Roasted Chicken Breast Roasted Chicken Breast
Loulay

Loulay

600 Union St, Seattle, United States

Soup • French • Coffee • Cheese


"Loulay Kitchen Bar has been probably my first purist French Cuisine experience. Great service, super awesome food, paired with even better wines, the desserts, are to die for, I was in foodie heaven. This is my first visit here, on a cold evening in downtown Seattle. After quickly getting seated, our steward handed down the simple menu with an exhaustive wine list. After we chose our mains, we received help on what wines to pair our selections with. I went for Mary’s Organic Chicken, with Potato, Djon mustard. Chicken is a safe choice, primarily because it’s my first time trying French food, in a proper French setting. After a little long wait we were presented our mains, which looked impressive very French. Plating was done beautifully, the chicken was cooked nice firm, classic French techniques tasted delicious. The little roasted potatoes, with a mustard sauce as the base where the chicken rested, loved every mouthful, full of flavours experiencing classic French cuisine. Portions were large, but the greedy me, knowing how good French desserts are, shamelessly asked to see the dessert menu. The menu looked impressive having heard up the chefs grandmothers recipe being followed, wanted to order the Hot Chocolate. However was pulled between that and a Chocolate Sorbet. The already greedy self, decided to have both the desserts while my friend picked up a Valrhona Chocolate Torte. My Hot Chocolate came with a toasted brioche salted butter. The brioche was the perfect accompaniment to warm chocolate to be dipped into, the salted butter helped to break the sweetness from the chocolate beautifully. My second dessert, the Chocolate Sorbet was placed in the middle, within a circle made up of hazelnut, cocoa nibs, feuilletine, tiny globs of meringue. The vanilla milk was poured around the circle which helped swirl them up along with a spoonful of sorbet. Every spoonful makes a complex attempt to fool your palate on experiencing different textures of crunch with the super smooth sorbet. This place is special, first time am giving 5 stars to a restaurant, here in Seattle. Simple reason that they lived up to an expectation exceeded that with the dessert, even though it is a very expensive diner. I might just return to try their desserts, as they are hard to miss at a high price point of the meal."

Harvest

Harvest

44 Brattle St, Cambridge, United States Of America

Soup • Fish • Wine • Coffee


"Please do not get the french onion soup $18) or the short rib tortellini $38) This restaurant was extremely disappointing for me. I had high hopes for it. It is in a great location near Harvard square and it has a nice outdoor seating option. However, there was much to be desired. The french onion soup looks amazing. However, I should have taken another photo without the melted cheese. There is hardly any actual soup. The color is grey and cloudy. It tastes faint and muddy. There are far too many mushrooms and too much cheese. I have never, ever not finished a dish in a restaurant and this was one I did not finish. It was taken away half finished and nobody asked if there were any issues with it. The french fries were good. However, the two dipping options were some aioli and just regular Heinz ketchup. I wish the other one was something unique as well. The real disappointment was the main dish. The short rib tortellini was a small dish with exactly 7 tortellinis. The tortellini itself was not al dente, as another review mentioned. It was slightly under that and needed 1-2 minutes more. As a result, it had quite a bit of a bite to it, and the taste was not pleasant. The short rib filling was tasteless and texturally unforgiving combined with the underdone pasta. The sauce it was in was rooted in Asian flavors, which did not round out the dish. The carrots and potatoes were an afterthought, adding nothing. They were both underdone and some pieces were legitimately hard. Again, no one asked how my dish was. I am sure Harvest has some great dishes. These two were not those. I came here for an anniversary dinner and was excited. My girlfriend had a great dish, so that is a highlight. However, I am writing my review on my own experience. The service was subpar. I was not asked how my food was and everyone just seemed a little cold and distant. For $150 I expect something pheneomenal. And I was left wishing I went anywhere else."