08/07/09

Not good.

by relentless7

When visiting a place, sometimes you make the mistake of assuming that a place might be good based on the fanciness of the menu. This is one of those places.

Although the menu is definitely fresh and new. None of the flavors I had seemed to pair well together. It was a huge disappointment.

Fortunately, Seattle is full of vegetarian options (especially up in the U district). As a vegetarian, I would not recommend having a meal here, our palates don't agree.

• Pros: all vegetarian, interesting dishes
• Cons: bad taste

05/22/08

Overpriced, mediocre food. Bad service.

by Glytterrie

My husband and I went on a weekday for dinner. It wasn't busy and we were seated immediately. Then we waited for fifteen to twenty minutes before anyone greeted us at the table. It took FOREVER to get anything. We ordered an appetizer, it took 30 minutes. This might be acceptable at a busy restaurant on a friday night. Not for a slow weekday. We were there for upwards of an hour before our dinner arrived. No one came to check to see if the food was acceptable. After we ate we sat for a long time before flagging down another server to get our check. Then we waited for an additional 15 minutes before that came. However, as soon as we got the check, our server became attentive, smiling and quickly bringing us the receipt. A sure sign of bad service is when everything you want takes forever to get to your table, but when you put the credit card on the table, the server perks right up and you get your receipt to sign in record time.

Now the food.. The appetizer was very good. It was a lavender dusted cheese plate with honey. That was the only good thing about the entire meal. My husband's food looked like it had come from a TV dinner, and my stuffed pasta consisted of a tiny amount of pasta and a HUGE plate full of sauce. I can deal with tiny portions if the food is good enough to make you want to savor it. Not in this case. It was on par with anything you'd order at the Olive Garden but with about 1/3 of the portion for 3x the price.

If you want good gourmet vegetarian, go to Cafe Flora. You'll be glad you did.

• Pros: The appetizer was good
• Cons: the food, the service, too expensive, tiny portions.

01/13/08

Disappointing.

by allaptr

We chose Carmelita for my husband's birthday dinner because our past experience of healthy and very sophisticated food at Carmelita. This time however, the food was rather mediocre quality. Roasted cauliflower fritters were deep fried; fast food quality but about five times more expensive. The menu did not say that it was deep fried, I would not order it. Pumpkin risotto cakes tested like it had sugar added. I felt cheated of my expectations for the dinner, not mentioning that we paid a lot of money for our disappointment. Never again!