My wife took me here for dinner on my birthday after a day of touring Woodinville wineries. Â We sat outside on the terrace and enjoyed very nice service. Â To start, the ambiance was appealing with heavy metal table and chairs with matching heavy metal napkin holders and lite background music. Â Our waiter was very attentive to our needs and understood our flow for dinner from the start. Â We began with a moderately priced Malbec from their extensive menu. Â When ordering the wine, the waiter informed us of many of the wine's characteristics. Â After half the bottle, we ordered an appetizer of asparagus with lardons, which came out great. Â The asparagus was cooked just right and sprinkled with lemon and parmesan. Â Next we ordered our main course, she had risotto with prawns and morel mushrooms and i had the chopped salad with a coho salmon fillet. Â The risotto was cooked correctly and had a good amount of prawns. Â My salad was great, the lettuce and avocado were fresh and the salmon was cooked well. Â I was surprised at the size of the salmon fillet, it had to be 8oz portion. Â Overall, I was very pleased with the service, the decor and the menu. Â I look forward to returning for our next event in Woodinville, even though they have locations in Seattle and Bellevue.
Review Source:One of my most favorite restaurants ever. I have been here at least a dozen times and I've been to the downtown location and the bellevue location a couple times too. I always always have the baked brie! One of the most delicious foods I've ever tasted. Bomb calamari. Crazy bomb risotto. And my boyfriend once ordered the Lobster Baked Mac n Cheese. He said it was the best thing he ever had... ever. I really need to come here again soon, it's been too long.
Review Source:Wanted to update my previous review because the owner contacted me after seeing my review. Â That counts a lot in my book, that someone is reading reviews and sounds like they sincerely want to improve. Â As I said before, I will continue to go to the Purple for their atmosphere, wine and service. Â I'll also see if their food moves up a notch. Â Looking forward to my next visit to the Purple.
Review Source:I had a very pleasant luncheon with a fellow Yelper this afternoon. The Purple Café is a gem nestled among other businesses in a rather innocuous strip mall in Woodinville and getting there was an adventure (at least for the directionally challenged such as I).
The servers and hosting staff are very professional, cheery, and courteous. The surroundings are cozy and "old world" European in style. They have both indoor and outdoor seating and the doggies are welcomed outside on the small patio.
I had the grilled chicken sandwich that came with a small salad on the side.Tasty. My friend had a very colorful chopped salad that looked amazing.
The prices were a bit steep ($11. for a glass of wine??) but if you are looking for ambiance and a nice lunch, Purple Café is worth checking out.
Go to Purple. Â You will want for nothing.
After a day of vigorous wine tasting throughout Woodinville, dinner at Purple is the only the way the day could possibly get even better. Â We've been to Purple at 3 of the locations (Seattle, Bellevue, Woodinville) many times each, so we know the drill. Â Awesome food. Â Wonderful wine selection. Â Interiors that are extremely easy on the eyes, including the wrought iron chairs that weigh about 500 lbs each. Â At the end, you roll out feeling like you have eaten like a king.
If I had a complaint about Purple, it would be that there never seems to be any room for dessert. Â I'm pretty sure they have desserts, but I've never tried them.
This place is absolutely awesome! Â In life, it's the simple things we take for granted... such as going above and beyond as well as timeliness. Â My experiences at this place has always been matched by both amazing timeliness on the food & great service by going above and beyond. Â This place rocks!!
Oh.... and obviously, the wine selection is incredible!!
The Woodinville Purple has a beautiful atmosphere that fits right in with Woodinville's wine country. I came here for a company dinner and we had a good time.
Service was friendly and the food was all great. My guest doesn't eat seafood and is lactose intolerant and with these constraints I was taken aback by how much of the menu he couldn't enjoy. Most of the appetizers are cheesy.
Great appetizers- baked brie, crab cakes, prawns with fries, chicken and sun dried tomato  pizza, bruschetta
My entree was the special- risotto with English Peas. I got the pulled chicken add in. ($26). The entree was generous sized but a bit spendy for risotto, I think. I was happy someone else was footing the bill for the night.
The risotto was under seasoned and there was no salt and pepper on the table. Nobody ever came by to ask how the food was so I couldn't ask for salt and pepper.
They serve Caffe Vita french press which was excellent. We enjoyed some great wine.
