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| - L'Albatros has been on mine and the BF's list of restaurants to try since we moved in Ohio in 2009. It wasn't until we decided to move out of Ohio that we finally scheduled a date at this gem. And I am so glad we did.
We opted to try L'Albatros over lunch instead of dinner, and this was an excellent choice. With the exception of a few dishes, the menu is exactly the same, only a few bucks cheaper. Not a bad deal.
We choice to sit on the patio, which is a MUST. You would never guess that this gorgeous outdoor space was hidden in this area. The patio is a huge, and is adorned with tables for dining, couches for lounging, and a bar for imbibing. So no matter what you came to L'Albatros to do, you can do it on the patio.
Our meal began with bread that the restaurant gets from a local bakery. Very soft on the inside, with a nice crispy crust, it's served with olive oil for dipping.
For entrees, I chose the Choucroute Garni and the BF chose the Cassoulet. Both were served in 12-inch skillets, so the portions were quite large, even for lunch. If you're super hungry, you can probably finish it all in one sitting, but there's definitely enough to bring leftovers home. The quality of the food was superb. Both of our dishes were meat-heavy, and each of the meats was cooked perfectly. I'm not normally a fan of duck, but the duck in the cassoulet was fall-off-the-bone tender. The pork belly in the Choucroute dish simply melted in my mouth. It's extremely rare to find an establishment that can cook pork belly so perfectly. Too often, it's overcooked and chewy, but that was not the case a L'Albatros.
Hearing nothing but great things about the dessert, the BF and I split the Chocolate Napoleon which is chocolate mousse and fresh raspberries layered between sheets of crispy phyllo. While the dessert was tasty, both the BF and I agreed that it would have been better with soft phyllo instead as the crispy phyllo made the dish difficult to eat.
If L'Albatros isn't on your must-try list, put it on there now and pay them a visit while the weather permits patio dining!
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