Bateau

This is my new favorite place on Capitol Hill! The service is amazing and top notch. The food is a bit pricey but totally worth it and the staff is extremely knowledgeable. Highly recommend this restaurant for special occasions.

I went to Bateau for the first time with two dear friends and the entire experience was wonderful. The ambiance was simple, but reminded me a restaurant in Europe. The staff — including our waitress — were helpful and pleasant.
The food was amazing. The steaks are expensive but well worth the money. The chef accommodated my friends request for a veggie. All in all, it was fantastic. Wine, food and staff were great.

Vache may have been a more appropriate name for Renee Erickson’s trendy Capitol Hill brasserie, Bateau, but really, it’s only a name. The clean, simple interior design gives a touch of elegance to what is typically a dimly lit and stuffy steakhouse environment. The bright white walls are contrasted with a center piece of magnificence — the blackboard showcasing all of the available cuts for a given night’s diners to select from. The product, mainly dry-​aged beef, hangs in a glass-​encased cooler for viewing pleasure and perhaps to convert the other half to become carnivorous.
If you like chicken liver pâté, then starting off with it is an absolute must. If you do not like chicken liver pâté, then starting off with it is an absolute must, too. The second starter we had was the roast beef tartine — it wasn’t a bad dish, but it seemed like a large roast beef open-​faced sandwich — you should do the beef tartar instead. For the main course, I went with a Bavette steak. It was 11 oz. of 30 day dry-​aged beef, served at a perfect medium rare temperature. It may not be the 55oz Tomahawk that you might find at the traditional steakhouses, but after the 2 appetizers, 11 oz. was perfectly fine.
The wine and cocktail list were short and sweet, but nothing to write home about.
Come prepared to spend $ 100 on dinner and drinks. Also note that your bill will include 20% gratuity.

If you get the concept, you’ll love it.
It’s not a «steakhouse» in the way the Metropolitan Grill or Ruth’s Chris are. They butcher two cows a week and serve up those individual cuts to the first taker. You want a Delmonico? Get there at 5:30. You want a massive Denver cut? They can help you. The steaks are beautiful, though, and treated with care by the chefs. You want to call doneness? Again, Metropolitan is that-​a-​way.
For all the bitching about the service charge (it’s 20% — the average Seattle tip), the service was exemplary for a Capitol Hill restaurant.
The main drawback is if you don’t like beef, beef, and more beef, this is not the place for you. Even Metropolitan will make you chicken. They butcher cow. And they butcher it well.

Yet another boring steakhouse. Sorry, I don’t want to stare at hanging sides of dead animal as I eat. Also, they try to force a service charge on me.
Owners — tips are for the service staff. That’s what I’m paying them for. You don’t get to change it into a service charge so you can get a cut.

A very strong 4 stars. We went the other night with a group of 4 and loved it. The steak selection was great, the small plates were unique and fun, and the cocktails were delicious.
overall we will happily be back.

Probably not the place for vegetarians. Or anyone not hankering for a big piece of meat. Pretty place, though.

Beautiful restaurant, great service, and a window looking into the dry aging room… what more could you ask for?
I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but my server was so knowledgeable and walked me through all the cuts of beef on the board. There’s a chalk board updated daily with what type of cut, from which farm, and what size you can order. It’s intimidating to look at, but she explained which cows are fed what at each farm and what kind of taste/​finish the meat will have. I started getting meat sweats just trying to decide. I decided on a 10oz denver and the birthday boy got a 17oz ribeye from Carmen ranch that was going to supposedly have a very earthy taste. She was pretty spot on about the tastes, but what do I really know? I just know I had a good steak in front of me with bone marrow butter on top. Kinda salty on the outside, but a really good cook on the steak. Don’t come here if you like a well done steak.
The actual menu consists of some starters, steaks offered daily with your choice of butter, and some sides. We opted for the lettuces with green goddess dressing, veal sweetbreads, frites and aioli, and roasted mushrooms. They were all amazing! I’ve never had sweetbreads before, but damn they were good. If you like organ meats, you’ll like sweetbreads. The frites were sooo crispy, I should’ve gotten an order for myself. The roasted mushrooms come with an egg yolk on top that you mix in, which make them pretty much the best mushrooms I’ve ever had.
Petite cocktails here also very tasty. I love splurging on a good cocktail every now and then that’s actually enjoyable to sip. But really, it was a splurge. Very small pours, but they’re definitely good drinks.
Really looking forward to coming back to try their $ 17 burger. I have really high expectations for it.

