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Vancouver, WA: No Veal, No Deal – Olive Garden Delivers Mediocrity with a Side of Sticker Shock

Olive Garden 16405 SE Mill Plain Blvd  Vancouver, WA 98683 Phone number:  (360) 256-4051 olivegarden.com Prices $$ $$ We came for the all-yo...

Showing posts with label bouillon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bouillon. Show all posts

Wednesday, December 12, 2018

Paris, France: Bouillon Chartier - The Gold Standard For Value And Elegance In Paris

Bouillon Chartier
7 rue du Faubourg Montmartre
75009 Paris, France
9ème
Metro: Grands Boulevards and 2 more stations
Phone number +33 1 47 70 86 29
Website: bouillon-chartier.com
Prices: €€€€

Euro for Euro, this place is probably as good as it gets in Paris. A very good three-course meal for three in a historic restaurant, including 50cl of wine for €60 ... now that's a TravelValue folks!
Founded in 1896, Chartier, as it is known, has been serving quality food at reasonable prices to Parisians and tourists for 122 years, First of all, expect a line, a long line when you arrive, but do not feel dismayed because the queue moves very quickly thanks to the massive dining room with dozens of staff. They even have a wine station at the halfway point in the queue where you can get a cup of sangria, mulled wine, or their wine o' the day for just €1. 
No screwing around here y'all, you had better be ready to order post haste and the same goes after you pay - get the hell out so the next party can get on with their meal. The waiter's know their shit and do not mess around, so if you are not decided on what to order, do not waste their time because they have 10 other tables to worry about.This is not Italy where meals are at a leisurely pace and you have the table for the whole night - this is Paris and Bouillon Chartier!


I had half a dozen escargot (€7.30), steak au poivre with pommes frites (€11.50), chocolate mousse (€3.10) and a glass of wine. The snails were scrummy, having mopped up the excess garlic butter and parsley with a crust of baguette or two just for old times sake. The steak was not the best cut in the world and it was not particularly tender, but the taste was spot-on as were the peppercorn gravy and hot, crispy French fries. The mousse was thick, rich and chocolaty, just the way it should be.



My wife had a mixed green salad (€2.30) for her entree, the roasted pork loin with boiled new potatoes in a reduction sauce (€8.80), that was as good if not better than mine, for her plat, and the mousse as well. The salad was fresh, the three large slices of pork tender, and the potatoes well cooked.
The best dish of the night was the traditional veal stew and white rice (€11.20) with big chunks of veal, carrots and potatoes in a thick, creamy white sauce reminiscent of a wonderful meal I had at a little roadside place in the South of France many years ago. The veal was tender as a whore's heart and the sauce divine. Unfortunately, I did not order it, our friend did, but it will be on my radar the next time I eat here, because, as MacArthur said: "I shall return!".
What a great place! The massive dining room is typically French and ornate with an art deco vibe given the fact that the place is over 100 years old. The food and service are both top notch, especially for the price. Where else can you get a tasty three course dinner for €20 and get thrown out by the waiter - in a nicely roundabout way - when you are done eating? Only at Bouillon Chartier folks ... HOOAH!

CombatCritic Gives Bouillon Chartier 9 Bombs Out Of 10 ... More Bombs Are Better!

Nine Bombs Equates To:

Translation for Civilians: "U.S. Marine Response To A Verbal Greeting Or As An Expression Of Enthusiasm"

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Title: Paris, France: Bouillon Chartier - The Gold Standard For Value And Elegance In Paris

Key Words: Paris, France, Bouillon Chartier, bouillon, chartier, gold, escargot, food, bargain, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value, restaurant, menu, review, Yelp, Zomato, TripAdvisor, Google, Facebook


Copyright 2018 - 3rd Wave Media Group And CombatCritic ™ - All Rights Reserved

Saturday, October 7, 2017

Omaha, Nebraska: "Le Bouillon" Translates To "Salty Food" ... BOOAH!

