Cremant

I visited this little faux French restaurant in Madrona last week. The pretentiousness factor was off the charts which obscured the fact that the tiny amount of food we did get was pretty darn good.
Let’s start with the dithering hostess who couldn’t figure out where to seat us in a nearly empty restaurant. After asking if we had a reservation (we didn’t), she checked the five names on the reservations list and then spent almost 5 minutes deciding where to seat us.
The completely uneducated waitress then arrived and upon a request for a recommendation on wine by the glass, described her favorite as a red that «tastes like sea salt.» Huh?
She then told us plenty of people split plates like an Entrée and a «Plat.» We took her advice and ordered the Coquilles Saint Jacques and the halibut plat. When the entrée arrived, there was 1 scallop with some fennel stalks and a nice sauce. One (1) scallop: to share!
A small, but shareable piece of Halibut followed. Still hungry, we ordered the cheese plate for dessert and the waitress could not tell us one thing about the evening’s selection, merely saying they were hard, semi-​soft or soft. Duh. They had a gourmet selection of French and European cheeses and she couldn’t name one or find someone who did know what they were actually offering.
This restaurant is like a parody of a fancy restaurant that serves such a minuscule amount of food at a a ridiculous price, that you have to go to McDonald’s on the way home because you’re still hungry (and broke) after dining at the «fine» French restaurant.
They have a great chef and the quality of the food is excellent, but the front of house is an embarrassment while being pretentious as hell. I’d never go back.

I waited so long to write this review that the place has since closed! What a bummer! Oh well!
Lorna D. and I headed to Cremant for the «30 under 30» specials, and this was our dining experience.
Entrée
* Huitres Crues «3 oysters on the half shell with sauce mignonette & lemon» — Yum. I love oysters on the half shell and I love it even more with a good mignonette.
* Salade Verte aux Fines Herbes «mixed greens with fresh herbs and champagne vinaigrette» — It was a very simple salad of greens and herbs and not much else.
Plat
* Bouillabaisse «shellfish & seafood in a tomato-​saffron broth, with sauce rouille» — It contained two jumbo prawns, 1 scallop, mussels, clams, and two pieces of crostini with a chipotle-​like aioli spread on it. It was yummy and I definitely needed additional bread for soaking up all that wonderful broth.
* Boeuf Bourguignon «braised beef short ribs in a burgundy wine with baby carrots, potatoes, mushrooms & onions» — The beef was just falling off the bones since it was so tender and the red wine sauce wasn’t too heavy either.
Dessert
* Crème Brulee «traditional ‘burnt’ vanilla bean custard» — I initially ordered the Fromage «Camembert Triple Crème Cheese with Spiced Prunes & Lavender Honey» but saw the neighboring table’s Crème Brulee and quickly changed my mind. Their version is every crème brûlée lover’s dream because they have a larger surface area for more of the caramelized top. They did over burn mine though, unfortunately. But the vanilla bean custard was still quite good.
* Chocolate Chaud et Froid «valhrona hot chocolate and chilled chocolate-​cognac shot» — The hot chocolate was more like pudding and needed a spoon though. It was good per Lorna D.
Service was okay — it took awhile getting our orders in, but we were too busy catching up to be bothered by it. I did need to wave them down for more water, and the water was room temp, which I thought was unusual.
Overall, there was some misses, but more hits. It would have been nice to eat here again if the opportunity arose. What a shame they had to close.

Dang, I always wanted to try this place.
Moral of the story — don’t procrastinate. Why? Because there is a «For Lease» sign on the front door now.

I was pretty disappointed. My husband and I ordered off of the 3-​course menu offered under the Dine Around Seattle promotion, plus one additional side dish (the Bone Marrow). Here’s what I had:
Appetizer: The imported meats dish was OK. There was one item that stood out. The other 3 were just ok. I found the preserved duck tasteless and chewy.
Main Course: The braised short ribs were well cooked (super tender) but unfortunately, it was so salty that it was painful to eat and I could not finish the dish no matter how hard I tried (I was hungry!). My husband says that the duck in his cassoulet was also over-​salted.
Side Dish: We’ve never tried bone marrow and had heard really great things about it, so for $ 12 on the menu, we figured we’d give it a try. It was tasteless, smelled like dog food, and all around disappointing.
Dessert: The dual chocolate was mixed. The cold chocolate/​cognac was nice and smooth. However, the hot chocolate was prepared poorly and had the texture of coagulated milk. Disgusting!
Service and Timing: We were there on a Thursday night, and there were maybe 3 other tables when we were seated. Despite this, the service and timing was pretty slow. We were told that the bone marrow would take 20 minutes to prepare, but it came out more around the 45-​minute mark. We waited a full 20 minutes AFTER we finished our entrees before the marrow was served. The timing between the other dishes was similar.
While the service was friendly, they never once asked how the food was (if they had asked, I would have told them that the braised beef was oversalted). When we left, we simply were given a «Bye». No «Thank You», no «Hope to see you again», just «Bye».

