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

The Arc Light Cafe
6360 W Sunset Blvd (between Vine and Ivar, with DeLongpre to the south)
Los Angeles, CA

When I think of theaters, all I think of is popcorn dowsed with yellow colored motor oil, sodas the size of milk jugs, unappealing hot dogs in soggy buns (that got soggy while being placed in the aluminum bag they slip those puppies in), and all overpriced. Where can we get an actual MEAL at a theater, I asked?

Well I haven't been to that theater where they serve your meal at your seat (I think in Texas, I forgot what it's called) but having a full restaurant within theater boundaries is almost as good. After seeing the movie Waitress (very cute!) with my friend Amber, a few uh, MONTHS back (guilt for not posting sooner, yes), we didn't want to try to drive somewhere else in Hollywood and decided to try their cafe.

After being seated in a cushy tall seated booth (oddly dramatic), our server was attentive but not TOO attentive, which I liked. I got my usual arnold palmer, which I didn't photograph, amazingly. Amber and I got a plate of ravioli bites - crispy pasta pillows stuffed with cheese and served with marinara dipping sauce - to start. These were...good. Not addictive good, but good. I mean, anything fried is good, really. These had, in my memory, ricotta and mozzarella cheese inside them. I think what was wrong was that these weren't as salty as I wanted them to be. With a dip in the tomato sauce, the texture and consistency was right, but the flavor punch wasn't there. If I were to remake these, I'd use ricotta and some sort of stronger cheese - perhaps gouda or blue cheese for a flavor punch.
Our food came out pretty soon after the ravioli bites. Amber's plate - a beautiful new york steak sandwich, was 100% certified angus beef topped with sliced tomato, lettuce
and red onion, with garlic aioli served on a toasted baguette. The highlight of the plate were the fries. These fries were delicious, crispy on the outside, soft on the inside, and loaded with flavor. Amber doused her steak with A-1 Steak sauce (gross. I don't like A-1 but she could drink the stuff) and happy gnawed away. She pounded away half of this, which was a feat for her.
My plate mirrored hers in fries, but had perched upon it a arclight club - roast beef, bacon, turkey, tomato, provolone and mozzarella cheese with garlic aioli served on toasted bread. I wished that the bread was just a little more toasted, as the bread was thick and I wanted more crunch. The difference of this club sandwich as opposed to others I've had in the past was the addition of the roast beef - which I look back upon in indifference. I didn't think the roast beef added anything good to this sandwich, it was just...there. Turkey was decent, more of the plain mozzarella...this sandwich needed avocado! That's what it's needed...I just figured that out...anyways I only ate half of this sandwich and brought it back for Owen, and demolished the fries on my own.

Service was good, as I mentioned before. This was a good place to get decent food, and a surprise to have inside of a theater. Definitely recommended, if anything, for those lovely fries.