this restaurant has been on my rader for quite a long time. this restaurant has received so much accolades, and has been recommended to me so many times. i just had to go, but not without my fantastic dining companion. because we were late, my request for Laurie, who was suggested to me as the epitome of waiters at Andre's, was cancelled and we ended up with a sub par waiter. he was quite aggressive, intimidating, and quite loud. this made it very difficult to communicate with him . he misunderstood that we wanted to order a tour of all the appetizers only b/c he was trying to get us to decide on an entree. . there were so many appetizers to choose from.
we started off with a delicious cold butternut squash soup with a tapanade that totally bursting with flavors. im beginning to really like these cold soups. we thne moved on to the caspian sea caviar (golden osestra) to be eaten with these bland bitter taste-removing buckwheat blinis...that took away the flavor from the caviar. this was the first time i was given condiments (hard boiled egg yolks, egg whites, chives, sour green, capers, and red onions) for the caviar. we ended up using the french bread to enjoy the caviar. my favorite appetizer was the scandinavian smoked Salmon accompanied with a caviar parfait and drizzled with creamy lemon-dill dressing and mmmm...horseradish cream...so many flavors in my mouth...wow!!! this was followed by the tuna tartare on eggplant caviar with green tomato brunoise and lavendar sesame seed toast. and to finish off our cold appetizer selection, we had an heirloom tomato and lump crab salad with a ginger sorbet and red onion vinaigrette
we then went on to the cauliflower soup with duck confit. im not into cauliflower, but i do love duck confit, so i was very curious. it was a very savory soup with shredded duck meat at the bottom of the soup, which was accentuated with crunchy toast bits with each spoonful of soup. this was followed by the often suggested lobster sausage with spicy crayfish sauce....mushy...heavy...didnt like it. this was followed by the jumbo sea scallops wrapped in macadamia nut crust with citrus beurre blanc and mango chutney. i also had to order my escargots de bourgogne soaking in butter, herbs, and garlic. finally we arrived to the foie gras. it was alright. it was nothing to what we had in paris. our final dish was the sauteed veal sweetbreads provencale with ravioli filled with egg yolk and ricotta cheese. i couldnt taste a thing at this point b/c i was just too full.
our waiter forgot to mention to us that they could have created a sampling of our appetizers, instead of us ordering so many full appetitzer dishes. i do have to admit that our eyes were bigger than our stomach, for we ate ourselve silly. we enjoyed most of the dishes, but were very disappointed by the service of our waiter...next time we're gonna have Laurie. this place looks like a little villa right in the heart of ghetto/old downtown.. the decor inside is of a french countryside home with lots of rooster picturres, really homey...i have gone back to this place and will return again. they have email reminders of special menus for the holidays...i cant wait....