Nader A.
Yelp
The name of the restaurant sets the expectation - French and Beef Filet!
I really want to give a 4th star but there were just too many subtle missteps.
My wife and I dined here before catching Twelfth Night at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. As their website suggests, leave urself a good 2hr window to dine.
The host (who appeared to also be the owner) was welcoming and able to seat us indoors as my patio reservation would have been painful (it was 100degrees in Ashland that weekend!).
Anyways, indoor ambiance was very steakhouse-esq...nothing mind blowing but nothing to complain about. Kudos on the restroom, very clean!
The menu was filled with yummy French inspired steakhouse items.... On this night we kept it super simple with the bread basket for two, which was accompanied by a trio of butter spreads - whipped salted butter, schmaltz (my favorite), and tallow (2nd fav). The spreads were a nice touch and the bread warm and grilled but the char was almost too far. Nevertheless, I personally likey bread on the crispy side so this was fine.
We started with some craft cocktails which were really tasty and pleasantly unusual. I had the Apple A Day - not overly apple-E which was a good thing.
I'll take a moment to acknowledge that there were a variety of attractive starters on the menu - beef tartar, escargot, salads, duck wings, French onion soup, etc. but we were keen on saving our appetite for the Steak.
Let's talk service for a moment - staff were all friendly and appeared to be working their butts off. That said, the service could have been better - water glasses were filled way too late (and only refilled at dessert), offer for 2nd round if drinks was delayed, owner kept popping up to help which was cool but felt like could be ruffling the wait staff (think restaurant rescue). Again, everyone was clearly working hard and sounded like some folks were new and I'm sure post-pandemic it's just hard to get all the shifts filled. So I'm not mad at it but just justifying my rating.
Wife ordered the filet mignon and I ordered the wagyu NY strip loin ($50) both with the truffled red wine jus. The cook on the steaks were a beautiful medium-rare and truffled jus added an extra umptuousness. As is typical with most steakhouses, the sides are a la carte, though there were a handful of potatoes (they were supposed to be roasted but tasted boiled with no browning) plated with the steaks. We opted for the mushrooms - which were loaded with garlic (not a bad thing but, lots of garlic even for a garlic fan). Switched to some red wine with dinner, a must!
For dessert we indulged in the vanilla lavender creme brulee. Almost a tad much on the lavender but keep reading and you'll see where the real mistep was with dessert. I tacked on a glass of port to round out the meal and keep my buzz for the theater.
All in all, we had a nice meal and I felt the quality of the food and overall menu (including pricing) were solid. In terms of execution, there's room for improvement - best example is my wife excitedly smashing her spoon into the creme brulee for the signature sugar crack only to be disappointed by a bowl of creme, lol. It was so obviously disappointing we just laughed it off and finished out the meal.
I feel like Chateaubriand36 has a solid foundation but needs to refine/mature a bit more. Their just don't se. To be firing on all pistons. Sadly, not at the top of my list but I'd be open to dining here again at a future date.
Happy Dining...