Le Chalet Basque

Can’t say enough! Our first time here & we will be regulars. The food, the atmosphere, the people, the music & the dogs made for a fantastic evening. The house-​made sangria & frog legs were well prepared. What a gem! Great for couples & date nights! Can’t wait to return.

I have been coming to this restaurant for more than a decade since 2002. The place is great specially if you are bringing visitors who are not from Marin. It has quiet ambience and the food is great! My only complaint is that the menu has not changed for the past decade. It seems that the food is fixed in time! The daily specials are also rotated regularly.
But nonetheless the place has good food and perfect atmosphere to entertain friends with fairly reasonable pricing.

This place is amazing. Great fine dining experience, diverse and flavorful dishes, fantastic (and when I say fantastic, I mean for real real) service, and a beautiful communal homegrown ambiance. The escargot, frog legs, pâté… Man…
Entrees are on point, side dishes are are hella good. Linda is my favorite server on the planet. She is witty, attentive, initiative, and well-​informed. She is more of a treat than the delicious, foods and drinks.
I just moved back to Marin after living in the east bay and this is the best reasonably priced authentic foreign food in the north bay. Hands down. Everything about it is perfect. The beverage list is over the top. Go here. Eat food. Enjoy libations. Be well.

The service was fine, and the Caesar salad was delicious. My $ 32 rack of lamb came medium rare as ordered, but was extremely over salted. We also ordered artichokes with Hollandaise that was served at room temperature. I was expecting it to be served warm. In addition, the small room was quite noisy which made it difficult to carry on a conversation.

We hadn’t eaten at this restaurant in 30 years, but found it enchanting and the owner was super helpful and accommodating on a busy night. The food was great. It is now our go-​to restaurant when we are attending an event at Marin Center.
Chris and Tara, Novato

My husband took me here on one of 1^st dates 25+ years ago and he had been going 5 – 10 years before that. What a great little spot off the beaten path! The food is amazing, and the waitress Linda, who has been there forever is a fabulous server and has the best personality. She has published 2 books about her experiences while working here all these years and you don’t have to wish the walls could talk … Just read her books. We stopped in this past Easter Sunday without a reservation, and was still able to sit at the bar and have appetizers, drinks and watch the Warriors game. The bartender makes a killer dirty Martini. The locals love this place and I can see why, I wish I lived closer, I would be here every month.

This is an incredible little restaurant located in a residential neighborhood. Authentic Basque food, along with more standard fare, served in a home-​like setting. The lunch prices were very reasonable for large portions, and the service was excellent. I rank it five stars based on the value for the price.

Went here last year prior to an event at Marin Civic and loved it.
Went back this year and instantly fell out of love. First, our table had been given to someone else. Not a huge problem, but uncomfortable as host chewed out the waiter right in front of us.
Service was at a snails pace. Waiter actually asked if we wanted our hors douerve first, or the salad. Soup tasted like dish water, salad looked like someone grabbed a handful of lettuce, threw it on the plate and drizzled some ghastly dressing on it. Beef Bourgogne (sp?) was water, chewy and had cabbage floating in it.
Really not a good experience.

Terrible service and food. What a disappointment. Service was rushed and no one could even seat us when we arrived. What a shame!

People drive from as far as Menlo Park and the East Bay to eat here! Classic French food… escargot, sweetbreads, rabbit… and excellent, friendly service. The patio is lovely too.

This restaurant is a hidden gem with delicious food and great service. My fiancé and I had the Sunday special, which is 5 courses. The first course is pâté, which neither of us eat, so the waiter brought out this amazing artichoke covered in lemon sauce. It was the best artichoke dish I’ve ever had. Second course was the soup which was potato leek. Usually this type of soup is made with a cream base, but this version was a perfect blend of potatoes and leeks without all the extra cream. Very tasty. Then we had salads, where I ordered mine with Caesar dressing, which had the perfect amount of dressing. For my entrée, I had the poached salmon and my fiancé had the chicken. Both were cooked to perfection. Lastly, I had the butternut pecan ice cream and my fiancé had the rice pudding. Both were yummy and a perfect way to end the meal.
We are looking forward to having our rehearsal dinner here.

Linda!!! Our family enjoyed a great meal. Delicious bomestyle food at reasonable prices. Linda, our server, added much to our enjoyment of the meal, with her thoughtful and attentive service and good sense of humor. Recommended from a prior generation, this food was as good as recomended, if not better. Highly recommend either shrimp plate or the veal. Thank you again for a wonderful meal!

Nick F’s review is right on time.
This place is worth it in culinary value alone, and the value being from another era is a plus in my book. People who can appreciate that will dig Le Chalet Basque. Service was great.
The one thing i would change is to swap the industrial dinnerware for some vintage Frenchy stuff, but that should tell you that this place is cooler than I am. Old school and 100% proper.

