The Peasant — Restaurant in Seattle

I really wanted to like this place but my experience was quite underwhelming. The service was nice and the atmosphere were great, but the food just didn’t deliver. The Foie gras parfait was fine and tasty, but a singular tiny bun to go with it was rather inadequate. The second and third courses - a barley stew and a cassoulet - were far too similar. The former was overreduced and overpowered by the caramellized onion and tomato; not offensive, but unimpressive. The latter also felt overreduced and the smoked sausage served atop the cassoulet was quite dry. The fourth course was a poached tenderloin with fermented chanterelles. Part of the charm of the restaurant is being able to watch the chefs cook, but the downside is we were able to see the exact moment they pulled the tenderloins out of the tray from the oven - at which point it looked perfectly rosy and poached - and proceed to return the tray to the oven and overcook it. The tenderloins were inconsistent as they were served to my partner and I. My partner’s was incredibly dry and well-done, whereas mine was a more acceptable medium. For a method (poaching) whose intent is maintaining the tenderness of the tenderloin at the cost of not having intense flavor from grilling or searing, the overcooking resulted in a rather bland, dry, and untender experience. The chanterelles and sauce served alongside the steak was excellent, but for a butchers shop and for the price point I expected better meat cookery across the board. The spotted dick dessert was also rather sweet and the baked element was a bit dry. The drinks pairing was nice and generous. The service was good, apart from one chef who always seemed in too much a rush to properly explain the dishes. Overall, for nearly $250 a person I expected better cookery and thought behind the menu. The restaurant’s instagram earlier this week posted a dry aged duck breast dish which looked phenomenal and set our expectations high, but the tenderloin dish we were served was brutally disappointing by comparison. With two other rather forgettable courses, I’m conflicted on whether to come back because judging from others’ pictures, menus, and experiences maybe it was just an off night but the cost is too high to risk coming back to another off night.

edit: updating the rating for service because to imply that I wrote this review to get a free meal is grossly unprofessional. I’d love to hear all the concrete ways in which we were rude and how our rudeness caused your restaurant to produce food of that standard. I concede that we were 12-15 minutes late, but it’s laughable to claim that our tardiness was such a hindrance considering we were served the second course at the same time as the people...

For fine dining prices, I don't feel this humble place has all of the kinks worked out just yet to warrant a second visit for the $$$ point. The menu was meat forward (the space is an add on to their butcher shop). The flavors were good, but there was a recurring issue with food temperature.

The beef in the first course had refrigerator cool spots.

There was a mushroom & bordelaise dish that sounded very complex and was made with a lot of love, unfortunately it was not even room temp warm. The idea of dipping cold bread into a cold bowl of sauce with cold slimy mushrooms was so unappealing I simply couldn't finish eating it. Perhaps it was supposed to be a cold soup, but it wasn't described that way.

The pork cheeks and blue cheese tart dishes were excellent. I appreciate the use of seasonal winter vegetables, however the parsnip preparations tasted the same in every course, it became boring.

As for service, don't expect the fine dining attentiveness you'll find at other places for this price point. It definitely felt like back of house folks running the font of house. We were never given an opportunity to get cocktails or drinks of any kind, chef simply started dropping courses, I wasn't even greeted when I sat down.

There were no silverware changes between courses, I had to wipe down my cutlery between courses so flavors from the last meal didn't seep into the next dish.

I couldn't get anyone's attention to ask about the cold dish, and our waters were left mostly empty for most of the meal, we got one refill at the dessert course.

The space at the bar is very dark, too dark to 'eat with your eyes', which was disappointing; I hate when restaurants do that, they're robbing you of using one of your most important senses when eating. They crammed 6 people into this tiny, uncomfortable space at the bar. 3 of the patrons at the bar took up 75% of the space, my poor friend sat scrunched up next the the cold deli case all night.

I have some severe food allergies, not the ones they can't accommodate (as they clearly state on the reservation), I have others, but no one called beforehand and no one at the restaurant asked me about allergies at all.

Forced to give a 20% service tip but received 5% service.

UPDATE: The childish, defensive response from the owners to this review has led me to reduce my initial review rating. Instead of listening they chose to engage in petty, untruthful character...

Overall our experience was very “whelming” for lack of a better term. First and foremost, the food was top notch, and that cannot be reiterated enough, it is what brought this rating up to three stars. When a kitchen can perfectly cook a hunk of parsnip as well as spoon tender beef cheeks, that shouldn’t go unnoticed! If I lived nearby, I’d be at the butcher shop weekly!

Unfortunately the service and overall experience really brought the outing down. At no point during the booking process is a communal table experience outlined. I am not upset about a single communal table, but the “surprise” of that is less than ideal. There are 4 chef counter seats along with two 2-tops against the wall - those folks likely had a much better experience clearly allowing for either kitchen interactions or privacy compared to a public table of ten. If those specific seats were distinct during booking, we would have been more than happy to wait to book them.

If you are celebrating a special occasion they will ask about it while booking, but don’t expect them to acknowledge it - hard when you are at a communal table. While booking you have the option to add a drink pairing, but that would also be forgotten without a reminder. During dinner, you are asked to reuse silverware for multiple courses without having a sanitary spot to place them.

Normally issues like this are nothing more than ‘champagne problems’ and I completely recognize that! But when dinner & drinks are $200+ per person, you expect not to have to put your fork on the table, or remind a server that you paid for a beverage paring when there are a grand total of 17 diners in...