Yum.
We went here on our annual double date with friends during the 30-​for-​30 promotion (Yes, I said annual — I don’t get out much.). I know that my (other) super foodie friends always caution me against the discounted menu «because the offerings are whatever they can get away with for the lowest food cost and can be sub-​par». Uh, if this is subpar, then I am *really* missing out on the «superb». The food was pretty awesome if you ask me.
I had the oysters, which were huge. I also swiped a bit of the meat selection appetizer from my hubby’s plate. Oh yes, yummy too. And I’m not just saying that because I am a super carnivore. For my actual entrée, I enjoyed the cassoulet. This is not the best cassoulet that I’ve had — it wasn’t as much of a stew as I would have liked it to be, but the flavors were great. Dessert was the two chocolate shots — both of which I would definitely taste the booze. It was like drinking melted chocolate… Mmm… Chocolate.
I like meat, I like chocolate. This was an awesome dinner.
The restaurant is small and cute. The one thing that really bothered me is the lack of drink selection. The wine list was decent, but I wanted an Arnold Palmer, and they don’t serve ice tea or lemonade (Well — they offered to do a homemade lemonade… But no ice tea?). The service was good — the waiter was attentive. We never felt rushed, but we also never felt neglected either.

Went to this restaurant for the dine around seattle (
). The menu looked promising and definitely didn’t disappoint. The food was great. What was lacking was the service — we waited at least 15min before ordering, another 15 min for bread & water, another 15 min for appetizers, another 30 min for the main course and dessert was another 30 min out. Add that up and we spent nearly 2 hours waiting for a 3 course meal!!! Completely and totally unacceptable. However, when we asked for the bill, there was absolutely no wait. So if you’re planning on coming to this place, just be ready for poor service which really detracts from the dining experience.
Perhaps we got this service due to ordering off the dine about seattle menu, but either way it’s unacceptable. I really had high hopes after reading all the other Unilocal reviews.

Nope. That was neither bejeweled (at least not in the way I’d hoped for) nor golden.
[Insert Super Mario Bros. end game music.]

I went for the Urban Eats promotion… maybe that’s why I want to only give it 3 stars???
The place is adorable, but the service was not so great. Very un attentive server and really it wasn’t busy enough to warrant the slow service. The food was good– nothing amazing. I had the pork belly pâté, the beef burgenion (spelling?) and then the chocolate mousse. The beef was a tad dry and pretty salty. Other than that, the meal was good and definitely worth the 30 $.
I would love to come back and try it when it’s not on the promotion. Overall it was a good experience with french food, which for me is saying alot :)

Hands down the best restaurant in seattle, canlis what??? what’s that… I came here with a girlfriend of mine for a «I hate boys» dinner and splurged… all I can say is amazing, amazing, amazing!!! It’s such a underrated restaurant, and I don’t know why?
service …check
food. double check… delish
bill…ohhhh that’s a big check. pun intended…
but well worth the food, and the ambiance… cremant is not a place you are in the «area» to go dine at, it’s a I make a reservation, and look pretty dining experience…
ONE WORD. — - Bouillabaisse —– if you don’t know what it is. google it, and eat it there. or anything there that is confit :)
I love me some confit hahahah anything confit. shoot if anyone would like to serve me up a man confit I might just dine there

