Gainsbourg — Restaurant in Seattle

This was one of my go-to rotation restaurants. I've introduced many friends to it who've also made it a destination routinely.

This week it failed miserably. I wouldn't post normally but it was SO bad that we had to go to another restaurant for dinner .

Tables were dirty and full of dishes. We cleared our table. Upon going to the bar to ask for a towel to clean the table, the bartender/server offered to come clean it.

They have a very limited menu so it was quite disheartening to know that the entree I want was not available. However, about 10 minutes later, I was told that they then had it available and I could have that order.

On a good note, the server was very accommodating and let me made a substitution based on my medical nutritional requirements.

My partner ordered a second round of drinks, which never showed up until we reminded her.

My duck confit showed up looking dried out and tasting possibly worse than it looked. It also showed up without a demi-glace which would probably have made the duck edible. As we did not get a quality check, my partner eventually went to the bar to ask for the side of sauce. The sauce showed up by itself without a remake of the duck, which was ice Cold by this point.

I forgot to mention that half an hour after we ordered our food, or server came to tell us that she had just run in the order again because apparently there was a mess up with the kitchen and he didn't know there was an order. Considering we were the only table eating at the time, that seemed rather implausible.

The gal was nice enough, despite the fact that she blamed everything on the kitchen.

As this is one of my favorite restaurants in that area, I will be back but probably not until they get some kinks...

To say we were disappointed is an understatement - party of two walked in around 7pm, and took two seats at the bar. The restaurant was full, but not packed, and there were tables available. It took 10 minutes before the bartender greeted us with water and menus. I immediately placed an order for a cocktail special, which happened to be posted on the wall behind the bar and sounded appealing (it was called "B Positive"). The cocktail came out rather quickly, about 5 minutes later, and the bartender said he would be back to take our order. That was the moment where we should have closed our tab because at that point, we received no follow-up from the time we flagged the bartender down for our check 30 minutes later.

At the moment when the cocktail was delivered, we told the bartender we would like to move to a booth, seeing one available. He said no problem, and we imagined that meant he would be over to serve us shortly in the booth. We waited a full 30 minutes, watching both the bartender and two servers make laps around the restaurant, with no acknowledgment of us. We overheard them apologizing to other patrons for the delay in service to their tables. After picking our entire meal and salivating over the menu, as well as both using the bathroom, we decided to flag the bartender who was ignoring us down and ask for the check.

We were so excited to find an authentic French restaurant in a cozy neighborhood. This experience left such a sour taste in our mouths to the point it threatened to ruin our entire evening, but frankly, the lack of hospitality at this place is so uninspiring that it's not even worth a...

SAVOIR FAIRE. THIS PLACE HAS IT IN LEAPS AND BOUNDS...SOPHISTICATED, FUN, COOL and the superlatives could go on and on...best of all its not intimidating, elitist...Its so like very few places in seattle...Old French movies showing on the wall from the sixties, yes you will see cigs and cool French nudity great chefs who you can watch cook...the food is SO GOOOOOOOOOD and so REASONABLE..I have taken many people here now since a friend told me about it, ALL OF THEM this say" it is amazing, I did not know it was here, its a gem." ok I say a lot of that but seriously they all say its great and they go back...its old seattlish but with an eclectic PARISIAN feel...Gainsbourg would be proud and by the way to have the link to learn about him is great..what a fascinating journey for this man...I love the place even more knowing who its named after....happy hour is astonishing, great French wine, lamb burger, get your ESCARGO ON for cheap and no shells...duck confit by my friends foodie mother said it was cooked perfectly and usually duck is not cooked well..she was so happy.I can't wait to order the trout...Hey, the digital gift is a great idea, probably been done but first I have seen it...so French!? also the service is always wonderful, occasionally worry they might need two some nights but hey that is me projecting cause service has been super....anyway, my only suggestion is update the NEWS page it has information from 2011 and...