[westopher]

Tartare is all about balance. It being so hard to hide imperfections in technique being devoid of sauces and other "dish savers."

Young cooks are afraid of being heavy handed with seasoning. You need a perfect balance of cut size, acidity, and seasoning. To take it a step further balancing the perfect amount of crostini/chip to tartare. It seems simple, but the differences between a decent tartare and an incredible tartare are so massive in terms of flavour, and so minor in margins of error.

As far as the gaufrite being seasoned more or the tartare, it should have been both. One element should never be over/underseasoned to offset another. Like I said, probably a young guy afraid of being heavy handed.