I’ve gotten way behind on reviews, so over the next days, I’m going to play a little catch-up. Starting off the deluge (okay, it won’t be that bad) with a trio of French spots covering a range of prices.
Although billed as a French restaurant, Cocu Boulangerie, Malabia 1510, Palermo, is more French influenced than anything. Only a few selections on the menu are what I would think of as French dishes. Their focus is more on French breads and pastries, and then making things that involve them. It’s a very carb-heavy menu. I started off with their patê, which comes as a molded round of creamy smooth, well seasoned chicken liver, basically a soft spread, topped with a pear chutney, a deep red sweet vinegar reduction, and sweet potato chips. It also comes with a massive basket of bread – I was solo, do I really need four each slices of mixed grain and whole wheat breads? Between the chips, and the bread, I used two triangles of the latter. Absolutely delicious. On to the main event, a croque madame. A little disappointing. First, the white bread is just way too thick for the couple of slices of lunchmeat ham and cheese in the middle. And second, it was just lacking in seasoning – from the bland cheese used, to the unsalted, unpeppered “mornay” sauce atop – and the cheese used, I’d assert, was not the classic Gruyere, just some local bland white cheese. Then again, really inexpensive, with each of the two dishes coming in at around us$3.50.
Time for a Horde outing, and a foursome of us met up at Lo del Francés Café Bistrot, Av. San Juan 500, San Telmo. We started off with a round of kir royales, each served as a champagne glass with about an ounce of kir in it, and a mini-can of Mumm champagne on the side. Mix as you go, though it gets a bit more diluted each time you add more champagne.
Classic French onion soup, one of the best I’ve had in town. Offered in appetizer or main course portion. And, a country style pork patê, terrine style, served with pear jam, a salad, and small toasts. Excellent, and again, one of the best terrine patês I think I’ve had here.
On to main courses. The special of the day a simple fried fish fillet “a la romana” with herbed mashed potatoes. Fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. Moules frites, mussels steamed in wine and parsley. The flavors dead-on, but the mussels overcooked, and there’s virtually none of the cooking liquid in the bowl – we want that to dip both mussels and bread into. The fries… what do the the French know about French fries? Meh. Great boeuf bourgignon, cooked just perfectly, and with a generous portion of mashed potato.
And, we finished up with what they’re calling a tarte tatin, but it really isn’t – it was a whole baked apple sitting atop what might have been a disc of marzipan, and topped with whipped cream. Tasty, but missing the whole point of tarte tatin without the edge of slightly burnt caramel, and the flaky tart shell.
Service was great, ambiance was pleasant, prices are reasonable, with appetizers running around the $5 mark and mains around $7. You’ll note I’m not using peso prices right now – it’s just so volatile that it’s meaningless if this is read even a couple of weeks from now.
And, a solo night out to Le Rêve Bistro, Uriarte 1901, Palermo. I was early, the first one in, and no one else came in until I was almost done. We hit a pet peeve of mine right off the bat. It’s a small room, and one can hear pretty much everything going on. The two waiters were looking at the reservation book, and one announced to the other, quite audibly in Spanish, “Perlman? Not from here, tourist.” And then came over and started to speak to me in broken English. I replied in Spanish and he looked a tad shocked, “oh, you speak Spanish?” “Yes, I live here, not a tourist.” He looked properly embarrassed. Sorry, but good. He should have been.
Terrible lighting. It’s all yellow-orange – I included one of the photos as it came above, and the best I seem to be able to get it cleaned up. And though I tried to do the same to each, coloration came out very bizarre, and different for each photo. It was also really hard to even see anything in there the lighting was so dim. The second waiter came over to take my order – honestly, maybe I’m guilty of the same as the previous one – I couldn’t understand a word he said – I’m fairly certain he was not “from here”, and the combination of some sort of thick accent and mumbling, I gave up, and just told him what I wanted and stopped asking questions. And, he clearly didn’t understand me well, as he got my order wrong – thankfully, he came back to check if he’d gotten it right and I corrected it before any food was prepared and sent.
Not planning on dessert, I went with two appetizers. The first, their patê. In this case a more solid quenelle of chicken liver patê (not, as the waiter I’m fairly certain asserted, foie gras, just simply foie), coated in a thin layer of white chocolate and lavender, and served with lightly pickled fennel and five-spice toasts. Excellent! As was the rustic loaf of bread with seasoned butter. I’d have been happy stopping there. Next appetizer, less successful – hmm… no, I just plain didn’t like it. It was billed as a beignet filled with smoked lemons, and accompanied by a bagna cauda and artichokes. The beignet was some sort of dense sphere, the consistency and flavor of some black bread from a Russian gulag, not light and airy like a good beignet should be, and there was no more than a teaspoon of some sort of lemony puree hidden in its depths. It was just stodgy and unpleasant. And a bagna cauda is a fairly specific thing – a hot bath of garlic and anchovy in olive oil and sometimes butter. This was some sort of thickened chicken stock, according to waiter number one (the one I could understand), and the artichokes were chewy. I kind of picked at it.
On to the main course, upfront, absolutely spectacular. Quail, with a lovely stuffing – noted as bacon and mushrooms, though there was more going on there. The bird, split in half, one side of which was on the plate, the other in a little box to the side atop some herbs – very decorative and chichi, but I’d have been fine just to have the whole bird on the plate. Only one of the legs, beautifully confited, was there – I’m assuming the other gets used as part of making the “bird sauce” in the little pot at the back, and spooned into the middle of a ring of cold onion petals (why cold??).
Overall, two superb courses and one that was just… not. But I was happy and sated. It is pricier than the other spots, with appetizers running around $6 and main courses anywhere from $10-$17. I loved the room. I wasn’t thrilled with the service – the actual serving was all fine (and the chef came out to serve the sauce on the quail and introduce himself – not specific to me, it appears he gets to every table at least once), but let’s call it… attitude and “what we have here is a failure to communicate”.
In the end, I liked all three places, to one degree or another. I think my favorite is the middle one, Lo del Francés – just good, classic bistro fare at a reasonable price.
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