A La Bonne Franquette

Lamb stew. Awesome. Best restaurant in Seattle so far, but we’re just getting started.

Really like this small neighborhood spot with a great view of Seattle, for all the reasons others have mentioned (plus it’s near our house).
Food is usually very good and nice wine by the glass menu. Biggest complaints is that the wait staff can be a little distracted and oddball at times, and the menu has been super static for months, so we tend to get the same thing every time.
But would be very sad if it went away.

Went for the great reviews. It all felt, looked, and tasted ok. However, far overpriced.
I wonder if some of the reviews on here are insincere?

wonderful view and nice ambiance and decent service. the food was lame, though. nothing was cooked particularly well and the sides were boring, if not bland. i ordered the lamb ragout and was served a collection of overcooked and dry cubes of meat, in a really simple, unrefined bowl of beans. not much about this place was French, either, but that’s to be expected in Seattle.

Recommended by several friends, this cozy restaurant gets the French bistro experience right. The flavors and presentation were very reminiscent of dining in Paris. The food was spectacular! I had the trout and it was flavorful, moist, and perfectly cooked. My wife have had a flat iron steak with mashed potatoes — had it come with fries, it would have been a perfect expression of the classic Steak Frites. The steak was perfectly cooked with a red wine reduction and sauteed mushrooms — so much flavor! For desert, the special of the day was a lemon tart with berries — this is the best lemon tart I’ve had in the US with the perfect mix of sweet and acid and a perfectly cooked crust.
We dined at about 7:30 with a reservation and were seated by the window. With a perfectly sunny day, the view of Puget Sound, downtown Seattle, and the Olympic mountains was gorgeous! It was a perfect place to watch the sun set and very romantic.
Finally, the service was phenomenal! Fast, efficient, friendly, and they made our special date night an experience to remember — thank you ABF! We can’t wait to come back!

The food was amazing. We had the cheese board to start and loved it. My fiancé had the chicken and I had the salmon, both were perfectly cooked and delicious. I definitely recommend.

If you have nave been to mount baker neighborhood, you would be surprised at how good the view is. The restaurant sits right on top of the crest and has the dining room windows that offer an incredible view of Seattle. The music is French, playing softly in the background and the food is Gaelic. The veal ragout and duck were outstanding. The duck had crispy skin but was not dried at all. The portion was really big. The veal ragout was more like a stew like consistency with large pieces of succulent veal. The bread pudding was outstanding, very moist and flavorful. Service was sometimes friendly, sometimes a bit too formal, borderline unfriendly.

This restaurant was outstanding. The food was amazing. Portions were generous. Reasonably priced considering food quality, portion size, service, and atmosphere. Beautiful view. C’est magnifique

I really wanted to like this place but the food was a let down.
Ambiance — Beautiful view and laid back vibe. They even had a postcard wishing my parents happy anniversary .
Cocktails: delicious
Flank steak — good portion, perfect medium rare, and good flavor. except it was SALTY
Trout– good portion, SALTY
Prawns and cauliflower — good plump prawns and portion. But too much lemon flavor, at times I felt like I was drinking lemon/​orange juice .
Lamb: good cut of lamb but VERY SALTY. The beans and veggies were over powering and too fragrant.
We ate in silence and disappointment. We didn’t want to be difficult so we consumed 3 of the dishes but the flavor and saltiness of the lamb was unbearable.
the waiter took no notice of my mom’s untouched lamb amongst 3 empty dishes. I finally mentioned to the waiter who just said «oh, thanks for letting us know I’ll tell the chef». That was the end of that. Maybe I should have just sent it back or asked for another one.
Service: friendly, but lacked management skills in situational dilemmas. What do you when a customer does not touch a dish? 1) ask what was wrong 2) if it’s something the restaurant did/​could do better– remedy it
For $ 200 i expected authentic French food, this was more «American bistro». Seems to me any restaurant that serves pâté and crème brûlée is french now. If anything, I just wish the food was good. Also, check entrée prices, I think it’s gone up compared to older menu pics and reviews.

I absolutely adore A La Bonne Franquette. The food is yummy, the atmosphere charming and quaint with an amazing view of the city. You feel like you are in a world of your own here…
Shelley

Quite a find in Seattle. A wonderful view. Very romantic. The food and wine offerings are very tasty — the restaurant is, believe it or not, vegan friendly :)
Call to make a reservation. Parking is on the street. A must try.