How does this place have a 4.5 star review?
The food was so so for $ 300 meal without wine. This doesn’t come close to one of the best steaks in town. Beef tar tar tasted like all they added was a squeeze of lemon. Seriously you can get a far superior steak in NY for a fraction of the price and Seattle isn’t quite to that caliber. $ 75/​person x2 for steak. They must be high, which could be possible since mj is legal in WA.
Mandatory 20% tip. Yeah, that’s great and all but when the servers and staff know they’re going to get paid regardless, the service is more likely than not going to lack. It really doesn’t make me inclined to want to dine in such an establishment. I’m really not pleased with mandatory tipping if you couldn’t tell. Reminds me of all the entitled mellenials that just want everything handed to them. The staff’s snooty vibe was icing on the cake. That’s great if that’s the image they want to go for but it should be backed up with mind blowing dishes and superior service.
For the price, I can take my money to Canlis. At least there I know I’m going to get the bang for my $$$$. This place would be fine if it was in the $ 100-​$ 150 range for 2 people. To top it off the wine list was subpar. France obviously has out of this world wines. If they’re going to charge these kinds of prices there needs to be a much better selection on wine.
On a positive note the space is nice. Modern chic. Very hipster.

Renee Erickson would have been disappointed with the meal we had at her beautiful new space on Union. This is not a steak house that knows how to prepare the best procured meat in Seattle.
We were supposed to dine on Monday 11.23 but I moved the reservation to Tuesday 11.24. I was called to make absolutely sure we would be dining without cancellation on Tuesday. We did go and received sub-​par steaks. The clue should have been when our server told us she never asked the temperature of our order because the steaks always come out of the kitchen perfectly. Really, for a steak house? We gave it to her anyway but chef paid no concern to our preference. The overall service was not much better, having to wave someone down to bring us our cocktails, after waiting for quite sometime, for our server to attend to them. Mind you, this is a small space so one would expect service readily available. I will say that Renee has her staff well trained to cross out the «special cuts» available each night on three different chalkboards around the room. I only wish they attended to us that well. Please, if you crave a traditional steak, don’t waste your money here, instead go to the Metropolitan Grill, Daniel’s Broiler or even Manhattan on Capital Hill for a better prepared steak. I will commend the staff on trying to make up for the poorly prepared food, but at the prices charged, with a mandatory gratuity, they should not have to make up for anything. I only wish Renee could have tasted the product that her chef de-​jour let out of the kitchen

Renee and her team of «Sea Creatures» know what they’re doing, and they do it very well. So I’m not here to wax poetic about the delicious food or the detail-​oriented décor, because I’m sure there will be plenty of that to go around in the reviews to come.
But I want to draw special attention to the service I received last night. I did a couple bad things: I didn’t allow myself enough time for dinner before I had to be downtown for an early show, and I didn’t inform the server of my time constraint until it was too late for the staff to do very much to expedite the process. That being said, the server was incredibly accommodating, which I think says a lot, especially given how little notice she had. I was high maintenance in the middle of a dinner rush– I probably threw a bit of a wrench into the works– and she handled it very elegantly. Thanks to her efforts (which of course included communicating with what I am sure was a very busy kitchen, as well as juggling a full section during the prime time dinner hour), I made it to the show on time. And, I might add, I was pleasantly full and very satisfied. (Try the fish! I was excited to see vadouvan on the menu, it’s such a great flavor but so rarely utilized).

Best beef I’ve ever had.
I ordered the Filet Mignon with the marrow butter, Octopus starter, greens, and my wife ordered the Filet also, but with browned butter with lemon. Also the mushrooms with egg.
Filet was cooked perfectly. Marrow butter was not my favorite but I see why people would enjoy it — very rich and. .. marrowy? The browned butter with lemon was our favorite.
The greens (Chard) were incredible, Octopus was interesting and exciting (never had octopus before, so no way to compare) and she says the mushrooms were amazing. I do not partake in fungi.
Cocktails were great but it would be nice to have some more inventive selections.
Our waitress was the perfect type for us — friendly and a little sarcastic. She very clearly explained the differences between types of cuts since we were fairly ignorant which was very helpful.
We are huge supporters of the 20% service charge at Sea Creatures restaurants in lieu of tips.
If you want beef in an interesting and slightly nontraditional space — eat here.
(Nontraditional compared to the rest of the US, not atypical for Seattle. :)

