sante restaurant & charcuterie

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" bitesservedbefore 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!

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. theyservedus 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 andservedover 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.

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 wereservedour 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.

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, wasservedhis 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 notservedthe 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!

delicious local food. i took my fiancee to brunch at sante this morning for the first time. she had the vegetarian egg white omelet and i tried the shirred eggs. both entrees were delicious. the leeks and the pepper confiture on my eggs were delightful. the waitress, a charming lady from bulgaria, was friendly and helpful.

my only complaint is that my shirred eggs were meant to beservedwith pancetta, and wereservedwith bacon instead. apart from that, this was a wonderful dining experience. sante is easily one of the best restaurants in spokane, and i look forward to returning.

uh..... one last comment after reading several other comments...you would think the staff that is hired is staff that would make the patrons want to come back - not avoid going because of the crappy attitude they receive from the staff.


-----24 apr, 2012-----

dislike. i had been wanting to try out sante for a while now. had an opportunity to have lunch there this past saturday after picking up our packets for race for the cure. i had the quiche lorraine with side salad. the quiche was okay but the salad really lacked. the greens in the salad had seen better days and there were numerous pieces that were brown and wilted. not something i would serve my guest. my daughter had the chicken terrine sandwich with side salad. had we known the meat was pretty much bologna (texture, taste, look of) with herbs we would of passed. the grilled veggies made it easier to go down. her side salad was also wilted and brown. i think what turned us off the most was the staff. no one came around and asked how our meal was. no one refilled our water (until we were done with our meal and water glasses empty). the young man that seated us (tall, blond hair) was very nice, smiled and seemed to enjoy his job. our waitress left much to be desired and was pretty much rude. her customer service skills were terrible. no smile or hello. no chit chat and not even a stop by after the meal wasservedto see how things were. either she didn't like us, her job or both. the lunch was a waste of money for sure - but it was time well spent with my daughter on a beautiful day. i guess i just like to be treated the way i treat others. didn't happen at sante - well except for the young man that seated us.

the best restaurant in spokane. my wife and i just had a marvelous dining experience at sante's. so many things were done well that you can easily skip over the minor problems. first of all beingserveda chef's tasting after you sit down is always a plus for me. on the night we went there it was duck prosciutto on top of melon. the duck was lovely not overly salty, and with a nice smoke flavor to it.

my wife and i had the goat cheese crepe appetizer, and the sauerkraut with homemade sausage both of which were wonderful, we then had a salad that wasservedtastefully in a square bowl, and it was light and refreshing with the dressingservedwhere it should be, on the side.

after the salads we wereservedan intermezzo, oh the joy of cleansing one's palate before embarking upon the main course was wonderful, why more restaurants don't serve this is baffling to me.

for entree's my wife had the tofu while i had, very uncharacteristically for me, the ny steak. the flavors were well balanced, the steak was actually cooked perfectly (gasp).

the food was great, the ambiance unique and finally someone plays some good music to dine by in a restaurant. we will be back - good job.

not your typical greasy spoon restaurant. we had breakfast, french toast for my wife & an omelette for myself. french toast was a little too sweet for my personal taste but still very good. the omelette & baguetteservedwith it were both excellent. good service also.