sante restaurant & charcuterie

the staff here was friendly and didn’t constantly bug you every five minutes, additionally they were knowledgeable about the menu. there was no rush to push us out the door either. everything was delectable, and i would return here again. on a even better note, when i went there, i was an hour early on my reservation and they still got us in, even though it was completely understandable if they had us come back for the time of our reservation.

enjoyed an amazing dinner here early on a friday night, greeted and seated promptly and politely by the hostess. our server arthur was amazing and explained the key dishes and all of the local sourced fare and beverages. the charcuterie board was amazing, every bite and combination of carefully curated meats, cheese, fruit, etc tasted like heaven. we enjoyed the special pasta dish of the evening with locally foraged morrell mushrooms and halibut with tomato risotto. everything tasted amazing and the service was spectacular. was pleasantly surprised by the "palette cleansing" bites served before our starter and entre. would highly recommend the bartenders choice for drinks based on your drink preference of sweet, fresh, etc and alcohol type garnished and sourced locally as well! overall amazing experiance and will be going back again soon for sure!

favorite restaurant. love this little restaurant in downtown.
i happened to find this place through restaurant.com. ever since i always hang out with friends there, either having breakfast, brunch, or lunch. the food never let us down. each time we are surprised and amazed by the beautiful presentation and delicious taste. it's so far impeccable. definitely recommend to all my friends.

and every time i go there, i always bring my canon eos camera to capture the beautiful dishes ~~ just went there yesterday again, i will update the photos soon ~~

so wanted to like sante. contrary to some other reviews, service was spot on. our waiter knew the menu and was attentive but didn't make us feel like we were being hurried. but..... for price, servings are skimpy. on the charcuterie plate, a couple of the sausages were desiccated almost to the point of being jerky. flavors of the entrees were across the board. the carbonara was good, with the creamy/eggy/salty combination that results from a good use of a good bacon. but the braised beef -- dry and stringy. only reason it wasn't sent back is that it was the wife's order and she doesn't do that kind of thing. so, positive for high aspirations and imaginative cuisine. deductions for inconsistent execution.

i am sorry but if i spend $40 dollars i do not  expect to go away hungry.  the cheese plate  is a joke.  the slivers of 4 cheeses were so small i could have fit 10 plates of cheese in the palm of my hand. they served us about 8 cashews about 10 too dried cherries that were so hard they crunched, 6 slivers of too dry small bread, the piece of brie was barely  the size of a laughing cow wedge of cheese.  all sliver of other cheese were so thin  (about 1/8th inch thick) and barely 1.5 inches long x .5 inches wide that i was wondering how they could spare the cheese.  for a french girl this was disgusting.  the coq au vin was overcooked and served over 3 strips of carrots which equated to about 1/4 of a long carrot and i never did see the parsnips and 4 smashed potatoes the size of 1/2 dollars. do people actually  fall for this type of dinner with a smidgin on the plate and no substance.  i will opt for bistro on spruce in cda any day of the week over this place, never again. what were we thinking trying to go to dinner in spokane! the desserts did not  even sound appetizing, so we left.

we love the food at sante but hate the service. over the past year the service has declined. its like they are trying to be rude. its always the same 2 employees. the other night we were in and choose to sit in the bar section and the hostess again was rude and we felt like we were annoying her because we went to get 4 more menus since we were only given 2 in a party of 6. the butcher bar waiter/bartender (the guy with sleeve tattoos), is purposefully rude. he is always that way. my wife who loves to eat at sante wont go anymore if he serves us. sante its time to get rid of these 2 and find employees that are kind and make you feel welcomed.

our personal experience with sante has always been great. it's one of our favorites in spokane. we love the food as well as the butcher bar.

disappointed. we had just watched ksps about grow washington and this was on the show. so we hopped in our car to try it out. do we have reservations was the first greeting. we are booked at this time if you want to wait. this should have been on the program as we would have called. then we said we would go into the bar until they would be ready for us only to be told that the bar would be closed for about 20 minutes because they had just been slammed. was it the way i was dressed i don't think so but that is how i felt. we then went across the street and had a great dinner. we will not be back, that is a promise.

poor service. i can longer recommend santé as my favorite spokane restaurant until jeremy and kate hansen seriously review and rectify their service standards. what should've been an enjoyable and special valentine's day dinner was ruined by the utter rudeness and impertinence of our server, shawn. our dinner began without a welcome or a greeting and literally with the words "you have two choices..." his attentiveness thereafter was lackluster at best, and when he forgot our intermezzo and we had to interrupt another server to point out the omission, no one, least of all shawn, apologized. we were told there was a miscommunication with the kitchen and were served our intermezzo instead with our main course. at this point, shawn did comp us a couple of glasses of wine, but i didn't want the alcohol at that point and sent it back. it would've been nice if he had given us an option on drinks instead. his demeanor became surly by this time, and he insinuated that i should've appreciated his gesture (for his mastake, mind you). half-way through my entrée i lost what remained of my my appetite, and by the time dessert was served, i asked another server for the bill instead because at that point we couldn't finish the meal. i have never felt so disrespected as a customer. maybe it's because we're a gay couple, or maybe he assumed we didn't have the money to spend because of the way we look, but whatever assumption he made about us tainted the entire evening. when we sent back the desserts that he hurriedly placed in front of us without even explaining their details, shawn flippantly said "suit yourselves, that's ok, i can eat them then." when we asked to speak to a manager to give feedback about our experience, shawn insisted that he was the manager and put up more of an affront. when i protested, he refused to let us pay the bill at that point and handed me back my card as if that were our intention, and told us sarcastically that he "hoped we enjoyed our $270 meal (much more than the actual price of the dinner). is this the standard of service that jeremy and kate hansen want to exemplify through their ventures? i seriously hope not. this was our third, and sadly, will be our last, valentine's day dinner at santé. for special event dinners such as valentine's day, i would suggest that jeremy and kate continue working to improve the timing of the courses with the house and the kitchen, as they have struggled with this issue all three valentine's day dinners we have attended. they also need to fire shawn. simple as that. as for the menu: it's not as innovative as it has been in years past, and quite frankly, i had such a distaste for shawn that the cuisine didn't really appeal to me this year. the chef essentially repeated last year's menu (seared muscovy duck, wagyu beef), but used a less-quality fish (sablefish) this year.


