Cayenne

[tighe]

I had always assumed that 'ambivalence' meant roughly the same thing as 'indifference' but I recently learned the true definition: "the coexistence of opposing attitudes or feelings, such as love and hate, toward a person, object or idea"......or restaurant.

I've had both dinner and lunch at Cayenne now, along with attending one of the opening parties and I still have no cohesive opinion about it. I probably wouldn't recommend it, but I'm also sure that I'll go back.

There is real potential to the food, but they need to, "release the heat!" Too little seasoning just kills some of the things they serve that have potential to be good. Their best dishes are on the cusp of greatness and their worst are pretty much what you'd expect from a pseudo-Mexican restaurant located in a Silver Cloud Motel.

Dinner:

For appetizers we had the black bean dip and wild mushroom quesadilla. The dip sounded good, chorizo sausage covered with black beans and mild goat cheese, served with house-made tortilla chips. Way too bland, there's no way they used real chorizo and the beans had no discernable seasoning in them; even the goat cheese was so toned down that it added little. The chips they make are pretty thick and need to be very fresh not to seem stale, most of what we got were too hard. The quesadilla was good, if simple. Nice sauteed mushroom flavor and an ample amount of cheese, still needed some kind of seasoning to really set it off.

For my entree I had the duck and pomegranate tacos that I'd been eyeing ever since I first saw the menu. They consisted of shreded duck meat that I believe had been sauteed with pomegranate molasses. Really, really tasty. The richness of the duck was a great balance to acidity of the pomegranate. For this kind of 'fusion' dish, lack of heat wasn't a problem but the completely bland black beans and rice it was served with were. Along with the entrees, we were served a trio of salsa, all were quite good. The best was pineapple and habanero, but again too light on the habanero.

Service was fairly atrocious. I made the mistake of asking the server what appetizers he recommended and, from that point on, he took it upon himself to share his full opinion on just about every aspect of the menu and restaurant. Over-eager might begin to describe his style, he asked us at least three times within 10 minutes of receiving our entrees if everything was OK, wasn't this or that great, were we enjoying whatever and such.... I appreciate attentiveness, but this was WAY too much of a good thing. About half-way through our entrees, he asked us if we were interested in dessert. All this from someone who told us twice that he was also a server at the Columbia Tower Club....uh huh....

Drinks are good, but over-priced in my opinion. At the opening party I had enjoyed the complimentary house margaritas, served in a martini glass. Realized that the going rate for these was $7.50 and enjoyed them a lot less.

Lunch:

My initial dissapointment with lunch was that the duck tacos weren't on the menu, but I settled on the chicken mole quesadilla. Rich flavor and slight sweetness made this good, but could have been great with.....wait for it.....some heat. I also ordered chips and the three salsas and was dismayed to find that the pinapple-habanero salsa had even less kick than before. Service at lunch was utilitarian.

Cayenne

Silver Cloud Hotel

Broadway & Madison

Seattle, WA

Edited February 11, 2004 by tighe (log)

[tsquare]

Can I say...

[tighe]

Can I say...

You can say anything you want....as long as there's not a confidentiality agreement involved.

[tsquare]

told you so.

[tighe]

told you so.

You could, but.....

It's true that the food I had was overall not as spicy, or as good as what was served at the preview party. I think that was a big part of my dissapointment.

[Coop]

What's the hotel like? I find the housekeeping in Seattle hotels to be amongst the worst in the US. Prime offenders are The Paramount, The Warwick, The Embassy Suites in Bellevue, The W (is that why it's so dark?) and especially the Madison. The only exception seems to be the Kimpton places. Just my opinion.

[tighe]

What's the hotel like? I find the housekeeping in Seattle hotels to be amongst the worst in the US. Prime offenders are The Paramount, The Warwick, The Embassy Suites in Bellevue, The W (is that why it's so dark?) and especially the Madison. The only exception seems to be the Kimpton places. Just my opinion.

I haven't seen anything but the lobby, seems nice enough. It's brand new and definitely a step up from what I usually think of as a Silver Cloud-level hotel.

[ScorchedPalate]

Is it just me, or is this the saddest review you've ever read? Friendly service a standout at neighborhood-fitting Cayenne It boils down to something along the lines of: " It doesn't totally suck. You should go."

Somehow "forgiving prices" make up for "bland" food and multiple dishes that lacked promised ingredients.

There's "nothing wrong with the food -- its quality reminds me in a prefab way of TGI Friday's...." and the reviewer concedes that "I would cross the street to Guaymas" for Southwestern fare.

All of this damning with faint praise somehow adds up to a respectable 2-to-2.5-star rating and a claim that "This might be the best lunch that we've had lately." Ho boy. And here I was thinking that Seattle food criticism was improving.

<edited for a coupla typos>

Edited December 13, 2004 by ScorchedPalate (log)

[little ms foodie]

Is it just me, or is this the saddest review you've ever read? Friendly service a standout at neighborhood-fitting Cayenne It boils down to something along the lines of: " It doesn't totally suck. You should go."

