Collecting ideas for places to have an excellent dinner with perfect food in the Seattle area in the $200-400 (for two with wine) price range?

I thought of Mistral and Rovers... but quite honestly, while I live in Seattle, this is way out of my league!

Merci, Suze

Campagne, Nell's. You'd have a hard time spending more than $200, however.

How about Union? Or Herbfarm in Woodinville? Juanita's in Kirkland? Canlis in Queen Anne?

Wow that was quick! Thanks for the input. I am not trying to narrow it down to a single choice, rather pass on a list of possible appropriate suggestions. This is very helpful.

Also:

Cascadia,
Earth & Ocean,
Georgian Room, and
The Waterfont

Come to mind.

The Met

Oh, that's hard to narrow it down to just one, LOL! BUT...I would probably go with Cascadia, if you just want to offer one suggestion and have it be downtown. But Rovers and the Herbfarm would definitely be on my short list if they are open to traveling outside of downtown.

since it hasn't been mentioned .... Le Gourmand. Definately in the same catagory as Rovers (which is my personal favorite).
Union and Mistral would go into the next down catagory for me.
Cascadia, Lamprea, Campagne, Cafe Juanita....
The Herb Farm is kindof in a league of it's own (based mainly on the decor IMHO)
I'm not a fan of the food at Canlis at all.

Yes, thank you. They are open to traveling and want a nice long list of restaurants!

Rovers, Cafe Juanita, Campagne, Lark, Canlis. Canlis for the service and excellent food and to-die-for wine list, Cafe Juanita for the inventiveness and always-high standards. Rovers would probably be my first pick, though.

My pick would be Campagne or The Georgian Room.

Thanks all. I am compiling the list including all your suggestions, finding websites where I could, and passing it on. Someone (not me) will be having a VERY nice dinner(s)!! Again, thanks.

Suze in Seattle

Palisade
Tosoni's (Bellevue)
Daniel's
Seastar (Bellevue)
Barking Frog (Woodinville)
Salish Lodge (Snoqualmie)
Daniel's Broiler (multiple)
Crush (Madison Ave.)

Also, check chowhound.com. If you do a search, I'm sure all of those mentioned here and some more will be listed.

Amazing the range of places suggested! Mistral is the best, I think, and Rovers back of it. There's a big gap between these two and the rest of the list. Our favorites are Chez Shea, Canlis, and Georgian Room. I would not suggest Campagne - we have had poor service there in our last visits.

Rhardy I agree! but how funny that you wouldn't suggest Campagne yet we had the worst experience ever at Canlis (with bad food to match) and would never dream of sending anyone there!!

btw I had dinner at Crush last weekend and would not consider it as an expense place per se but would consider it fantastically great food. They do offer a tasting menu that isn't listed so maybe that's where the price can raise.

I'm blown away by the storm. Bad food at Canlis? Hard to imagine. Well, at least the dining room is nicer at Canlis than at Campagne.

Actually, we had a not-so-great meal at Canlis too, although the view is great (as is the women's room). And the service wasn't so good one time either. But we have had very good meals there as well. This is also true for us at The Waterfront, though the views are great there as well.

We recently had a most wonderful meal at Canlis, which wrapped up with meeting Laurence Fishburn, having Wynton Marsalis play an unpublished gig after his concert at the Paramount (on his birthday!) and Mark Canlis retrieving our car as the valets had all gone home.

Canlis has been a wonderful dining experience, in all my times there.

<<We recently had a most wonderful meal at Canlis, which wrapped up with meeting Laurence Fishburn, having Wynton Marsalis play an unpublished gig after his concert at the Paramount (on his birthday!) and Mark Canlis retrieving our car as the valets had all gone home.

Canlis has been a wonderful dining experience, in all my times there.>>

that sounds amazing! but more for the things that happened which could have had a postitive effect on the food and service.

We have also been to their winemaker dinners upstairs- then the food is much better and the service is great, but they have to as it is a semi private event vs. just downstairs. Anyway it's always good for restaurants that many people have their favorites I think!!

Ah, so that WAS Laurence Fishburn at the concert! I saw him in the audience and thought that was him, but wasn't positive.

What a wonderful experience that must have been to hear Wynton play at Canlis...I'm SO jealous! I mean, the concert was wonderful, but I would have loved to see him in a more intimate setting.