Neighborhood gem. Incredibly rich flavors and combinations you’ll be talking about for weeks.
Walk through the unassuming entrance, down the corridor past the open kitchen, and you’re treated to a lovely view. Unusual and flavorful cocktails with perfect and subtle combinations.
Tonight’s soup was carrot, but with enough dollops of crab and thin julienned apple on top to make every spoonful interesting.
Dinner was the most mouthwatering amazing trout ever — whole trout, split open and grilled with a long strip of prosciutto adherent to the inside of each filet, generously oozing with lemon, and garnished with an incredibly tangy interesting miniature onion and caper sauce that complemented the trout so perfectly. All strong flavors, but not too strong to overpower the taste and texture of the perfectly cooked fish.
The dessert special was inspired and superb — espresso chocolate cake with an incredible house-​made satsuma orange marmalade festooned along the top, and almond ice-​cream — little chunks of almond that added just the right complementary texture — on a crumble of chocolate at the side. This dessert really knocked it out of the park for me. Incredible.
«A la bonne franquette» apparently means «simple» or «unceremonious,» but this was classy, relaxed, intimate, delicious, fun, and a great night out.

I went to this place for my birthday dinner back in August, and it was our first time. We enjoyed everything we ordered. The fig salad was light and delicious. I ordered prawns for my main dish, and my husband ordered pork belly. Both were wonderful. I would definitely go back to this French restaurant in the future!

One of the best little neighbourhood restaurants I’ve EVER eaten at.
For those of you keeping track (or not), this place is our answer to Cocotte — our regular joint in Portland.
I had the best trout in the universe, and I will come back and order it time and time again — the flavours were delicious, it was cooked perfectly, and I had leftovers for the next day — WIN!
We also ordered the special, which was an amazing hunk of halibut — light, flaky, and so so SO flavourful.
If you haven’t come here to enjoy not only a meal, but the damn view, you should hustle over and check it out — b/​c it’s beautiful.
Basically, this place is AMAZING, and we’re super excited to be able to walk here and enjoy a fabulous meal — and you should too!

Let me just start by saying I have never written a negative review on Unilocal before. Ever. The «service» at A La Bonne Franquette was so horrible that I actually created an account just to warn other diners where NOT to spend their hard earned money.
I visited this restaurant on Mother’s Day 2015. I made this reservation on Open Table, which allows you to pick a Restaurant, day, time, a small write up about what they serve, and that’s all.
When we sat down we noticed there was a fixed menu that day. This was not advertised on Open Table when I had made the reservation month prior. No big deal, I thought, I’m sure we can just make some sort of arrangement as I was not hungry, just happy to take my mom out for a mothers day meal!
I asked if I could just order one small item off of the menu (an egg or something) as I am just here for my mom and not hungry. The first thing out of the waitress’s mouth was a very snotty:
«I’ll bring you an egg, but I’m still going to charge you $ 35 for it.»…This comment was just the tip of the iceberg.
She was dead serious, this is literally this women’s idea of customer service and how you should treat guests there who are about to give your business money.
After that comment and her immediate attitude issue, we realized that this restaurant is probably just not a good fit for us for this meal. No big deal. When she came back I very politely told her as such, and said we would be happy to pay for our drinks that we were already served (but not drank), but we needed to go after that.
Her next quite aggressive words: «If you leave now I’m going to charge you $ 15 for not showing up».
I said «I’m sorry, it’s nothing against the restaurant this is just not what we thought it would be, and the fixed menu was not advertised when I made the reservation. We’re paying for what we were served. So you’re going to lie and say we I didn’t show up?» She then said:
«Yes, I’m going to charge you $ 15 because we’re really busy and you’re taking up this table».
I looked around aT the two empty tables directly next to me and then back at her. She followed up that last sentence with loudly saying:
«We have your credit card on file so there is nothing you can do about it».
This waitress was acting so horrible, I couldn’t even make this conversation up if I tried. I finally followed up with «Well I guess if you’re going to lie I am going to have to call my bank and reject the charge».
She then made a huge scene and raised her voice loudly as she walked away:
«THE’RE NOT GOING TO REFUND IT FOR YOU»…which my bank has already happily started the process, of course.
I couldn’t believe my ears, and had to ask for a manager at that point. The best part about this extremely rude server… she IS the manager. She then charged me $ 35 for being at that table for 10 minutes in the first place.
I have already alerted Open Table about this place and they have been wonderful. You all have been warned… go down the street and brunch at the lovely warm and welcoming Café Soleil instead :)

