Purple Cafe and Wine Bar

We had a lunch and a dinner there. Glad we made reservations for dinner. Service and food were very good both times. Strangely, they do not serve many Washington state wines — even by the glass. Waitress said they could not compete on price with the tasting rooms. Loud place but outside seating available. We ate inside both times. Recommend it.

Since my first review, I have spoken with two managers with this company. These managers were quick to respond and very professional!
We are happy to give this restaurant another try in a couple weeks.

I’ve never had a bad meal here. I’ve enjoyed lunch, dinner and HH here and all has been perfection.
Go. Enjoy. Thank me later.

Came here for appetizers and some wine. Was not disappointed at all. The Ahi tuna poke was my favorite. And the cognac dessert wine was really good.

Do you want the taste of something different then the normal chains that pop up in your back yard!?! Purple gives you that!!! The food is beautifully complimented by the wine and import beer. It’s a place for your tastebuds to jump around like a high school cheer team rooting on homecoming. The wait staff not only understands the menu but can easily gauge your personality and style, and recommend what would best suit you. Isn’t that what we want out of a restaurant?

Excellent food, wine, service! Everything was perfect. Our server Brianna was fabulous! We can’t wait to go back!

I went with friends for happy hour and it was okay. I didn’t experience anything that would make me want to go back. The food was so-​so. The server was awesome though. We told him that we weren’t his normal cliental and that he didn’t need to go into too much detail over the wine we bought. Happy hours prices were okay too.
Fair warning if you have a large vehicle — parking sucks! Narrow spots and you’re battling with a few other businesses in the area.

The place was packed around 1:30 pm so we were patient with the slow service, however tables that were filled after ours had their food served sooner and were out the door when our food finally arrived. The BLT was poorly constructed with too much avocado «sauce» that made for an extremely messy time. The side salad was not a salad but merely mixed greens and a side dressing; literally nothing more. The Prime Rib dip was just okay and the a half order of the meditteranean salad was underwhelming and had zero olives in it. The topper was the beer I ordered was the wrong kind and warm. I actually drank half of it as we never saw the waitress until the checks came. The only reason for a second star is that when I pointed the error out, our waitress removed the charge. Our bills were paid after 1 ½ hours… time I wished I could have back.

This was a surprise disappointment. For years we enjoyed Purple in Kirkland but it closed in December 2015. We tried the Bellevue Purple a couple of days ago and we had our favorite BLTA and tomato soup and it was great. Today we decided to try the Woodenville Purple as the roads and parking in downtown Bellevue was a pain.
So we again ordered the BLTA and tomato soup and it was less that great. They changed the ciabatta to multigrain. One of our sandwiches had much less bacon and avocado on it. The other one was better. The server told us that they had a different Chef there and he made the change. I guess he must have also changed the tomato soup recipe as it was not as good. Service was also sub standard as once we had our food we didn’t see the server until they brought our check. Neither of our drinks were refilled even though we drained them half way through.
All in all it wasn’t bad just not great. Next time, we will fight the Bellevue construction for lunch.

