A Little Taste of the Big Easy in Seattle

 Toulouse Petit 

601 Queen Anne Ave. North

Seattle, WA 98109

Vacation time! It has been a long time since we got any extended time away. We have done a couple of short two-day jaunts, but this is our first extended trip since before covid appeared two and a half years ago. The main reason for this is that Katie started a new job two years ago, and she and her coworkers have been very busy helping open medical facilities. In mid-March, we squeezed in a four-day trip to Seattle to check out the sights and of course sample the best food that this area has to offer. This is the first of eight restaurants that I'll be reviewing from the Pacific Northwest. 

We had an early flight departing from LAX, so we arrived in Seattle ready for lunch. By the time we had gotten our luggage and waited way too long for our rental car, it was already well past normal lunch hours. Our plan was to visit the Space Needle before checking into our hotel, so we looked for a restaurant on my list near this iconic attraction. Toulouse Petit is about a block and a half away, so that's where we headed to fuel up before taking in the spectacular views from 48 stories up in the Space Needle. 

Toulouse Petit is situated on the corner of Queen Anne Avenue and Mercer Street, in the Uptown area, the neighborhood formerly known as Lower Queen Anne. We arrived just after 2pm on a Wednesday, and predictably since it was past lunchtime, and well before dinner, we pretty much had this Cajun-Creole restaurant to ourselves. The dining room is dreamlike, with lots of lit candles on each wall, circular tiled flooring, and light fixtures right out of a fairy tale. I can only imagine how much more stunning this restaurant is when it's dark outside and all the candles along the walls are more prominent. 

Opened in 2009, Toulouse Petit has gotten a lot of praise and accolades for its New Orleans-inspired cuisine. They have been named to many best-of lists, have one of the most acclaimed brunches in all of Seattle, and are the sixth most Yelped restaurant in Seattle, with over 4,500 reviews and a solid 4-star rating. 

Their menu is just as impressive. They serve their brunch menu until half-past two every day, and they also have a very large lunch menu, with over 70 items on it. It was a little overwhelming, but that might have just been due to the hunger pains I was experiencing since I hadn't eaten since dinner the preceding evening. Let's see how our first meal in Seattle ended up going. 

From the minute we sat down, Katie zeroed in on the Dungress Crab over Fried Green Tomatoes with a Tarragon-Chive Ravigote ($23). It doesn't get much more southern than this dish. To be honest, I'm not really a big fan of tomatoes, but these were some of the better ones I have had. The tomatoes were nicely fried with a cornmeal-type breading which was not too heavy and played nicely with the sliced tomato underneath. The best part of this plate for me was the shredded fresh crab with the slightly acidic, dijon-based ravigote sauce. I could not get it out of my head that these two would have made a great sandwich if they found their way together in a french roll.   

Our entrees were up next and let's start off with Katie's selection the Buttermilk Fried Chicken Po' Boy ($17). This is one of eight po' boy sandwiches available at Toulouse Petit. They all come on a french roll with lettuce, Roma tomatoes, peppers, and a creole mayonnaise. Katie was quite fond of this sandwich. The chicken was tender, the bread was soft and pliable, and the peppers added little bubbles of flavor. She did mention that they could have used a tad more mayo on this, but it was still a solid sandwich. Alongside the sandwich was some Pommes Frites with garlic aioli. There were a lot of fries here, so I found myself eating a good number of them to help Katie out. They were pretty addictive. The garlic aioli was a little thinner than I was expecting, but it worked well with the fries. 

I was really in the mood for a burger, but since we were in a restaurant that featured food from New Orleans, I figured I'd get the quintessential dish people think of when they think of Big Easy cuisine, Jambalaya ($20). This traditional version came with plenty of rice, sausage, shrimp, and chicken. The menu claims that this is unapologetically spicy, but I found it to be very mellow. Not lacking in flavor, but definitely not spicy. I have never been to New Orleans, so I can't compare this to any from there, but it's a very solid version among the ones that I've had at other restaurants. 

Finishing things off for us at Toulouse Petit this afternoon were these Toulouse Beignets ($10) and Vanilla Ice Cream ($3). These six beignets came out of the kitchen fresh from the fryer, they were still smoking. They came topped with powdered sugar and a chicory cafe Anglaise sauce that I did not use because I'm not into coffee-flavored things. I ended up alternating bites of the ice cream and the beignets, which was a better option for me. I liked these but wished that they had not stacked these, as the powdered sugar really only got on the top layer. Still, a nice finish to our first meal in Seattle. 

With a menu this extensive, I feel that we just barely scratched the surface at Toulouse Petit. If we lived in the area I could see us going item by item of their brunch and dinner menus, trying to find our perfect meal here. Everything that we encountered on this visit was pretty good, with a lower than I expected price point. The service this afternoon could best be described as cordial, with no glaring weaknesses. This restaurant was an excellent welcome to our adopted home for the next 4 days. If Toulouse Petit is any indication, we are in for some really good meals the next few days. 

Out of five shopping carts, (because the nearby Space Needle opened in 1962, the same year as the first Target, and if you are like the rest of us, even if you only need one thing, you should always grab a cart when shopping there), five being best to zero being worst, Toulouse Petit gets 3 shopping carts. 

For more information about Toulouse Petit, head to their website by clicking here: https://toulousepetit.com/