Le Crocodile Restaurant

Seattle wishes it had a French restaurant this good.

Let's face it; Seattle isn't a French restaurant town. You have to cross the border to have a truly wonderful French experience. Vancouver's Le Crocodile delivers in spades!

THE ROSES: Lovely continental dining space. Gracious and efficient staff, many of which are French. Excellent selection of offerings on the menu, and at surprisingly good prices, considering what you're getting. Very generous portion sizes (we were there for lunch). I was particularly keen on their lobster bisque.

THE THORNS: House wines are a titch spendy, and the dining space is a bit on the loud side.

THE VERDICT: Le Crocodile offers the discriminating diner the best of both worlds: superb French cuisine and gracious Canadian service (though having been to France, I've concluded the 'rude Frenchman' trope is largely a myth, and if it ever existed, was probably a response to the 'ugly American'). Strong recommend!

My partner and I came here for our 5 year anniversary last night. Had made a reservation and notified the waitress when she asked if we were celebrating anything. We ordered three entrees, plus the baguette for an ap. our particular waitress was the only downside. She faked a smile and appeared not happy to share the excellence of the restaurant. It was a fine dining experience through and through, except for the attitude of our waitress. We have been here before and every other staff looks happy to be sharing in the experience of Le Crocodile.

I've wanted to dine at this place since I first heard of it back in 2003. It's now run by Rob Feenie, who took over from Michel Jacob in May 2024.

The first thing we noticed were their management and staff ... they're a well-oiled machine. Courteous, gracious, unobtrusive, yet attentive.

I perused their extensive wine list and chose a 2020 Pommard 1er Cru 'Les Chanlins' from Monthelie Douhairet Porcheret ($390). It was full of red fruit, earthy, with hints of clove.

Bread and Butter ($7) were next while we continued to read through the menu. Even the butter was formed into a "kiss". Our server (Miguel) noted some specials, and I opted for one of them ...Breaded Sweetbreads in some type of green sauce ($28) while my sister-in-law (SIL) chose the Escargot de Bourgogne ($30). For entrees, we chose the Seafood Medley ($70) and the Grilled Veal Tenderloin Medallions ($55).

SIL demurred on trying the sweetbreads, which I found to be sublime. I love sweetbreads! But it was the sauce! My SIL used bread to sop up every bit of sauce from my plate ... It was that good! She didn't really care for her escargot; the Pernod parsley garlic butter didn't have enough garlic for her (or me).

SIL's seafood medley was a beautiful presentation of lobster, Hokkaido scallops, prawns with pieces of zucchini and asparagus. Our server finished the dish by pouring in the tomato saffron broth. My veal medallions came in a sea of morel sauce ... It was so flavorful and delicious. My SIL sopped up the sauce from my plate with more bread.

There's always room for dessert and we chose the Classic Le Crocodile Alsatian Apple Tart ($14) and the Tarte Robuchon ($18). The apple tart was the more successful of the two, more a slice of pie than a tart (to me); it came with a quenelle of brown butter cardamom ice cream which I gave to my SIL. Her Tarte Robuchon was a visual treat ... A round of chocolate ganache served with a scoop of chocolate sorbet. I finished my meal with an Americano Coffee ($6).

What can I say? To me, it was a Michelin star worthy experience. The food, service and atmosphere made this one of my best meals of 2024.

Food: 5/5
Service: 3.5/5
Ambience: 4/5

It's a new era for Le Crocodile, Chef Rob Feenie took over from renowned retired Chef Michel Jacob. It was their grand opening yesterday, and I was surprised I could book a table for two at 7:30pm with ease on OpenTable.

We arrived and were greeted promptly by very friendly front of house. They apologized and said our table was not quite ready, as the customers are just finishing up their dessert. I recognize with grand opening they must be busy, so I said no problem we can wait. 30 minutes later, we're still waiting. I followed up with front of house, she said they already spoke to the customers 5 times and offered to move them to the bar. But they said no and wouldn't budge. I understand there's nothing much they can do at that point, but it's ridiculously unreasonable of that party to hog the table for 4 hours! My patience was running thin and getting hungry, so we moved to the bar. They offered us complimentary sparkling wine. We sat at the bar and started ordering food - bread, hamachi, lobster bisque as appys, duck breast & veal medallion for entrees. At that point, I was so hungry I wouldn't mind eating my entire meal at the bar. As the server put the plates and cutlery down, a table is finally ready for us at 8:15pm.

Thankfully food came relatively fast. Bread, hamachi and lobster bisque arrived in a timely fashion. Hamachi dish is beautifully executed. Fresh, you can taste the umami of white soy, citrusy from the yuzu, nectarine and grape, as well as a hint of heat from the jalapeño. It was wonderful. The lobster bisque is so creamy, silky and rich, burst with flavors. Definitely a classic!

