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| - Bouchon = excitement
Bouchon = refinement
Bouchon = disappointment
Never having dined in one of Thomas Keller's restaurants before, I was so enthusiastic about my groups decision to try Bouchon. Two of our groups members are professional Chefs one of whom used to dine at the original Bouchon on a weekly basis while cooking in Napa and he was a huge fan.
Arriving late without a reservation we only had to wait about 20 minutes for a table. I ordered a Ramos gin fizz to be told the bar did not have egg white to make my drink. Really? I would understand TGI Fridays not having egg white but a french bistro? Disappointment number one.
We were promptly seated and handed the paper menus, charming touch may I add. We all were "appitizer surfing" that night so we ordered light. Amongst our table we ordered potato leek soup, laitue salad, cheese tasting, classic pate, and carved meats tasting. The potato leek soup was the worst thing on the table. It was so under-seasoned, resembles the consistency of canned soup, and was almost translucent rather than creamy. My salad was deemed "inedible" by our group. Rather than a grain mustard dressing expected on a laitue salad, it tasted as if they dumped white vinegar all over the leaves and tossed in a handful of random herbs and coated it in salt. The cheese tasting consisted of cheeses I could buy at my local grocery store. I yawned at the selections. The pate was tasted overwhelmingly of liver, just straight liver. The only thing that was good was the carved meats and the bread that was offered to the table. Disappointment number two.
The service was lousy. Our waiter seemed bothered my our presence, didn't offer any specials or recommendations. When we inquired about a special written on a chalk board we were told they were out, why not erase it off the board? We were never asked how things were, there was no conversation, and we often had to wait for our water glasses to be re-filled. Disappointment number three.
At one point, what appeared to be a manager, sommelier, and group of waiters walked by our table and literally smashed into the purse hanging on my friends chair. Almost knocking it and her off the chair, only one of the group offered a quick "sorry". Then one of the group suggested to my friend that "perhaps if she didn't hang her purse over her chair, people wouldn't bump into it". I didn't realize it was that difficult to maneuver through their restaurant without bumping into patrons. Disappointment number four.
Finally our $111.00 bill was dropped, for what was basically just appetizers, sealed the deal of a night of disappointment.
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