Bastille Cafe & Bar @ Ballard

I am a bit skeptical about trying out a brand new restaurant after a few disastrous experiences. With so many great places in and around Seattle, once we have a bad experience in a restaurant, the chances of us going back there is very slim. And everyone knows that most restaurants won’t have all their kinks worked out in the first few weeks. But last weekend we decided to give Bastille a try even though it had been open for just a couple of weeks. Lucky for us, we had a wonderful dinner. Well, the service wasn’t extraordinary or anything, but our expectations were so low in the department, just getting our drinks on time was great for us! And the food was really, really good! For us, the taste is what makes or breaks a restaurant and the service just has to be okay, don’t treat us bad or make us wait too long or bring us cold food and we will give it a passing grade, its as simple as that! But the food has to knock our socks off, and Bastille did that for sure!

We were in the wait list for a 9pm table, but we got there around 8:40 and found us the last two empty seats at the bar! The restaurant is huge, with a pretty good sized bar area, an inside dining room with tables and booths and a large outdoor patio perfect for a warm summer night. It was surprising to see that the place was packed after just two weeks! We ordered a couple of beers and an order of their Frites & Aïoli ($5) - its a gastropub, I had to try the fries! They didn’t disappoint, the fries were great (though I like the Spur fries and the cheesy fries at Quinn’s a bit better if we are comparing Gastropub fries)! It was carb overload with the beer and fries, good bye South Beach Diet! By the time we got to the bottom of the fries, our table was ready in the outside patio. It was the perfect night to sit outside, it did get a little chilly towards the end of the night, but they had heating lamps to keep us warm.

I had read about their roof top vegetable garden where all the herbs and salad greens used in the restaurant are grown in planter boxes. So I really wanted to try a salad, its gotta be as fresh as it can get, but the rest of the menu distracted us and we never ordered that salad. We started with the Duck Leg Confit ($11) with lentils and bacon in a sherry vinegar based sauce. The duck was great and the lentils and the bacon really added some wonderful flavor to this dish!

The second dish was Crispy Pork Belly ($9) with a green and yellow bean salad and pickled radishes. We both love pork belly so much and this was a good piece of pork, crispy on the outside and melting fatty pork inside! The pickled radishes were a little too strong for me, but Siv loved it.

These two dishes were listed under the Petite Plates section in the menu. Granted these were tiny in size but both the dishes were so rich and along with the fries and the beers we got really full by then. But we both had our eyes on the lamb burger from the time we got there, so we decided to split one. Grilled Lamb burger ($12) is served on a sesame bun with harissa aïoli, arugula and pickled shallots. There is an option to add feta for an additional $1, Siv hates feta and I love it, so I asked to bring the feta on the side. Our burger showed up on time, (with another side of fries of course) but the feta never did. I reminded the waitress, but the feta didn’t get there till I finished half of my half burger. I let it slide and in fact forgot about this little incident till now. I could call it bad service, but really we were enjoying the food too much and have had a few beers by then to concentrate on the bad stuff. The lamb burger was great, especially with the feta! Just wish I was a little more hungry so that I could’ve enjoyed it better!

To sum it up, food was awesome, service was not bad for a restaurant in its infant stage and the ambience was definitely great! We will go back for sure, and next time I will try the freshest salad in Seattle.

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Category: Ballard, French, Gastropub