Le Papillon Review

Le Papillon ( http://www.lepapillon.com/ ), a French restaurant in San Jose, served us an acceptable tasting menu in a fairly formal setup (dim lighting, many people in suits, no windows).

At the start of dinner we had some average dinner bread (two types, pre-sliced) with nicely softened butter.

While waiting for our table, we cooled our heels in a narrow back patio. I give credit to Le Papillon for managing to set up a secluded outside waiting area, especially given the restaurant's location on a major thoroughfare, but it's clear they didn't have much choice about the patio's size or position.

An amusebrioche greeted us shortly after being seated. I didn't catch the entire description but I'd describe it as a tablespoon-sized chunk of fat (butter-like) with meyer lemon jam. I suppose the only thing I can say is the jam was good.

The first official dish was a "carpaccio of abalone with avocado semifreddo and yuzu." It was a very thin slice that lay smoothly flat against the plate, topped with a sauce. While attempting to cut the carpaccio with a dull knife, I remember thinking this dish wasn't worth the work one had to invest to eat it.

The next appetizer, "gulf prawn and linguine 'turban' with brandy-truffle cream," looked really neat. The linguini was wrapped into a dense circle and the prawns were large and tasty.

A slice of butternut squash topped with a roasted pair and drizzled with two sauces was, by far, the best course. Surprisingly, it wasn't listed on the menu; rather they called it a "bonus" course. The roasted pear had a delicate sweet flavor that went amazingly well with the squash. And both sauces were good too.

The first larger course was "Grilled Breast of Quail and Crispy 'Lollipop' with Steel Cut Oat 'Risotto'." I remember thinking the risotto was good, but it'd have been better if made the normal way, with rice.

"Pan Roasted Medallion of Buffalo Tenderloin with 'Marchand-du-Vin' Sauce and a Marrow Custard Tart" was my second favorite item of the meal. The buffalo tasted wild but wasn't gamey; the red wine sauce was good and went well. There were a few nice squashed to the side. The custard on top of the crispy marrow, though, was one of the worst items of the meal. Nothing about it appealed to me.

Next came the cheese course, "Perail de Brebis with a Chestnut Soufflé." It tasted like brie and an almond puree; I was not a fan.

Finally, a huge quantity of desserts, on a long rectangular plate, was delivered to each person. The dessert course, titled "Pistachio Financier with Chocolate," was a long sweet almond cake (moist but the flavor didn't appeal much to me) topped in different places with a ball of caramel (good), a ball of milk-ish chocolate (decent), a piece of coffee chocolate (decent), some whipped cream (freshly made), a mini eclair (good), a piece of almond chocolate (decent), two flat plates of dark chocolate, and one amazingly thin piece of chocolate in the shape of a leaf. The last was so thin it flexed a little under its own weight. Sadly, that meant it was also so thin it didn't have enough substance to have a meaningful taste. The astute person may notice that despite the size of the plate, nothing impressed me in terms of flavor. Some things were good, yet a sizable fraction made me wonder why I was spending calories on them.

After stuffing ourselves with dessert -very few of us finished our plates-, a final parting bonus dessert arrived. We groaned; although it was simply a piece of toffee, almond encrusted, many people passed on it. I tried it and didn't like it. While I enjoyed its strong nuttiness, I generally don't enjoy toffee and this was no exception.

Our waitress had large circles of pink makeup on her checks and similarly large circular matching earrings. In my opinion, it definitely did not look good. I wonder if it was her choice, providing French (?) ambiance, or was something the restaurant forced her to do.

During dinner we split a nice bottle of chardonnay. Definitely one of the better chardonnays I've drank, I'm sad I didn't get the name.

A few in our party got the vegetarian tasting menu. Most items differed. I cannot comment upon them, as we didn't share tastes.

Original Announcement

Since I went to Le Papillon as part of a work off-site, there is no original public announcement I can post here.

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