La Cote Cafe and Wine Bar

IT’S CLOSED!!! Tried to take a friend for birthday lunch and it has closed for business.

We love La Cote– it is our go-​to restaurant when we are too weary to cook. Great crepes and salads, unpretentious, comfortable yet elegant feed that reminds us of
our favorite brasseries. You can have a romantic tete a tete or read your book while enjoying the crepes (and the not crepes specials too) solo or have a gabfest with
buddies. It’s just a lovely place that feeds you well and doesn’t demand much of you. In response to the comment re the darker crepes, these are classic savoury galettes (crêpes salées) made with buckwheat flour.

This place is delicious! The coq au vin was flavor packed and the chicken was tender and juicy. I also had the ratatouille crêpe. I’m not sure what they made the crêpe out of because it was a darker color and tasted different from the usual crepes. Still it was a very interesting and delightful experience. The plates are really small so don’t come here too hungry otherwise you might be ordering up a lot of plates ;)
Now onto the service. I found the waitress working here very awkward. When we walked into the restaurant, she was doing her own thing and didn’t notice us so we just kind of walked towards an empty table. (Place was pretty empty at the moment) She yelled to us, «Can I help you?» Um… yes, we are here to eat? I felt the whole vibe between my friends and her was very… uncomfortable. She asked us the «regular service questions» and we told her what we wanted and she kind of stared at us for a tad too long? insert awkward silence* I had to say THANK YOU again really loud for me to get the point across that we don’t need anything else. lol

The food is always so good. We love the green salad but considering it is just greens, it needs to be added to. For that reason, it seems pretty expensive. Tonight we ordered the duck comfit crêpe and the lasagna. Both were divine. We have tried most of the crepes and all are superb!

I really like the breakfast and the salads choices at La cote. A superb restaurant, full of atmosphere

Green pea soup w/​cream is great!!! Definitely not like mom makes it… this one is really good!
:-)
Best place for Crepes!!! You have to try it!

I remember being in Paris sitting in cafes and spending hours on end just drinking coffee and eating pastries. That’s awesome when you’re on vacation in yout 20’s and you have nothing but time and the whole world ahead of you.
I’m all for relaxing at brunch on a Saturday, but the service here today was a nightmare. When we came in the place was almost empty by the time we left they were waiting out the door, not because of the food but because the service was so slow. We asked for coffee several times and it took forever each time; they needed to brew more, a new person didn’t put in enough coffee. You’ve got to be kidding, your a french place on a cold saturday in Seattle. Get a few more pots. We waited literally 25 minutes for our check and another 10 to get it back once we paid.
Oooh lah lah. What a mess.
(Karla from La Cote messaged me to explain and apologize for the slowness. I appreciate and understand that so I’m going to bump this up from the 2 stars I had.)

There are a lot of upscale French restaurants in this area on East Madison Street, and I do not know the reason for it. But I had known of their existence for several months, so my curiosity got the better of me and I finally tried this one out. It was good, but it honestly made my itch to try the other French restaurants stronger, and didn’t really do much in making me want to come back. Still, it was decent enough that I need to give credit where it’s due. Above average food and service, but there are similar restaurants nearby that are calling out to me even more loudly now!
I think I read several reviews mentioning that the staff was capable of speaking French. So my first impression walking into the door, quite naturally, was showing off how poorly I spoke the language in spite of the ten years or so I spent learning it in school. It didn’t matter, though. The waitress didn’t speak French, and she replied in English with a very comforting American accent. So the pressure’s off in speaking a foreign language, but I missed the opportunity to practice!
Anyway, I’m on a seafood diet, and I was craving salmon at the moment. I ordered a «La Baltique» crêpe; I had had something similar in Paris, and this was La Cote’s chance to prove their superiority! Well, they did so in a number of ways. First, the food came out in six minutes. Very impressive. I also liked how they handle water the same way they do in France with a large bottle of it to pour into a glass. You don’t see that kind of thing often enough in America, and I’ve never understood why.
The crêpe itself really reminded me of authentic French cuisine, except it was perhaps pulled off even better. I can’t recall a time in my life when I’ve had a better crêpe, which may help to justify the fourteen-​dollar price tag. The salmon meat was soft and practically melting in a thick, delectable cream. The most peculiar part was how the crêpe bread was kind of black; usually it seems crepes are the opposite color. It’s not even a complaint because the whole thing was just astoundingly well made, and I devoured it within minutes.
What I can legitimately complain about is how light it was. There just wasn’t enough to it, and I know that «flaw» is usually applicable to everything I like. But it’s particularly relevant here because that crêpe would have been more suitable as a casual lunch or something. It probably wouldn’t qualify as dinner material. The waitress did bring out a dessert menu to make up for it, but the high prices turned me away. It’s an attractive little place that might even be good for dates especially with the candlelights they have going on, but I’m expecting that the competitors might be able to do it better.

