Carousel French Cuisine - Yakima

When in Yakima, definitely make a trek to this charming quaint French restaurant. The dining room is classy but not snobby. Walls are adorned with paintings from local artists that are available for purchase. The women's washroom is worth a trip it has an elegant sitting area for lounging around in case you need to wait for your turn. Service was attentive and our water never got depleted. Both dishes we ordered were spot on. This is one of the few restaurants where they managed to cook steak perfectly medium rare. Also, each component of the dish was executed perfectly. With the Yelp promotion for $15 for $30 worth of food, the value cannot be beat.

We came to carousel for a long overdue date night on a random Thursday. We weren't expecting to be blown away given that we find French food is very hit or miss. After our experience here, rethinking that many of our date nights will be held here! Upon entering, it feels like you're going down in to an old wine cellar. We found the Decor to be inviting, unique and classy. The bar is just to your left and has plenty of seating and in front of you and back a ways are a number of rooms. The lighting and art in each room differ a little bit and made for places that felt a little bit more intimate as well as ones that seemed more open. It was a dichotomy that you really don't see it very many places and one we're excited about exploring further. Now to the good stuff! We decided to havsies on everything so we could try more everything except the cocktails. My best half had a St. Germaine Champagne and it was lovely! I had an orange and beer cocktail, and it may have been the best drink I've ever had. We have really gotten into beer and wine cocktails over the past few years, and it's been hard to find a good one in the area. This was definitely a good one. The Orange and beer included Bacardi, orange Lacore, bitters and a red ale out of Portland. It was just perfect! It was also pretty dangerous as it would've been easy to take down two or three. For an appetizer we split the pate. It was phenomenal! A couple of lovely patties, compote and some pickles along with toasted Crostini it was magic. We also decided to split a spinach salad, mostly because it included the word flambé! It was a simple spinach salad with a lovely bacon and Sherry infused dressing I was prepared tableside and flambéed to perfection. The salad was good, the show made it totally worth it! For dinner we split a duck breast, and they were nice enough to put it on a couple of plates and prepare it the same for both of us. It made for a really nice experience by preserving the presentation on both plates. Very small detail, but in the overall experience it definitely heightened it at a place where it would've been very neutral. Nice work! The duct was beautifully prepared, skin could've been just a slight bit crispier but it preserved a lot of the flavor nicely. This asparagus was done perfectly and the mushroom risotto was divine! For dessert we decided on and cherries Jubilee, again because they would let it on fire at our table side! Neither of us had had it before, but we will likely be enjoying it again. The ice cream is homemade and was fabulous, the cherries done perfectly and the sauce was good enough that I started using my finger to make sure I got all of it out of the bowl! It was good enough to make sure that I got all of it. We both left pleasantly full and for around $100 for the two of us, we felt it was well worth the price for the trifecta of ambience, service and food quality. To boot, they run a Yelp deal of $25 for a $50 coupon and had a 10% off coupon. We had both ready to use, but ironically the food was so good and we found ourselves talking about it for so long that I forgot to use both coupons. Luckily we will be back soon! The more people we talk to about our experience, the more people we are finding have had similar experiences where their expectations were blown away. I heard that they have recently changed owners and if that's the case, they're doing a great job with the place!

Ok, I'm a bit disappointed that Yelp won't let me post a video. I've never had Cherries Jubilee before, and loved the mini-spectacle of the table-side flambé. First time here? Don't let the exterior deter you, this is an amazing place to dine. Relax, take your time, enjoy the food and the experience. The interior decor fits very well with the French themed menu. I had the braised Duck. Nice presentation (thought I had a photo to share, but nooo), and the taste was very delicious. Could not help but clean my plate (actually a bowl to contain the terrific sauce). The printed menu is dynamic, i.e. not everything listed will be available. My wife wanted the Rockfish, but settled for the same recipe but with salmon. Really good, but would have been better with the rockfish. Another person in our group had the Coq au Vin, and was quite impressed with her dinner. My buddy and I had never had Cherries Jubilee. So we splurged and indulged. The presentation was so fun, and what's not to like about ice cream and brandy?

Went last night for dinner and it was AMAZING. The waitress was kind and informative and never seemed to be annoyed by our questions or requests. We started out with the stuffed mushrooms for appetizers which the waitress recommended but I wasn't much of a fan. They were average, I found it strange that they were filled with crunchy carrots but that's just me. The main entrees though were what blew me away. I got the rainbow trout with a pea risotto and greens on top. It was my first time tasting trout and risotto and oh my god it was amazing. The fish was super tender and the risotto was buttery and smooth. The only complaint I could have is that the risotto had huge chunks of garlic in it which kind of put me off and the fish was very peppery, but that's just nit picking. Overall a great experience and I would definitely come here again!

I was really excited to try Carousel since it looked like one of the few fine dining restaurants in Yakima. The experience didn't disappoint! The appetizers I got stuffed mushrooms and French onion soup both had little issues. (Mushrooms under seasoned, onion soup had too much cheese) BUT the entree made it up. The rack of lamb was cooked and seasoned perfectly. Plus the cocktails looked and tasted great. Staff were also very friendly. Bonus points for good music choice inside the restaurant.