The Victor Tavern - 6th & Lenora — Restaurant in Seattle

Summary: very nice place, but food was disappointing

We were party of 20 people for lunch. The service was good and multicourse meal have been served in a timely manner (we have preordered).

First course: Marinated Olives - overall good selection and taste of olives. The best part of lunch. Everything Pretzels - pretzels are recognized by their shape, dense dough with a sweet note, and caramelized crust. What we were served had none of these. It was basically a cube-shaped bread with seeds on the top, served with overpowering mustard. Could say the worst pretzel ever, but those were not pretzels. Polenta Fries - the worst polenta I ever had. Hastily cooked with too much water left in it, with density closer to semolina pudding then what polenta should be.

Salad: Kale and Romaine Cesar - not too bad overall, greens were fresh and tasty. Lime juice was dominating, so I couldn't really tell if they put any garlic and/or Worcestershire at all. Croutons were nice, but some pieces were too big to fit in mouth, even for a person like me that has a mouth of a monkfish. Citrus Roasted Beets - A dull mush of lentils, purple and golden beets. Very starchy, the only taste that was coming out of it was muddy taste of beets. Everyone around me absolutely hated it. The worst part of the meal, and the worst beets I had in years.

Third: Rotisserie Chicken, lemon & rosemary - nice crust, but nothing special. No trace of lemon or rosemary. Dried out meat, with notes of your regular Costco or QFC rotisserie. For a place like this, I would expect a fresh, free range, special diet chicken. This wasn't it really.

Roasted Potatoes with cippolini onions and trumpet mushrooms - this was really good, fingerling potatoes were nice and sweet, well seasoned with thyme, with plenty of mushrooms to give every bite a good umami.

Baked Mac and Cheese, gruyere, smoky moray - This might have had cheese, or might not had any at all. It didn't have anything smoky. Pasta was terribly overcooked. The worst mac and cheese I've tried in Seattle.

Desert: Cookies, chocolate, sea salt - Overbaked, too sweet, with no special taste except for sea salt. My 9 year old kid makes much better cookies. A big disappointment for the end of the lunch.

Other people in my party were also disappointed, and said that they were really enjoying their burgers on earlier visits. After this meal, I wouldn't give them...

The service at this place is bad and the food is not great either. The lady waitress I had was rude. Young girl disrespectful. And on top of this, the place charged 22% for service that nobody told me upfront. Saturday evening and the place was half full and 2 people serving for the whole restaurant. One waitress bring me the food and I ask him for mayonnaise. He never came back with my request. I decided to ask the other waitress for the mayonnaise. My food was getting cold so I asked the young girl for the mayonnaise again. She got angry and answered me in a rude tone she had to serve all the tables. After 5 minutes she put me the container on the table and made me a face. She never came back during the dinner. When it was time to pay, she brought me the right bill but in her machine typed a way higher amount (I understand it was a mistake) and grabbed my credit card. When I checked I noticed that, called her and she went to her colleague to ask for help to void the transaction. My credit card got charged before I even signed the transaction with the approval. This young rude waitress never ever apologized for the mistake. She only came back with an attitude to charge me the right amount. It makes me wonder if she did it on purpose?? I don’t recommend this expensive place with bad service and the food is not really great either. Train your employees which I read in previous reviews that you manager...

The Victor Tavern gets five stars for the food. Our prime rib dip was superb, huge, and the fries were done perfectly. My wedge salad was good, not much a kitchen can do to a wedge, but the Victor Tavern does an excellent chowder, uniquely prepared. Jay, our bartender/server was pleasant and seemed to enjoy his job.

However, and I’m not going to be too negative because I’m moving two blocks away and will be dining in and doing take out from The Victor Tavern, but the bar reminds me of an airport bar, ready to be taken apart and moved. Maybe it’s supposed to replicate the pods used at Amazon in lieu of offices, but Victor has no personality. The space is void of any character, and beyond antiseptic. For someone my age, it’s a bit frightening, certainly bordering on Orwellian. However, the food is damn good. It just shouldn’t be called a tavern. I’m from Wisconsin, and a tavern has iconic meaning in the Badger state. Maybe a good name for the place would be ANTISEPTIC, how about BLAND, or BLAH, or MEH, but don’t use tavern. Yet, remember, the menu is great, and the kitchen does well, so close your eyes and enjoy what goes...