Voila! Our Experience

We dined at a small French restaurant, Voila!, in the Madison Valley area of Seattle last night. We began with an hors d oeuvre of escargot and a salad. The Escargot was placed on French bread baguette rounds dripping with a garlic butter mixed with finely chopped parsley and basil. Hank is fond of the escargot; I loved the garlic butter mixture in which I dipped the French bread served at the table. The salad was three endive leaves topped with rough chopped endive, leeks and walnuts, finely chopped shallots, vinaigrette, and blue cheese chunks.

For the main course I ordered the Cassoulet topped with buttered breadcrumbs and Hank the veal liver. The Cassoulet wasn’t quite as good, I felt, as Café Campagne near the Pike Place Market but was tasty. (Leftovers brought home were even better the next day.) It had the requisite duck, pork and sausage (and I thought I tasted some lamb), Cannalini beans and, for texture and taste, the breadcrumb topping. I felt it had a stronger tomato base to the sauce than I prefer.

Hank’s veal liver was served in 2” medallions in a sauce consisting basically, he felt, of dark wine and onions. He didn’t like the sauce and wasn’t impressed with the dish in general. The meat was surrounded with a mashed and piped yams seasoned mildly and poorly. One taste that came through was nutmeg. The liver wasn’t overdone, but not impressive.

We finished the meal with coffee and Sambuca (they didn’t have our desired anisette and Sambuca doesn’t hold it’s own in the coffee as well.)

I believe I’m sounding like a bit of a snob here, The entrées were in the $15 range, less than Café Campagne, The small chandelier and candle lit interior was pleasant.