Dinner: Petit Robert Bistro

Sorry I haven't been around for a while my blissful two weeks of free time have come to an end now but man was I living it up until now. No really, I have been sitting on my butt with friends and husband doing absolutely nothing for two weeks. And it has been wonderful but now I am back and ready to interact with the world, kind of.

To celebrate a friends birthday a couple of weeks ago, we went to Petit Robert Bistro in the South End of Boston. It was on a Tuesday night so our reservation that started out as six people and ended up as nine was not that big a deal and the staff handled my continuous calls to change our numbers with friendliness and grace.

Once everyone had arrived we were led to a lovely table on the quiet side of the restaurant. We had to walk through the bustling kitchen to get there but overall it was nice enough placement that I didn't mind. Of course with that many people it was pandemonium and it took over half an hour to get our drinks in order. The cocktail menu is printed on the back of the regular menu which is was a nice touch and allowed you to think about how your drinks would accompany your food.

They have some great cocktails including a selection of Kir Royale variations that made me very happy, the lemon, vodka, and champagne cocktail wasn't half bad either. If you are unsure of what to order make sure you check your friends menus as well since there were several versions of the drink menu.

The menu is not so small that you cannot find something to eat and not so extensive that you get lost. However, once we started ordering we discovered that they were out of the dish many of us were excited to try, the Lobster Mac and Cheese. Our reservation was at 8:00 so I am guessing get there much earlier if you want to try this signature delicacy. After some deliberation I decided to go with the Lobster Bisque (a decision I simply need to stop making, I have had perfect Lobster Bisque once at Commanders Palace in New Orleans and no one has ever lived up to it), and the Coq Au Van over buttery noodles.

As you may have guessed from my observation above the Lobster Bisque was sub par. The flavor was bland and uninteresting and there was almost no lobster in the dish. Part of me wants to attribute this to the recent red tide and the subsequent lobster shortage, but I wish they would just take the lobster off of the menu if this is the case because their current bisque did not impress at all.

The Coq Au Van on the other hand was wonderful. While their choice of Linguine noodles instead of a smaller shaped noodle was a little odd the flavor was wonderful. The chicken literally fell off of the bone and the wine sauce was savory with just a hint of sweetness. The sharpness of the wine sauce blended beautifully with the buttery noodles and created a smooth rich flavor.

In addition to being delicious this was a very filling dish and I probably could not have eaten as much as I did had I started with my original appetizer choice of the Mac and Cheese.

For Dessert my friend had a Lemon bar with a candle in it and I had the One Giant Profiterole! My friend Pam has claimed Profiteroles as her war cry, so when I ordered this it started people crying Profiteroles!!! around the table. This dessert was truly One Giant Profiterole complete with creamy vanilla ice cream sitting in a sea of rich dark chocolate.

I give Petit Robert a B. I recommend Petit Robert for a intimate dinner for two or for a large group.

One word of caution, we had a vegetation in our midst for this trip and while there was a mushroom risotto on the menu other than salads this was the only real vegetarian option. In other words if you have a friend who does not eat meat this might not be the place to take her.

Restaurant: Mistral

It's background time again. I live in Boston, for those of you who don't know, and I must say I think I have tried at least three quarters of the French restaurants in Boston. I love food, French food most of all, hence all the restaurants. This Tuesday was my two year anniversary and we decided to try something new for dinner instead of going to one of our old standbys. So off we were to Mistral in the Back Bay.

Upon entering the restaurant you are instantly hit by the homey atmosphere, candles are everywhere which give the space a nice warm glow, benches line the walls and use strategically placed pillows to separate diners who are seated next to one another but would prefer to pretend that their neighbor doesn't exist. However, in addition to homey this place can also be described as trying too hard to be hip, this is exemplified by the a little too loud techo music that was playing all night long. It just does not go with the atmosphere.

