Canlis — Restaurant in Seattle

Update: Happy to say Mark Canlis called and took care of our complaint and refunded the entire meal. We had written and called with no solution provided, just an acknowledgment of our complains which did not suffice such an expensive meal.

Just got home from getting dinner here for my birthday and was incredibly underwhelmed and quite honestly & sadly, I would definitely not come back. For starters, there was a wood bug that looked like a beetle that started crawling across our table halfway through our meal… it was disgusting and they did nothing about it. I was going to take a picture, but I don’t want deter people from coming because of that and I didn’t want to be rude posting it BUT I did want to make a note of it. Granted I know they can’t control bugs getting on the table, but we tried for several minutes to get someone’s attention to remove it & the lady who finally came over said nothing and attempted to remove it with help from my mom. I know our waiter was not notified because he was fantastic and I know he would have at least apologized, even though we do understand that is out of their control. But honestly it was pretty gross, not to mention several fruit flies throughout our meal!! No acknowledgment of a bug on our table at a restaurant like Canlis is pretty disappointing.

For the price, you can get much, much better food, and better service elsewhere. Our main waiter was great, but towards our 3rd course or so we basically never saw him again until the end to collect the bill. Several of the courses were way too salty to the point that we couldn’t eat it. My fish was so salty and vinegar-y I couldn’t eat it. It was honestly so bad. They served a pretty weird tofu nitrogen course as a palate cleanser and it was truly awful none of us touched it. Looked like ice cream but tasted like cold chalk and olive oil. I didn’t like my sorbet dessert, none of touched that either- and that was supposed to be chocolate. I would say, about 5/7 of the courses I didn’t even eat. I actually let hungry. Their salad was good, but also way too salty!! And I love salt! The best parts I think was the homemade bread & the drinks. Those were fantastic.

The night definitely started on a good note and then just declined rapidly from there. My personal opinion is that Canlis has too contemporary/modern/unique of food that if you’re used to a traditional fine dining experience this is not it. The food was simply just not good, and several dishes were too salty.

Also, there are several people who wait on you and they do not communicate!! My fiancé ordered a drink from another waiter (not our main) and 5 minutes later our main waiter asked if he still wanted a second drink. Normally a restaurant that’s not a huge deal, but a place like Canlis you don’t expect communication errors. And, later on in the evening, he ordered a coffee and so did my step mom, she ordered decaf he ordered caffeinated and they got them mixed up. Again, it’s not the end of the world they got the wrong drinks but for a $1000 dinner you would think they’d bring you the right drink. Luckily, my step mom heard the lady say “this is the regular” when she brought her coffee so then we had to wait another 5 minutes to flag down a team member to ask which one was caffeinated or not. At a fine dining restaurant like Canlis I feel like these little communication errors would not happen. We frequent Ascend a LOT in Bellevue and neither of those examples have ever happened there.

All in all, if you’re looking to spend over $1000 for dinner for just four people I’d highly encourage and suggest you to look elsewhere. I had heard that the food has declined since their new chef started but we still wanted to try it out ourselves, and sadly do agree. I do not want this to deter anyone else from coming, people should still try it for themselves, however I did want to share my honest opinion and that would be go literally anywhere else for this price point. We would only consider coming again if/when they hire a...

Describe our experience? Well, it's complicated haha. Dining at Canlis is a Seattle foodie right of passage and we saved our visit for our 7th anniversary. Anybody who has a trip here on their To Do list is surely building up the experience in their head and maybe it's not fair to hold Canlis to those expectations. It's also a 70 year old restaurant, is it really possible to be "the best" that long?

The Good:

The staff was oh so kind and welcoming, not pretentious at all and more warm, real, while professional, than most other places in Seattle, that was refreshing.

The valet parking was WONDERFUL, so seamless and easy, parking seems impossible in that area, but I wouldn't know, we didn't have to think about it!

The roaring entryway fire and hearth was lovely and they checked my coat right away. Get this: As we departed and move toward the exit they were toasting my coat up near the fire to warm it up before we headed out to the Seattle late fall weather. Ok Canlis!

The space itself is stunning, it's truly beautiful, like a James Bond 60's mountain lodge bachelor pad, it felt like the days of yore, what a privilege to enjoy and soak in the architecture. That's worth a visit alone that sort of art and creativity moves you.

We had drinks and the caviar in the small lounge before dinner, that was a fun way to maximize our time. The lounge is open for walkins and casual meals if you just wanted to see the space and say you've visit?

At the end of dinner they brought us these beautiful post cards and special pens, they mailed them out for us. Cool touch. We mailed them to beloved family elders but maybe we should have mailed one to ourselves. Maybe we weren't necessarily looking to reminisce about our dinner....