-----20 feb, 2013-----

excellent choice. my fiancé and i chose santé for our special valentine's day dinner. we decided on ordering from their special valentine's day menu, which consisted of several plates accompanied by wine pairings. we were delighted with our choice.

from the amuse-bouche to the dessert course, the plates made for a memorable meal. on the menu were such offerings as tempura-battered fried frog's legs and rustic rabbit sausage, which excited the palate. the accompanying choices of wine for each plate gave a lovely finish to each item.

i appreciate that santé uses fresh, locally-sourced ingredients and regional wines for their menu. that was part of the appeal when choosing it for our special dinner.

service was good, but not great. our waiter was either too soon or too late with the wines for each plate. we had to remind him on one occasion to fill our glasses. he did compensate by offering us a complimentary glass of prosecco and a dish of basil ice cream, both of which were superb.

overall, we could not have chosen a better restaurant for our day. santé is doing it right.

very dissatisfied.. i read about this place and it sounded impressive. i had a very nice evening planned that was suppose to be a rekindling of love and new beginnings. well it started out with the french onion soup. it had at least 1/4 inch of oil layering on top, kind of like broth that had not been skimmed yet, terrible. then my dinner, duck was cold, well done, and it should never be well done. the so called beet dumpling like things were tasteless and cold in the middle. i sent it back and my guest had to eat his whole meal so it would not get cold and i sat there waiting for mine. this pretty much was the dinner deal breaker. so in that said it was a bad meal and i will never eat there again. i'm not someone who is a so so critic, i'm a chef of 25 years. this is a restaurant that should have exquisite food and it was terrible. at least dinner could have been comped.

wow!. best pate i've ever had outside of france. i had to finish it all! excellent service and delicious food offerings, but pricy. well worth the visit.

lovely food, poor service.. beautiful and delicious food but..... there is more to a dining experience and sante failed our group on several counts. mistakes can be overlooked, but not rude and arrogant service from the staff. the menu was somewhat difficult to decipher and questions about the menu were met with equally indistinguishable responses. really, customers are supposed to feel stupid when asking for clarification on a menu item? this happened to several members of our group. these are not uneducated or inexperienced diners. we had guests with us from new york and a nationally recognized author. the staff was informed that one person at our table needed to leave early and was asked to prepare and serve her before the rest of the party. instead, my son, who had ordered last, and was in no hurry, was served his meal about 10 minutes before anyone else, including our guest of honor, who needed to leave early. needless to say, she did not have time to finish her meal before having to leave. my son felt embarrassed sitting there with his lovely dinner going cold with no one else served. and one of our party was not served the dinner she ordered at all! did the server notice? no. when it was pointed out, there was not time to prepare her dinner, and so she was brought a bowl of soup as a substitute. she was not given an option and the soup was one she never would have chosen and was not to her liking at all. obviously she did not eat it. no apologies, nothing complimentary from the restaurant to make up for the fail. through it all our server was cold and arrogant. not a good compliment to the fabulous flavors coming out of the kitchen. kudos to the chef!

restaurant weel. went to sante for the start of restaurant week and had a great dinner. food was excellent and service was fantastic. our group of 6 tried all of the items in the three courses and all were very delicious. wine parings with each course were well suited for each dish and there were unexpected little palate cleansers between each course. it was my first visit and i will go back.

valentines dinner. the dining experience we had on 2/15/14 was truly disappointing. the service and food was honestly beyond description. the water glasses were never freshened, the meal was salty and tasteless, and the staff honestly ignored us.. when i dine in a supposed "fine dining" establishment i expect a lot more. i would never return and recommend you drive to post falls, fleur de sel for a outstanding meal.

meh.... i don't understand sante. we have been going there for close to 4 years. we have had great food, ok food, mediocre food. we have had great service, ok service and poor service. we boycotted them for at least a year and went back a few months ago and were pleased. tonight we had pretty good food and poor service. it was surprising. i am not sure when we will go back after this one.

it seems they have one main wait person and a lot of "help." the problem with this is no one seems to know where their roles end and someone else's role begins. our waitress never introduced herself by name, and never once asked how our food was, and we had 3 courses, so she had plenty of opportunity. i think she felt if she walked by and we needed her, we would 'holler... and we didn't, so i guess she never bothered to ask... and it got a little strange.

i ran out of wine and she never asked if i needed another glass. she never once described the food in detail as most professionals would do. the person who brought our salads and amuse bouche did a great descriptive job, but the main waitress never described the menu and when asked what the beef or fish or pork was, she merely said "new york steak" or "coho salmon" never bothering to mention the preparation. at some point we began to feel slighted, in spite of a bill of $150 before tip.

my husband had pork and enjoyed it. i had a chicken roulade and didn't think it was great.. certainly not $24 worth. the salad was delicious and the gnocchi was ok. i think we are taking another year off. at least.
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