The entrées came shortly after. The duck breast were cooked to medium rare, juicy and flavorful. The sinful decadent foie gras melted in my mouth, alongside the sweet vegetable, ginger carrot puree and sweet soy, it was simply heavenly. My hubs ordered the veal medallion with morel mushrooms, it's tender, well-seasoned and cooked to perfection. Every bite was amazing.

After the entrees, I was debating whether we should get the chocolate tart or apple tart, since is for my husband's birthday and he's a chocolate guy, we went with the chocolate tart. I guess to make it up for our 45 minute wait despite having a reso, they kindly gave us both the apple tart and chocolate tart. The chocolate tart was too rich and heavy for me, but my hubs enjoyed it immensely. I on the other hand really enjoyed the apple tart, as it's on the lighter side and the brown sugar cardamom ice cream really complemented well with the tart.

So as you can see, taste-wise every dish was perfect. I don't know if it's coincidental that most food that we ordered, aside from the hamachi, everything looks very brown. So when I'm taking pictures of the food and presentation-wise, I think they can do better.

Service-wise, there're several kinks they need to iron out. When we put in the food order at the bar already and finally got seated at the table, that was not communicated to our server. So our server gave us the menu as he would to all other guests, and tried to explain the menu to us. I had to interrupt him and told him food order was placed already.

Also it was the front of house who felt very apologetic about our long wait, and said she would send management over to talk to us. When a manager came, he phrased it as 'my staff said you'd like to speak to me'. Well... I didn't, it was prompted by the staff herself, so starting a conversation in that way was sort of odd.

Also, I'm surprised our server didn't ask us how do we like the food after our first couple bite of each dish. It wasn't asked until we finished our entire meal. Was it because the kitchen was so confident in their quality and taste, that they instruct their servers not to ask? I don't know, I just have never experienced that before.

Lastly, I noted it was a birthday celebration in my reso. Like any other restaurants, I thought they would have a candle or chocolate sauce written happy birthday on it, or maybe server saying happy birthday or have a bday card for the guest. But nope, none of that either. It's not a big deal to me personally, but if a regular chain restaurant like Cactus and The Keg would do that, it makes you wonder why a high end restaurant would neglect little things like that. After all, devils are in the details.

With the long wait, I sort of guessed they would offer to compensate by taking care of the sparkling wine and desserts. But to our surprise, they took care of the appetizers too. I'm not here for free meals, but I appreciate their apology and gestures.

For the food, I'd go back in a heartbeat. But for services and logistics, I'd probably wait for awhile for them to smoothen out the kinks before I visit again.

It wasn't just that dinner was perfect, with amazing dishes and great service from Zack. As we were finishing dinner the legendary Rob Feenie came out and was speaking with the front of house staff. Then he walked to our table and asked how dinner was. We said perfect and then he literally pulled up a chair and sat and chatted with us for a bit. Thank you Chef, and thank you to everyone for a lovely experience last week.

Lucky enough to to get a table for opening night at the new le crocodile by Rob Feenie! Ron was out front saying hi to patrons most of the evening. Place looks the same basically. Started with hamachi crudo and beef tartare . Both very tasty. Sadly the gin and tomato soup is no longer but other originals do remain. Bread is supplied by sweet victory bakery exclusively for them but they charge for it. Our mains were the seafood medley which comes to table and then they pour the sauce over, the rib eye with truffle jus, the filet with peppercorn sauce, and the veal with morels. The meats come with French fries- thicker ones no more of the thin shreds. The veal also had a side of vegetables. All the mains were very good. They give you a plate cleanser which was pear sorbet with apple brandy. For dessert we shared the profiteroles with chocolate sauce and the chocolate ganache tart which were both fantastic. Sadly they don't give you the crocodile chocolates anymore which was such a nice finish to the meal.

Absolutely delicious and exceptional dining experience. Classic fine dining with lovely and attentive service. Everything we ordered was excellent with good-sized portions. Their complementary table bread and shoe string fries were amazing as well.

Ordered:
Appetizers: Lobster bisque / crab cakes
Entrees (specials): halibut with beurre blanc sauce / beef Wellington
Dessert: lemon meringue tart with raspberry sorbet / Grand Marnier Soufflé

Every detail so perfect! Every dish incredible, rich, flavorful, perfect in texture, with delectable sauces. The hostess was graceful, keen, and efficient. Pierre was the consummate server - we really felt taken care of. The menu was intriguing and the list of specials was long. The ambience was clean, careful, and poised. Potatoes were served so many ways in one meal and each preparation was delicious.

The frog legs were perfectly prepared in a rich and buttery sauce, complemented by a rich tomato coulis. The lobster tail with truffles was perfect in texture and mild enough in flavor to really highlight the truffles.

Our main course was taking longer than expected so Pierre brought a complimentary plate of their signature julienne fries that are incredibly crispy.

The scallops were perfectly cooked and paired with white beets and potatoes, in a heavenly sauce that was rich and tart and velvety.