Twas my first time here since moving a month ago! Came here with the bf and another couple. It was a Sunday dinner time and although there were tables around, they opted to seat us upstairs, which was fine bc we are all young and able to walk. I kind of did not prefer it though bc I was not feeling well from the all day drinking at the wineries we had prior. But once I got their food in me, that feeling totally went away!
I couldn’t drink anymore alcohol so I got hot water. We started off with the bruschetta (the couple next to us got it and it looked amazing so we just had to try it!). WOW! I must say it was the best bruschetta I have had yet! It came out warm and toasty! The baguette bread was toasted but was still soft, it was topped with herbed ricotta, grilled pomodoraccio tomato slice, sliced fresh basil, and drizzled with thick 10 year aged balsamic. Everything about it was delicious and tasted like it all came straight out of the heat, I really liked that none of it was cold!
I ordered the Cheeseburger medium with sharp white cheddar, smoked mozzarella, grilled red onions, housemade pickles, baby greens, ketchup vinaigrette, and charred onion aioli. I was about the get the tomato and mozzarella pizza but had to get the cheeseburger when I saw another patron get it. It was a huge burger! I really liked it! It would have been perfect it there was mushrooms in it! But flavors all meshed great. I liked that they use a medley salad as opposed to just romaine or iceberg, that the ketchup was not overpowering, and that there were different melted cheeses in the burger! I didn’t really taste the aioli. The server brought another garlic aioli so I could dip my fries into. I liked it way better than the ketchup!
The bf ordered the smoked nueskes bacon pizza with slicked granny smith apples, caramelized onions, smoked mozzarella, and fried sage. It was great! I usually don’t like fruit esp green granny smith apples on things savory but this was on point! The thinly sliced apples offered another dimension in the flavors of the pizza.
Overall, it was a great first experience. After reading reviews, I wish we were given bread and butter, too! Did we have to ask? Do they just offer it when they have it? Whatever it was, I wish we had known. I drank a tad bit too much so the bread would’ve been good to make me feel better faster. Of course, after I devoured my burger, I felt much better! Will be looking forward to my future visits! Hopefully they will have more servers. Service was a bit slow but it looked like they needed more servers. That’s all!

Purple was my first time dining in Woodinville. On this typically rainy winter evening, I wasn’t sure dinner was even going to happen. Arriving around 6:30pm, the cramped parking lot that Purple shares with several other businesses was jammed packed. But after circling around several times, we did find a slot.
We didn’t have a reservation, and though Purple was lively, we didn’t have to wait for a table, happily accepting one by the window (there’s also an upstairs with tables). Purple’s interior is appealing and I loved the candle-​covered brick walls.
The cordial and responsive service at Purple easily rates five stars. Unfortunately on this particular night, food fell below three stars. The menu options do look appealing. And for wine lovers, they helpfully suggest on the menu a wine pairing for each item.
We ordered a starter of stuffed dates and for entrees, we both ordered the New York steak. The gorgonzola stuffed dates ($ 6), served with a sweet balsamic-​like sauce called saba, were good. The five dates were served at room temperature, but would have been better if they had been heated.
The New York steaks ($ 32) were a major disappointment. Post-​cooking, the kitchen had sliced the steak for us and then splashed the steaks with a just okay demi glacé. But here’s the thing, we asked for our steaks to be medium and they both came out fully rare. Since they sliced the meat, they would have seen the steaks were not cooked properly and should have done something about it. Instead, they sent them out anyway.
Actually the best part of the steak dish was the thick tiny bits of bacon that came along with the Brussel sprouts. The Brussel sprouts had a smoky campfire flavor that I liked at first, but less so, the more I chomped on them. On the other hand, Penny quite liked the little buggers.
My biggest disappointment was dessert, which for me was apple crisp ($ 8 plus a buck for scoop of vanilla ice cream). There was little to no soft filling (just sliced apple) and the dish was horribly overloaded with cinnamon. I took a few bites, then shoved the thing to the side.
Since service was so good, I certainly wouldn’t discourage anybody from checking out Purple, especially if you are into wine. But I’m not sure I would consider Purple worth driving a long distance to try.

We had a horrible experience with group dining at Purple in Woodinville. Given the circumstances, the server did a fantastic job, but this critique is solely aimed at the group dining /​management of Purple.
My fiancée planed a birthday group dinner for me and 20 guests. They asked her to sign a contract and commit to a minimum spend, both of which are understandable. She made it clear that she expected each party to pay individually and asked the restaurant to make it easy for us to tabulate the bill per party. Purple did just the opposite — to the point that we spent the last few hours sifting through the bill one person at a time to figure out who purchased what and for how much.
They purposefully printed a separate menu for the group dining, and withheld prices from it! When each party was trying to calculate how much they spent, the cryptic bill didn’t match the custom menu that lacked prices. This exercise of sorting though the bill with each party was so laborious that it left a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Each of us loved Purple before but after this rigged experience, none of us will be dining at Purple anytime soon.
Unless you are planning to blindly pay for all your group’s dinner, I advise you to stay away. They put profit maximization ahead of customer experience. They might have grossed $ 1k from us tonight, but they lost our collective $ 10k in future spend.

