Regate

HB’s birthday came and went again, so before her trip to Australia, per our usual habit, most of the former FC got together to take her out for a yummy French meal. 

We ordered a bunch of appetizers to start, including the above salmon tartare.  The crisps were lovely, but not really enough to go around the 6 of us, and while the salmon tartare itself was tasty, it wasn’t particularly unique or interesting.  I wasn’t WOW’d by it, nor was I disgusted.

What you see there was our order of sweetbreads… aka my first time trying sweetbreads.  StB has mentioned extensively to me how she likes sweetbreads, so I was really excited to try it.  Verdict?  Pretty damn tasty, if you ask me: the texture was harder than I’d expected, more like chicken pieces than I thought it would be, and the sauce they lay in was slightly sweet and savory at the same time.  WIN.  I would order this again.

There was a small section on the menu titled “Tapas” which included escargots in a garlic parsley sauce for $5.  Considering how many escargots I actually got, this was a real steal – the dish was the same size as the other appetizers practically, but about half price.  The garlic bread that accompanied was crusty and toasty, warm, perfect for dipping in the garlicky sauce, while the escargots themselves were tender and super garlicky.  I really liked this dish, though I happily passed this around for sharing.

HB ordered the steak frites, which unfortunately she thought was only so-so, not very interesting nor well seasoned.

ShB ordered the Croque Madame… I’m not sure if she liked it, but I think she finished it, so that is a good sign.

StB ordered the mussels, as did LL/AB.  I’m not sure what AB thought, but StB’s opinion can be found here.

Last but so not least was my order of the lamb shank with figs.  Now, I’ve never eaten lamb shank before, but for some reason, I wanted to order this.  I am SO GLAD I did.  I think I was easily the most thrilled out of everyone with my dish: it was succulent, meaty, and just delicious.  I asked to substitute the starchy carb they wanted to include with it (I think it was mashed sweet potatoes?) with steamed vegetables, which were mostly boring and blah and almost certainly frozen, except the fresh corn on the cob bits they cut off into my dish, which were sweet, succulent bursts of joy appearing every so often in the veggies.  The figs were lush as well, but really, put it this way: the next day at the supermarket, I saw lamb shank and sincerely considered picking one up just to attempt recreating this dish.  I REALLY enjoyed picking bits of meat from the bone, I think I ignored everyone while I ate, head down, just enjoying the dish till there was nothing left on my plate but the bone. 

The poached pear with chocolate sauce sounded decadent and delicious, so we opted to split 2 of these bad boys amongst 5 girls.  Unfortunately, the pears were hard, not even ripe, and definitely “poached” would be a generous word to use.  Pass on this one.

Yvo says: I really liked the casual, homey feel to the restaurant, and enjoyed my dishes enough that I’d go back for similar fare – not quite the “standards of bistro menus” but still yummy and comforting.  The place was pretty inexpensive as well, with wine, desserts, and treating the bday girl, our bill came out to $210 for 5 people and the above food. 
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