L'Etranger

After three years of having been at l'Etranger, I recently booked a table for dinner with friends on a Saturday evening. We were all very excited, not only about the food and the decor, but about the wine list. What a dissapointment!

As a first course, two of us had the foie gras poele which was a pea-size portion that looked as dry as the sole of a shoe. Another first course was a soggy tempura.

The hot main courses were served lukewarm and of equal mediocre (to say the elast) quality.

Desserts were OK. But one of us ordered a cheese plate which was absolutely horrific - unless the cheeses were actually not French but made in some factory in northern Dakota.

Moreoever, the waiters and sommelier must have been having a party in the kitchen because none of them seem to be around to provide any kind of timely service on the floor. Moreover, the ones that came were wearing jackets covered in grease stains. I know the saying about French - but being a frog myself, I promise we understand the word dry cleaning by now.

We were going out with the idea of being in an elegant, trendy restaurant with haute cuisine, but decided that this level of cuisine would only make us happy if we ordered it on a week night for home delivery.

One positive - bravo to the sommelier that night who was extremely kind and informative.
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Loops
Overall rating
Food 3 | Service 3 | Atmosphere 4 | Value for money 2
Thursday, March 02, 2006