Yay, delicious brunch. There are other places for brunch in the area of course, but we wanted to check out the new brunch menu at purple.
The menu is pretty standard brunch fare, and the only non-​meat option on the menu is the scones, but there are other options, such as sandwiches and pizza. I had the fig and goat cheese pizza, and he had the mushroom and kale hash. The pizza was delicious, with poached figs and just a hint of honey. I didn’t order anything off the brunch menu though because of the lack of non-​meat options, which was a bit disappointing.
The wine flight was fun, although mango is a bit too thick a juice to mix with the wine, so the texture was weird. Next time I’ll opt for apple or pomegranate.
Service was good, although it was weird as we went in at 11 on a Saturday and the place was empty. Later on there were more groups but it was like they were still setting up when we came in. Our server was attentive and checked on us regularly.
There was plenty of parking out the front.

Disclaimer: this review is excruciatingly detailed.
I went here with a good friend of mine on a Wednesday evening for my birthday dinner. I had been planning on going for a while, and apparently Wednesday is fried chicken night at Purple, so I thought, «The planets have aligned. Tonight is the night.»
Didn’t end up ordering fried chicken, by the way.
I arrived at around 8pm, and at that time, it was pretty full. The woman at the door was on the phone when we entered and she ended the call within a minute or two. I don’t think we looked old enough to drink (because we aren’t, yet) and so she asked us, «What can I do for you?»
I’m an awkward yam of a person by nature, so I said, «Uh, it’s just the two of us.» We were led to a table in the corner, which seemed to be the only table in he establishment that had an unlit table-​candle. I shed a tear.
The Purple crowd seems to primarily consist of wealthy white folk, as my friend and I were — quite literally — the only non-​white patrons present. Not an issue, just an observation that served as an ongoing joke (alongside the candle thing) that entertained us while we waited for our order to be taken. This place is definitely on the pricier side, and as a couple of broke students, my friend and I had some serious choices to make that night.
When our server arrived, I was ready but my friend was not. She, too, is a yam much like myself, and so she awkwardly pieced together a sentence that resembled, «I’m not ready yet.» The server left and came back in several two-​to-​three minute intervals to check on us. To normal people, I’m sure this would’ve been great promptness to be applauded. My friend felt rushed. We eventually got to order our respective meals, and then the waiting game resumed.
The food was not worth the money. It wasn’t bad by any means, but definitely not worth it for what I got. I ordered the chicken caprese (way better than my friend’s BLTA sandwich) and felt reasonably satisfied. My wallet, however, felt mugged.
At the end of the night, our waitress gave us the wrong check and didn’t return for a long while. We would’ve paid $ 20 more than our meal was worth if we had blindly put down our cards to pay (as I’ve seen many people do). When our server finally did return, we got our correct check and left a while later.
I left a jokingly passive-​aggressive note on the «give us your thoughts!» page that Purple gave us. Do I have some regrets? Yes. Was this place completely awful? No. It’s defnintely a passable ³⁄₅.