But the pièce de résistance was the Grand Marnier soufflé with crême Anglaise served table-side. As the souffle approached I could already see it was jiggling with superb texture. The crême had just the right subtle hint of orange flavor, and the combination was magical. An absolutely perfect dessert that melts in your mouth.

A really spectacular night out in every respect.

Celebrated our 6th anniversary dining at Le Crocodile Restaurant. Incredible French cuisine and wonderful service by Holly. I felt I was transported back to Paris. We ordered from the features of the evening:

foie gras (appetizer)
duck confit
halibut
complimentary: bread, shoestring fries, peach sorbet (palate cleaner)

Thanks Le Crocodile for the memorable experience!

Thanks Le Crocodile for the memorable experience!

Oooohhh miyeee gaaaaawwsh!! Is this real life right now?! Le Crocodile, you are everything that a fine dining experience should be. Cut from a different type of cloth and there's just no denying it. This was hands down the best dining experience that I had while in Vancouver! And if you've dined in Vancouver before, you know that the restaurants around these parts are nothing short of amazing.

Celebrated my friend's birthday here and we couldn't have asked for a better time. First of all, the ambience is so charming. It's a traditional white table cloth setup with lovely wall art, neutral colors, and beautiful lighting. A very intimate and cozy environment here. The service is absolutely impeccable! Spencer and Sommelier Van Doren were excellent! They chatted us up and made us feel like family. The recommendations were endless and all of the food and wine rec's were spot on and absolutely scrumptious. Every staff member that we encountered was upbeat and cordial.

Speaking of the food and wine; it's phenomenal! Superb. Having recently dined in Southwestern France, I can honestly say that my experience here was even better. Everything that we had here was beautifully plated and it all tasted fantastic.

We ordered the following:

*Escargots Maison - Exceptional!!! This was my first time ever having escargot (cooked snails) and it was so damn good. Apparently they don't traditionally prepare them like this in France. In this preparation, the outer shell is removed and the insides are cooked in butter, garlic, shallots, and other spices and placed inside of mini puff pastries cups. I think the replacement of the shells with the puff pastry cups make them taste less potent and the consistency doesn't seem as chewy. They arrived simmering in the butter and garlic. So, so good.

*Magret de Canard et Foie-Gras Poêlé, Réduction au Cidre de Pommes - Incredible! This dish consists of roasted duck breast in an apple cider reduction that's topped with pan seared foie-gras and served with seasoned fries and vegetables. This was my friend's dish and it was executed perfectly. I'll be the first to admit that duck and foie-gras are menu items that I rarely ever go for when I see them on a menu.

But Geezus Christ! This duck was so incredibly juicy! The apple cider reduction with the little pieces of apple paired perfectly. And the foie-gras was just... heavenly. So soft, so tender, and seared to perfection. The consistency of foie-gras usually throws me off, but I cannot deny that they slayed the hell out of this dish and had me wishing that it was my plate.

*Jarret d'Agneau Braisé, "façon Provençale" en Cocotte - To die for, folks! This is a slow braised lamb shank with roasted garlic served atop truffle gnocchi and glazed carrots. You wanna talk about fall off the bone! Becaaauuuse THIS one was doing aaaallll of that, mmkay?! Slow braised is key here. You can tell that this shank was just marinating in delicious juices and spices. A quick pierce from my fork and knife revealed the most beautiful tender and almost flakey like layers of the meat. The truffle gnocchi nearly melted in my mouth. A mouthwatering dish indeed.

*Crème Brûlée l'Orange - Just perfect! We actually had a few different desserts which I'll sum up later for the sake of character space, but the Creme brûlée outshined them all. The top sugary layer was perfectly torched. My friend took the first bite and it was so fun to watch her crack that perfect top layer. But the creamy interior is always the best part. We loved the fresh acidic notes and flavor from the orange too.

I wish I could name all of the amazing wines that we had while we were there. Truth be told, Van Doren simply poured us the best of what they had and explained the notes and the pairings to us. Felt like we were at a fancy wine and food pairing in France for a second. The Pinot Noir and Sauternes dessert wines were exquisite. Also can't for the limoncello cocktail and dessert! Oh, and those yummy chocolate crocodiles to close out the night. Yes, they hooked it up for my friend's birthday celebration and we enjoyed every single second of it.

Wow, I'm sooooooo impressed with Le Crocodile. I would make a special trip back to Vancouver just for this experience alone. This was one for the books. If you're dining here anytime soon, prepare yourself for one of the most memorable dining experiences ever.

This place is an absolute gem - unmissable during any trip to Vancouver for our family. Brian took exceptional care of our table during our most recent visit. Never an empty glass, missing cutlery, or an awkward pause between courses. I'd like to say we switched things up this time, but we really didn't (other than adding caviar service, and swapping the veal medallions for the duck - we pretty much repeated the same meals we've had previously, no regrets). I love this place with the passion of a thousand suns - every dinner here is a delight.