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Le Pichet [SEA]

chefrodrigo
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  • 8 months later...
aaustin

aaustin

Posted
Posted

Thanks! I did get through and made a reservation for a Sunday night. The person who answered the phone was a little hesitant at first, so I wonder if they don't take reservations for certain nights....obviously they don't need to in order to keep their seats filled on most evenings.

I am so looking forward to my visit in just over a week. has anyone been recently?

aaustin

aaustin

Posted
Posted

I cannot wait! We're going to oceanaire the night before (parents love it) so Le Pichet is my only chance to eat how I want to while in town for such a short visit.

  • 1 year later...
Verjuice

Verjuice

Posted
Posted

Visiting Seattle for a week of eating (we keep getting asked, "you came to SEATTLE in November for vacation??"). Ate at Le Pichet last night after remembering this and other threads lauding it, plus having it recommended to us by our wonderful waitress at Lark (where we worked our way through 14 incredible plates of food, including 3 desserts).

It was a Saturday night and we did have a reservation and were seated immediately. I was prepared for the cramped tables (I had a stranger within elbow room of me on either side of the banquet all night). Fine. No problem there. But what I found shocking was the noise level. Neither of us had ever experienced anything like this, ever, anywhere. The waitress had her mouth three inches from my ear and was shouting the specials and we missed every single word (luckily they were abbreviated on a chalk board). I seriously wanted to start pouting after my fourth attempt to discuss wine with my dining partner. It was incredibly annoying to be leaning my entire body across the tiny table and still not be able to speak audibly. It seems like the space is designed to maximise poor acoustics; fairly low, flat ceiling, not a soft surface in the place etc.

We ordered two green salads, two sausage dishes, two terrines and the roast chicken and everything was great. To drink we had a couple glasses of sparkling rose and a pichet of riesling. The bread served with the meal was awesome and we ate a ton of that as well.

I just can't believe that I did not find one other complaint here about the noise factor. Is nobody else bothered by this or was this just unusually loud, even for Le Pichet? We agreed that we would never go back, no matter how incredible our meal had been (and it was really very good). Someone mentioned that they play live music in there occasionally. Just thinking about that gives me a headache.

I hardly ever complain and really don't like to so this was very unusual for me. Before yesterday, I'd have been hard pressed to come up with anything getting in the way of perfect happiness wherever pate and good bread are involved. :wink:

On the Rocks With Salt:The Food Blog

tighe

tighe

Posted
Posted

Seattle seems to have a peculiar affinity for tooth-ache inducing noise levels in restaurants. I can't stand it, but apparently many, many people find it to be a good proxy for a place having "energy."

Most women don't seem to know how much flour to use so it gets so thick you have to chop it off the plate with a knife and it tastes like wallpaper paste....Just why cream sauce is bitched up so often is an all-time mytery to me, because it's so easy to make and can be used as the basis for such a variety of really delicious food.

- Victor Bergeron, Trader Vic's Book of Food & Drink, 1946

LEdlund

LEdlund

Posted
Posted

IMO, there's a big difference between the noise level in a dining room with good energy and one so loud you can't hold a conversation. I've never had the latter experience at Le Pichet but I can see how it might happen. However, I did experience it at Zig Zag the other night. Man, it was loud in there!

Practice Random Acts of Toasting

kiliki

kiliki

Posted
Posted

I haven't experienced excessive noise at Le P either, even when it's full. (Funny, I haven't at Zig Zag either). Maybe it just takes one especially loud group to get everyone rolling?

LEdlund

LEdlund

Posted
Posted
I haven't experienced excessive noise at Le P either, even when it's full. (Funny, I haven't at Zig Zag either). Maybe it just takes one especially loud group to get everyone rolling?

That was my thought. You get a couple of loud groups and that changes the acoustics of the entire place.

Practice Random Acts of Toasting

agnolottigirl

agnolottigirl

Posted
Posted

I've had the unbelievably loud experience there too--unfortunately, while my parents were visiting! Wonder if Cafe Presse is any more mellow? (Though it seems unlikely...)

agnolottigirl

~~~~~~~~~~~

"They eat the dainty food of famous chefs with the same pleasure with which they devour gross peasant dishes, mostly composed of garlic and tomatoes, or fisherman's octopus and shrimps, fried in heavily scented olive oil on a little deserted beach."-- Luigi Barzini, The Italians

kiliki

kiliki

Posted
Posted

I've only been to Presse once, and it was packed and certainly lively but not TOO noisy, at least in back where we sat. We didn't have to talk over the noise. (And damn that mushroom-pear soup was good, as was their special baguette).

  • 2 weeks later...
Mirandar

Mirandar

Posted
Posted

a trip to seattle just to go to le pichet is my boyfriends' christmas present, because i'm sure that there is nothing that he wants more then to go back there. We stumbled into Le Pichet and lucked into a table right away on a sat. night around 9pm. we had been at wedding festivites all day and needed a totally restorative, and we had the most perfect evening there. perfect!!! you lucky seattle-ites

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