Definitely a fan of this place after only one visit (for lunch). All around good experience, worth checking out.
Ambiance:
Nice outdoor patio if it is not raining or cold (a rarity this time of year), and has a swanky feel without being pretentious. I can see this place being a cool lounge happy hour drink spot or a nice «fancier» lunch with out the kids. Definitely not kid friendly.
Service:
Waitress we had was good and did not smother us, but refilled waters even though they leave the bottle on the table, which is nice. She did accidentally overcharge us as we upgraded one of the lunch combo orders to a unlisted salad, but she quickly remedied that after I had already paid the bill.
Tip: They don’t bring out bread unless you ask for it. It is a french loaf with a nice whipped butter. Nothing crazy, but the price is right.
Food: We had 3 lunch specials, two items. The Watermelon Gazpacho was amazing, so good my sister is going to find the recipe and make it at home. The BLTA wasn’t great, but it was good. The «A» in Avocado was guacamole from a jar basically, not real avocado at all. The Turkey on Chiabatta was good and the Chipotle Aioli stole the show as the best sauce/​condiment. The Purple Chopped salad had way too much hard boiled egg in it, it was an egg salad with lettuce, not the other way around, but it did have a tasty dressing.
Value: Not horribly expensive, but not cheap by any means. I think it was appropriately priced, but the BLTA was really skimpy on the ingredients (it was mostly bread, and really tiny) and didn’t fill me up, so it is hit or miss. If I had to choose, I would say their portions are small, but it was lunch after all.

A great spot to dine, try some wine, and hang out with friends any time. After checking out château ste Michelle, we decided to grab a bite to eat here.
My gf and I shared the farmers lunch and the lobster mac and cheese. I can’t say enough good things about the Mac and cheese. First of all, a size small should be plenty for two people. The Mac and cheese was a perfect blend of different cheeses and the lobster pieces inside were huge! They don’t skimp on the lobster and the dish lets you know that despite the perfect blend of creamy and gooey cheese, crusty bread crumb layer, and al dente cavatappi, the lobster is still the main star of the dish.
My gf was a huge fan of the farmers lunch, which included two different cheeses, two cured meats, a baguette, grapes, tomato soup, and spreads.
Overall it was a perfectly balanced dish and topping that with a nice glass of Pinot, you couldn’t ask for more.

Very disappointing lunch after so much research and high expectation from Unilocal Reviews. Unilocaling since 2011, I always try to rely on reviews from my co-​Yelping folks. Well this one was definitely OFF…
We sat down at 12:35 and got seating outside. It was beautiful Saturday we planned for local wine tasting. After asking about light beers the waitress bring me Pike’s beer that is over 5% alcohol and more bitter than Pilsner so I sent it back and order French Rose (since just came back from Provence, France a month ago). We ordered chicken cranberry salad as well as burger and tomato soup. Then we waited. And we waited some more. After 30 minutes we asked about our lunch then the (seemed like a manager) came by to see about helping to speed up the order from the kitchen– only we waited some more. 42 minutes later we receive the meals– but my burger that was ordered without the SPICY aioli but with red pepper mayo– turned out to be spicy. I assumed that since I told the waitress that I cannot have spicy foods (hence why I ordered the red pepper mayo) she would tell me (since the menu did NOT say SPICY red pepper mayo) that this was indeed spicy. So I had to send this back and wait some more. We were offered bread to hold over. After another 20 minutes the burger came, undercooked and the onions that were supposed to be grilled were raw. We asked for the bill– they removed the glass of rose and we left.
Worst part is that I had such a sharp pain in my stomach after we left that made this 2 hr lunch experience even more miserable. We had dinner that night in lovely Italian place in Bellevue that night and even with bottle of Brunello we finished in less time than this so called lunch.
I am giving two stars for the cute décor and clean bathrooms. Also would recommend their vegan tomato soup.