Overall, the food at Purple is generally really good. I think my risotto was a miss but all the appetizers were delicious.
The place is VERY LOUD so be prepared to only be able to hear the person right next to you. I would love to come back sometime. I'm sure the service was affected by the fact that we were such a large group.
The wines and the pairing menus here are amazing. I have tried it numerous times and loved the pairings each time... I also have this love for their chopped salad. The ingredients are fresh and chopped well, so the salad is not only tasty with all the good salami and chicken but  also easy to eat. I also love their Voigner... great selection and the service is nice too.
Review Source:Delicious food. Great wine selection. I really enjoyed their small plates; baked brie was especially good.  Their deserts are tasty (tried crème brûlée and blackberry sorbet). The ambience is pretty nice inside, and they have good outdoor sitting for sunny days. The service is friendly.
Review Source:My bridal shower was held here a couple months ago and I'm pleased to say it went off very well. Everyone loved the food and the drinks. Our server was professional and did a great job keeping everyone's checks in order. The manager event went out of her way to send a thank you card to us for having our event at their restaurant. Excellent touch of customer service. My only complaint would be that the space we used was a pretty tight squeeze for all the ladies to sit at, I might have arranged things a little differently. Would I recommend others have their events here? Yes, definitely.
Review Source:**Bumping them up to 3 stars (from 2 stars) because Purple contacted me about my experience... they really care about customer service. We will be back to try them again sometime!**
Ughh Purple, Why??? I was really looking forward to dinner here, we planned our whole day around Woodinville to have our 3 year anniversary here. Which is a big deal! 3 years!! And our dinner was terrible. I hate leaving a 2 star review for Purple (I want them to be 4/5 stars everyday!), but come on! Both our plates were no where near what they should, and we aren't even picky eaters! $100+ (not including our drinks!) down the drain on a special night for us. Ugh.
We expected to have a memorable meal, and it was- but not in a good way. We started with a cheese plate- which was, indeed fabulous, loved that it was local. We then ordered the clams, and the broth was super salty... ok, I like salt but it takes talent to make broth THAT salty. We both agreed it wasn't a big deal. We didn't come for clams! We came for the meat and wine! So we ordered dinner:
My filet mignon was horrible... I have ordered the filet here before and it was excellent. Not sure why it was tough and flavorless this time around, was it even a filet mignon?? I literally took 3 small bites and had them box it up. I gave most of it to my chihuahua at home...even he gave me a look of "did he take you to Outback for your 3 years?".
My boyfriends burger was extremely peppery, I had one bite and felt bad for the guy. Mouthful of pepper every bite. He ate most of it, because we both wanted to just leave at this point. The fries were great though! Cheers for that.
We didn't get dessert... they kindly gave us caramels to-go since it was our anniversary. We didn't speak up to the wait staff because we felt like the service was a little bit cold. I've read many reviews about the food and staff being up and down... We want to love this place! They make it hard it rely on them.
Skip Purple for any special events... try it for casual date nights, light lunches and post wine tasting bites. Don't go in with high expectations like we unfortunately did.
My third visit happened this past weekend and now it is time to review. This particular Purple spot is my favorite. It's just so chill compared to the one downtown and doesn't hurt that it's located in "Vineville"...:-)
I find that their food is always delicious and their service top notch. I took some pictures of my food I had the other day which I will try to post. Â Let me tell you that I don't whip my phone out to take shots of my food unless it looks good and sure as heck wouldn't post if it didn't taste awesome. Â I ordered the soup and salad combo, split pea soup and beet salad. Â Split pea soup is like clam chowder, many places make some really bad ones or just meh ones...Not Purple, spot on, and not too salty! That's huge to me. The beet salad was as always, delightful. Well dressed and mingled with crunchy roasted pistachios. Â Not a small side salad, either.
On the two other times I have gone here, I have had the same quality of food and service, soooo 3 x's a charm and this spot deserves five stars.
Yay! (oh, for you wine lovers, of course they are filled to the brill with the best selections of wines! Nice is also the kind of teas they have. I forget the brand but I enjoyed my green very very much)
I was enjoying some wine with a female companion, when the restaurant manager came to our table and insisted that we order some food. After looking over the menu I could see why: it is very expensive. The food is served in small portions, but it costs a fortune. I paid $20 for two small crab cakes. I can buy bigger portions of crab at the grocery store for less. I liked the wine and the service was friendly, but I didn't like being schmoozed into ordering one of their overpriced appetizers.
