Red Cow — Restaurant in Seattle

I won’t be back. I have been coming to Red Cow since it opened and have generally enjoyed it and it might have been my favorite of the Ethan Stowell restaurants due to its approachable bistro menu, good food and neighborhood location and formerly reasonable prices. Last night, however was thoroughly disappointing on so many levels, that there is just no reason to return.

I still rate the food three stars because the fries were delicious, and still among the best in seattle and the filet was a good cut, well seasoned and cooked exactly as we ordered it.

Bread and butter is hard to screw up, but the overly complicated compound butter was just gross. Nobody needs bacon red pepper and honey—butter is delicious and it should be enhanced by the addition rather than ruined.

The olives were just ok. Some were overly soft like they had been sitting in an open tub too long and the marinade was a little one note and needed some orange peel or lemon zest to brighten it up.

We had to send the clams back because they were so sandy that i just couldn’t eat them. I have only sent back food like three times in my life but i just couldn’t handle the

The bernaise was off, and felt greasy rather than buttery and rich, but the horseradish aioli for the fries was delicious, so it’s clear that not everyone in the kitchen has lost their palate and ability to execute.

The salad verte is also still a winner with a bracing vinaigrette and crisp lettuces.

The desserts were awful and mostly inedible. It was clearly a situation where the cook had mixed up salt and sugar and nobody bothered to taste the tart dough. At the peak of blackberry and peach season, it doesn’t take much to make an incredible dessert, but they really managed to screw it up. The macarons were gummy and gluey and undercooked.

Service was lackluster. Our waiter was adequate, and the food arrived without excessive delay, but he seemed like he would have preferred to be anywhere else in the world.

I get it, restaurants have faced a triple whammy of cost increases…but the prices are just too damn high for the quality of experience. Who knows if it was because of the food, or something else but one of our party puked their entire steak in the middle of the night. So, we will...

Having been to many (and enjoyed) most of ES restaurants, I was hoping that Red Cow would be another good experience. Unfortunately, this was not one of them.

Red Cow is nestled in the quaint neighborhood of Madrona and was a place I had been looking forward to trying. The environment is nice, and our waiter was very friendly. We visited in early 2023.

The French onion soup was good, but extremely salty. This was difficult to finish, and I struggle to believe that any chef had tasted it before serving. The salad was created with good ingredients, but the almost fishy vinaigrette was unusual and unpleasant.

The grilled squash was the best dish of the night and was delicious. I could not fault the mussels either; it went quite well with the fries (which were nice too).

Unfortunately, despite Red Cow's claim to fame of a 'robust offering of steak', the expensive star of the show was also the biggest disappointment. A great piece of meat, with nice kitchen equipment to create a strong sear (crust was good), yet poorly and unevenly cooked, completely under-seasoned. Requested mid-rare, came mostly raw and slightly blue in the middle. Yes, the cut we chose was more challenging to cook, but isn't that supposed to be the restaurant's forte? We waited a while for the steak so why not let it rest a few more minutes before slicing and serving? I found it inexcusable given that the steak came sliced, so the kitchen would have been able to see the doneness immediately and feel how the meat was like when slicing.

I'd recommend saving your time and money, and buy some prime ribeye steaks from Costco instead, plus a meat thermometer, for much better results.

As a side note, Red Cow went through the trouble to re-print the entire menu, with a note saying that 4% extra will be added to the prices and retained by the restaurant. Why not just increase the prices on the menu?

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Red Cow and I hope it improves and put some care into making some...

Went in for a friend's bday dinner last night for food and drinks.

One of the staff members told us there was a delay after clearing our table from the two appetizers...we waited about 10-15 minutes because the kitchen overcooked my 16 oz ribeye the first time and had to do it again.

I've ordered 16 oz ribeye at other steak restaurants and never ran into this problem. They comp my steak but I'd rather pay for my steak and get it done right because that's why we chose the place.

We kept talking and ordered more drinks but when the steaks finally came out...it was so disappointing. There was hardly any color on my steak inside and out-just grey (ordered medium rare).

My friend's steak was mostly rare when she ordered medium rare on the waygu. It was more like a blue sear.

We didn't bother saying anything because we just needed more food from being done with the appetizers and needed to get her home to her kids. Our reservation was @715-9pm so definitely a busy time for the kitchen but to mess up on what you're known for is a huge miss.

I don't know what happened but the food quality seemed to have gone down over the years here.

Staff was nice about it. The place felt super stuffy to fit as many tables (2 & 4 tops) as possible. The mirror on the wall above the booth acts to open up the space but not enough.

I still tipped 20% so the total bill came out to $192ish. Doubt I will be back again.

Love ESR but my experience this time...