Jack L.
Yelp
You know how you wander into a charming restaurant and get to enjoy unhurried service and the company of your guests at the same time? Well, this was not one of those places for me. I called ahead around 5pm on a Sunday night and the host assured me that they were not busy and it would be no trouble to accommodate my party of 3. It seemed to be smooth sailing when we arrived not too long thereafter as it was very quiet in the dining room with one other table of two occupied.
But as soon as we were seated, it seemed as if I was being hurried to order. I hadn't even really looked at the menu, washed my hands, thought about wine, etc. After all, I was expecting a little more of a relaxed pace with this being a French restaurant.
After delaying with a glass of wine (2016 Couteline-Merville Bourdeaux @ $20 per glass and delicious!), we finally decided on some starters: French onion soup ($14), Escargot de Bourgogne ($18), cheese and charcuterie ($28) and the country bread and house made butter ($10). All classic French fare and done well. The starters were dropped to the table at the same time with some urgency it seemed. Perhaps this is why our attentive, if not friendly, server seemed to be rushing me which was a common theme in our evening.
Even as we were into our starters, we were asked a number of times if we were ready to order our entrees. Finally, I gave in and put our orders in. Once we were done with our starters, our table was cleared, crumbs evacuated and then our mains were dropped at the same time. Geez. I felt like our check was coming at any moment with the obligatory, "This is here for you whenever you're ready, no rush!"
Steak frites ($38) and Moule frites ($28) again standard French fare and done well. No complaints about the food at all. We ordered well but can't quite understand what we did wrong if anything to be hurried along. We were dressed as "beachy" as everyone else and ordered about as much if not more food and drink as everyone else. (The aforementioned party that was next to us nursed waters, split a starter once another 2 people arrived, took a photo and held their table of 2 which became 4 for way longer than we were there!)
Dessert sounded too good to pass up and ended with crème brûlée ($12), chocolate torte ($12) and the berry cobbler ($12). All of them were great and all devoured like everything else we ordered from the menu. Again, the food here is the star. I am still scratching my head about what it is I walked into here that made what I assumed was going to be a relaxed dinner seemed like a rushed production from start to finish. Still friendly, but not sure what was going on.