Tips on making the most of your French Laundry experience
Written: Dec 15 '99 (Updated Sep 29 '00)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Romantic, food is exquisitely presented and sublimely flavored
Cons: Very small portions, not an ideal place for children
|
|
|
| tanster's Full Review: French Laundry |
This review was revised on September 8, 2000.
French Laundry is truly heavenly dining on earth. It is a mainstay on Michael Bauer's (SF Chronicle Food Editor) annual "Top 100 Restaurants of the Bay Area." The San Francisco edition of the Zagat survey rates the food at French Laundry the highest in the area – scoring 29 out of 30. Chef and owner Thomas Keller has won nationwide recognition, including consecutive James Beard Foundation “Best Chef” Awards.
Does French Laundry deserve all this acclaim? You better believe it.
The quick story
• This isn’t dinner, it’s culinary Nirvana.
• The most money (and time) you’ll ever spend on a single meal.
• Wander through the beautiful garden between courses. (You’ll need the exercise.)
Reservations
French Laundry accepts reservations exactly two months into the future, not one day sooner or later. (So if you call on May 21, you’ll be making reservations for July 21, and only July 21.) The reservation phone line opens every day at 10am.
Here’s a play-by-play:
1. At 9:59am, start calling the reservation number.
2. Hit the Redial button as fast as you can for the next 15 minutes.
3. If you don’t get through to a real person by 10:20am, chances are you won’t get a reservation.
4. Repeat steps 1-3 for the next five days.
5. When you finally get through to the reservationist, gratefully accept whatever timeslot is available.
6. Hang up the phone and jump up and down with joy, because you’ll feel like you’ve just won the lottery!
The menu
French Laundry’s delectable cuisine is French-Californian. You do not order anything a la carte – your meal will either be a five-course prix fixe meal ($90) or a nine-course chef’s tasting menu ($105). There is also a five-course vegetarian meal available for $80. The menus change daily.
We spent 30 minutes just ordering our meal! Some courses provided as many as 10 choices, and so it took some time reading through the menu and deciding what to order. The server had a vast knowledge of the makeup of each course and its preparation, and patiently answered all our questions.
The meal
And then the fun began. Over the next three-plus hours, we were presented with plate after plate of small treasures, some no bigger than a cupcake, but every one a veritable feast for the senses. And many of the plates were in addition to the ones we actually ordered!
If I described every dish we experienced (and there were 20 separate dishes between the two of us), this review would be as long as a novel! So let me just hit the highlights.
Amuse bouche: our meal began with complimentary “ice cream cones” – actually, delicate cone-shaped black sesame crackers filled with crème fraiche and salmon tartare, speckled with chives. A whimsical and very flavorful starter.
Three freshly-made breads were offered throughout the meal: French, seeded, and potato, served with soft butter. As delicious as they were, I would advise staying way clear of the breads – you’ll become stuffed enough as it is!
Appetizer: my favorite appetizer was the sweet summer white corn agnolotti with Italian summer truffles and white truffle oil. I was presented with five small stuffed pasta pillows so plump and moist, I could barely pick them up with my fork. This dish was garnished with crisp milky kernels of corn and the seductive essence of truffle oil. “I could eat about twenty of those,” my Beau said.
Seafood: I had an excellent oven-roasted monkfish tail with braised Cipollini onions, baby leeks, glazed pearl onions, and rue-scented onion glaze. Translation: a beautifully fried filet of fish, sitting in a rich onion sauce, garnished with leek slivers that looked like they had been individually fried. Rich, crunchy, delicious!
Pasta: my Beau’s pasta course was one giant coq au vin ravioli with forest mushrooms, glazed pearl onions and applewood smoked bacon. And what a heavenly pasta filling – highlighting fall-off-the-bone shreds of wine-braised chicken, dripping in a thick stock reduction. One four-inch bundle of heaven.
Meat: besides pasta, French Laundry excels at meat. My Beau’s rib-eye of lamb en persillade with a cassoulet of summer pole beans and thyme-infused extra virgin olive oil practically made his eyes roll to the back of his head; even I (not a big fan of lamb) thought the lightly breaded cutlet was bewilderingly succulent and wonderful. But nothing was going to tear me away from my pan-roasted duck breast with olives, roma tomatoes, wilted arugula and sautéed duck foie gras. The hefty three-inch square serving of boneless duck was pink and rich, and wrapped in a layer of crispy, crackly skin. It sat in a deep pool of intensely flavored sauce and topped with a luscious, melt-in-your-mouth morsel of foie gras – the ultimate foodie’s delight.
