Liz P.
Yelp
My boyfriend and I wanted to treat two of his friends to a nice dinner because his furnace died when we were on vacation recently and they saved the day by coming to his house and letting in the electrician. One of his friends suggested Chartreuse, as she had been there once before and said it was fabulous.
The food was indeed fabulous. Our waitress recommended about two plates per person, and so we ordered eight plates. We started with the lemon basil ricotta toast, the beet cured salmon, and the grilled vegetable Caesar salad. Both the salad and the toast were great; the salmon had nice presentation but I'm not really a seafood fan.
We then had the Give and Grow mushrooms, braised lamb pappardelle, grilled broccolini, and bavette steak, plus the pork belly. Of these, all of them were good but my favorite dishes were the pork belly, which was crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the bavette steak.
We also each ordered The Last Word cocktail, and I had The Little Lula after that; both were good but the Little Lula was a lot sweeter, which I preferred. My boyfriend and one of his friends also got the Green chartreuse, and my boyfriend got the Heavy Bend cocktail to finish the night, which he also recommended.
The service was very good, but I was considering giving Chartreuse 4/5 because I did think that drinks took a long time to come to the table, as well as water refills. However, near the end of the meal, after we had ordered two of the three desserts offered, our waitress came back to the table with all three desserts, and apologized that things had been a little slow because we had arrived during their busy rush time. She also offered us all a taste of the Yellow chartreuse drink they had, on the house. This was excellent customer service and bumped up this review to five stars for me.
And don't forget dessert: our friends shared the Rhubarb, which came with a mini cheesecake of sorts, and my boyfriend and I shared their homemade version of Bumpy Cake. Both were excellent - if you prefer chocolate desserts, I would go with the Bumpy Cake, but if you prefer something fruitier, I would go with the Rhubarb.
As for pricing, it's definitely expensive but it's on par with other tapas places in the area. Cocktails were $13-16 (and they also have a wine list and, of course, a chartreuse list), and each tapas course ranged from $7 (bread and butter) to $41 (duck breast); the bavette steak, at $39, was our priciest dish.
Overall this was an excellent experience and I hope to return at some point. There is no parking lot nearby, I believe, but we did street parking.