Purple has never left me feeling satisfied, honest truth. I want to like this place and the food, but… Nope. Maybe if I was there for just wine, I’d say 4 stars, but also touts itself as a restaurant.
I suppose despise the wonderful atmosphere and vibe, it losses a star for 1) service, 2) extravagant pricing and inconsistency with portions, and 3) actual food quality.
Now, if you don’t mind pissing close to $ 20 after tax and tip on a meal, you don’t have to keep reading. Because the food is alright, but $ 18 for things like a 6″ lobster sandwich or a variant of a chicken salad… Not worth it to me.
1) service: jesus christ, 2 hours for lunch. TWO. Two thirds of it was spent waiting for our food and the waitress picking up our check. Waitresses seem to come and go so quality varies greatly. Egregious.
2) $ 17 for a burger— not all burgers come in the same size. Lobster roll and kobe beef dip are smaller than other burgers on the menu. Spinach salad is underwhelming but the cranberry chicken is overwhelming. It’s inconsistent quality and quantity – why?
3) i’ve had the kobe beef and some of the chicken – it tastes hardened. Like old. I don’t know, maybe the quality fluctuates across the day, but it doesn’t sit well with me.
Great presentation, definitely flavorful, but I would only go to this restaurant for treating myself and enjoying the environment, and not the food.

We came here for dinner on a Saturday night. The place was very crowded but we were able to get seated right away.
Our waiter brought water right away but after that it seemed like he was very busy. There were a few big tables (over 6 guests) near us.
After we ordered our appetizers came out fast. We ordered bruschetta and the cauliflower app. Both were good.
It took a while for our main meal to come out. When it did arrive it was very average. I ordered the chicken special served with broccolini and mashed potatoes and my husband had the meatloaf with the same sides, mashed potatoes and broccolini. The food wasn’t very hot when it came out. Chicken was dry.
The past few times we have eaten here we have always had salad or burgers and that is the way to go.
Side note: Bring your own wine. No corkage fee for a Washington wine that is not on the menu.

I’m a huge fan of this place! Please open up a café/​wine bar in Northern Virginia!
Definitely make reservations if you can. They are good for groups too. Parking can be a bear. The staff is great, especially Seth whose domain is the bar. He had good advice in wine pairing and was patient. Some of the clientele here went a little overboard in their snootiness, but the atmosphere here is overall energetic and chill. We had the arancini, basil pesto, meatloaf, and molten cupcake dessert. Seth mentioned the malbec pictured with this review and it did not disappoint. The malbec was mellow and smooth, it went perfectly with our food.
Bolognese Arancini — pork and beef brisket bolognese, arugula and parmigiano-​reggiano. So tender, savory, excellent. The arugula brought added texture and taste. This was a winner. Serving size, 3 qty, could be bitesize depending on whether you’re the cookie monster type, otherwise, you could get 2 – 3 bites per arancini.
Basil Pesto — trofie, pomodoraccio tomatoes, pine nuts, parmigano-​reggiano
and lemon zest. Another winner. The roasted pine nuts added a nice crunch and toasted flavor while the lemon zest kept the whole dish light. As noted in the description, there’s trofie (twisted pasta) instead of noodles. The serving size seemed small to me as I inhaled this dish, but it turned out to be really balanced.
Mushroom meatloaf — garlic mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables and porcini demi glacé. The portions of the meatloaf can be equated to the size of the slices of pound cake from Starbucks — hopefully, you know what I mean… The taste of the meatloaf was slightly bbq-​ish and demi glacé at the same time. If you like salisbury steak, think that with a hint of bbq sauce. It sounds weird, but it was really good. What a great dish too!
We were pretty full and should not have ordered dessert, but we did and really regretted it — not because the dessert was bad, but because we were just too full to really enjoy it. The cupcake was — warm chocolate-​espresso cupcake with walnuts, cinnamon cream cheese icing, espresso-​dark chocolate sauce and cocoa nibs. It was a pretty dense and super rich cupcake. I think the cinnamon cream cheese icing did not do the cupcake any justice and should not accompany it. Maybe a sorbet with a very, super light tanginess should be added instead or maybe we should have ordered it a la mode. Either way, don’t get this dessert unless you’ve got the room in your tummy and are craving the richness that is the molten cupcake!
Our experience here was great. We couldn’t have left happier! Try the malbec!