Guillotine - Review - Capitol Hill - Seattle - The Infatuation
"Is a niçoise salad worth $42? How about one with some fennel pollen-rubbed tuna or Palouse-grown eggs thrown in? You’ll be pondering that quandary and others at Guillotine, a Capitol Hill bar that sounds like a “Les Mis” theme restaurant but is really more of a buzzy scene with overpriced, disappointing food. There’s a stunning cherry wood bar, comfortable blue velvet booths, and well-dressed people on first dates trading sips of snap pea and lime leaf-spiked gimlets. But all the snazzy decor and lively energy can’t distract from the head-scratching menu. The high-priced salad with its limp tuna and overcooked eggs might be easy enough to ignore if it weren’t for the other food misses, including a lion’s mane filet that lacks salt and texture, and shriveled, stringy chicken tenders. In fact, the only stand-out here is the bread. This place is good for drinking solid cocktails on a date or with friends post-work in admittedly very cushy booths that Marie Antionette might lounge on for a portrait. But when you’re looking for good food (and value) with those drinks, there are much better spots on Capitol Hill to check out. Food Rundown Cocktails Really, these are what you should be coming here for, whether you want to ponder life with an Old Fashioned in hand, or cheers with a few refreshing gimlets. You can also just "follow the wind"—which means a bartender's choice non-alcoholic cocktail (we like the pleasantly citrusy and herbal one). photo credit: Kayla Sager-Riley Bread & Butter The Sea Wolf sourdough with cultured butter and torched bone marrow is tasty, but that's mostly thanks to Sea Wolf’s stunning work. photo credit: Kayla Sager-Riley Fried Chicken This dish is just a bunch of tiny little chicken tenders left in the fryer for far too long. The breading is hard and the dry meat pulls apart like string cheese that has been rolling around the floor of a hot school bus all day. And while the herby green goddess aioli is decent, it’s not good enough to make us order this again. photo credit: Kayla Sager-Riley Grilled Niçoise A $42. Niçoise. Salad. Which in all reality is just a regular salad from Nice. The fact that this mix of grilled lettuce costs more than an oil change is shocking, but then there’s the tasteless tuna (rubbed in that fennel pollen) and hard-boiled eggs so overcooked that a gray ring peeks out around the yolks. Yes, it’s meant to be shared, but c’mon. photo credit: Kayla Sager-Riley Mushroom Filet We loved the idea of this dish—a charred meaty mushroom atop soupy nutty porridge with spinach puree for freshness and pops of pickled stone fruit. But this bland dish falls flat and delivers nothing we had hoped for. photo credit: Kayla Sager-Riley" - Kayla Sager-Riley
