Since citysearch had voted Campagne one of the best spots to kiss in Seattle, I thought I’d try giving my dining partner a little eskimo kiss. Unbeknownst to me, the waiter had chosen that moment to sidle up and caught us disentangling noses. “Aw, you guys are so cute!” he exclaimed, before handing over our menus, and abandoning me to my embarrassment.

Here we were on a late Sunday night sitting in one of the top-rated restaurants in Seattle. Again, a restaurant I had been wanting to try for a while, and hadn’t for the simple reason that I was looking for savory foie gras, and they were serving theirs up with fruit. But 25 for $25 came to the rescue, offering me a chance to try the restaurant without committing any sort of serious cash.

We had originally wanted to go today, Thursday, but for some reason it was extremely busy. Then someone pointed out that Thursday was Beaujolais Nouveau day, and all of the sudden, everything fell into place. So there I was late last week trying to figure out what other day I could get in on, and deciding at the last minute that it was Sunday or nothing. It was very nearly nothing, because who in hell wants to eat dinner at 9:30 at night?

It turned out to the be perfect time. The marketplace was deserted, and we just drove up and found parking on the street right away. In almost six years living in Washington, and coming to Pike Place market half a dozen times a year, I have never found street parking on Pike. I immediately began plotting to have other late night meals in the area.

I almost had decided not to go to Campagne at all based on a quick look at their menu from the first week, where the main dishes were fish dumplings, beef bourgignon and some sort of sausage, but when I took another look at their menu last Friday, it had changed subtly and now featured a duck leg and some other sort of sausage. Hooray for weekly-changing menus!

For starters, I had the chicken dumplings in mushroom sauce. The sauce was so tasty, I wish they had given me a spoon — but never fear, I don’t let lack of utensils stop me from thoroughly enjoying my meal. A large chunk of bread later, most of the sauce had mysteriously disappeared. The husband had ordered the Taste of Provence, a little cake of layered hummus, tapenade and red peppers, sitting in a small pool of olive oil. I took a quick taste and voted that Provence tasted “salty”. You really needed more bread than just the three pieces of melba toast that you were awarded. Bread basket to the rescue, again.

On to the main menu. I had ordered the duck leg, and the husband had the beef, which was sitting on a bed of spaetzle (I did question whether it was appropriate to have spaetzle there, but Campagne’s cuisine is southern france, and I know some parts of france were traded back and forth between other countries in the olden days. So who knows?). My duck leg was accompanied by a serrated-edge steak knife which was completely superfluous. I made mysterious passes over the top of the duck leg, and with a puff of steam, the meat fell away from the bone. Both dishes were excellent. I even ate my little side of squash, without complaining about it being squash. How’s that for grown-up?

Dessert was “choose whatever you like” from their regular dessert menu, which turned out to have three items on it. I ordered the twice baked chocolate cake with caramel ice cream and cherry coulis. This time, what I got was a cake (as opposed to Ray’s inedible stodge) — an extremely light and fluffy cake, considering it was supposed to be baked twice — slightly crunchy on the outside, slightly melty in the middle. The cherry coulis warily hugged the edge of the plate, as opposed to sogging up the cake, and I ignored it totally so I could concentrate on the caramel ice cream. The husband had the pear clafoutis with the ginger ice cream, and he pronounced it quite tasty.

All the way through the meal, we argued the finer points of all the other restaurants we had visited in the past few 25 for $25 promotions. Campagne was at the top, no argument, but there were arguments about whether or not Yarrow Bay and Third Floor Fish Cafe deserved equal positions or whether the latter should be positioned below the former. And what about Ray’s? Was it fair to put it dead last just because I was holding a grudge?

Campagne itself says, “Called by Esquire “one of the best restaurants in America”, …Rated Four Stars by Seattle’s Best Places, inducted into the Nation’s Restaurant News’ Fine Dining Hall of Fame in 1996, Wine spectator’s Award of Excellence for six straight years, and awarded the Zagat Survey Restaurant Award.” It was only natural to compare it to some of the french restaurants we had been in while in France. While there’s no argument that it’s a great restaurant, and certainly cheaper than actually flying to France to eat, “best restaurant in America”? Maybe I need to come back and eat at the regular menu to see what Americans consider “best”. It would be nice if it was related to what the French consider “best”.