Recommendation of a reliable french restaurant

Hi there, I have a friend in town from NYC who might be moving here and I would like to take her to a decent french restaurant here in Chicago. Something more on the traditional side, not fru fru, but something really good and reliable.

Shaggywillis wrote:Hi there, I have a friend in town from NYC who might be moving here and I would like to take her to a decent french restaurant here in Chicago. Something more on the traditional side, not fru fru, but something really good and reliable.

i would submit:

Bistro Campagne
Le Bouchon
La Sardine
Cafe Matou
Kiki's Bistro
Cyrano's

in roughly that order. bouchon is probably the top of my list but it can be too crowded to deal w/ ... bistro campagne is in a neighborhood that's really cool that you might not otherwise visit (and easily trainable).

Shaggy,

I agree with most of the suggestions by ddane but have copied my Chicagoland French Bistro rankings for your herein from my recent post on Cotes de Rhone:

Top Tier:
Le Bouchon
La Sardine
Marche
Cotes de Rhone
Boinsoree (maybe not a bistro?)
Cafe Bernard
Stained Glass Wine Bar Bistro (Evanston)

1st Tier:
Bistro Campagne

2nd Tier:
Kiki's Bistro
Cafe Pyrenees (closed I think - Vernon Hills)

3rd Tier:
Red Rooster (such a big difference bt. this and Bernard despite same kitchen)
La Tache

http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=11896


Bon Appetit

Bster

Cafe Pyrenees moved north on Milwaukee to Libertyville.

How about Le Titi de Paris? Its has some good reviews on LTH lately.

I'd go to La Sardine - and BTW, they have a Tuesday $25 special - any appetizer, entree, and dessert for $25. This is without doubt the best meal deal in town. Also half priced bottles of wine on Mondays. For a good, reliable, traditional bistro meal, this would be my recommendation.

I have also recently had a few very good meals at Brasserie Jo. In the past I was not as impressed, but the last three meals were excellent, although I ordered the same thing twice (Choucroute) and a lamb special the third time along with a delicious crispy asparagus appetizer special. I'd stay away from the somewhat bland "Famous Shrimp Bag."

I am not a fan of Le Bouchon - run by the same people as La Sardine. I found it insanely crowded - so little space on the table that we had to put our bottle of wine on a ledge on the wall, I was jostled by people several times while I was eating. Apparently a lot of people enjoy that atmosphere becasue it was packed, but it was not for me.

I think Cyranos has deteriorated in quality over the past 5 years or so. My last experience a year ago gave me no reason to return. Too many things wrong with service, food, and wine.

I was at Marche this last week and it was good, but once again seemed like a watered down version of a real bistro meal. Like something some cooking school students would put together - good, but lacking the finesse of a more expereinced chef. Sauces always a little too buttery or too salty, or too many ingredients loaded onto what should be a simple dish. Its a neat room though, and although its always relatively full, I can always get a last minute Sat night reservation, which is usually why I go there.

wesuilmo wrote:
How about Le Titi de Paris? Its has some good reviews on LTH lately.

I 2nd this response, excellent French food...

Bster wrote:Cafe Pyrenees (closed I think - Vernon Hills)

Moved to:

1762 M. Milwaukee Ave. in Libertyville.

Thank you all for your posts. I am sure I will visit close to all as french is one of my current favorites and I am new to this city so I want to experience as many places as possible. I decided to go to Le Bouchon as it's around the corner from me and the menu looked pretty good.

Everyone has told you about the Bistros.

But the best traditional French restaurant in Chicago is Everest -- the flagship restaurant of Jean Joho.

It is very expensive, quite "frou frou" (to borrow one of your earlier words) and absolutely not to be missed.

Bster wrote:Top Tier:
Le Bouchon
La Sardine
Marche
Cotes de Rhone
Boinsoree (maybe not a bistro?)
Cafe Bernard
Stained Glass Wine Bar Bistro (Evanston)

I really don't think of the Stained Glass as French (traditional, contemporary, or otherwise). I think of it as more like a contemporary American-ish fine dining place. Very good place, worth going to, but if you're expecting French cuisine, you might be disappointed. You can check out their menu on their website.

I was tempted to nominate Michael in Winnetka, but decided not to, for the same reason.

wesuilmo wrote:How about Le Titi de Paris? Its has some good reviews on LTH lately.

RyanDe680 wrote:I 2nd this response, excellent French food...

Third.

DougMose wrote:Everyone has told you about the Bistros.

But the best traditional French restaurant in Chicago is Everest -- the flagship restaurant of Jean Joho.

It is very expensive, quite "frou frou" (to borrow one of your earlier words) and absolutely not to be missed.

Le Bouchon was really good, once I got over the tightness of the place.

We started off with the onion tart, which was very sweet and the crust was buttery and flakey. I almost expected to not like this dish until I tried it and was shocked at how good it really tasted.