Postscript: shortly after writing this, I was contacted by the restaurant manager who kindly offered to make up for my experience. This is important to me. So often the employees of an establishment act like I am there to serve them. This is not the case at the Purple Cafe. I will definitely come here again, both for the service and for the wine. They are excellent.
If you love heading out to the wineries in Woodinville, there's a strong chance you will love eating at Purple. The restaurant seems like an extension of the surrounding area, sharing a similar vibe and culture. Half the menu is devoted to wine, including themed flights and cheese & wine pairings. Though the food itself doesn't seem to be the focus, we were treated to a great roast beef dip sandwich and an entree salad. It was reasonably priced, was solidly portioned and paired created a nice solid companion to our wine selections. Because of the intimate atmosphere, friendly staff and convenient locations, this place has shot to the top of our list of places to eat following a wine day
Review Source:So just a note...I plugged the above address into my GPS and it brought me to the Columbia Winery. The address should be 14459.
Anyway...I came back here with a friend and once I finally found it, we had a great time! There were a ton of great options on the menu...much more than I remember. I decided to try a salad again...I had the apple walnut and blue cheese salad with chicken and a bowl of the san marzano tomato soup. Both were really great! I'd highly recommend them. The soup was a little oily but was still great. The quality of the tomatoes is high - you can tell. Even though this is a wine bar, I also had a blood orange dry soda. My favorite is the lavender but the blood orange one was a great alternative. Not too sweet but more flavorful than seltzer water, less sweet than tonic.
The service was great, the prices were reasonable. A great choice for dinner with friends, a date, or a group.
On our last night in Seattle, our friends took us to the Woodinville location of Purple. I was excited to see the giant wine staircase or whatever it is the Seattle location has, but this location did not disappoint, so it's ok. We'll just have to go back!
The decor here is very "vineyard" meets "dungeon" - cozy, dark, fireplace, lights and with heavy, metal napkin rings. I liked it.
Let's start with the bread. It was crispy on the outside and soft & chewy on inside. Just as good bread should be. The butter was room temperature, so it was smooth and creamy. My only complaint is when restaurants give you a loaf that's not completely cut. That means your hands get all over everyone else's slices. :-/
I went for the Purple Chopped Salad (romaine hearts, bacon, avocado, garbanzos, roasted red bell pepper, blue cheese, red onion and balsamic vinaigrette), which was delicious. I definitely ate the entire thing and was stuffed. But in a good way.
My husband got the Grilled chicken sandwich (bacon, provolone, avocado, shaved red onion and roasted garlic chive spread), which of course I had to try (and I may have helped with his fries as well)... His was full of cheesy, gooey goodness and was a nice, hearty sandwich. The shoestring fries were pretty tasty too!
I was tempted to do a Wine flight, but stuck with a glass of the Valckenberg Gewurztraminer, which was fantastic. I would have gone for a red (given the cold night), but a salad calls for sweet wine (to me, anyway).
Overall, the food, decor and ambiance are all fantastic.
Came here with a party of five and was promptly seated due to our reservation. The bread here is DELICIOUS. Had the pork chop and that was also very very good.
The environment here gets VERY loud, and I had to always speak up or crank my ear to hear the conversation. Also, our food took quite a bit of time to come out, resulting  in me stuffing my face with their bread. One star off for slowness and loudness.
I don't know why I haven't reviewed this before... I go here all the time. I like the Purple restaurants because each have their different menus and wine selections. The wait staff is either really good or just so-so... but if you get a good one, they are SUPER at suggesting wine and wine pairings, and won't hesitate to bring you tastes and put up with you while you take 45 minutes to decide which wine you want.
The food is always really tasty and of course the wine is excellent. The only reason I'm not giving it five stars is because sometimes you get a waiter in need of a severe attitude adjustment. This Purple location is much more relaxed than the other ones I've been to (Kirkland, Bellevue) and I prefer it to the others. (Also, for some reason, it's a lot warmer than the other locations, which I like... eating in a cold restaurant is no fun for me.) Their wine selection is of course, superb, and I really do love this place. I always try to find new wine bars because I feel like I'm coming here all the time, and then I realize that this really is the best place and I have no need to go anywhere else!
