le bouillon

ourservertodd made great recommendations and we enjoyed all our food and drink. the thing about parisian food is that the portions are kind of small...and the price was moderate. it had a casual atmosphere.

not good. how this place averages four stars with 170+ reviews is beyond me.

as i always say before a review of a french restaurant, "i love french food", but i did not even like le bouillon.

we came with a party of 12 from a conference at uno as well as 2 last minute add-ons, but staff refused to add an extra table at first, making us squeeze into four small tables pushed together with just two small baskets of bread for 14 very cramped people. they told us that they were "fully booked", but less than half the tables were occupied all evening and a glass walled room with two giant tables sat empty next to the entrance. they finally got a clue and brought an extra table jusr before the first course arrived.

theserverasked immediately what we wanted to drink, but there was just one, very extensive (at least 20 pages of small print - hundreds of options), wine/drink list for 14 people on the table. there were only a couple of wine options offered by the glass starting in the $9-$10 range and most bottles were well over $100 a pop with several approaching $1000. feeling perplexed by the poor start, we stuck with water.

theserverthen dropped a rather heavy butter knife on my arm as she was setting the table for the first course. things were spiraling downhill fast. they had no moules (mussels) or escargots (snails), focusing their menu on the raw bar instead (no thanks - i do not eat un/undercooked animal flesh), so we passed on appetizers. 

beside a couple of $9-$13 soups and salads, everything had meat/fish (my wife prefers to eat vegetarian whenever possible), so the only options to her liking were the le bouillon burger ($14) and the croques monsieur ($16). the only things that peaked my interest were the wagyu hangar steak ($26) and the cassoulet ($21), so she went with the croques monsieur and i the cassoulet. hers came with a bit of salad and mine with nothing, so we both, unfortunately, ordered a side of frites (fries) with aioli ($6).

the croques monsieur had two huge, thick slices of egg battered toast, but barely a hint of ham and cheese. it was so salty that my wife could barely finish half. my cassoulet came out with the top burnt, so i mixed it up only to find mostly white beans and a couple of small pieces of ham and bacon. there were no noticeable "garlic sausage" or "duck" as advertized on the menu and it was also very salty, so i gave up after trying to eat half of my $21 white bean casserole. the fries looked very nice, but were very thin and crispy (almost burnt), hard to eat with fork or fingers, and extremely salty. all other attendees had similar complaints of salty food and fries.

when they cleared the table, nobody wondered why so much food remained on all of our plates, so i mentioned to theserverhow salty the food was, especially the fries, so they removed them (just the fries) from the checks. at $42+ for water, half of a salty sandwich, and half a bowl of salty bean soup (minus the soup), this was one of the poorest values in recent memory.
 
combatcritic gives le bouillon 1 bomb out of 10 and a spot on my wall of shame ... booah le bouillon!

very nice dinner. split the rabbit toast, frisée salad (ask for the eggs to be cooked firm if you don't like the idea of runny fried egg on your salad) and the cassoulet. the cassoulet was particularly outstanding. the all-french wine selections have some very interesting choices from well off the beaten path. yourservercan guide you if you're feeling adventurous. friendly, efficient service. will definitely return.

our first visit, we're going back. i'll start with the negatives: 1) the wine list is only french wines that i did not recognize, but ourserverdid suggest a pretty good mid-priced bottle ($70), 2) the art and decor is odd and does take a little bit away from the feel of the restaurant; the place has been remodeled since it was "french cafe" and the atmosphere is, in the words of my wife, "meh." but the food was good, not a+, but we will definitely go back. we started with oysters on the half shell ($2 ea.) and i loved the lobster salad ($20). i had the duck with sausage and white bean and ate every bite. the princess ordered pork and liked it "okay" but said it wasn't outstanding. ourserverwas attentive and helpful.

southern french comfort food. my wife and i went to le bouillon for our 22nd anniversary last night. i've been looking forward to going here since i heard that they were opening in september.

i had made a reservation via open table 2 weeks ago. we arrived shortly prior our reservation time and were promptly seated. the restaurant seems to be divided into a brightly lit area and secluded candle lit area. we were sat in the secluded candle lit area.

ourserverwas very easy to talk to and was not snobby in the least bit. le bouillon had already made a positive impression on me by the way she approached service.

after being handed the menu of the day (it was markedly different than the one posted on their website) we were left for an appropriate amount of time to select our dishes.

after looking through all the mouthwatering dishes we placed our order. my wife ordered the pâté de maison and i ordered the tasso (smoked ham). both were excellent dishes.

next i ordered the butter lettuce with shallot vinaigrette and black pepper cracker which i shared with my wife and it was a delicious salad. the cold sauteed shallots completely fell apart when eaten. i was surprised that a simple salad was as tasty as this.

for her entree, my wife ordered grilled rabbit with glazed carrots and chanterelle mushrooms which she found delectable.

my entree consisted of a duck, garlic sausage and white bean cassoulet. which while was my first experience with duck. while the dish was tasty, it was lacking seasoning. i also ordered the potatoes aligot which in my opinion was the highlight of the meal.

all in all i rate le bouillon a very nice restaurant with delicious food. if you go there i do not think that you will be disapointed.

p.s. - the dress code is informal (the waiters were wearing flannel shirts & jeans) so don't feel like you need to dress up. it's comfort food after all. :)