We went here last week for my wife’s birthday. We brought along a couple of dear friends who also love to eat good food. All of us have been to Cremant before and had fabulous meals in the past so the bar was definitely set high.
We had one concern before arriving. We’d learned that the place was under new ownership, and they had a new chef in the kitchen. Would the place hold up? Could they still deliver a great experience with wonderful French food? After a little digging around online, I learned that Chef Brendan McGill has a decent resume. Formerly of Harvest Vine, The Apartment and Il Bistro, I felt he should be up to the task of delivering a good meal.
The space is charming. Part tradition with most of the room covered in my grandmother’s wallpaper. Part modern with it’s concrete walls and simple and playful window treatment.
The server was extremely charming and knowledgeable. He was always on point. We even learned that he used to hunt grouse while living in Alaska.
For starters we got almost a dozen oysters. Almost a dozen because we got the last 10. The shells were so cute. Deep and round with the little gems floating inside. Delicate ocean goodness. We also got the pork rillette, the onion soup with couton and comté and the New Bedford scallops with potato purée and vanilla been oil. I should note that the octopus terrine was also very, very tempting. All of the apps were very good. One complaint. The rillettes were too cold and proved a little difficult getting out of their pot. Boo. I know that rillettes can be served cold, room temp or slightly warm, but when served cold some warm bread would go a long way. That said, I think room temp or slightly cool is the way to go with these. Having the rillettes has actually inspired me to make some of my own later this week. The only question is will the rillettes be pork or duck?
For our mains, two of us got the onglet and frites, one got the half chicken with truffled yukon gold potatoes and one got the braised short ribs in red wine with baby carrots. I did not have any of my friend’s chicken although it did look yummy. Nice crispy skin with juicy meat. Plenty to take home too. My short ribs were divine. Meat falling off the bone, okay no bone but if there was, sitting in a beautiful, think, dark red wine sauce. I had some of my wife’s onglet frites. The frites were hot and crunchy with two house-​made sauces to dip them in. The hanger steak was very flavorful and cooked well. One complaint here. The steak was not as warm as we would have expected. A little on the cool side. It was as if they were waiting for the frites to come up or something. It was not enough to complain about since the flavor was so good, but we did take note of the less than ideal temp.
For dessert we shared the créme brulée and cheese plate. Both were yummy. The cheese plate came with five cheeses. They were at room temperature. Pet peeve of mine is cold cheese. Never eat cold cheese people. It”s a great way to ruin great cheese. I must say that the blue cheese was through the roof funky. My mouth is still tingling from eating it.
All in all, it was a beautiful meal with beautiful company. There were a few minor things to work on though. Nothing to deter us from returning.

This place was recommended to us as a replacement for Café Campagne and I think it’s a pretty solid recommendation.
First, the front door to this place is adorable. I’m not even going to pretend to be manly about it. It’s baby yellow and it just charms the pants off me. So cute. The interior is dimly lit, modern and stylish.
Food was great but be prepared to pay for it. I ordered a beautiful oyster appetizer and they were delicious but at $ 9 for 3 oysters, you would expect it. Followed by rabbit with chocolate sauce and ending with crème brûlée and a plate of cheeses. Let me say that when it comes to Cremant’s desserts, THERE IS NO FOREPLAY. You take a bite and it’s intense, rich flavors that fight to cover every square inch of your tongue and it’s magnificent if you’re not the kind of person that believes dessert should be subtle.
Service was top-​notch until they got busy. The staff were all gorgeous and friendly and attentive when we first sauntered in at 6pm and we were one of the only tables ordering (everyone else was working on their mains). Our waiter was quite charming and very patient with us. By the end of our meal, three new groups had shown up and we began to fall out of love with our waiter. I try to understand when waitstaff are busy but it took too long to bring us our check and run our credit cards. I’d cut him some slack because it was Valentine’s Day night. :)
Overall, extremely charming French place and a perfect way to spend a quiet, intimate dinner with that special someone. Makes me wish I had saved up to go to France instead of spending all my time writing Unilocal reviews.

Went for brunch, but wasn’t very impressed by the food selection — for french food, it was pretty generic.
However, on a positive note, try the following:
— Organic house-​made hot chocolate — really rich!
— Chocolate mousse
— French press
Other pluses:
— The service was impeccable

meant to hit hi-​spot
for brunch on a sunday morn
but the wait was long
but nearby: crémant!
quaint, cute, and no waiting line
a table for two
sunshine floods the room
bright yellow paint, grey designs
modern & simple
caffe vita starts
tasty omelette «crémant»
avec au gratin
brioche french toast, please!
oh, crème anglaise, hazelnuts…
inhaled in seconds!
pomme frites, aioli
drinking chocolate in tow
perfect sweet-​salt mix
mes amis, dine here
superb french food for good worth
so, bon appétit!

I haven’t had a lot of French food, but good god is it usually all butter? The starter I had was literally a glass jar of butter, with a few pieces of pork mixed in. It was cold, so the butter was actually hard. It was a freakin’ jar of butter!
The entrees were pretty good. The cassoulet I had was embarrassingly gigantic, but tasty. We had leftovers of it for 2 days! My husband’s dish was really good too.
And yes, if you go for ANYTHING, make it that chocolate cognac for dessert. WOW.
Oh, and the place really does feel like someone’s basement. It’s weird. It’s cold, hard, grey cement. Not warm or cozy in the least bit– not an option if you’re wanting a nice romantic date spot.

