Bateau has been on my list of restaurants to visit for a long time. I live in the suburbs and work from home which means that fine dining has to be planned and strategized. My planning for Bateau started over a year ago when I reached out to their Director of Hospitality (Jamie) to let them know I had heard about their frites and house made shrubs. Between health challenges, travel, and other excuses, I wasn’t able to make the visit work until now. The bar had a spot open for me at 5pm on a Tuesday so I saddled up and was quickly overwhelmed by their incredible menu. While I was the first person seated, the restaurant quickly filled with other patrons.
What sets Bateau apart is not that they serve good steaks. Bateau is respected in the Seattle culinary scene for their visionary butchery and dry-aging where they highlight unique cuts in a daily chalkboard format. I didn’t appreciate the novelty of this until I saw the staff periodically crossing things out throughout the night, almost like filling a BINGO card. A lot of these cuts are small enough (and affordable enough) that you could experiment comfortably with repeat visits. Just hearing the team describe the cuts is worth the price of admission. There’s an infectious energy when someone is genuinely passionate about something and is given a platform to share it.
I had an objective in mind when I arrived. Due to the nature of the blog it made sense for me to try their off-menu burger, their frites, and a seasonal house-made shrub. Those are terrific choices, but I want to be very careful to not discourage people from exploring the wider menu. For example, there was a solo diner next to me at the bar that committed to the tasting menu. As elegant plate after elegant plate arrived I became progressively more jealous. More than anything, it just committed me to come back.
Let’s talk about “the burger”. For something relatively simple, the burger was shockingly good. I’m generally averse to thick steakhouse patties, but mostly because they’re usually stacked with a 1,000 toppings and impossible to eat. They’re also almost always dry as a sock. This was expertly prepared with a distinct crust and a comfortable medium rare cook all the way through. Juicy is an understatement. It melted. The bun was small enough to hold it together, but not so big that it would make the burger too hard to eat. It was also toasted to perfection and added a buttery compliment to the savory patty. Beyond that, there was a generous spread of deeply caramelized onion that carried a deep sweetness to the beef, and then a creamy aioli. It’s an A+. I’d be tempted to try it with a few house-made pickle chips just to test if it really was perfect in its simplistic preparation. Again, the burger is not on the menu, and while it’s delicious, I’ll emphasize again that Bateau has more to offer than this.
The frites were crispy, but not crunchy. They arrive with a rusty golden hue out of the fryer which is a deliberate departure from the McDonald’s standard blonde. They weren’t burnt, but you can pick up a little bit of bitterness from the preparation (or the skins). Their vinegar brine adds a touch of tang to the potato, but not to the extreme that I’ve seen other lacto-fermented fries (they’re not pickled). They were also careful to keep the fries consistently long, and perfectly seasoned. They’re fried first in a neutral oil, but they are finished in beef tallow. This is similar to how McDonald’s fries used to be prepared. The aioli was great, and beautifully presented in handmade ceramic flowers made by Jamie, our host. Jamie also offered us a house-made ketchup with a pomegranate base. It was sweeter than regular ketchup, or at least a sharper sweetness, and the pomegranate flavor was a fun change from tomato. It mixed well with the aioli as a DIY fry sauce. I measured the fries at 5/16th of an inch (about 8mm), which is a comfortable medium in my book.
I tried a few other things while I was there. The wild olives were super creative, but if you don’t like olives you won’t like these green walnuts, fermented plums, and brined baby apples. They taste like olives. You get a similar flavor and texture, but a much larger format. I ate them and didn’t hate them, but this is not a flavor that I seek out.
The French onion croquettes were a highlight. Like a barley hushpuppy, but stuffed with cheesy savory caramelized onions. This is comfort food to the extreme. The sauce they provided was so classy. It’s served in a semi-deconstructed state where they instruct you to mix it at the table. It’s Japanese inspired with a raw egg yoke, garum (an old Roman style of fish sauce), and Dijon mustard. For me the flavor fell somewhere between a tangy caesar dressing and a bearnaise sauce.
The orange fennel hibiscus shrub was bright, and delicate, and only lightly sweetened. I found it very refreshing and a comfortable sipping beverage. You get the aromatics from the orange twist and I think it brings out the accent of the fennel. It’s only a hint, so there’s no risk of your drink tasting like italian sausage. I especially loved the paddle straw in mine, but I was the only one at the bar to get that unique accessory. Jamie knew I was special. I also appreciated that the shrub was only $5 which felt very fair for a beverage that doesn’t contain alcohol and doesn’t require an elaborate presentation. It was approachable and palate cleansing. Shrubs are made by creating a syrup from fresh fruit, sugar, and vinegar, so there’s always going to be a bit of that vinegar sharpness. If that’s not your thing, there are other mocktails and beverages on the menu, but I didn’t try them.
Bateau is not cheap, and at $28 this is probably the most expensive burger I’ve ever had. I also think it was worth it. More than that, I think there’s a signal in that pricing that you need to make a choice about whether you want a burger (which is good) or if you want to try a unique cut of dry aged beef. Whatever you decide will be delicious, but the next time I visit I’m hoping to be the one that removes something special from the chalkboard that night. I will still order the French onion croquettes, though.
Sodafry 