Valentines Day is the one day per year that you just can’t afford a screw up in the food, the night is setup around dinner for me.
A La Bonne delivered a meal that was light yet left us both full & feeling great.
We had the Chicken Liver Mouse which had a savory blend of ingredients served in an elegant way. The sides that came with it were stone ground mustard & this fruit jelly i think it was… SOOOO GOOOD!
(its been 2 weeks since we ate that I am finally getting to this review so my memory of the details is fuzzy)
The dinner for both of us end up being their Flank/​Hanger steak & it was honestly cooked to perfection. I was hesitant to buy the steak but after talking with our waiter she explained how they cook them & I asked for slightly over Medium with some pink in the middle.
My juicy slab o Steak was probably one of the best I have ever had & for $ 28 bucks I had high expectations. It came with this little square of potatoes ograttin that must have had crack in the cheese because we devoured that portion.
Their food is so good & the service was top notch as well.
We are going back & had a lovely Valentines dinner with you. $ 130 for 2 was well spent!
Edit… the food isn’t really french food, keep in mind this is 20% American Cousine with 80% French style & French quality ingredients. Highly recommend it & the wine (when I can remember what we had) good as well.

Pros: The Georges Vigouroux Columbard/​Ugni Blanc ’12 was the best white wine I’ve ever tasted. Like a chilled liquid pear. The pork rilettes were very nice and well balanced with the cornichons. My wife’s vegetarian Cauliflower-​Quinoa cake was excellent. The views are great and there are benches outside where you can relax pre or post meal to enjoy your SO.
Cons: The coq au vin though very tender was bland and didn’t seem all that fresh. The vegetables in the dish didn’t seem all that fresh either. The sauce did have a lot of flavor though. Also, 2 of our 3 servers were very nice and smiley, but the third was very serious, didn’t crack a smile, or ask us how we are doing. She overfilled my drink and it spilled all over the drink napkins which is okay, people make mistakes, but she left it sopping wet on my table for the entire dinner. At a nice French place, I expected a little better service.

Came here with a group of friends for a Christmas dinner. Note: Definitely make a reservation ahead of time because the restaurant is very small and cozy. It’s situated at the top of the hill, with great night view. Within my group, we ordered duck, steak, and fish, and every dish was phenomenal.
I’d definitely come back again.

La Bonne Franquette is a hidden gem in the Mt. Baker neighborhood. With a capacity of only about 25 and just a few tables and a small bar it is best to make a reservation, but please do. You will not regret the meal you will have. The décor does not scream French to me but adorable nevertheless. Light jazz music on in the background, dim lighting (but not dark) and a stellar view of the city really make for a romantic setting.
We ordered the carafe of the red wine, Bordeaux, which was a delicious accompainment to the meal and just the right amount for the two of us. We selected the daily soup and the simple green salad to share to start. The soup was a creamy mushroom bisque, heavenly with a balanced flavor of mushrooms, white wine, and velvety smoothness from the cream. The salad was also well balanced and delicious. For entrees we ordered the daily special seared steelhead with brandade potatoes and brussel sprouts in a lemon cream sauce and the poulet roti off of their standard menu which was a mushroom duxelle stuffed chicken breast with butternut squash bread pudding and green beans. Both were phenomenally delicious. The steelhead was a large portion and perfectly cooked to medium rare with a nice light cream sauce. Those potatoes and brussel sprouts were heavenly. The chicken was cooked so moist and savory. The bread pudding and all of the chicken jus underneath complemented the fall dish so well. Best chicken I have had in a while.
We decided on a decaf and pear bread pudding to seal the deal, and they did. Great cup of coffee and moist bread pudding with a great cider caramel sauce. This is the type of place I think I could dine everynight… if I had a $ 40 budget for dinner every night. Will be back to try their trout, steak, chocolate pot de crème or just sit by the window at their bar!

3.5 stars, rounded down. I expected a French restaurant with traditional French items like bisque, french onion soup, steak frites, escargot, coq au vin, or maybe a Bœuf bourguignon; they didn’t have any. After getting over that, we ordered the following:
Chicken liver mousse — very smooth and creamy, wish there was just a little more on the plate. Delicious spread on bread.
Steamed trout — well cooked and flaky. Simple preparation of the dish but the size of the fish made me wonder if it is worth the $ 22.
Grilled Ribeye steak — a request for a medium steak came out well done. I pointed it out to the server and after 25 mins, a replacement steak was brought out. The new steak, though cooked right, did not have any flavor and not as tender as I would like for a ribeye. The cut did not have much marbling and natural flavoring that I expect from a ribeye. The side of potato gratin and green beans did not improve the overall dish.
Crème brûlée– a standard finish. Can’t really mess up crème brûlée!
What I didn’t like the most — the joke that the server cracked about the ribeye being my dessert rather than an apology for how long it took. Hardy-​har-​har.