Recommends

clairelin

Joined 5 years ago

neightborhood restaurant. Definitely worth the value.

I came here on a weekday afternoon, and the restaurant was pretty empty. Basically the hostess is the only waitress here, an Italian mama style service.

I ordered coq au vin, which was a big dish for $13. Basically a huge portion of chicken broiled in red wine sauce to tender, on top of a huge amount of creamy mashed potato, with little pearl onions and carrots. The chicken was soft but got a little tasteless toward the end, the potato was fairly creamy and the sauce was flavorful, not too salty but only a few drizzles on the dish.

Overall, a nice neighborhood restaurant.

Doesn't Recommend

LeChefDilettante

Joined 3 years ago

Bad service kills...the food.. Service

Party of 5. Arrival time 7:00p, Sat. (half-full). We ordered a Cheese Plate, Apps & Main Course by 7:30p. The table next to ours arrived after we'd ordered and were not just served, but had finish eating before we’d been served our appetizers. Apps were served at 9:00 (only after we asked for them twice). The only apology, for their sloth-like slow service, came at 8:45…an hour and forty-five minutes after we ordered. So of course, one would expect all the main courses to come out hot…oh, how wrong you would have been, for it was not the case. Two of the five dishes (both being the Bar Steak on the regular menu) were room temperature at best. Maybe it was me but I thought it ludicrous that at 10:00p we would be shown a dessert menu. What I really wanted was a time machine, however, I settled for the check and the door, leaving my companions to deal with the waitress. (In case you’re wondering on a $188.00 pre-tax bill, we left a $27.00 tip…I’m demanding not stingy.)

Food

In my opinion, poor service is no different than over-cooked pasta, there’s no remedy for it. Nonetheless, I’ll try to be fair. The scallops (Sat. special-App.) were cooked perfectly, seared on the ends and soft, flaky and moist in the center. The homemade linguine (Sat. special-Main) was far too soft, even the most amateur of cooks. How do you say “al dente” in French? Yet, there was a huge glob of uncooked sticky linguine which I removed and set aside. By the way, where was the promised duck confit and spicy sausage which were the reason I ordered the night’s special? All I found were left over scraps of some kind of meat and mushroom…underwhelming at best. Needless to say, I didn’t finish it.

Recommends

circusgeek

Joined 5 years ago

Not so great brunch. I really wanted to like this place, but my spinach and goat cheese omelet was so salty that it was inedible, and the bloody mary was watered down. Le Sigh.

Recommends

Justin Hartung

Joined 9 years ago

From the folks behind Marquet Patisserie, this comfy bistro adds a splash of color to a gray block in Williamsburg.. The Scene
This brightly colored Williamsburg bistro catches the eye along a drab stretch of Grand Street. The long, narrow space teeters on the edge of cutesy with its perky red and yellow color scheme, French comics plastering the walls, and, in the back, a vintage foosball table. Service is languorously Gallic, but the easygoing neighborhood crowd doesn't seem to mind.
 
The Food
In true bistro fashion, it's the most artery-clogging dishes that provide maximum satisfaction. Grilled gold angus hangar steak with a crusty char and a massive braised lamb shank are the epitome of rib-sticking winter cuisine. Attempts at lighter fare aren't as successful: The dressing on a salad of plump tiger shrimp, mango and avocado salad fails to unify the ingredients, while the flavor of chilled cucumber soup is subtle to the point of disappearing. A dense flourless chocolate cake with strawberry coulis returns diners to decadently delicious territory.

Hits: The cute-as-a-button room and affordable bistro fare will be perfect in snowstorms.

Misses: Appetizers stretch for more-rounded seasonality, but lack finesse.