Artisanal Brasserie (closed)

Hubby and I had a lunch date at Artisanal Brasserie. We've been to Artisanal couple of times in the past. They always have $18.50 2-course, and $21.50 3-course lunch specials. The Dine Around Seattle is an even better deal than that. I love good deals, and I'm normally not that particular about service. However, today the service really left much to be desired. We had to wait forever for each course, even the desserts were like a 20 minute wait. Were they making the mousse or cheesecake from scratch? How long would they need to plate two simple things?

For appetizer, we got gnocchi Parisienne “Alfredo” with grilled red bell pepper in pine nuts tomato sauce (according to the menu) and organic Mesclun with herb vinaigrette. The gnocchi was very nice and creamy, but I couldn't taste the pine nuts in the sauce at all. The salad was so boring I don't know what else to say.

I then had Penn Cove mussels, à la Provençal with French fries. The sauce was nice, but the dish was just OK, not too special. I found the piece of bread at the bottom very tough around edge. Hubby had lamb ragout served on pappardelle with green olives in tomato sauce. As unhappy with this lunch as I was, I have to admit this was a very well done dish. The lamb was nice and tender.

As I mentioned earlier, for dessert, I had ricotta mousse with winter fruit compote. This wasn't a typical mousse. I enjoyed the first few bites, but it was a little too much cheese, a bit too heavy after the initial taste. Hubby loves cheesecake, so of course he went with the Artisanal cheesecake with pecan praline and caramel sauce. The flavor was just fine, but hubby found the portion a little on the small side.

PS: Artisanal Brasserie closed on Jun 14, 2010.
Edited by Viv on Jun 14, 2010 at 10:25 AM