we were talking to the waiter about the amazing food when he showed us the dinner menu. we made a reservation on the spot for dinner that night. the only available seating was at the bar where we could watch the action, which we love. our whole dinnerexperiencewas exceptional. the food unbelievable, the service impeccable, and the chefs were happy to chat with us and make recommendations and answer our questions. we'll be back. we so want to try the tasting menu. the perfect evening.

incredibly excellent. this was by far and above the best diningexperiencei've had in the past few years in terms of taste, preparation, and novelty: best pork belly and accompanying flavors, only preparation of foie gras i've ever liked--and i loved it--, most generous portion of high quality charcuterie i've ever had.

the cocktails were both inventive and delicious. i couldn't wait to see what they'd bring us next. expensive, but well worth it!

complete disaster. when i was the sales manager at dinerware, i ate at pretty much every chef/owner restaurant in seattle. we are blessed with many many talented chefs and their warm and welcoming restaurants. mistral kitchen was the biggest dining disappointment i've ever had. ever. from start to finish, it was just terrible. the service was horrible, 20 minutes plus for a glass of wine. drinks had to be sent back and remade. the restaurant is uncomfortable, you cannot lean on the tables becaus they have these medieval torture placemats that leave deep imprints on your arms if you do. the plates we ordered for appetizers were lame: a charcuterie plate with 3 types of prosciutto scattered with olives. arugula in a bland dressing. nothing to rave about. dinner was coursed to come out at 20 minute intervals so by the time the last person got their main course, the first person had theirs for 40 minutes. the food was either bland or oversalted. i kept thinking i was in some saturday night live skit about pretentious restaurants! there were 6 of us and our total bill with tip was close to $400. it was the worstexperienceever. this restaurant has been open for months now, there is no excuse.

disappointment after disappointment. here is an email i wrote to the general manager of mistral kitchen which i never heard a response to:

hi patrick,

i wanted to write you back to let you know about my party'sexperienceat your restaurant on friday night. as someone who has worked in the industry i know how important it is to get feedback, both good and bad. first off i think the restaurant interior is beautiful and you've done a great job with the space. the kitchen and service however is something that needs drastic improvements.

generally our server was very nice and attentive (she was a girl with brown hair). our evening started nicely and then quickly turned into a night full of errors and disappointment after disappointment. here goes:

-you were out of clams so we chose the smoked salmon instead which was well over salted
-we ordered the foie gras mousse and were given the sauteed foie gras. when told we'd get the mousse and not be charged for the sauteed one, the server still forgot to bring the mousse and we had to ask for it.
-you only had 1 steak so our diners had to fight over it. when he got it it was pretty much blue rare and chewy. he even likes rare steaks. he was never asked how he wanted his steak cooked.
-you were out of duck. we were offered a few options and ended up on duck confit however with all the confusion the rest of the diners got their entrees and the girl who ordered the duck confit was presented with pork shoulder she didn't want. she had to wait another 10-15 minutes for her food until her duck arrived. the rest of the table was finished by the time she got hers.
-the diner who didn't get steak got lamb instead. what arrived were 2 medallions of lamb that could have passed for an appetizer. not sure what it was on the bill but it was either $24, $26 or $32 and totally not worth it. he was still hungry even after the 7 appetizers we all shared amongst us. we were never told the price of the lamb before it was ordered
-one of our pescetarian diners ordered the salmon and it was covered in bacon or some form of pork - this was not on the menu as far as she could remember or she would have asked for it to be removed
-the server was consolidating bread on the table from a few plates and touched our bread with her fingers

in the end the servers knew what a terrible mess the evening had been in terms of the food/service and we were given desserts and dessert wine comped which was nice. it was odd however that we weren't asked if wanted them or asked if there was something we wanted off the menu. we were also never asked if we wanted coffee before the bill arrived.

seeing as there are only 5 options for entrees on your menu i would hope that you would have enough of the ingredients in the restaurant. the restaurant wasn't terribly busy either.

so overall it was quite a disappointing evening and we have never had so many issues in one sitting. i would expect much more from a restaurant of your calibre. i'm happy to talk further about this but i really hope that the restaurant improves.

best regards,
dinner club