I had the fortune to dine at the freshly opened Delice Bistro on their opening night. The Bistro is a collaboration between Julian Bohbot, owner of the well-known French bakery “Delice” and his French chef, Jean Claude Lachkar whose family has been in the restaurant business for many years. If you have any questions regarding the kind of fare that is being served up at the Bistro, the 20 foot tall Eifel Tower that is positioned in the center of the restaurant should give it away. If not, the French accordion player and French speaking waiters might give you a clue.
The overall décor of the place is very tasteful with cozy booths and comfortable chairs. The hard floors and open kitchen (not to mentions the accordion player and the many loud speaking French people) do not lend to a quiet meal. It’s noisy and boisterous but as Julian told me, they want to have a “fun” atmosphere…
The menu is not terribly original but the prices are surprisingly reasonable. The juicy and tender rib-eye steak, seasoned to perfection with cracked pepper, costs only $28.95 and comes with yummy hand-cut skinny fries. I would ask for the sauce on the side as the steak really does not need it. The veal sausages priced at $15.95 are served over caramelized onions and cabbage and are super tasty. The duck tasted fresh with no sign of any feathers and came in an orange sauce that was not overly sweet. The overall service was impeccable with the food coming out in a timely fashion. There was a screw-up with our steaks as the busboy took them to another table but our French waiter apologized profusely and it didn’t really bother us.
The appetizer choices are a bit lacking. Not being in the mood for Beef Carpaccio or Salmon Tartar, I settled on the French Onion Soup. It comes with pareve cheese melted on top which had me a bit nervous but I didn’t really taste it and the soup itself was amazing – sweet and bursting with flavor. They have a few salads but nothing that looked exciting. My friend ate there two nights later and mentioned that the Caesar salad tastes heavily from anchovy so beware. We had a sides of green beans that were cooked beautifully - bright green and slightly firm - and the wild mushrooms that were unnecessary. My brother got the herring but could not eat it due to the proliferation of tiny bones.
The desserts were okay but Pat’s is still far superior. The crème brulee was too liquidy, nothing like the pot de crème from the winery – mmmmmm. Their profiteroles were served with bottled chocolate syrup instead of a fudge sauce. This needs to be changed immediately (go to Le Marias in New York if you want to see it done properly). The cooked pears with ice cream are served in a tall oversized glass that has a nice appearance. The strawberry napoleon is similar to the regular napoleons from their bakery albeit with some sliced strawberries in one of the layers. They do napoleons very well. The best dessert was probably the warm apple tart for two. It comes fresh out of the oven and is served with vanilla ice cream.
There are two negative things about the Bistro that surprised me both of which I think they can remedy fairly quickly. One, they don’t take American Express. I don’t know how any upper class eating establishment can not take AMEX. This probably extends from their bakery business but they need to understand that fine dining is a very different animal. People will want to eat out with their clients and expense it. People are spending hundreds of dollars on their meal. Suck it up and pay the extra percentage point on the processing. The second thing was their bread – it wasn’t very good. Delice bakery has arguably the best bread in the city so you would think that the bistro would have awesome bread but it doesn’t. Instead of baskets of fresh baguettes and crunchy olive bread on the tables, they have a guy going around with a plate offering mini slices of bread that tasted like they were leftover from the bakery. No olive oil or flavored butter, just average bread. It almost made me miss those LaBrea bakery sourdough rolls that everyone else seems to use.
On the positive side, they offer complementary valet parking which I love. Their prices from top to bottom are very reasonable, the food is excellent and the service quick. I will certainly be going back soon, maybe to sample their Sunday brunch…
Note: Delice is open every night for dinner and Sunday for brunch and dinner.
6 comments:
hey Danny,
nice to hear that L.A. is still happening with more restaurants. Good write up.
Zev
Nice to know that we got this one to stay!
Thanks for keeping us updated.
Dina
First of all the accordian player is not French. He is actually Sholom Sherman-old school Israeli legend. He is like a poor man's Avshalom Katz. The waitress was also American. However the hostess is this tall glass of Norwegian wine. I think she may be the hottest host of kosher restaurant history.
i love the write ups
we went to delice bistro last night. it was great. the desserts were fantastic. but danny is right they need to do somthing about the bread situation.
This place was awful!!! I'm kosher, and a friend recommend I try it out for my dad's birthday. I was so excited to try a French, Kosher restaurant and it went downhill from there. We had a new server who was nice but didn't give the greatest service. We all ordered and I asked for the most expensive dish which was the beef rib eye. It sounded so good. I asked the server to make it medium well but not dry. Next, we began to wait and wait…the people next to us who came in 20 minutes after us got their food but we had to wait 30 min. for ours! When I got my plate, the steak was small, burned, dry and fatty. I cut into it and it was sooo dry and fatty. I polity let the waitress know I was unhappy and she said there was nothing she could do. That was interesting..Next, when she came to my table, I gave her the plate, uneaten and was never asked if I wanted anything else. After my dad and his wife, ate the over-priced salad, and entree, the manager came over to see how things were. I mentioned the problem and he looked puzzled, like I was expecting.. I don't know… food? Since the waitress just took the dish, I thought they were re-making the steak but nope..He then asked if I wanted anything else and I said it was too late and no one had asked till now. So, you would now think when the check comes, the steak would be off the bill? Nope! The steak was still there and the manager said he was told by the owner that it could not be taken off, since I ordered it well done, which I never did. Here is the REAL kick; I went to speak to the owner; (who never came over to discuss the problem) and told him the problem. He then told me it was my fault for ordering the steak well-done and he instructs his wait staff never to recommend well-done because it come out dry. I was never told by the server and then told him I eat well and med-well all the time at other places and they never are this bad. I also said that I never ordered it well done and he insisted I did. It didn't matter. To my shock, he said he was charging me for it and it was my entire fault. Can you believe that? It gets better!! Then the waitress comes over and explains that it was actually her fault since I was correct that I did not order the steak well done. The owner said nothing and still insisted I still had to pay for it, after the server said it was her fault. He then said that they don't make mistakes!
I'm sorry, but would you eat at a place where the owner doesn't care about his customers? He actually told me that it was my problem and he gets enough customers so he wasn't worried about losing a few.
What really upsets me is many kosher restaurants seem to have this arrogance..until they close and wonder why… This was the first time eating out in my life when something I ordered came out bad and the restaurant insisted it was my fault and made me pay for a dish I never even ate.
I hope he closes and then he will see why customers are so important..
All I can say is try to go to places where they understand that mistakes are made and try to fix them quickly, politely and make sure the customer will come back. I will never go back again…
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