Cafe Flore

One of my ex-coworkers Victor and I decided to meet up for a lunch, to catch up and chat. He suggested we go to Cafe Flore, as he had heard great things about it and read some good reviews. I eagerly jumped at the chance to try something new, outside of the usual haunts I hit up.

I don't know why Cafe Flore touts its' vast amount of parking spaces on its' own writeup on restaurant.com, as there is only metered parking in front. There is parking in the back streets but gets crowded when school lets out (which is when I was there.) Anyhow, as I sat down, I was greeted by the waiter, and initially sat outside to wait for Victor. I ordered an arnold palmer to enjoy while I waited...

They used a different kind of iced tea, very flowery tasting. I think the ratio of iced tea to lemonade was a bit strong, (too much lemonade, which made it a bit more sweet that I like) but it was still refreshing.

To start, I ordered a french onion soup. I figured, well, this is a French restaurant, they should do french onion soup right, right? Well...I mean..not exactly. It's more like french onion soup, deconstructed. The onion soup itself had a deep rich flavor, dark brown, with lovely cooked down onions. But just a onion soup does not a french onion soup make. They gave this to me on the side...

...a plate of mini toasts, with cheese on them. What? Am I suppose to dunk these toasts in myself? This isn't...really...the way french onion soup is supposed to be. The toasts were also pretty cold by the time they got to the table. Thumbs up on the soup, thumbs down on these toasts.

Victor had done his homework and had ordered their famous duck and apple ravioli. I guess they run out of this dish sometimes, but luckily, they had it today. The taste I had was spectacular. I haven't been to France yet, but the decadence of this dish was is what I think French cooking should be! The cream sauce was perfect tasting, the duck meat was awesome, everything was awesome. Yum.

I felt like going for some smoked salmon, so I ordered a Open-faced salmon sandwich - Smoked salmon, tomatoes with a sour cream, chive, and dill sauce, all on toasted French Olive bread, with fries on the side. The fries were heavily covered in dried dill, which was not necessary but it didn't bother me too much. There was a generous amount of smoked salmon, although it was a bit more fishy tasting than usual smoked salmon I get from other places. The olive bread was quite nice, the toasting of the bread gave it a nice texture on the outside, and it was soft in the middle, studded with flavorful olives. It was good, but in comparison to the ravioli, this paled in comparison, deliciousness wise. Note to self, order the ravioli next time!

We couldn't skip out on dessert, so we each got one, to try out. Victor got the really pretty looking one - some sort of creamy pudding in a pretty glass cup presentation, complete with little glass lid! Lying atop the pudding, was a chocolate wafer with a fleur de lis printed on it. All in all, the taste of the dessert was nothing to scream home about but the presentation was very nice.

I chose the bread pudding, which came with a sliced up strawberry, which was surprisingly sweet. I admit that the bread pudding wasn't exactly much to my liking - too much honey, and not enough baked crunch and not soft and delicious in the middle. I should have opted for the raspberry tart, which also looked good. Ah, well.

I might come back here, but only if I'm in the area - but there's a lot of other places I need to try in the area first. Maybe just for the duck ravioli! Thanks for meeting up Victor!

Cafe Flore
214 S Robertson Blvd
Beverly Hills, CA 90211
(310) 659-6877
http://www.cafeflore.us