| rev:text
| - I LOVE French food.. in fact when we travel abroad, me and the Mr always make a point to visit a Frenchie place in another city. So when I got wind of a new French place right here in our own backyard I was stoked! The best part, its owned by chef James Porter, who did amazing job over at the now closed Tapino, so my excitement turned to elation when our reservation was confirmed!
So now that I'm home from my dinner with the Mr, I guess I'm slightly indifferent. While they had a strong opening night, it wasn't the service or food per-se but more like the other diners.
The dining room is small and extremely intimate with an amazing looking patio, we chose to sit on the inside. The interior is covered in wood, really, the floors, ceiling, walls but nicely contrasted by very stylish crystal chandeliers. I do have to say that I'm sure glad that they chose larger tables for the diners, since you can never have enough space. So there is plenty of room at the table to simply spread out and relax.
Service is pretty shiny and have no complaints, in fact our server was outgoing, attractive and knowledgeable. The bar staff was also very competent since both of our cocktails, Bohemian Sidecar ($9) and the Le Matador de Nimes ($9) were mixed perfectly and tasted great, putting us both into great moods until... a 6 top was sat down right next to us.. I know the old saying, you can't choose your family and in this case, you cant choose your dining neighbors either. They were so loud the Mr and I just looked at each other then decided to check email and stuff on our phones. We couldn't even talk which was a real bummer since this was going to be a romantic evening out. Anyway, the food will make up for it, right?
Of course I have high expectations.. new Foodiebear rule of life, never have expectations of anyone, or anything or you're going to set yourself up for irritation, heartache and misery. With that being said they were out of f*cking Pate! Can you believe that?! Out of the one thing that Ive been looking forward to this entire week. Opening night, first thing on the menu, first table in the place, out of something. I know, I know, things happen but come on, this is opening night!!!! *Sigh* Ended up ordering the Steak Tartar ($8) and the Mr ordered the Foie Gras ($10). Both were excellent both in presentation, quality and taste. While my tartar wasn't pate, it was still excellent with its fried egg on top and crispy potato crisps. The foie was much like the tartar, deliciously perfect and for the price, major value. In fact all of the food that we ordered was really big, surprising for the price points.
Let me tell you what, the Onion Soup ($6) was prefect. In fact Ive never had onion soup that was that good! Perfectly sweet, savory and the right amount of cheese crouton to compliment the soup, not over power it. The Mr liked his Vichyssoise ($6) with it smooth creamy texture and a quenelle of salmon mousse in the center which added a smokey complexity to the soup. Again, the servings were quite large and could have been halved pretty easily.
Entrees were a kind of hit and miss. The Mr had the Steak Frites ($17) which was well cooked but came covered in compound butter thaqt had anchovy in it. First bite I was immediately turned off to the slight fishy undertone. Thank goodness neither of us have fish allergies, very unexpected. The frites were nicely crisp and well seasoned. However the side of sauce for dipping was just strange. Was made from vinegar and had a decent texture but just tasted odd with the fries and the meat all together. Would have preferred something a little more basic, again a preference. I ordered the Porc et Lardon ($16) as my entree and Im pretty happy with the result. Grilled bacon wrapped pork tenderloin with roasted pork gratin which was made with roast pork shoulder, shaved fennel and celery root. The contrast in the flavors and textures was right up my alley aside from the tenderloin being a tad over cooked, it is again opening night.
Desserts were limited to three choices, Chocolate Brulee, Biegnets and Grande Marnier Souffle. We went with the Biegnets de Nutella ($6) and the Souffle ($6). The biegnets had a filling of Nutella which was alright but wasn't a fan until, I took some of the Mr's creme anglaise and dunked them into that. Delish. The souffle was so light and and was just brown enough to caramelize the sugar. You cant go wrong with either dessert.
All in all Petite Maison is an excellent value and with Chef James Porter at the helm expect solid French fare nightly with breakfast and lunch being added soon. Looking forward to back soon but this time Ill go with no expectations.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)