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| - Le Select wants very badly to be seen as Authentic. To this end, the owners have built an homage to the 1930s Parisian bistro: the brown wood, the bistro chairs, the frosted glass, the big one-page menus, etc. -- the kind of place that, in Paris, looks like it's been there forever and has the scuffs and patina of age to show for it. Too bad that on Wellington St. it feels like the Disney version thereof - more a marketing creation than an authentic expression of French culture.
But hey, those bistro chairs are surprisingly comfortable and the service is friendly. So let's move on to the food. An extensive menu that hits all the traditional French notes: bavette and bouillabaise, cassoulet and choucroute, and so on. So far so good.
It all starts well enough, with soupe à l'oignon - nice rich broth, lots of cheesy goodness on top. Well done. The os à moelle - bone marrow - is served not the usual way - tubes of bone about 3 inches long - but as a long bone split down the middle, "cro-magnon style," as the menu has it. Looks impressive, but the already rich marrow is swimming in fat. (Yeah, I know, is that really a bad thing?) It just doesn't excite the taste buds the way it does at Black Hoof. Next, the leg of lamb is perfect... but the joue de boeuf bourguignonne - beef cheeks braised in red wine with pearl onions, lardons and mushrooms - meh. The beef is tougher than it should be, and the mushrooms are MIA. Crème brûlée for dessert is just as it should be - a relief after the disappointing cheeks.
So, all in all, the food is OK, not great, and the décor is more touristy than authentic. I'm sure that when Le Select opened on Queen St., in 1977, it was revolutionary (as the restaurant's marketing keeps reminding us). Now, it's just another OK French resto in a city with better options. Want authentic neighbourhood bistro? Go to La Palette or Batifole. Want French tradition on a larger scale with a more expertly executed menu? Biff's. I'm sure I'll end up at Le Select again one day, but I am certainly not rushing to go back.
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