Frolik Kitchen + Cocktails — Restaurant in Seattle

To quote Hyatt Hotels who now operates the Motif Hotel in downtown Seattle,....

“Located on the 5th floor of Motif Seattle, Frolik Kitchen + Cocktails is a true social experience featuring a spacious outdoor patio, fireplaces, ping pong tables and more. This creates an edgy yet stylish downtown Seattle environment that awakens the youthful spirit and releases the mischievous side in all of us”That said, the restaurant and bar is quite unique in comparison to other downtown locals, and mostly because of the large outside dining and relaxing patio which is a rooftop affair five stories above and overlooking 4th avenue between Pike and Union in the heart of Seattle's (dying) retail core. Yes, the location and ambiance is very up market an rather trendy by Seattle standards, but awakening the youthful spirit and ones mischievous side seems to push it, if not a bit questionable, unless of course that implies throwing food and drink over the balcony's edge onto the heads of unsuspecting pedestrians below (or other Seattle locals just passed out on the sidewalk). Main access is through the fifth avenue side of the building through the hotel entrance and lobby where one also finds the Elephant & Castle pub.On this visit we beelined for the patio/bar area rather than the restaurant being it was a beautiful sunny (if not hot) Seattle afternoon and already knew ahead of time that there were slushy drinks on offer that the Seven Eleven a few blocks over definitely didn't have.  On such days, one can expect a wait, but it moves efficiently as outdoor time is limited to 90 minutes per perty. There are three basic types of outdoor seating being a) table with umbrella, b) large bar and stool community tables c) grouped sofa/conversation pit style seating for up to 10 . Being a party of two, we opted to wait for shade where the restaurant host was gracious and proactive.and actually went to review options and provide us with a real time estimate. Once seated the staff are extremely friendly and attentive and knowledgeable about what is on offer.  The menu is broken down into Shareables, Greens, Sandos (burgers etc.) Main, and Sweets, and to be honest it all looked good, but then again we were there to drink cold slushy drinks.  Starting with The “Frose All Day” a cold adult slurpee concoction of smirnoff, strawberry, rose, lemon and sugar which one could easily drink all day give or take a brain “frose” when consumed too fast. Then there are the Prosecco Pops with either strawberry or banana mango then semi submerged in bubbly prosecco. In my opinion there is nothing better than a cold glass of sparkling wine on a hot day. And prosecco with fruit popsicles make a glass of bubbly even more fun! Other tasty and unique beverages include the Mother Of Dragons butterfly pea infused oxley, campari, dragon fruit syrup, campo cava, and lime bitters (refreshing!)You Made Me Ink with grey goose, bacardi tropical, blue curacao, pineapple juice, lemon juice, lime juice, and blueberry syrup. Never much had thought of blueberry syrup beyond finding it at the local IHOP, now I know it's not just for pancakes anymore! One finds a selection of specialty drinks to satisfy all tastes  whether it be Gin, Vodka, Tequila-Mezcal, Rum, Bourbon, Whisky or Brandy. All quality, and from our tastings, all good. In addition we also enjoyed one item from the Shareable selection being the combined Cheese Board/PNW Charcuterie, being a chef's selection of three artisanal cheeses, fig jam, marcona almonds, locally made crackers and rustic baguette along with a selection of PNW cured meats, and marinated olives. Food, service and drink are...

