Bateau
Steak house · Capitol Hill
1040 E Union St, Seattle, WA 98122
Highlights
Sustainable cuts from a local farm headline this steakhouse
Sustainable cuts from a local farm headline this steakhouse
"If your family is made up of ravenous carnivores, you need to bring them to the best meat mecca in the city. Bateau is home to excellent steaks, killer fries (fried in beef fat), great cocktails, and an off-menu burger so perfect your pop won’t even be able to think of a good dad joke about the window full of raw cow carcasses in an otherwise elegant situation: moo-ed lighting." - aimee rizzo
"You know about Bateau. Whether you saw Neil Patrick Harris get gushy about it on Instagram or not, you’re aware of its existence. Bateau looks like an elegant garden where you might have tea - until you see the display window showcasing raw cow torsos. Then you’ll realize you’re actually inside of Seattle’s unofficial temple of beef. Order a steak, watch the servers cross off that unique cut on a big chalkboard wall (where all of the available steaks are listed one-by-one), add some incredible sides like kale gratin and fries, and you’re set. Actually, don’t forget the off-menu burger, which is the best in the entire city. Then you’re set." - aimee rizzo
"Renee Erickson’s Frenchified steakhouse is a prime destination for meat lovers, with a dedication to whole animal butchery and local sourcing. The airy, Parisian bistro vibe is also a welcome departure from the stodgy steakhouses of the past, and neighboring Boat Bar (formerly called Bar Mesuline) is not a bad spot to grab a pre- or post-dinner drink." - Sophie Grossman
"This steakhouse is the perfect place to have your graduation dinner as long as you’re not a vegetarian. The slate tables, white chandeliers, and decorative china give the dining room a garden party feel, and the display window of raw beef torsos keeps things edgy. Not only that, but the food here is incredible—from the perfect steaks to the sides like french fries seeped in tallow. And no offense to learning how to tightrope-walk or making it into an a cappella group or whatever it was you did during college, but there is pretty much nothing you can achieve at this time in your life that beats ordering the off-menu burger here." - aimee rizzo
"This steakhouse and brainchild of Renee Erickson (the chef/owner of , , —you get the point) has been the Capitol Hill place to eat red meat since it opened in 2015. But the food here just isn’t what it used to be—in fact, Bateau is pretty unremarkable. Bateau isn't a stuffy steakhouse where you’ll find stock brokers deciding the fate of our economy over a porterhouse. Instead, you’ll get the Seattle version, where Amazon employees have “can I pick your brain” dinners, and denizens of Magnolia venture out of their vortex for a casual weeknight jaunt. But that's where the novelty ends. The once-charming now-ubiquitous chalkboard menu is impractical—it's only charming if you're sitting on the south side of the restaurant and have 20/20 vision. And raw cow carcasses hanging on display as the restaurant's centerpiece just don't have the same sparkle when the meal is ultimately a letdown. Even with the fancy cuts, meat marbling, 126-day dry-aging, and words like côte de boeuf being thrown around, the steak lacks sex appeal. There's none of the char, sizzle, and juiciness that makes a slab of beef exciting. It’s just mildly seared meat, on nice china, overshadowed by anchovy butter. Then there’s the burger. This viral off-menu item has a tasty onion jam and olive oil-forward aioli, but some bites of the coarsely ground patty can chew like a piece of Hubba Bubba. The small plates aren't pulling their weight, either. Right when the delicious french onion croquettes stuffed with molten gruyere reel us back in, the sweet and sticky beef riblets come out burnt. And the black lemon puree smeared on the chickpea pancake looks like tar and tastes like cleaning supplies. Seriously, the best thing here (by a landslide) is the frites marinated in beef tallow. You should be able to rely on a great steakhouse for almost anything—date night, impressing out-of-towners, promotions, and any special occasion outside of marrying a vegetarian. But at this point, it's hard to muster up a single use case for Bateau, other than to pocket a couple of complimentary mint chocolate meringues and enjoy a plate of their standout fries—which you’re better off doing next door at " - Kayla Sager-Riley
