The restaurant is a small looking house in downtown area so it looks quite interesting.
They are a French restaurant. I was quite looking forward to it because after my cruise where the escargots and French onion soup was excellent, I was in the mood for French food!! Please forgive the pics in this blog. The restaurant was quite dark. I've already fixed the pictures with my iPhone free flash program!!
The menu had two sides. One the Creations, meaning new twists to French food and other was Classic French food
They gave us a free sample of goat cheese stuffed in a cherry. It was quite good, especially since I enjoy goat cheese. It was a good start and good expectation for the meal.
Appetizer:
I had the Coquille de St Jacques which is scallops with mash potatoes as my appetizer. It was served in a scallop shell.
Mash potatoe was good. Sauce was ok but not the lip smacking yummy that I was looking for. And the scallops...rubbery. I was hoping for tender and moist scallops. It wasn't. This wasn't what I expected when I order Coquille St Jacques.
My friend ordered escargots.
I only tried the escargot and not the pastry on top but again the escargots were very rubbery. I love escargot but it should be soft. It wasn't very garlicky or buttery either. Very very disappointed.
They gave us a lemon sorbet to cleanse the palate. It was ok but my friend found it too sour and didn't like it.
Main Meal:
I ordered the boeuf Bouguignon, which is a beef stew using red wine like Burgundy. At La Gavroche, they served it in a bed of mash potato.
As you can see in the picture, there was too much mash potato. I love mash potato but it took over the dish. The beef was dry. I was looking forward for a red wine flavored stew but couldn't taste the red wine. I was not happy with this dish at all.
My friend order Coq du Vin, rooster in wine which is French braised chicken cooked in wine like Burgundy.
It was quite tasty, though to me it was more of a roasted chicken without the skin than Coq du Vin. It's not the Coq du vin I've had before. I didn't really see the sauce on the chicken.
The Dessert:
We had none. My belief is if I did not enjoy the meal due to taste, then dessert usually isn't worth ordering. Yes, I know that restaurant of this price range typically hire a pastry chef so not the same as the Executive chef but the Executive chef or manager/owner of restaurant would oversee the taste of their menu and if this is considered ok, then desserts will not meet my standards, especially I'm more picky about my desserts than my main courses!!
Final Thoughts
Meh!! I wouldn't go again. I thought for the price and quality of the food, even chain restaurants like Milestones. Earl's etc cook better at a lower price.
The table next to me kept praising the food like it's the best food ever. I must have ordered the wrong thing or he just has no taste buds!!! The food was edible but not matching the price and expectation from a restaurant like this.
A coworker thought their food was good so maybe going there on a Monday meant their usual chef is away. Of course that's no excuse for a restaurant to not cook well but that's the only way I could justify it.
Bottom line, I'm not going back and agree with my dad, it's hard to find good French restaurants!!
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