Left Bank Menlo Park

01/20/09

Actually superior before renovation, but still good basics

by joegrayson at Citysearch

having stopped here several times over the years for business, the experience has always been very positively consistent -- which counts for a lot when you are the out of town host out of your element.

after the recent rennovation, there is an obvious emphasis on elbow-to-elbow crennulated seating of 2s (in contrast with the previous slightly wasteful diagonal seating) of 4s on a new golden/sparkly beautiful tiny-pieced roman granite flooring. but there is no extra 6 inches for privacy. the restrooms still are sloppy, and the staff seems less able to understand english (let alone the french menu) -- to the point of embarrasing errors one feels obligated to accept /ignore in order to keep the "flow" going . pidgeon english and pointing at the menu produces better predictable results, but hardly leads to an elegant experience, also, i do not want to be perceived as a cheapskate simply because their WONDERFUL bread deserves to be taken home. the new policy is to bring out a bag/box combo strait to you for you to pack it up in a do-it-yourself minnie pearl tradition. no thanks, except maybe with the grandkids in tow ala marie calendar.

while the food is still of very high quality and of remarkable preparation, the service detracts from the old and still potentially wonderful exprience in so many ways -- from not noticing absentee course silverware which makes the entire party have to wait, to the simply outright misunderstanding an order. and then the dreaded plate-grabbing even though it is quite obvious we are not all quite done, ugh. another instance where the host (me) has to make excuses . what a pain!

• Pros: Actual high quality food, even if it's not what you order; parking no problem whatsoever
• Cons: Misunderstandings about what you are ordering; English not well handled after seating

12/19/07

French enough

by jakoye at Citysearch

For an appetizer, we had the Assiette De Charcuterie, which had an assortment of meats, pickles and olives. I loved the pork rillette, my girl liked the duck one. The Proscutto was excellent, but there seemed to be a bit too much of it for an appetizer (I know, what a thing to complain about!).

We skipped salad or soup (we're small people!) and went straight to the main courses. My girl ordered the skirt steak while I tried the Coq Au Vin. I'd heard a lot about this classic French dish, but had never tried it. I liked the way it was presented and the sauce the chicken was in was spectacular, but the chicken itself was underwhelming. It fell off the bone and was succulent and moist, but in the end it was just... chicken. For some reason, I expected it to be more! My girl's steak was fine as well, but it was even better the next day when we combined her leftover steak with the leftover sauce from my dish. They should put THAT on the menu!

For some unknown reason, I ordered a desert, although each of us were plenty stuffed. I ended up ordering the Apple Tart, which was okay but ruined a bit by the apples not tasting quite right. I couldn't put my finger on exactly what it was, but they tasted wrong... maybe slightly burnt?

I don't remember the wines we drank, though I do remember the glasses of Pinot we had being much superior to the glasses of a red blend we had. The service was fine, though not quite as attentive as it needed to be, especially when we came to the end of our dinner (waited at least 20 minutes to get a bill).

Overall, a very nice experience and a definite repeat visit (hopefully sooner than 7 years!).

• Pros: Stylish, large room, real French food
• Cons: Service could be taken to another notch

02/05/07

Bad value, spotty service

by localcritique at Citysearch

It seems like the left bank used to be so much better... The last 3 times I've been in there, I've been seated at a table where the server didn't realize he/she was assigned to us. This, of course, resulted in us waiting without haveing our order taken. The last thing I want to do is flag down a waiter and ask them to figure out who is responsible for our table. I shouldn't have to do that in a restaurant that clains to be upscale! The food is not so good anymore. Obviously, it is not close to traditional french cuisine- the salade nicoise is more like sushi over greens with caviar. Kind of weird. Plus the plates are really small compared to their price. The straw that broke the camel's back was when our waiter smelled like he hadn't showered in days and leaned over us to pour the water... ew!

• Pros: some of the dishes are good (ie french onion soup)
• Cons: bad value, spotty service