It’s a really cute place, but have been twice now and both times the food was mediocre and the service wasn’t very pleasant; found our server to be grumpy and unfriendly.
My first visit my 2 friends and I had a server (woman) that made us sit out in the middle of the restaurant on a Saturday afternoon when there were plenty of seats along the wall available because she was saving them in case she got a bigger group (we were 3) and didn’t have enough room for our stuff at all. Being they were slow, I thought it was pointless not to let us sit where we wanted. When we asked for bread, the server seemed put out. Since ordered a bottle of wine and quite a bit of food, asking for a couple more slices of bread shouldn’t have been a big deal.
The second visit, I went with another group and we all had salads and wine and the portions were really small and it was nothing special at all. It didn’t help we had the same unfriendly server.
I agree with some other reviewers that the food, wine & atmosphere at 611 is way better. Won’t be going back here.

We miss Saint-​Germain, too. However, the crepes are delicious.
But having stopped by on several Saturday evenings only to be told that they were closing early, we’re not sure we will bother going back. That’s much more a Seattle attitude rather than French…

We have a girls’ night out and just happened to walk into this little nice and homey restaurant with friendly staff. We ordered smoked salmon pasta and slab beacon pastas. They both very creamy and tasty. We also tried their specialty sweet crepes for dessert. We had pear, chocolate sauce and Carmel apple. They are both delightful. And I will definitely come back for crepes brunch.

This tiny spot doesn’t appear on many lists but it is one of those great neighborhood places. Simple in décor and small. The creeps are terrific. The classic ham crêpe is delicious but it is the dessert crepes that the kids love in particular.
And be warned except for the specials this is a creperie so of you don’t like those little thin pancakes you will be enjoying a diet.
The staff is small and attentive. You can almost pretend you are in France!

We started out sharing a lemon-​sugar desert crêpe one night after the movies. It was out of this world.
Then we tried La Cote for lunch and had savory buckweat crepes filled with chicken in a cream sauce and ham-​and-​cheese. Just like in Paris — light, supple and soul-​satisfying.
Next thing we knew, we had a once-​a-​week lunch habit of visiting La Cote. We keep coming back because the food is consistently great, and the service is relaxed yet highly professional.
Highly recommended for lunch, dinner, romantic evenings, meetups with friends, etc. etc.

Good service. Nice décor.
Had ‘Shepards Pie’ (cheese topped mashed yam on top of ground beef). Not bad but not very complex. Should have had a more flavorful gravy and added carrots and perhaps pearl onions. $ 15 for a modest portion. Mixed green salad that accompanied was delicious. Nicely dressed with a bright vinaigrette.
Charcuterie plate. Pâté’ & asst meats. Salami was good. Pâté’ was under seasoned and texture was not ideal. Small portion. $ 15
French Onion Soup. Hot. Nicely cheezy crusty bread. However broth under seasoned and not savory enough. Tasting only of onions. Not of stock and onions.
Saboyarde crêpe. Nicely fried potatoes and ham. Tasty but not spectacular.
Apple tartan crêpe. Much too sweet. Apples tasted of too much honey and sugar. Dish needs more balance.
In short, too expensive for the quality.