About as good as its gets… Great service, food exceptional, and real value Classic local neighborhood establishment a real gem… On another note as a restaurant owner myself of a highly rated 4.5 stars restaurant in Southern California I find so frustrating that such a good place only has a 3.5 Unilocal rating not right… Please if in San Rafael check em out and ignore the the fools who bash this place… Le Chalet Basque is special and thank you for a grand experience

We had a wonderful dinner here last night w/​Nancy. We had an 8:00 concert at the Marin Veterans Complex, so we met at 5:30. It’s about a mile and a half from the freeway exit, in a neighborhood that’s mostly residential, but once we processed how far it was, we found it easily. They have a large, lovely patio in front w/​tables shaded by umbrellas and an awning. Nancy had already arrived and been seated at a table by the streetside wall. We rearranged ourselves at the table for comfort and started to look at menus. Rather too quickly our server asked what we’d like to drink other than water, which had already been brought. When we were finally settled and ready to decide, Nancy ordered a glass of Chardonnay and I ordered a glass of Sauvignon Blanc. Wine prices are very reasonable. Our wines were $ 6.50 each. Alan ordered iced tea.
The menu is extensive and varied w/​nightly specials in addition and the prices are also reasonable. Dinners come w/​soup and salad. I don’t think there was a dinner price over $ 25. For an extra $ 5 you can have the full Basque dinner w/​paté maison and either ice cream or rice pudding for dessert. None of us opted for that, although Nancy and I shared an appetizer of escargots, which we both love. The soup of the evening was Manhattan clam chowder. Salads come w/​vinaigrette or blue cheese crumbles. Nancy and Alan chose the evening’s rock cod special, Alan’s w/​o extra salt. I was torn between the roast duckling, the coq au vin special and the sweetbreads. Our server recommended the sweetbreads because they are well regarded and I went w/​them because I seldom see them on a menu. We were brought a basket of tasty garlic bread.
The soup was very tasty. I think it was one of the few times I’ve had Manhattan clam chowder. The salad was generously sized and very good, w/​freshly ground black pepper if we wanted it, which we did. Both Nancy and I had a second glass of wine. We were all pleased w/​our mains, which came w/​lightly steamed or sauteed vegetables including carrots, cabbage and zucchini and rice on the side. I loved the vegetables, particularly the cabbage, which was unexpected. The sweetbreads were heavenly, beautifully cooked and a generous portion. Both Nancy and Alan enjoyed their fish. None of us had room for dessert. Service was smooth, w/​plates being cleared efficiently. Parties of two and larger groups arrived as the evening wore on and by the time we left the patio was pretty much full. We agreed it was a lovely dinner and we look forward to returning for another one. Probably by then it will be winter, so we’ll have a chance to see what the indoor dining area is like.

I just love these kind of places. They are what they are, and they honor what they have been by keeping the flag flying high. If you are looking for flaws, sure enough you will find them, but the overall experience for me and my bride was great! We had THE Best waitress by the name of LInda. If we could describe what we wanted, she could make it happen. What is there not to like? The best thing we had were the sweetbreads. The only suggestion I could make to the chef on the other things we had, lamb shank and tripe, is to go back to the old fashioned cast iron braseing technique.
I only hope time is on our side at these places. We should start a preservation society for classic places like this. Because if they go, they will be missed for a style of hospitality that is deep and trued by time and has not been reproduced in my experience of new openings. Thanks for a great evening where we were celebrating the end of our 2015 harvest. (And what a vintage it was… Ahh!)

Our first visit and we fell in love with this place. The atmosphere is lovely and relaxing. The food was divine. All 4 of us had the special of the night which was a veal chop. Dinner includes soup and salad. We also shared an appetizer of escargot which was very tasty. Our waitress was wonderful with a delightful sense of humor, she really added to the evening. Not sure about their wine list as corkage is only $ 12 a bottle so we brought our own wine.
We’ll be going back!

Food great, service mediocre.
It’s been about 6 years since I was last here. I recall a very jolly, fun place with lots of character. Thinks certainly have changed. First if all I’ve got to say the food was great. beautifully prepared, good portions, very tasteful.
However, the service was poor unfortunately. Order was served incompletely — forgot the starter. Water was delivered in large bottles which were slammed down unexpectedly throughout the meal — memo to staff, ask if guests would like more water, it’s meant to be an enjoyable experience, not watering livestock!
Overall an unpleasant experience, totally let down by front of house staff. Won’t be back anytime soon.

Declined substantially. This place used to be a great value with wonderful dishes and impeccable service. Unfortunaley on saturday night which you would think would be important to them, the service was poor. There was no host and we were seated by the bartender, and then we were bypassed by a later couple and had to wait 15 minutes just to place the order. The French basque feeling is gone as waitstaff were not versed in french fare at all. Our appetiser plate had 2 tiny pieces of pâté, 4 tiny rounds of salami and not much else… about a 4^th of what it used to be. The escargots were overcooked. The mussels were pretty good but overall the experience was disappointing and very expensive ($ 99 plus tip for 2 people and we chose an inexpensive wine). Saddened of how this once consistantly wonderful restaurant has completely lost its way.

My family has been going to Le Chalet Basque for years. It’s always nice for a good seat down family dinner.
I always go with the duck in orange sauce or cordon bleu. Both are always delicious.
And you have to go with the complete dinner, which is the pâté, soup, salad, and dessert with your meal.
The servers are always nice a friendly, as it is a community restaurant that’s been there for as long as I can remember.