I have been a huge fan of Bouchon and Bar Bouchon. The ambiance is perfect, the service extraordinary and the cuisine well-executed with a tremendous depth of flavor using quality ingredients. Unfortunately, our last meal at Bar Bouchon was underwhelming. The appetizers were spot-on, but the two main courses were misses.
A lovely Sancerre from Bouchon’s wine list.
Oysters on the half shell – Beausoleil and Misty Point – excellent
Salade d”asperges – green asparagus, herb blossoms and soft poached hen egg with white anchovy vinaigrette – absolutely perfect.
Just look at that gorgeous runny yolk
BYO Red Wine
Tete de Cochon – Crispy pig’s head, house-made pickles and sauce gribiche – another perfect dish accented by lovely pickled vegetables
Close-up of the tete de couchon
For our mains we decided to try two new dishes on the menu. I think both dishes are still works-in-progress.
Sturgeon Grille – grilled sturgeon with forest mushrooms, sweet carrots, celery branch and sherry vinegar ravigote – this just didn’t have any depth of flavor. The forest mushrooms detracted rather than added to the dish. The fish itself was “flat” as was the sherry vinegar ravigote. Where the asparagus dish and tete de couchon had a wonderful balance of texture and flavor, this just wasn’t a memorable dish.
Gigot d’Agneau – roasted leg of lamb with a narvarin of spring vegetables, marguez sausage - the lamb begged for seasoning. Normally I would have asked for bread to mop up the sauce, but the sauce had no depth of flavor – it was one dimensional and tasted almost diluted. For me a great sauce has a richness, balance, intensity and a layering of taste. Unfortunately this sauce had none of that and we left almost all of it on the plate. The best thing on the plate were the pieces of merguez sausage.
This meal was a definite disappointment. It started out perfectly and then just went flat.
Oh Lizzie!
I am so disappointed!
Am going nonetheless and will let you know. Was Alex your server?
Yes, Alex was our server and he was absolutely wonderful as always. Do go – this was the first miss in many, many meals.
I’ve been told by so many people to avoid Bouchonin Beverly Hills. What a shame because I always loved the Yountville Bouchon.
Do NOT avoid Bouchon BH. We have had many, many meals there and this was the only miss. We were served two new dishes on the menu and as I said just works-in-progress. Just go.