Pre-dessert: my Beau’s tasting menu included a warm summer berry soup with mascarpone sorbet. More like a sundae than a soup, the tartness of the sorbet nicely balanced the fresh fruit sauce. A simple prelude to the real dessert course!
Dessert: one of French Laundry’s signature dishes is the delightfully named coffee and doughnuts -- a cinnamon-sugared doughnut served with a coffee cup filled with cappuccino mousse. It’s even topped with a thick layer of frothed milk just like a real cappuccino! Decadent, and at the same time, comforting. My Beau’s Valrhona chocolate mousse “en surprise” was a sight to behold – a perfect dome of glossy chocolate confection, garnished with – get this -- real gold shavings (thin enough to be ingested safely).
Post-desserts (yes, we had all six of these): Tahitian vanilla crème brulee. Strawberry pot au crème. And then for the finale, a plate of mini-sweets: raspberry tart, coconut macaroon, passion fruit gelee (to die for), and pistachio cake. Stop already! We’re about to combust!
The wine list
Our only disappointment came when we ordered wine. Or actually, champagne, since this was a “special occasion.” French Laundry is one of the few restaurants that serves our favorite sparking wine, S. Anderson ’95 Brut ($62). But alas, our waiter returned to our table empty-handed, apologizing that they had run out! Since the S. Anderson winery is located practically down the street (also in Yountville), we were at a loss to explain how this could happen. We ended up the Billecart-Salmon Brut Rose for $96. My Beau thought this was all a ruse to get us to order a more expensive bottle….
Service
The service was incredible: warm, attentive, knowledgeable, and in great abundance. You feel like you are being taken care of by a team (yes, you’ll have several servers tend to you) of true professionals. “Take your time,” our server told us when we started to slow our pace toward the end of the meal. French Laundry really like their customers to take their time dining, even if it means holding up everyone that goes after them. (So try to get the earliest dining time possible.)
Atmosphere and décor
The restaurant building, built in the 1900s as a French steam laundry (hence the name of the restaurant), is plain and quite unassuming from the outside. Inside, however, the two-story dining area is warm, intimate, and romantically lit – skirted tables, lots of candles and fresh flowers, and cozy dining nooks. We shared a small dining room with just two other couples.
The outside garden is absolutely lovely, and a perfect place to stroll in between courses. There is outdoor seating as well.
Men are requested to wear jackets, and no jeans or shorts are permitted. I wouldn’t dare bring children here.
Cost
Okay, make sure you’re sitting down before you read this. Ready? A meal for two, with a bottle of champagne, was $366. And it was worth every darn penny.
All in all
French Laundry is definitely a special occasion type of restaurant, catering to gourmets who appreciate a great meal as an almost spiritual celebration. You need to make this journey at least once in your life!
So here are my top 10 tips in experiencing French Laundry: 1) get friends to help you man the phone lines in securing a reservation, 2) don’t eat any meals the day of your dinner, 3) try to stay overnight in or near Yountville so you can enjoy wine with your meal, 4) skip the bread, 5) make sure you and your dining companion order completely different items so you can share a multitude of dishes, 6) take a walk between courses to gain your second wind, 7) ask your server lots of questions if you’re unsure of what to order, 8) wear elastic pants, 9) order at least one pasta, one fish, and one meat dish – French Laundry excels in all three, and last, 10) holy cow, it’s safe to order the coffee!!! :)
--------------------------------
French Laundry
6640 Washington St.
Yountville, CA
707-944-2380
Reservations required
Website: http://www.sterba.com/yountville/frenchlaundry/ (note the prices shown on the website are outdated).
An interesting interview with Thomas Keller, French Laundry owner and chef: http://sb2000.com/keller-words.html.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tanster
|
 - Top 500 |
|
Location: Palo Alto, CA
Reviews written: 111
Trusted by: 331 members
About Me:
Happily reviewing cool gadgets and SF Bay Area restaurants since 1999. Pass the gravy, please.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.