Crow Restaurant & Bar

12/08/08

Neighborhood dining at its Best.

by jetsetway at Citysearch

The Crow is close to downtown and the Seattle Center, and all other attractions the city has to offer. And certainly is a deluxe American neighborhood bistro.

The Mediterranean platter worked well for starters. The Kumamoto Oysters were superb, and three of us had the chicken (which I will certain repeat next time around). Generally oysters cost about the same, big or small. Smaller oysters are usually tastier.

The wine list worked well with the food, complementing the entire dinner experience. Let them help you select, and you will probably have a bottle both better and cheaper than if you go it alone. As stated in the Seattle Times "They do everything absolutely right."

08/19/08

If Alone, Don't Expect a Table

by ChristopherJa at Citysearch

The first and second time I tried to go to the Crow, I was alone. I was not allowed to make a reservation over the phone for one person, so I thought I'd go later and grab an empty table. When I got there, several small tables were empty, but I was told I had to sit at the bar. Well, alone with a book, it was too dark to read at the bar, so I left.

I ran into the same problem at Betty, the Crow's sister restaurant on Upper Queen Anne.

I've since been to Crow (and Betty) with other people and have had pretty good experiences. The service was a bit slow, but our waiters and waitresses were very cordial.

Bottom line, if you're alone and don't want to sit at the bar, go somewhere else.

Chris

• Pros: Loved the salmon
• Cons: Do not like being forced to sit at the bar just because I'm alone

08/13/08

Don't Ignore the Bad Reviews on this Site About Crow...

by mickeykander at Citysearch

We had two birthdays yesterday, and out of several suggestions, we decided to go to Crow to celebrate. My partner called earlier that morning to make a reservation for 4 at 7:30 pm and told them that we had two birthdays. We showed up at 7:30, and weren't seated until 8:00 pm (my partner wondered why they took the reservation in the first place if they couldn't seat us.) While we waited, we weren't invited to get a drink at the bar, or even spoken to until our table was ready. When we were seated, our bored server said, "I apologize for the wait," but by her tone, we could tell she didn't care. The food was alright, you can get the same "foodie" items in other restaurants, but frankly, it was the service that drove us away. My friend was offered cracked pepper, but it wasn't offered to me. When my partner asked the server to bring pepper - she brought a ramekin of already crushed pepper (umh, I had to restrain myself from saying "what the hell?") Oh yeah, forgot to say that there was absolutely no mention of our birthdays at all. My partner quietly informed them when we got there that we were celebrating two birthdays, and our server said nothing, and neither did the 3 other people who interacted with our table badly. When the dessert menu came, we politely declined, paid our bill, and went to Molly Moon's in Wallingford for ice cream. I might be a bureaucrat now, but I've waited tables before, and it's really not that hard to be nice and welcoming to people, even if you're having a terrible day. Overall: Food = okay, ambience = attractive, service = pretentious and bad.

• Pros: Ambience
• Cons: Service

06/27/08

Good dinner, weird about seating

by melissac82 at Citysearch

My fiance and I decided to try out Crow on a Friday night without reservations around 6 pm since it's nearby where we live. When we walked in, half the tables were empty but the hostess--after looking at her list for a good 3 minutes--wouldn't seat us because she said that people were coming. So we sat at the "chef's table," which we ended up liking better anyway. I had the gnocchi, which I loved. My fiance had the roasted chicken. It was good except for the sauce, which lacked taste. We kept seeing a lot of the steak over salad dish (not sure what it was) but it looked amazing. Overall, we enjoyed our meal and chit chat with the chefs. When we were leaving we did take note that 7 of the so-called reserved tables were still empty. Like I said, we ended up liking the chef's table probably more than we would have liked a booth, but I still found it odd.

06/13/08

Regular Favorite

by badgergrrl at Citysearch

I eat at Crow 2 to 3 times per month. I usually sit at the food bar because it is really fun to watch them prepare the food. The servers and chefs are friendly and attentive. I love that Crow's menu changes every month or so and there is always something new and great that is reasonably priced. Lately, there have been a couple of great salads, a crab salad and beet salad, each of which I had a couple of times. Last month, I had a great hangar steak served on a watercress and tomato salad with blue cheese on top. Recently, I had the gnocchi with brown butter, corn, and morels and it was a little bit of heaven. Their gnocchi is flour based - not potato - and melts in your mouth. I'm going to try the lamp chops and ribeye they just put on the menu next week. Crow may get a little loud and busy on the weekends, but it is always a sure bet for a great meal.

• Pros: Great food, reasonably priced, nice servers and chefs
• Cons: can get loud