AOC

For HB’s recent birthday, the old FC reunited to take her to AOC, her last FC pick- we didn’t get up to it before we disbanded. 

Per usual, StB ordered two appetizers to make her meal.  The above were her escargots, which she said were good, but I don’t believe she was WOW’d by them.  Her review here: http://swanchen.blogspot.com/2007/12/aoc.html

I’m not sure who ordered the shrimp for the table, but these were huge and quite yummy with the dipping sauce, which was tangy and sweet at the same time.  I’m also not sure if this was intended but there were 6 shrimp and 6 girls at the table, so perfectly sized.

I’d recently watched Ratatouille, despite my disgust at a rat cooking.  And you know what?  I couldn’t even watch the whole movie because I found the idea that disgusting; I’m not squeamish and I love nearly all animated movies so I’m not sure why the concept horrified me so much.  Perhaps it’s the idea that this rodent is doing what I consider myself good at?  Perhaps it’s watching him scurry across the floor of a 5 star restaurant and then use those same paws to rip rosemary into a stew?  I don’t know.  In any case, I was curious and ordered ratatouille as a side dish, knowing full well it would not be quite like what they made in the movie.  It turns out I’ve had this before, and that though I continued to eat the leftovers for lunch throughout the week, well, super mushy stewed veggies generally aren’t my thing. 

HB and I both ordered the pork chop for our entrees, and both cleaned our plates.  This was a great dish, cooked to perfection and pre-sliced, which us lazy people appreciated.  Moist, juicy, and just great, my only complaint was the lack of vegetables on my dish (though I suppose the ratatouille took care of that). 

StB’s lardon frisee salad.  http://swanchen.blogspot.com/2007/12/aoc.html for her thoughts!

I think this was ShB’s salmon- I’m not sure how she felt, since she was at the far end of the table from me.  It looks okay, though I’m not a huge fan of cooked salmon.  At least she got vegetables… which, if I recall correctly, she doesn’t eat.  Damn her.

SpB’s mussels- I know she has a real affinity for mussels (it being one of the few seafoods she can eat), and has ordered them at I think every Belgian bistro I’ve been to with her.  I heard no complaints, and as she might say “It comes with fries, what’s not to like?!”

Last but not least, BB’s pasta.  I almost ordered this!  It looked really good and I almost regretted not ordering it, though in the end it was all good because I totally loved my pork chops (and I’m a bit against ordering pasta at a French/Belgian place). 

I believe all of us were very happy with our choices and we wandered off to continue our festivities at a nearby cafe.  The bill was extremely reasonable, considering we paid for HB of course ($30 a person), and the service was alright.  My two biggest issues with the restaurant that night was people pushing past me to get to the back: the guy sitting at the table directly behind me had his chair pushed out very far and I was at normal distance, but he didn’t seem to mind and there was nowhere for me to move in.  The other issue was a bit odd; I wasn’t the first to arrive so I’ve no idea how she treated ShB, who was first to arrive, but while we were sitting and waiting for other people to arrive, I noticed one of the hostesses being incredibly rude to people coming in.  She would rush over and practically sneer, “Hi can I help you?  Do you have a reservation?” like… that’s just rude. 

Yvo says: Not a bad place, I might go back if I was in the mood for good French food for inexpensive prices.  It was definitely a good experience and yummy enough, accomodating our large group as well.
recommended