It was supposed to be a friends night out at a roof top bar. No one expected to get the experience we had. It’s a balcony on the 5th floor. The roof is far too high from that bar. When I reserved the table for the party of 6, I received a confirmation along with a note that I’d be charged $120 in case of no-show. Does this mean that each no-show would cost me $20? Weird, ha? As soon as we arrived, the manager whispered in my ear that we have 1.5 h for the table. Okay, I don’t know why I wasn’t surprised, anyway... After waiting for ~20 minutes, we got our cocktails. Mine was wrong, so had to wait for a re-do. Plus ~30 minutes of waiting and there goes the food. Why only 4 entrees, what about the rest 2? They forgot. Plus another ~20 minutes and there we go, 2 more entrees. I requested to have a gluten free Italian melt. I was served with the regular one. Not funny at all. I was hungry and getting frustrated with every passing minute. The waiter said that they would need a couple minutes for the re-do. In five, she came back asking, “Do you really cannot have gluten? So, we will have to make it from scratch now, but don’t worry, it shouldn’t take long.” The first question was a surprise. Why asking? I clearly said that I cannot have gluten. I have a severe reaction for it. But let’s imagine you are asking this question a person who has anaphylactic reaction? That person might die because of such a mistake. Think of it seriously. After another ~20-30 minutes, I am served with the melt. One of our friends at the party explained to me that the GF bread is usually frozen and it takes a lot of time to defrost. The first thing I noticed, was that they served it with chips, not truffle fries. Then I realized that the gluten version was served with the fries only because they messed my request (I ordered the GF melt AND truffle fries which I thought, would be served in a basket). But they made a sub, meaning that the melt is served with chips, and you can make a sub with fries for $4. When I reminded that I was still waiting for my truffle fries basket, and understood that they totally messed my request, I said, “Okay, you can forget it, just remove it from my bill”. A few moments later I realized that the new GF melt does not have any vegetables in it. WHAT A MESS. At least, they told me it would be on house. One of our friends went to the manager (the one from point 3 above) and told him that that was the worst experience he had ever had, the manager replied smth like “great to hear that, thank you for the feedback, have a nice rest of your evening!” WHAT? This is literally unprofessional and sounds terrible in the context of our experience. After several attempts to get the manager’s name, our friend got kicked out. He did not do anything wrong or anything provocative. 3 of 4 bills for the table were mixed. This is 75%, guys. BTW, the manager’s...

Ultimately, it was a letdown. Made a reservation for 2 for my birthday dinner at 6:45pm knowing we had another reservation at 8:45pm but figured that since it was a 90-minute table limit, it would be fine. When we were checked in, I asked if there were any of the igloos available and the server said no and she wasn’t sure when one would be available because there are only 2 and her table just ordered another round and the other table wasn’t hers, and there was no other outdoor seating (whole point of a rooftop restaurant is to eat on the rooftop but okay). So, we said okay and sat down at their only available table. A few minutes later we saw a group leave from outdoors and asked if an igloo became available and if so, could we sit there. Our server came back and said yes, it’s just a $100 minimum. Easy enough. We were seated and our server took our order. He asked if I wanted a birthday shot and course I said yes. We ordered our drinks, our appetizer, and our main right then. It about 20 minutes to get out drinks and nearly 40 to get our food in which they brought the app with the main for some reason. Food was nearly cold, and my steak was overdone. When our server finally checked on us (after our food was gone) I ordered the DIY smores thinking how long could it take to get marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers on a plate? Apparently almost 30 minutes. At that point, it was 8:35pm and we needed to leave so we cancelled dessert and got our check. They charged us for the birthday shot (which wouldn’t be annoying if it didn’t taste like straight mixer and wasn’t $12, but I wouldn’t have ordered the shot anyway) and it wasn’t until we got into the car that we realized they auto gratuity but call it a “service charge” so we wound up tipping an additional 20%. I have no problem with auto gratuity, but call it that, don’t call it a “service charge” and don’t have “additional tip” amounts calculated at the bottom of the receipt. Overall, the drinks were fine, the food was okay, and the service was subpar. They were not that busy, I understand being understaffed (literally every place is these days), but nothing should have taken as long as it did.

Also, the Hilton does not validate parking. We were told we can go to the front desk and receive validation since they “have the machine,” so I took the main receipt as proof of eating at Frolik (part of why we didn’t realize that gratuity was added on since the other person in our party paid while I went to the lobby). The two lovely front desk people were very confused and said that they don’ validated and the restaurant needs to stop telling...