Finally got to this much-recommended French restaurant for dinner before seeing "Rent." Our waiter asked as we sat down whether we had theater tickets, and made a note of the show time. The whole meal was terrific. Good wine list, extensive menu, concentrating on beef but everything was excellent. Appetizers: I had the watercress salad with Stilton and pine nuts, and while I was a little startled to find it a huge plateful of watercress (still on the stem, which made it a bit awkward to eat), I love watercress and ate every bite. My husband had the salmon tartare, a portion of marinated salmon so large he couldn't do justice to his main course, and excellent. One of our companions had the terrine de campagne, which was quite good, nothing special, served with the usual cornichons. My husband and I each tried a glass of white wine on the waiter's recommendation and found them quite good (he had chardonnay, I had sauvignon blanc, can't remember the labels). On being asked about the two reds we were hesitating between, the waiter said he'd bring our first choice "to taste, and if you don't like it I'll bring the other." Wow. But we did like the first, and I wish I could remember what it was (it's been a couple of weeks). For main courses, our companions both had steak: one had the hangar steak (onglet) and the other the filet mignon; both raved about them. I had the confit of duck leg, and was rather surprised to find it a large crisp-skinned leg portion atop a slice of bread; my experience of confit is as a casserole dish. But it was so good (nicely done and not a bit of fat hanging off it the way one usually gets duck) that I ate every bite. My husband had the steak tartare, and said that while it tasted very good, the appearance of it as a sort of cake of chopped steak with the condiments mixed in was not too appealing, and indeed it looked to me like a meatloaf waiting to go into the oven. Oh, also, the portions of beef were quite large. Definitely enough to take home for the next meal (if we had had a cooler in our car, I suppose we could have taken the steak tartare home and baked it!). Desserts were equally impressive; I had the chocolate terrine aux pistache, and while the pistachio sauce wasn't much in evidence, I still wake up at night licking my lips over that terrine; it was out of this world. Not a truffle consistency, although it looked that way; it was light and melted in my mouth. One companion had the vanilla ice cream, three large scoops she was unable to finish, sprinkled with raspberries. The other had the creme caramel, another large portion, which she praised highly. It was expensive, but worth it; I'd gladly go back there. --------------------------------------- Mary "There is no St. Beth" Elizabeth | ---------------------------------------
Washington, DC
Les Halles
On Tue, 11 Nov 1997 08:50:54 -0500, Mary Elizabeth Someone wrote: >Finally got to this much-recommended French restaurant for dinner before >seeing "Rent." Our waiter asked as we sat down whether we had theater >tickets, and made a note of the show time. The whole meal was >terrific. Good wine list, extensive menu, concentrating on beef but >everything was excellent. I had the opposite experience at Les Halles. The style of steak I ordered was not described in the menu as floating in a deep sea of foul-tasting gravy, nor was the meat itself well done as I had asked. When I asked them to bring me one without gravy, and well done, the waiter snorted "That's the way it's done" and flippantly grabbed my plate, only to return later with the same plate, some of the gravy drained away, and the steak freshly microwaved, not grilled. Similar episodes followed. As we were leaving, the manager asked us, beaming, how we liked it. We told him. He apologized effusively, and offered us to come back again for another meal, on the house. We gratefully accepted. A week or so later when we were planning to return, we took the precaution of calling ahead to make sure that whichever individual was in charge at that time knew that we were to get a free meal. Our inquiry was met with a gruff brushoff, with an implication that we were trying to get something for nothing. Needless to say we didn't return, and never will.