P.S. Their tomato soup is quite literally the only tomato soup I will eat. SO. GOOD.
My husband and I went to Purple on Sunday for lunch to celebrate our anniversary. Â What a perfect place for a relaxed lunch date. Â Dark and moody inside - there were candles everywhere and when one went out someone was relighting them right away (I swear, it seemed like candle lighter was one guy's sole job!). Â
We had gorgonzola stuffed dates to start and they were so good! Â The only thing that we found odd was that the plate had an odd # of pieces on it. Â So we split the last one. Â Easy enough! Â My husband had the Heavy Red wine flight with a turkey and havarti sandwich and fries and I had the BLTA with fries and a glass of prosecco. Â The food was filling and tasty. Â I can't think of anything they could have done to improve on it. Â The wine list was so large it was a little overwhelming but we each picked the best thing for us. Â
Our server was attentive without being annoying. Â We will definitely go back! Â I liked the idea of the cheese and wine pairings so I want to go when we're not so hungry for a meal sometime.
Purple is always a great spot to go and eat. This location is pretty small, so we made a reservation. The key also is to bring your own bottle of wine, they dont charge you if it is not on their menu.
To start we had the baked brie which was so good! I had the chopped salad and then a cup of their seasonal Pumpkin Soup. Both were really good, the salad had a little too much dressing on it, in my opinion. I should have asked them to go easy on it.
For dessert we had their delicious salted caramels! There were 4 of us at dinner but the dessert came with three, our waiter was nice enough and brought us an additional salted caramel so we could all have one which was really nice.
The service was OK, I don't know if our girl was new, but she asked us twice if we wanted bread and then it never came so then i asked for it again and then she promptly brought it to us.
I have been to the location in Kirkland and downtown and have generally enjoyed the food at both, although it is not knock-your-socks-off great. I experienced some service issues at the Kirkland location.
7 friends and I tried the Woodinville location last night after wine-tasting and dinner, for drinks and dessert and so a late-comer could get some dinner. Our group of 8 sat outside under the heat lamps (the inside was full, understandable for a Saturday night). We were placed in the middle of the row of tables to the right of the door, and servers and other customers kept walking back/forth, moving chairs, etc. which was distracting.
I ordered tea and then our server M. said he would come back to take dessert orders. When I was ready though, he was nowhere to be found. He did finally come back, and a couple that had ordered (and received) a wine flight ordered dessert. Their dessert never came, or maybe M. did not hear since he seemed to be in a hurry to rush away. I had the cider braised apples which were flavorful, but sadly they had been overcooked. They were very dry and sticking to the tiny apple skillet - very disappointing. When the check arrived my apples were there, but my tea was on someone else's. I had thought about ordering a glass of wine, but decided against that pretty early on in the game (due to the service issues).
The consensus of our group was that the service was simply bad. M. generally was inattentive and seemed scattered - we couldn't tell if they were understaffed that night or if he was new - an explanation or apology would have gone a long way. I also greatly lament the demise of the order pad (M. did not write anything down), which helps eliminate confusion and then errors on the check. I will not return.
Dish eaten: Maine Lobster mac and cheese
First of all, I give an automatic five stars for the sheer portion size of the dish. Â Literally it was made to feed four people as an appetizer. Â The cheese sauce was just right: not too runny and somewhat grainy. Â It is a gruyere cheese sauce so for those of you who prefer to go the more traditional route of cheddar (or Velveeta, take your pick), this may not necessarily be up your alley. Â I however, am not a cheese snob in any way and welcomed this dish with open mouth. Â The pasta was cooked very well except for the top layer, but this is more of a personal preference. Â I do not like dried or overbaked pasta. Â It tastes too rubbery to me and well, it's "overcooked" in some form or another. Â However, I realize that most mac and cheese recipes require a baking process so I normally just overlook it. Â
The lobster pieces are located all throughout the dish, so it's like a little seafood surprise whenever you come across a piece. Â I did take the majority of the dish home and it was perfect for a late night snack after a quick run-through in the microwave. Â I can't say that the julienned carrots did much for me. Â I do like my fruits and vegetables, don't get me wrong. Â However, there just wasn't enough of the carrots to really make a difference to me. Â
More in-depth post on personal food blog. Â Too long for Yelp review.
