Bateau — Restaurant in Seattle

While this was a steakhouse, none of the options here looked super appealing to me for a price point. I remember seeing on a very old menu that this restaurant offered a burger, so I took my shot and asked if they did have one, since it wasn't on the normal menu Thankfully, they did, so that's what I got

This burger was massive. Coming in at a half pound of beef, it's truly something that you feel the weight of once its in front of you. One of the thickest patties I've seen in a while. We also got fries with aioli as well.

As for the quality, every part of this burger was outstanding. The most important part here is obviously the meat - and it turns into the highlight of the meal, being so deliciously irresistible that it's impossible to not finish even though there's 8 ounces of it. I asked for it to be cooked medium rare - and I knew it was perfect without even having to take a bite by how the juices flowed out from even the lightest press of the bun. Confirming my suspicions, when I did cut it open with a fork & knife (this burger was so thick it's basically impossible to bite straight into it), it was a perfect deep pink in the center.

The taste was astonishingly good. Every element of this burger brought a degree of flavor to create what's essentially a perfect combination. As mentioned - the meat is cooked perfectly & with a ton of juice. The beef tastes super high quality as well. I also loved the fact that there were able to get a really good crust on both sides with the sear - which is something you rarely ever find in burgers. What brings this burger to another level, beyond the beef, is the combination of onion jam & aioli. It's hard to describe how addicting this is - all I can say it's the best sauce I've ever had on a burger. It manages to be creamy and delicious, while bringing out the best aspects of the beef. The need for cheese is completely eliminated by this sauce. The buns are also fantastic - they're incredibly soft, fluffy, and slightly sweet. They manage to hold their shape throughout as well. Of course, everything is seasoned perfectly

I also really liked the fries here. They were salted generously, oily, and beautifully fluffy on the inside. The aioli they came with tasted a lot like butter though - I think I would've preferred something with a different flavor

If I were just judging the quality of the food, I would give this a 10/10, but unfortunately that's not the full picture

As I mentioned before - this burger wasn't on the menu. So we had no idea how much the price was going to be until the check was brought out. The burger itself lands at $30. Compared to some of the steaks on the menu - it's not that bad - but this is still a really expensive burger. Obviously, the quality is unreal, and 1/2 pound will cost a lot, but by default it's not really a fair comparison against your standard burger if yours is 3x the price. The fries were another $12. Per person, this is $6, so not too bad, but what annoyed me a bit was the server asked if we would like fries with our burger, which really implies that they're an optional side to the burger itself - and not some complete other side dish that has its own price. I didn't think there would be an extra charge for it and the server didn't mention it either Also, the 22% service charge that's automatically applied is quite steep

Comparing this against my current pick for the best burger in the city at familyfriend - it's two very different types of burgers. That one is my favorite smashbugrer, while this is my favorite thickburger. However, when you compare the price, and ease of eating, I prefer familyfriend, but if you asked purely for the best tasting burger - I think this might be it by a hair

Overall, I think this is an all-time great burger hidden within the confines of a famous steakhouse, although the steakhouse pricing does creep...

My significant other and I were at Bateau for Valentines day. This is nothing personal to the staff or restaurant, but our experience was not very pleasant.

The Atmosphere was okay...the restaurant is great with its semi-rustic/trendy look. However, a majority of the 2-seater tables are extremely close together. This means that after 1-2 bottles of wine or drinks, we basically heard both conversations in great detail. Even when the servers would try to place wine/drinks on the table, there was some difficulty maneuvering around us. They knocked over our menu on 2 occasions and didn't even know because their waists would brush the table. Not the worst, I understand because it was a busy Valentines day.

Service on that day: when they were present they were very friendly. However, due to various reasons (busyness, noise, cooking times, etc.), our server was rarely around other than to introduce the drink pairing and say greetings. It took almost 15 minutes to ask for a refill for water after they left. Only one cup was filled, mine was almost empty but they overlooked it (1 glass of water all night). We saw them almost as little as we saw the other staff members that brought out our food. There's nothing else to explain here unfortunately...

Food: I rated 2-star. Not because anything was cooked improperly (food tasted great), but here was our issue: They lost our steak that we were saving for take out. We filled up on the 3 other courses, so by the time we got to the steak, we could only eat half of it (saved the best 4 middle slices). At the end of the evening we had to REMIND our server that we had half a steak left and that we were waiting to get it in our to-go box. Next day, opened it up and found out they gave us different meat from a previous course and NOT the steak we saved. Firstly, we would never know if this is left overs from another table that evening. Secondly, the entire point of dining here is the steak. We paid ~$550 for a 5 course meal to have half our steak thrown away, which we saved the best parts. For reference, we didn't check/open the TO-GO box because it was neatly packaged, taped, and put in a basket. I don't think it should be the expectation of the customer to ruin the packaging just to check "is my left over steak in here?" on their way out. Imagine you get your food packaged for takeout, and you get home and it's not what you ordered and possibly something that someone else had been eating? For that price? What if it was someone else's takeout that they're now missing out? Unacceptable here for a fine dining establishment.

Fact that you have to pay 20% up front gratuity is also very selfish in my opinion. We weren't provided the basic expectations of good service. Not even the option to change the tip if expectations weren't met. Overall 1 star (very rare)

Alternatives: take your pick: The Butchers Table, Daniels Broiler, Metropolitan Grill, The Capital Grille, even Il Nido (and they specialize in pasta...). All had better service and comparable prices (or less) from our experience...

The reason this review is three stars is pure price point. This was an exceptional dinner, and overall I am not dissatisfied with my experience. However, if I'm going to be paying for dinner at over $150 per person, there should not have been as many "misses" in our experience.

Service was top notch. Engaging, but not hovering.

The bread service was on point. One of the better I've experienced in the Seattle area.

The French Onion soup was not very satisfying. It was almost like a cup of demi-glace. Perhaps I just prefer less red wine and less color to my caramelized onions in my French Onion soup? We didn't finish it.

Next up was an Alaskan Spot Prawn creation. It was part green salsa ceviche and part salad. I'm from Alaska and Spot Prawns are some of my favorite things on the planet. I was really excited for this dish. Particularly when it arrived and I saw their creative use of the Spot Prawn roe. It was ok. I couldn't taste the prawns. There was so much going on in the dish, peppers, veggies, citrus that the prawns themselves became indistinguishable to the palate.

The Steak Tartare was amazing. Exceptional. I was expecting to have some classic power, but the chef kept things elegant and graceful. Probably the "cleanest" tartare I've experienced. All flavors easily noted and enjoyed. It was gorgeous, of course. With the most thinly sliced crostini one could get. I was expecting a crostini that thin to disintegrate, but they stood up to copious amounts of tartare heaps. So good!

For our main course we had a NY Strip with Bone Marrow Butter and a Coulotte Steak with Anchovy Butter. NY was exquisite. Pronounced in flavor, complimented by it's strip of fat, and luxuriating in it's compliment of butter. The Coulotte, and this was my first time with this cut, was great in flavor, but difficult in chew. It was too tough for us to appreciate. Apparently not benefiting from it's dry aging process that much? I believe this was a 29 day age, and I'd expect a bit more tenderness. We had the Frites and Aioli and the Kale Gratin as our sides. My wife could not get enough of the aioli. The gratin was too rich for us.

We finished with a Bread Pudding that was absolutely delicious. One of the best I've ever had. It was swimming in a pool of their own "almond milk". My wife seriously asked me if it would be ok to drink it. Of course! Let's get straws! All around a great dinner. I'm pleased. But I expected more hits than I received...