Though they promised a ten minute wait we had barely had time to peruse the cocktail menu before we were wisked away to our seats. We were seated at one of the bench seats, thankfully we only had neighbors on one side. Had we been surrounded I think our table would have been way too crowded. The cocktail menu was filled with some interesting concoctions including an overly bitter Lemon Fizz (Lemonchello, champagne and lemon juice) and a passion fruit cocktail (passion fruit puree, Bacardi rum and fresh raspberries) that was overly sweet. However, since it took them so long to get us our original cocktails they were free. The wine list is extensive and probably perfect for business people on expense accounts (there were at least four such parties while we were there) because all of the wines were very expensive (there was a bottle of champagne that I know goes for seventy dollars being sold for 100).

The menu was generally uninspired (a thought I had while pondering the menu online) and we quickly settled on the safe choices for appetizers and entrees. We started our meal by splitting the gnocci with parmesan crema, basil, pepper and tomato coulis; and some simple crab ravioli with a thyme tomato broth.

The gnocci were delicious, the sauce was light but full of flavor and the pepper gave it a nice finishing kick. The tomato was subtle and added just a hint of tartness to the sweet creaminess of the parmesan crema and the gnocci melted in your mouth. The ravioli were a little disappointing however, while the filling for the ravioli was delicious subtle crab flavor mixed with ricotta and parsley to give it a dense salty but not overly fishy flavor, coupled with the absolutely divine broth, both the thyme and the tomato were subtle and beautifully combined. The killer for this dish was the undercooked and chewy pasta; while the middle bite of each ravioli was delicious each end was filled with chewy pasta.

For our Entrees I convinced my husband to go for the Pan Roasted Halibut with Lemon, White Shrimp & Asparagus Risotto, Chive-Butter Broth, and I had my old standby... the steak or more specifically; Grilled Tenderloin of Beef with Horseradish Whipped Potatoes, Garlic Toast & Asparagus.

Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of the Halibut but the presentation of the steak was so wonderful that at the time I didn't think of it. Yes that is a potato chip and yes it does have a piece of parsley baked in-between the two layers. Overall, I am sad I did not get a picture of the Halibut because it was the overall winner of the evening. It was meaty and lightly seasoned with a balance of chives, salt, and I think a little paprika. Each bite was flavorful right down to the last, the risotto was more rice with shrimp and asparagus (lacking that creamy thickness that you expect from risotto) but while it was not what was expected it was still very tasty and a nice counterpoint to the fish. The shrimp were subtle and did not overpower the dish at all.

The steak on the other hand was not as good. I need to remember not to order steak unless I am at a "real" French restaurant like La Voile on Newbury or Aquitaine. The steak was overly charred and had a strong smoky flavor, these are not bad qualities but when coupled with a weak sauce the steak just did not live up to my expectations, which was unfortunate particularly when you consider its side dish companions. The horseradish whipped potatoes were actually quite good and very refreshing, garlic whipped potatoes always seem very heavy to me and tend to overpower whatever is on the plate, however, these were light and tasty with just a hint of horseradish and not overpowering at all. While many might say that asparagus is nothing special as a side dish I say asparagus is easy to mess up, this was not the case. They were perfectly grilled with some olive oil and salt.

To finish off the evening we opted for the warm chocolate torte, with Vanilla ice cream and sauce Anglaise. Again a little background, I have tried a million chocolate desserts in this city and the best is still the molten chocolate cake that Lumiere used to make (I couldn't eat chocolate for a week because nothing compared). While this was advertised as a torte it was really a very runny molten chocolate cake, and while I did not mind this, it was definitely not what I was expecting. The cake was acceptable, not too dry not too moist, but you could taste that they had not used top tier chocolate in the filling with marred the overall experience. The ice cream was nothing to write home about and the cream Anglaise was missing.

Overall we had a good experience though for the price the food wasn't really memorable enough for us to go back any time soon. I give Mistral a C+ Drinks were so-so, price was too high, food was uninteresting but tasty, and the atmosphere clashed with itself.

A word to the wise, if you do eat here, don't order a cocktail that is off menu unless you are ready to pay for it, I had 2 Kir Royales and they were 20$ each.