2015 has been the year of steakhouse openings in Seattle. This is a gorgeous place located on a buzzing block of capitol hill full with new restaurants. We went here for a dinner date night in their second week of opening. They butcher the meat in house and their cows are grass fed from a local farm. They also offer a variety of special cuts besides what’s already on the menu. We wanted to keep it balanced and not make it a meat overload hence we ordered a side of mushrooms with egg yolk and black cod with vadouvan spices and cauliflower curry. We went with the 11 oz bavette steak with preserved lemon butter. The steak was cooked to perfection although I would have appreciated if it already came with an accompanying side rather than ordering sides explicitly. The mushroom side dish was very comforting and the fish dish also stood out on its own in its unique way although the price tag of $ 32 was a bit pricey. We also had the boat street bread pudding which was a nice way to finish off the meal. This is definitely a top choice for splurge date night on the hill.
Cons
— 20% service charge. The service was spot on for the most part. I did read before coming in that Renee Erickson restaurants have eliminated tipping entirely and they charge a flat 20% service charge to the bill. This would easily come as a surprise to someone who didnt know it already, server should have explicitly mentioned this since this is still a new concept in Seattle. Some of the terminology used by the server was unfamiliar to me such as marbled meat and I would have appreciated if they took the time to check in with the guests and clarify if necessary
— Chalkboard menu close to diner tables. This was fun initially, each time a special cut of steak was ordered they would strike it off from the chalkboard but it happened way too many times that a server would walk up to our table and try to go over us to strike.
— Starters were mostly cold offerings. This would be great in the summer but for the rest of the year they should offer some hot dish selections as well. Vegetarian choices are also very limited although most vegetarians would think twice before going to a steakhouse :) They did have a vegetarian gnocchi dish which was not on the menu when one of the adjacent tables asked for it.
— Cocktail selections are mostly limited to classics. I didn’t find anything exciting to order personally.
— They don’t let you order from bar melusine. The dessert choices looked interesting there but apparently there is no way to order from there if you are in the dining room.

Everything Renee Erickson touches turns to gold! At least I think so.
I stopped by with a friend last Thursday night. We sat at the bar (very small bar) and had a lovely little dinner.
Like with all of Renee E’s restaurants, I always feel right at home. The food is always delicious, The staff is very friendly and I even got to see Jermaine (he use to work at Whale Wins) as he was passing through to the oyster bar.
I am going back with my son and we shall gorge on the fries and anything else we can stuff into our mouths.

Amazing! Boyfriend and I live upstairs, and we stopped in here during opening week. There was already a wait (I guess the foodie crowd doesn’t waste time in Seattle) but we were promptly seated.
Bateau’s back wall is covered with a chalk board where cuts of meat are written down by the cut, weight, and price. It appears to be a daily supply board — meaning that there’s only one of each cut, and when someone orders it, it’s marked off. By the time we got there at 9:30 PM all the cuts for the day had been ordered, but their regular menu still provides a number of great cuts as well.
Really solid wine menu, good service, and definitely the best steak I’ve had in Seattle yet. And the ambience is really cute too — china plates, gold cutlery, and brass-​backed menus. I dig it!

Fantastic new option on the Hill for dinner and drinks. Every single thing we ate (four of us) was fantastic. From the apps to the aged steaks to the burger, the dessert, the wine, the cocktails, and coffee — it was all perfect.
What’s more is that this restaurant is comfy and casual but the food is elegant and well done. So you get to hang out in a flannel and jeans but eat the city’s best food at great prices. It’s not over-​the-​top fancy but the food is.
Even little details are memorable and thoughtful. The setting may be casual but it’s still beautiful and well done. In fact, Boat Street fans might recognize that the tables in Bateau are actually from Boat Street! So there’s a little nostalgia for people as well.
Plates are intentionally mismatched and come in different variations and colors of toile patterns. Silverware is hardy and heavy, glassware is stunning — it’s basically perfectly set for a romantic dinner, a dinner or date to impress a friend or someone new, or just a great spot to grab a bite or a drink. There’s even a small separate bar area for folks just coming as a pair or flying solo.
Coming with more friends means you can share more plates so we came and tried as much as possible. Not many dishes for vegans/​vegetarians but ya know, it’s a steakhouse so that’s a little obvious. Meat eaters will love it here.

Delicious. My gf and I decided to check out both restaurants by accident. and this one was better. The other restaurant wasn’t anything special but nonetheless still decent. if mediocre is your thing.
But this restaurant wasn’t only delicious, the service was amazing. both restaurants had amazing service. But damn the wine, to their food here was amazing. Everything was amazing. It is a must go. Super impressed for their first night opened on the hill.