The Not So Good:

The food.Wow (and not in a good way). We kept thinking: Really!? The food was plated like the quintessential fine dishes we've seen before and had very little flavor or seasoning. When the food did have some flavor it seemed to be off or clash. I've eaten at overblown fine dining restaurant at the same price point and we're rarely blown away but always delighted, the foods always delicious. What's happening here? Where's the soul, where's the love, where's the message?

The best items were the fried onions that came with the caviar, the salmon mousse and crispy cabbage and the Halibut in the smoked tomato sauce (the only dish that came with a story/context linked to the chefs Filipina heritage). That. is it. That was the only food we swooned over.

We had dishes that we actively did not like. How?! The sablefish had no flavor and was hard to eat, so bland. Come on ya'll, you can't tell me you plated that and felt good about it. The lamb was a dial tone. The waygu had too much chew and was plated like an ugly jagged mishandled lump of meat.

The famous original Canlis salad? Guuuuurl. Gurl. So pedestrian, like. Gurl. Stop serving that, it made us feel dumb for ordering it When I tell you I literally made a better, more thoughtful salad, for our lunch earlier that day I mean it.

The dessert had no joy. The figgy toffee pudding was dry (DRY!?) had a weak fig flavor yet so many seeds. The toffee somehow tasted of no butter. The cranberry sorbet was so tart my face screwed up with every bite and the koji sorbet had actually no flavor. They explained that they "balanced" each other out but nah, they were just both equally bad for different reasons.

The piano music was odd, choppy, rag time style versions of pop tunes. When the pianist would take a break there was no music or at least we couldn't hear it. That was weird. Whats the vision with the ambiance ya'll? Talk about, make a plan, execute it.

We just had one of the best meals of our life at a fellow PNW fine dining restaurant for SIX people and paid less than dinner for two at Canlis. What we're we paying for? .

We're we paying to say we did it? Cool. Cool cool cool cool cool....

We dined at Canlis last night and it was absolutely breathtaking. It not only met but surpassed our expectations of it, which were high, as we knew its reputation and prestige.

My boyfriend and I are both lovers of good food, he's a head cook at an Izakaya back home on Maui, and I barista and serve at a cafe and lounge. That being said, Canlis was a must on our itinerary for this trip, and I'm so glad we were able to go.

From the moment you walk in the door, the service is incredible. Every member of the FOH staff is incredibly professional, personable, and inviting. The atmosphere and architecture of the restaurant also enhance the experience.

We had the pleasure of being waited on by Jeff and Genie, both of which were so kind, attentive, and funny, and overall their service was incredible and at the top of their game, made our incredible night what it was.

All seven courses were fantastic. While I cannot say that every bite was mind blowing, at least one component of every course, save the salad, had me closing my eyes and leaning back in my chair to savor it. From the moment the amouse bouche course hit the table, I knew we were in for a treat.

The presentation, flavors, textures, and ingredients are all incredibly well thought out. I loved the oyster and panna cotta, the bread with local rye was delicious, and the history of the salad made it taste even better.

For my courses that I could choose, I went with the venison, porcini, and cacao, and I was so happy with my selections.

The restaurant I used to manage worked closely with Maui Nui Venison, where they source from, and I was so happy to learn that they're working with a company that's doing such cool work on island. Living on Maui, you tend to eat quite a bit of venison, but the preparation at Canlis is the best I've ever had. It can tend to be gamey and tough, but theirs was so tender and flavorful, and the presentation with radishes was as sweet and delightful as it was unexpectedly playful.

As a big fan of mushrooms, I was so excited for the porcini, and it absolutely took my breath away. I can without a doubt say it's the best dish I've ever been served at a restaurant. The inclusion of the lightly pickled pear was so creative and the flavor and texture provided the perfect contrast to the rest of the dish with a bit of sweetness, freshness, and crunch. The ground almonds were also so tasty and brought a wonderful deep, roasted flavor, and enhanced the umami of the delicious mushrooms. Every bite was better than the last, so lovely.

The pre-dessert I'd been looking to all night after hearing it described to a nearby table early in the meal. I love calamansi and lemongrass, and as a sorbet it was the perfect palate refresher before the final course. The pairing with olive oil was also so unexpected and perfect, and I loved the textures that the candied yuzu and compressed apple provided. The desert was good but I wouldn't say great, but I still enjoyed it, and the presentation was beautiful as expected.

I also loved the drink I got, I can't recall the name but it was a non alcoholic cocktail with purple corn. Unlike other mocktails, which tend to taste like flavored sugar water, the bitters provided a beautiful bite and it drank like a true cocktail. I also appreciate the presentation, and the fact that the non alcoholic drinks have as much thought put into them as I'm guessing the cocktails do for those of us who want to enjoy such a special meal sober. So good I had to get two.

Overall, Canlis was a definite hit for us. Down to the cutlery and plate ware, the descriptions of the dishes, the choreography of the changes of courses, the incredible effort and coordination of every member of the staff, we were very impressed. Such a special experience and I'm so glad we...