Le Bouillon
1017 Howard Street
Omaha, NE 68102
Old Market, Downtown
Phone number: (402) 502-6816
Prices: $$$$

Not good. How this place averages four stars with 170+ reviews on Yelp is beyond me.
As I always say before a review of a French restaurant, "I love French food", but I did not even like Le Bouillon.
We came with a party of 12 from a conference at UNO as well as 2 last minute add-ons, but staff refused to add an extra table at first, making us squeeze into four small tables pushed together with just two small baskets of bread for 14 very cramped people. They told us that they were "fully booked", but less than half the tables were occupied all evening and a glass walled room with two giant tables sat empty next to the entrance. They finally got a clue and brought an extra table jusr before the first course arrived.
The server asked immediately what we wanted to drink, but there was just one, very extensive (at least 20 pages of small print - hundreds of options), wine/drink list for 14 people on the table. There were only a couple of wine options offered by the glass starting in the $9-$10 range and most bottles were well over $100 a pop with several approaching $1000. Feeling perplexed by the poor start, we stuck with water.
The server then dropped a rather heavy butter knife on my arm as she was setting the table for the first course. Things were spiraling downhill fast. They had no moules (mussels) or escargots (snails), focusing their menu on the Raw Bar instead (no thanks - I do not eat un/undercooked animal flesh), so we passed on appetizers. 

"Where's the beef?"
Beside a couple of $9-$13 soups and salads, everything had meat/fish (my wife prefers to eat vegetarian whenever possible), so the only options to her liking were the Le Bouillon Burger ($14) and the Croques Monsieur ($16). The only things that peaked my interest were the Wagyu Hangar Steak ($26) and the Cassoulet ($21), so she went with the croques monsieur and I the cassoulet. Hers came with a bit of salad and mine with nothing, so we both, unfortunately, ordered a side of Frites (fries) with Aioli ($6).
The croques monsieur had two huge, thick slices of egg battered toast, but barely a hint of ham and cheese. It was so salty that my wife could barely finish half. My cassoulet came out with the top burnt, so I mixed it up only to find mostly white beans and a couple of small pieces of ham and bacon. There were no noticeable "garlic sausage" or "duck" as advertized on the menu and it was also very salty, so I gave up after trying to eat half of my $21 white bean casserole. The fries looked very nice, but were very thin and crispy (almost burnt), hard to eat with fork or fingers, and EXTREMELY SALTY. All other attendees had similar complaints of salty food and fries.
When they cleared the table, nobody wondered why so much food remained on all of our plates, so I mentioned to the server how salty the food was, especially the fries, so they removed them (just the fries) from the checks. At $42+ for water, half of a salty sandwich, and half a bowl of salty bean soup (minus the soup), this was one of the poorest values in recent memory.

CombatCritic Gives Le Bouillon 1 Bomb Out Of 10 And A Spot On My WALL OF SHAME ... BOOAH LE BOUILLON!







One Bomb Equates To:

Read Reviews By CombatCritic:

Yelp - Elite '14/'15/'16/'17 - 650,000+ Views A Year


Tabelog - Official Judge (Silver)

Zomato - #1 Ranked "Verified" Foodie - Over  1,890,733 Review And Photo Views

View my food journey on Zomato!


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Le Bouillon Menu, Reviews, Photos, Location and Info - Zomato

Read Chris S.'s review of Le Bouillon on Yelp

Tabelog Reviewer CombatCriticView my food journey on Zomato!


Title: Omaha, Nebraska: Le Bouillon Translates To "Salty Food" ... BOOAH!

Key Words: Le Bouillon, le, bouillon, French, restaurant, Old Market, old, market, menu, Omaha, NE, Nebraska, Portland, Yelp, YouTube, CombatCritic, TravelValue, travel, value

Translation for Civilians: FUBAR = "Fucked Up Beyond All Repair"

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