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

Alaska Cruise Pt. 6: French Themed evening

French dinner night on the cruise! Little French flags adorned the dining table, and we were excited to look over our dinner choices - French cuisine is also so fun for me to try, as I don't partake of it very often.

First up to bat...

"Strasbourg Duck Liver Pate, flavored with vintage port and served with warm toasted brioche" - this was pretty decent, although I am still not really accustomed to liver flavor. This was mild though. The brioche was really tasty. My brother ended up eating half of the portion of the pate, . The red jelly thing was tasteless and I wondered why it was even on the plate.


Another fruit plate, excellent as usual, and a good assortment this time around too. Kiwi fruits weren't always available in the usual fruit salad mix at the buffet, so it was a good treat.


This was Charisse's escargot plate. I didn't get these myself, because it would have been a bit too intense, plus, I'm not the biggest fan of snails myself. These, however, smelled really good - doesn't anything smell pretty decent, cooked in butter and garlic? - and were done pretty well. I tried one - it tasted and had the consistency of an earthy mushroom. The sauce was very good with these, and after she was done with the snails, she used some bread to sop up some of the delicious buttery sauce.

Justin got Corn and Sweet Potato Chowder - A Hearty Soup flavored with Spring Onion Vermouth and Cayenne" - I only tried a spoonful of this, it was just okay.


For my soup, I got the Onion Soup Gratin - A Traditional French onion soup baked with Emmenthal Cheese" - This was pretty delicious as it was mostly cheese and bread. The soup itself was pretty great though. Lots of cooked down onions, a broth that was rich and deep with flavor - this was a winner.


In keeping with the French theme, I got Crispy Duck a l'Orange - Roast Ducking Glazed with an Orange Curacao Sauce, Accompanied by Briased Red Cabbage and macaire potatoes" - this was ok, the duck was pretty dry and not "crispy" at all, the potatoes were good, the green beans were okay, the red cabbage was gross.


Owen got the Rack of Lamb Dijonnaise - Roasted Rib Chops Coated in Mustard and Bread crubs with brussels sprouts and roasted garlic mashed potatoes" Owen really liked this, as it was lamb, and decently cooked, i.e. not horribly overdone. Owen hates brussel spouts so he didn't eat any of those.

This was the peach sorbet, it was okay but definitely not as good as the black cherry sorbet. However, it was refreshing, and good for cleaning the palate after all that rich food.

Justin got the apple cake, which had a lot of cooked down apples over a tart crust. I liked the design of the apple that they had drawn on the plate before they placed the apple cake over it.

This was the sugar free option of the night, puff pastry swans. This was disgusting. Tasteless, not sweet, just...not good.

This mint chip ice cream was pretty good, I got one taste of it, as Owen ate the rest of it.

Stay with me, everyone...getting there to the end of these Alaska posts...

Piknic

For my cousins' graduation lunch, she had set up the restaurant to be at a place conveniently close to LMU, and her choice was this restaurant named Piknic. It's located in the new complex in Playa del Rey - I didn't even know it existed, since it was well hidden from the main street (I usually zoom by on Jefferson Blvd. in my best effort to get away from the gnarly traffic of the Marina..) This place almost seemed exclusive, since it was the only restaurant in the group of high end condos and apartments. The place was bursting with people, and most of them nicely dressed. This was the place to be!

Emileigh had a huge reservation with Piknic, but most of the party didn't get there until later because of traffic from LMU. A lot of second cousins were gathering, and we were encouraged to order...since we were starving, we did...

We ordered some spinach artichoke dip, which came at the same time as everything else, so it was kind of awkward. We were starving so I forgot to take a picture until we had dug into it a bit. It was pretty good!

A half demolished French Onion Soup...there was a ton of cheese on this, and the soup itself was rich and deep. A really solid french onion soup, enough of a crouton to broth ratio, with plenty of carmelized onions in the soup.

I ended up getting a Steak sandwich. Isn't it a thing of beauty? The steak itself was really good, not overcooked or dry, and a good amount of cheese melted all over it. The bread was especially good, and kept everything inside the sandwich - check those grill marks! The fries were really tasty, good mix of textures.

Owen got a turkey club sandwich, as he usually does and will whenever there's one on the menu and it's lunchtime. This was a killer club. The bread was nice and grilled, and thick, like texas toast. The bacon was ample, and I think there was avocado on there as well. The turkey was from a carved bird - the most preferred kind of turkey! Owen requested sweet potato fries, which he prefers over regular fries. He could not stop eating them!

Owen really wants to come back here for a breakfast sometime. They have an ample menu of smoothies with fresh fruits, and the breakfasts that the others had ordered looked pretty good as well.