Mixed opinion. In terms of atmosphere — great! Felt like a countryside French bistro. Everyone was extremely friendly helping with the nice atmosphere.
I ordered 2 crepes — one breakfast which included brie, bacon and potatoes. The other was raspberry. The breakfast one didn’t come as a traditional crêpe — but instead was a square-​shaped item with most of the ingredients in the center. I’m not sure what kind of crêpe mix they use, but it’s a dark brown and mine was way too crunchy. In fact, there wasn’t a single part of my crêpe that was soft like a traditional crêpe. The overall taste was fine, but it was just too overcooked.
On the flip side — the raspberry crêpe was perfect — lightly dusted with powdered sugar and more in the traditional sense of crêpe. It was nice and soft.
I’ll definitely try La Cote Creperie again — thinking I may have just caught the chef on an «off» morning, but I have to say that I like the crepes at 611 Supreme much better.
FYI — my partner had a different breakfast crêpe and wasn’t impressed.

I’d passed this place for months and never thought much of it, beyond «hmm, crepes sound kind of good.» While trying to plan a dinner with a friend for tonight, I saw it on Unilocal and realized that yes, crepes do indeed sound good, and I’m going to eat some!
I expected the place to be a little more expensive than it was, but I was pleasantly surprised. Most of the crepes on the menu were between $ 6 and $ 12 or so, not counting the specials. Wine was a decent price, too, but I actually didn’t try any of that this time.
I went for the tomato crêpe, which was pretty amazing. Lots of warm tomato and basil made it almost seem like… a less heavy version of pizza or something? Anyway, I liked it. My friend had one of the specials, some kind of smoked duck crêpe, which she said she liked. I’m not a huge fan of duck so I didn’t bother trying it.
For «dessert» (or maybe just dinner, round two) we each had a lemon crêpe. Our very French server, who was really friendly & helpful, tested us to see if we could order it correctly in French… we only failed a little bit. The lemon crêpe was to die for and it proved that choosing it over the Nutella crêpe was the right choice — this time.
This place is SO close to where I live, and now that I know how tasty (and French!) it is, I’m excited to come back.

Delightful!
My friend and I came and shared a savory and a sweet crêpe. Everything came perfectly and the girl working was extremely nice and attentive. French music in the background.

Crepes au sarrazin (buckwheat)! The real deal. Great ambience, attentive service and good wines too. Que demande le peuple?

I am giving this place five stars because I gave Saley five stars. Crêpe flavor and atmosphere-​wise, I thought La Cote has an edge. But service and price-​wise, the votes goes to Saley.
I had the smoke duck special crêpe of the day and I rather enjoyed it. My friend ordered mushroom and chicken crêpe, which was rather decent also. The crepes here have very sophisticated taste. I enjoyed every bite.
It is also a good place for small delights. Several moms came with their baby/​kid during lunch time while we were there (potentially to treat themselves to something nice on a Friday?) I would definitely come again to try a sweet crêpe. Do try this place if you like crepes~

Okay, I had had only one buckwheat crêpe before I went to La Cote (from a place on Bainbridge Island) and thought that all such crepes were supposed to be like cardboard. Nonsense, I discovered! The savory crepes at La Cote are supple and delicious — I had a spinach, sausage and cheese crêpe and it was fabuous!
I started with the french onion soup — it was just about the best I’ve had. The broth is delicate but vibrant — there is a hint of apple (ness) and the broth to onion ratio is perfect. The bread and cheese were also spot on.
A friend ordered the butter lettuce salad with apple and added fresh prawns. The rice wine vinegar shallot viniagrette is a great, fresh pairing with this salad. I had a small bite and it was so good that I had to order one to go for dinner later that day.
Nice selection of wines by the glass.

Laurent kept asking me when I was going to make the time to visit his new place ‘La Côte’ creperie (he also owns Café Voila!). I finally managed to find the time this weekend after returning from an extended holiday vacation in England. Nothing sounded better than giving my stomach a break from the potatoes, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding. A crêpe is all I needed. I must say I was impressed. The buckwheat batter is something that I’d not tried before and gave the crêpe a deep meaningful flavor which mirrored that I was getting a good deal. I had the prosciutto, blue cheese and walnut crêpe with a cup of the DuPont cidre. My date had the chicken, crème fraîche mushroom crêpe. Both were fantastic. Laurent, job well done! I’ll be back. So much better than the one on Pine St., and equal to those I lived on in Paris for a year.