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2013-12-16
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My friend and I visited this restaurant for the first time on 12 December 2013. I picked this restaurant because I had intended to pick one well-known for French cuisine - this one poped-up in the search with 1) a French name; and 2) 125 people thumbs-up for their previous experience, registering the most people thumbs-up among all the 15 candidate restaurants.We arrived at the place around 19:20 - no reservation but seated immediately on the 2nd floor. The overall environment is acceptable but
We arrived at the place around 19:20 - no reservation but seated immediately on the 2nd floor. The overall environment is acceptable but has room to improve: 1) it is not very quiet, but not so much noise either, although 10-15 customers dining simultaneously (occupying about 60-70% of the space on that floor). I can clearly hear what my friend says and he has no problem hearing me; 2) the light is neither too bright nor too dark, with candles creating the right atmosphere; 3) they seem to place too many tables in one room so it feels slightly crowded.
The service is acceptable. The wine and courses were served timely and the server has the proper manner, easy to communicate in English.
The menu is the biggest surprise to us. As mentioned above, we had expected French cuisine here. It turns out fewer than 20% of courses listed in the menu are what we consider "real" French cuisines. In fact, the menu explicitly listed a lot of US/Australian/New Zealand/Italian/Swiss food. We did not expect these things in the menu of a French restaurant. The wine-list not only has French wines, but also wines from other countries.
With this menu, we ordered two glasses of champagne, a half-bottle of French wine, French onion soup, Italian rice (I forgot the name, but it is Italian for sure, not French), and Swiss chocolate as the dessert.
For the food, Swiss chocolate is the best and original in the sense that it matches the quality of the same course serving in Switzerland. French onion soup is the worst in terms of French standard. The soup itself tastes OK, but it is definitely not French - acutally it is more suitable to be called Chinese onion soup. The Italian rice is ok, but I think it is fair to say it is really of average quality. For the drink, the wine is good, but not the champagne.
Overall, I would say it is a good restaurant, but not for those who seek original French food.
Other Info. :
I do have special feelings after the meal, but not related to the quality of the meal.
(The above review is the personal opinion of a user which does not represent OpenRice's point of view.)
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