Somehow "forgiving prices" make up for "bland" food and multiple dishes that lacked promised ingredients.

There's "nothing wrong with the food -- its quality reminds me in a prefab way of TGI Friday's...." and the reviewer concedes that "I would cross the street to Guaymas" for Southwestern fare.

All of this damning with faint praise somehow adds up to a respectable 2-to-2.5-star rating and a claim that "This might be the best lunch that we've had lately." Ho boy. And here I was thinking that Seattle food criticism was improving.

<edited for a coupla typos>

←

LOL! I agree, if that's the best you can do for lunch in Seattle then I will brown bag it!

[tighe]

I've eaten there once since they abandoned the Mexican/Southwestern theme....not good. What potential there may have been was obliterated.

[ScorchedPalate]

I sent the P-I editors a (slightly modified) copy of my post, wherein I asked them to give us more candor and less "Seattle nice". I got this rather snippy reply:

All I can tell you is that our intention with reviews is not to be "Seattle nice" or any other kind of nice. Our goal is to be fair.

Which I'm not sure you were in using pieces of Rebekah's review to suit your point.

"nothing wrong with the food -- its quality reminds me in a prefab way of TGI Friday's...."

The latter part of the quote is pretty important. "... at the baseline, and goes up from there."

As for the idea of forgiving prices excusing all, well, no. The food still has to work. And service is a factor. And atmosphere is a factor. I'm sure I don't need to tell you this, as you seem like a discerning reader.

Some things worked for our reviewer at Cayenne. Some things didn't. Were we too kind? I think I can guess where you stand on that.

Thanks for the food for thought.

Stephanie Reid-Simons

lifestyle editor

[MsRamsey]

Don't know why, but this cracked me up (from the review):

"Likewise, breakfast was dropped from the menu because it was confusing guests who were already offered a complimentary breakfast from the Silver Cloud, she said."

It's PR-speak, I'm sure, but I'm just picturing all those guests bumping around the Silver Cloud confused by all the free breakfast choices.

[vengroff]

We all know the restaurant business is tough, but running a restaurant in a hotel can be excruciatingly difficult. There is almost always a tension between the chef's creative instincts and the need to serve patrons who are predominantly travellers first and diners second. Throw in the inevitable financial problems new restaurants tend to have and things can get really ugly really fast as each side tries to push its agenda to turn the place around. I'm speculating, as I know none of the parties involved, but everything I've read here (the blanded down menu, the abrupt change of cuisine, and the dropping of breakfast) suggests to me that this is probably what is going on there.

[MsRamsey]

The thing is, I think they could have made a go of it, even for breakfast. There are several giant hospitals close by (including Swedish right across the street) and Seattle U right across the street. Tried it for an after-work drink, but the cocktails were truly disgusting.

[ScorchedPalate]

We all know the restaurant business is tough, but running a restaurant in a hotel can be excruciatingly difficult.  There is almost always a tension between the chef's creative instincts and the need to serve patrons who are predominantly travellers first and diners second. 

←

I just want to make it clear that I was not criticizing Cayenne (I will leave that to Tighe and MsRamsey ) but rather the shoddy review.

That said, there are plenty of hotel restaurants in Seattle that hold their own, food-wise: Lola, Brasserie Margaux, Dragonfish... even leaving aside traditional venues like Hunt Club and The Georgian. In San Fran, some of the city's top restaurants -- Grand Cafe, Fifth Floor, Postrio, Michael Mina -- are in hotels.

And I think MsRamsey is right: there's plenty of non-hotel traffic in the area that would have supported a non-hipster midrange option, provided the food was good.

~Anita

[Bruce Burger]

This is, sadly, a typical Seattle restaurant review. The real question is why they bother reviewing a mediocre restaurant. A serious reviewer would review a mediocre place only if there were extenuating factors (former greatness, dramatic location, etc.) that made people curious. But that's my bias -- maybe this is what their readers want?

[chuck]

I agree with the previous post. I haven't seen a review I've been interested in reading for six months or so. I read them every week anyway, and the reviews in the weekly papers as well, but I haven't been inspired to leave the house. And why is it that the P.I. and Times review the same restaurants within a week or two of each other? Are they kidding?

Maybe the argument is to take a look at restaurants across a broad spectrum of tastes? Seriously, a nuevo latino restaurant in a Silver Cloud hotel? Would they hire a renowned chef? Have they been successful before and are shooting for it agian? What the hell does this do for us? We're the ones reading the reviews faithfully and I think that the writers are letting us down.

I just don't understand the process behind the selection of restaurants, and no one has ever been able to explain it to me.

Should this be a new thread?

[elswinger]

I like Nancy Leson's review, even if I disagree with them, and whenever I've emailed her a question, she has promptly written me back with useful information. I also think it's valid for them to review Cayenne. I've never been but I thought about it. it looks like a nice space. Maybe a Latin-themed restaurant is the wrong kind of place to put in a traveler's hotel.