I really haven't had a bad experience at any of the Purple Cafes, but I really love the Woodinville location out in the wine country. Â Great decor, love that they can open the doors in the summertime for an open air restaurant feel.
Went on a Sunday - half price bottle of wine night, which is awesome!  I had the Chicken Marsala, which was delicious! My fiancé had the lamb burger - which he really enjoyed.  We always start by splitting the chop salad, which is so so good. They always bring out good bread to start as well.  We even made room for dessert, and split the chocolate cake, which was amazing with the fresh raspberry sauce. Â
Service was fantastic, great date night.
So spotty. They are not consistent with their food. I always order the same thing and it is always different. Turkey and havarti sandwich. Today the bread was a baguette and the turkey was so dry hardly any havarti, had to ask for extra sauce to be able to swallow it. Yes, it was this dry!
Carrot soup tasted like lotion. So gross. Beet salad was great. Kids Mac n cheese had no flavor no depth. Blah.
Great wine list today we had a sparkling Rose from France...divine. Calamari was great today, but NOT always the case.
We have been to Purple Cafe probably 15-20 times prior and had a FANTASTIC experience. Â This time, not so much.
Although most of the items on the menu are the same as before, gone are some of the favorite combinations and now side items are ala carte. Â Plus, we had a new waitress, she was incredibly slow and preoccupied. Â Never checked back, never refilled the ice tea, etc. Â The pesto-chicken pasta was also bland and non-descript although my wife thoroughly enjoyed the chop salad (as usual).
We'll try it again, but this was not our favorite visit to Purple Cafe.
We visited Woodinville specifically to tour one of the wineries. Not having been here before, we didn't realize how many fabulous restaurants are in this lovely little village! Fortunately, we got recommendations from somebody at the winery, and Purple Cafe was able to accommodate us without a reservation.
The food was really tasty, albeit pricey. For the appetizer round, we tried four homemade spreads, all of which were delicious, but especially the edamame hummus and artichoke with toasted hazelnuts. The sautéed Brussels sprouts were delicious, and we really enjoyed their goat cheese red pepper salad. The wood-fired pizza was good, too.
The service was great, and the interior was inviting in a "rustic chic" sort of way. Although we arrived for an early dinner, the place was almost totally full and quite loud. I suggest reservations, and ask to sit near the fireplace if it's cool outside.
Yelp 365 Challenge #188
When a meal truly compensates for subpar service, you know it MUST be a good meal! Â And it was.
Their chicken marsala dish is worth every penny. Â Just under $20 if I remember right... with flavors from the sauce, the chicken, and the mashed potatoes that mix so well together, you want to savor every bite and finish the entire plate & then some. Â I don't typically order chicken entrees, especially when there are steak options. Â I'll consider myself lucky to stray from the usual this time around.
Next trip I'll pass on the Gewürztraminer. I'm used to Gewürztraminer being a bit sweeter, and this one just had too much tartness for it.
Server was nice, but it took at least 20 minutes to be asked for wine choice, and awhile for it to be served also. Considering that they were not extremely busy, I was disappointed here. Â
But that chicken marsala... oh my gosh!!! 5 stars to the chef!
This is a great place for a date. Both of the Cute boy, and the sexy lady variety. Last night, I went with the sexy Lady variety with the amazing Morgan L. (Thanks Alex for dinner and drinks!). I got great company, fantastic dinner, delicious wine, and I didn't even have to put out at the end of the night! Maybe I am doing this whole dating thing wrong after all.
Anyways, according to Yelp, this place is basically inside Columbia Winery, which I can assure you it is not. It's located near the Tullys, if that helps at all. Once inside though, this place is gorgeous! I loved the ambiance, and the upstairs loft looks great.
The service was fantastic as well, I didn't catch the girl's name, but she was sweet, and fun, and very patient with us while we were too busy talking to order wine and food. I finally decided on a glass of the malbec, which was delicious. She gave me a great recommendation! I also tried the four cheese pizza, it was the first thing on the menu that looked good, and I didn't want to spend 4 hours over the menu trying to decide. I was happy with my choice, it wasn't the best pizza ever, but it had a lot of good flavor, and I am definitely looking forward to my leftovers for lunch later on.
Turns out, I live really close to this place, probably closer than the Kirkland location, so I imagine I will be here again soon!
I definitely want to try one of their wine and cheese flights next.
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