630 Rue des Meurons

I had wanted to go to this restaurant for some time. It’s across the street from a school I presented at a few times for WISE (Women in Science and Engineering). The restaurant has two dining sections, normal and train. Ofcourse I was wanting to eat in the train car section. My exposure to french food has been quite limited. Everyone always talks about how great french food is so I did have high expectations. I was dissapointed. I think french food is quite bland. It is true, I have been accused of covering up my food with sauce on more than one occasion. I guess I like my spices. I don’t think it takes away from food, I think it compliments it.

Regardless, here’s the story. We walk in and the first waiter sits us. He asks us if we would like some drinks. I say we don’t drink so perhaps we’ll stick with water. He suggests a non-alcholic drink menu anyways and I accept. I look through it and find nothing worth while. In the meantime though Tipu and I have already figured out what food we’d like to order. So when the first waiter comes back I tell him we don’t want drinks but we’ve chosen our food. He didn’t looked so pleased. He told me that he doesn’t do that, the second waiter does that. Laa-dee-da.

The appetizers we had were absolutely amazing. I have never tasted something so intriguing. It was smoked salmon rolled in flatbread with capers and other stuff. That wasn’t the amazing part. The amazing part was the zesty salad made out of celery root, carrots, capers, red onions, vinegar, etc that the rolls were placed on. That was good. That’s what going out to eat should be about. In retrospect, it may have been fun to try the escargot and frog legs but I wasn’t feeling that adventurous.

The main courses were good but not great. Tipu had a rack of lamb. It was cooked to perfection, it was moist, juicy, soft, etc. However it was just lamb. Very little else. I had stuffed pickeral fillet. I ordered it because I was wondering how you would stuff a pickeral fillet. It turns out you just roll the fillet. My fish was beyond bland. It was steamed in it’s own juices or something. It had a mushroom filling that couldn’t quite help with the blandness. Both of our main dishes came with steamed vegetables and a mashed potato lump that was deep fried in breadcrumbs. The mashed potato lump was not bad. Do not ever, ever, ever feed me steamed vegetables at a restaurant. If you want to show innovation, prestige, culture and culinary art you better damn well find something better than steamed vegetables to make me happy. I can steam my own vegetables. I don’t need a restaurant for that. I certainly don’t need a french restaurant for that.

The desserts did look ok. Not Just Desserts good though so I skipped.

The decor in the train is inconsistent. I think it’s meant to be classy with deep reds, and gold leafed panels but they have unfortunately put up contemporary art of popular drinks. It kind of takes away from the atmosphere.

The moral of the story is, when you go out to eat french and have a similar taste palette as mine, order appetizer and dessert. Skip the main because it’ll be boring.