For dinner I ordered the boullabaisse and my friend ordered the steak frittes, both very good.

For dessert we ordrered the apple tart, which was excellent and almost looked like a pancake, very thin and the profiteroles which were okay, i was expecting better.

Nice wine there as well, ordered the Cotes du Rhone, stayed safe, and coffee at the end. Would definitely go back as it reminds me of my favorite restaurant in NYC, French Roast.

Restaurant Michael is noted up thread as being not quite purely French, but I just ate there again last night (I go about every six months, if my budget allows it), and I must say, while it's not purely classic, it's mighty French -- and it's mighty good. Though it of course depends on what you order, with seasonal variations on top of experimental variations.

The gougere that you get just for sitting down is outstanding. (Though, depending on the waiter, they may say "gougere" or "gougere, that's a cheese puff" or just "cheese puff" -- I'm guessing depending on whether they've ever seen you before or if they think you might not know what gougere is. They told me, whom they recognized, that it was gougere, but a much younger couple seated nearby were told it was a cheese puff.)

When I was there in January, I had the pate, liver mousse, and garlic sausage plate to start, followed by a soupe Lyonnaise, which was luxuriously laced with truffles. My roasted lamb was absolutely perfect, and was served with appropriately wintery vegetables. So a very French meal, as well as seasonal.

Last night's trip, while I saw many of my French favorites on the menu (and ordered one), I went a little less purely traditional -- though the sauces and techniques were still all solidly French.

The pan-roasted scallops were among the best I've ever had, both for being perfectly cooked and for the flavor of the dish as a whole (which included scampi, goats cheese polenta, preserved tomato, and tarragon coulis). My dining companion had the foie gras two ways appetiser with candied black mission figs, which was also a winner (nice to dine with friends who don't mind sharing).

I've always loved their salade Lyonnaise, though I was a little disappointed that the lardons seemed a bit light on the lard, but I'm guessing the North Shore isn't ready for big, crunchy hunks of fat. However, the meaty bacon that was used was wonderful, and the dressing was, as always, perfect.

However, I think my friend's salad might have been even better -- but I may think that because I love anything with truffles. Baby greens were tossed in truffle oil, topped with warm pistachio-dusted goat cheese, and dressed with caramelized pear and veal jus. Yum.

My filet of sea bass poele came with a pinot noir and shallot emulsion and truffle mousse-stuffed zucchini blossoms. Simply lovely. My companion had stuffed, grilled quail with pain perdu, sweet potato gratin, and sauce Perigord.

We split a dessert. Now, I'm not easily impressed with desserts, largely because I'm far more inclined to like savory dishes, but this one was a stunner -- one of maybe a dozen in my life that I consider truly memorable. It was a split, warm blueberry financier served with a ginger almond ice cream sandwich (essentially, incredibly gingery ice cream between a couple of exceptional florentines), with a side of grand marnier hot chocolate. I'm not sure anyone could eat the whole thing, it was so rich, but it was perfect for splitting.

As always, the meal ended with a couple of their hand-made chocolate truffles (the more old-fashioned kind, where it's just ganache rolled in cocoa powder, not a chocolate-coated confection.

One thing that made this especially nice was that this was all quite affordable. They now offer (at least on Tuesday -- and I do know they have specials on traditionally slow days) a fixed price menu -- 3 courses for $45 or four for $53. We did one of each, splitting the fourth course (dessert). (That's another nice thing -- 3 courses can be app., main, dessert, or app, salad, main.)

So an absolutely sensational meal at a quite reasonable cost. Their website is being updated, so I couldn't confirm if Tuesday was also still no corkage fee night, but it wasn't an issue last night, was we hadn't brought wine.

As a bonus, at the moment at least, you can also get miles for dining at Michael. So a stunning meal, and I'm just a little closer to my next plane ticket.

I have enjoyed jackie's bistro and stain glass bistro in Evanston

globetrotter wrote:I have enjoyed jackie's bistro and stain glass bistro in Evanston

If you like Jacky's, you might want to visit soon. I noticed that they, too, are giving out airline miles. With a long-standing, highly regarded restaurant, that means they're struggling.

Hate to rain on the parade here, but somebody has to speak truth to Cafe Pyrenees. Simply put, the place is numbingly average.

On a good night.

Do not take a NY visiter here as an example of our city's french restaurants. It's not like it is a bad place, but told hold it out as anything other than a pleasant night in suburbia when you just didn't want to make the effort, would be to force your friend to question your taste, if not your entire existence.

Just my opinion, of course.

Cynthia wrote:

globetrotter wrote:I have enjoyed jackie's bistro and stain glass bistro in Evanston

If you like Jacky's, you might want to visit soon. I noticed that they, too, are giving out airline miles. With a long-standing, highly regarded restaurant, that means they're struggling.

thanks, I'll keep that in mind