I get that French cuisine is loaded with butter and fat. I get that. I’ve been to France and sampled their fare. I can tell you that not only do they have lots of fat, cream and butter in France, but they also have vegetables. Green ones.
Not so at Cremant. You can’t even order something green on the side. Four kinds of potatoes and roasted mushrooms, but nothing green.
I know the French live long heart-​healthy lives eating fat and chocolate and drinking wine and cognac — and I can get behind most of that, I really can, but gawddammit, a plate of varying shades of brown and gray is disgusting.
Plus one star for the amazing cognac chocolat.

An interesting though limited menu of French food along with daily specials.
I am not sure I like pork based pâté, and I ordered the roasted marrow bones out of curiosity which I ended up detesting. Braised pork belly over beans, yum!
We had good service and were able to get in around 9:30p on a friday without a reservation.

The only thing pretentious about Cremant is the name. When I pronounce it, I get a blank stare. «Kray-​mahn». Huh?
Cremant is not like Rover’s where you are constantly reminding yourself to: sit up straight, leave the butter knife on the bread plate, and to keep the wine glass on your right and water glass on the left. It’s more sodium friendly than Café Campagne, less thigh-​enlarging than Campagne. Definitely more spacious than Le Pichet. (I have yet to try Le Gourmand).
The menu keeps things simple and features many classics. I appreciate their generous sized salads. Otherwise, why not just call it garnish?
The bleu cheese in the pâté was sparse, and perhaps could have been served closer to room temperature. The coq au vin was so flavorful, we couldn’t resist wiping the plate clean… with our bread. Was I tempted to use my tongue… no comment. The cubes of mushroom, bacon, and pearl onions on the cream-​laden potatoes is comfort food at its finest.
The waitstaff is a hit or miss. But I could care less. The hierarchy was at the table. Since my dear friend could beat me at arm wrestling (even using her weaker arm). Thus my respect to leave the last bite for her to enjoy.
* Dedicated to SN (& JH)*

Cremant is so fantastically french bistro.
First, the food. Duck Liver Parfait, made in house. I don’t love the duck liver but I had to try it after Aaron P’s raves, it comes with the duck fat solidified on top. It was perfect, so fresh tasting, so rich, I could only handle a few bites. Next was the 4 oz. portion of the steak tartar, fabulous, but perhaps we shouldn’t have gone back to back cold/​rich dishes. Then the bone marrow. Maybe the best I’ve ever had this side of the Seine and on the most flavorful toasted bread. Then we shared the hen’s because we had done all that appetizing. Then the cheese plate, then the huge saucer of crème brule.
Did you get all that. There’s so much more to try there, I need to go back. Next time we’ll spend more time really putting together the elements of a great dinner together. I fell as though I rushed in to all these wondrous things on the menu and neglected to think of meal flow. Maybe I tried to go buffet at the nice french place, but I had to try it all.
Now for the vibe. We got the token corner table but there is also this big red couch in the back which would be such a wondrous (there’s that word again!) way to take a coffee or a desert, or maybe just an app, it would be a little tricky for a full meal but I’m sure folks do it nightly.
Then the wine. They’ve a perfect, short, and dare I say affordable (great bottles for $ 50 or so). We had a WONDERFUL smokey Burgundy. I wish they would have served it in a big giant red wine glass, but alas, this is Paris, you can’t have it all!
Thank You Cremant for being SO french.

Cremant is so French.
The décor is not too pretentious, but the waitstaff is.
I remember the dining room as being fresh and bright on the summer evening I went. The maitre d’ and waiters knew how privileged we were to be eating at their fine establishment. If you go in knowing that’s just how it’s going to be, you’ll be better off.
That being said, the food is simply delicious. The portions are a bit large, for being so rich, but most people probably won’t complain about this.
The table shared the roasted marrow bones, leek gratin, egg and ham in consommé, chicken liver parfait, salt cod and a couple bottles of Cremant. It was exactly what we were looking for and I can’t wait to go back again.

Tucked away in a little place in Madrona, Cremant is a nice little french restaurant.
I went a week ago and the construction of the structure sucked in the heat of the day. It was really warm inside while the restaurant was only half filled.
We ordered a plate of charcuterie and bone marrow. It was my first adventure into the bone marrow. Not the slightest bit squeamish, I was really surprised at the taste and the texture. It was buttery, with the consistency of custard. Not something that I would go out of my way to eat, but it wasn’t bad.
I plowed down a good sized hanger steak with an accompanyment of frites. Pretty tasty, and cooked rare as requested.
That, plus a bottle of red, and my buddy and I were too full for dessert. Maybe next time… and I’ll try something more daring.