French Dining Tips anyone?

[ladypinkington]

Hubby and I and some friends are planning on going to a nice french restaurant sometime in the next several months and have never been before.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions on how to choose a french restaurant- any tips or need to know things- and if you have any- say what your favorite dishes are and why.

I am a big sauce person!
I don't eat fish or shellfish and am only interested in chicken, pork, and beef as far as meat.
I love strong flavors.

 

[Biaxident]

They should have steak au poivre, try it. If it sucks, run away as fast as you can. If they can't do that well, the rest of the food probably isn't all that great.

Man, steak au poivre, and a nice Bordeaux. Now I am starving...

 

[GargoylesLegacy]

French. Watch out since they can have dishes including snails or frogs. And many people (me included) don't really like those.
But for the picking first:

I recommend you check your phone book or the internet for restaurants near and if possible go there to look at them. That way you can check the atmosphere and how clean it is. Also the restaurants have the menu hanging at the doors, so you can check if there is something you would like.

Good dishes are any soups or also Entrecôte, a very delicious kind of meat, normally served with herb butter and some other things to go with. It is a little more expensive than other dishes, but once in a while you can do that.

In any case, go and check some restaurants if you can. That way you avoid bad surprises.

 

[EcK]

I am a big sauce person!
I don't eat fish or shellfish and am only interested in chicken, pork, and beef as far as meat.
I love strong flavors.

Maybe you should go for an indian or brazilian restaurant then.

 

[EcK]

French. Watch out since they can have dishes including snails or frogs. And many people (me included) don't really like those.

What the hell ?
Dude why do people always tell that, I'm french and neither have nor am planning to eat those stuffs.

 

[ptgatsby]

What the hell ?
Dude why do people always tell that, I'm french and neither have nor am planning to eat those stuffs.

I'm not french and have several times It is part of french cuisine though, but not a major highlight.

You get a lot of that in asia too - and it's more common (as in, street vendors sell them.)

 

[EcK]

I'm not french and have several times It is part of french cuisine though, but not a major highlight.

You get a lot of that in asia too - and it's more common (as in, street vendors sell them.)

Was just playing the offended french guy.

I'm not a great fan of the local cuisine. Too rich for me. I'd rather go for some clean and lean japanese stuffs.

 

[GargoylesLegacy]

What the hell ?
Dude why do people always tell that, I'm french and neither have nor am planning to eat those stuffs.

Well, you know I came to find out that when you actually go eat stuff in the actual country the restaurant is from (France in this example), they don't have such stereotype-food. But when you go to a French restaurant in other countries they do have that stuff. Seems they like to feed the stereotypes or so.

 

[ptgatsby]

Well, you know I came to find out that when you actually go eat stuff in the actual country the restaurant is from (France in this example), they don't have such stereotype-food. But when you go to a French restaurant in other countries they do have that stuff. Seems they like to feed the stereotypes or so.

What gets copied is the delicacies, at least in more ethno-centric areas. We have it all here, but I've noticed that there is more stratification in other areas.

 

[miss fortune]

Maybe you should go for an indian or brazilian restaurant then.

I don't think not eating beef or shellfish would go over well at a Brazilian restraunt, as most of what I encountered there was either shrimp or steak! (or pork sausages)

maybe coq-au-vin? didn't see chicken on the Do Not Eat list!

 

[Geoff]

Hubby and I and some friends are planning on going to a nice french restaurant sometime in the next several months and have never been before.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions on how to choose a french restaurant- any tips or need to know things- and if you have any- say what your favorite dishes are and why.

I am a big sauce person!
I don't eat fish or shellfish and am only interested in chicken, pork, and beef as far as meat.
I love strong flavors.

be aware that the french cook steak a lot less "done" than most other cuisines.. .expect to hear it moo-ing, unless you give them strict instructions. I've had a french chef refuse to cook a steak past medium-rare. He basically suggested we have something else instead

As to dishes to try... I would go for something normandy based. I like the chicken done in a cream and calvados (apple brandy) sauce.. yummy.

 

[INTJMom]

Hubby and I and some friends are planning on going to a nice french restaurant sometime in the next several months and have never been before.

I was wondering if anyone had any advice or suggestions on how to choose a french restaurant- any tips or need to know things- and if you have any- say what your favorite dishes are and why.

I am a big sauce person!
I don't eat fish or shellfish and am only interested in chicken, pork, and beef as far as meat.
I love strong flavors.

Ask other people for recommendations for restaurants in your area.
Look for reviews of restaurants online and in local newspapers, even the kind they have for free at the grocery store.

I don't know what main dish I would have if I went to a French Restaurant,
but I do know that I would definitely have two things:
French bread and escargot.

Escargot is snails.
When I have had them they have been sauteed in butter or garlic butter.
The have the texture of a firm chewy mushroom, or a little like chicken gizzard.
They don't actually have much flavor of their own.

French bread is crusty on the outside and soft on the inside.

As far as what Biaxident said about steak au poivre, just know that poivre is pepper.
Steak au poivre - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[INTJMom]

be aware that the french cook steak a lot less "done" than most other cuisines.. .expect to hear it moo-ing, unless you give them strict instructions. I've had a french chef refuse to cook a steak past medium-rare. He basically suggested we have something else instead

As to dishes to try... I would go for something normandy based. I like the chicken done in a cream and calvados (apple brandy) sauce.. yummy.

Good point!
I ordered a beef patty once in Paris, and it was still mostly raw!!

 

[ladypinkington]

i like rich- i guess that might be different from strong- i don't like indian cuisine actually- never had brazillian.

i am definately going to look online- that was a good suggestion. just wanted to see if there were any foodies here who had a you must try this dish- and tips.

love the beef and chicken- i was under the impression that was misunderstood.

 

[Blackmail!]

I am French too (just like Eck, my nutty fellow), but unlike him, I enjoy French cuisine.

Since it's so incredibly varied, I do not know where we should start with.

Entrecôte or Steack au poivre are very, very basic... And it's just meat! There's nothing fancy with it!

A Coq-au-vin is already a more complex dish (and hence, probably more interesting).

---

Anyway, if you really like "rich" food, are not afraid of your weight, and want to try something typical, try some "confit de canard" (that's duck, if they have it), with for instance "pommes sarladaises". A real dish for winter, I'd say!

Or you may want to switch the duck with a goose, it works fine too.

There's soooo many dishes to try! French cuisine is the most varied in the world (or rather, it can compete with the Chinese one).

Every region in France has an interesting speciality: Bar au beurre blanc, Kig-ha-Farz, Flammekueche, Boeuf bourguignon, Pissaladières, Bouillabaisse, Potée auvergnate, Andouillette de Troyes, Raclette, Terrines, Piperade basquaise, Ortolans, Cotriade, Fondues, Aligot, Brandades, Cassoulet, Clafoutis, Carbonade flamande, Macarons, la Ratatouille, les Quenelles, le Tian, Nougat, Hachis parmentier, Gratin dauphinois, Tartiflette, les Chapons, Crèpes bretonnes... etc...

Well, we could try to sum them all night long.

(and we should not forget the French cheeses too: they are in fact way more "typical" than Froglegs and snails. Of course, you have to be "accustomed" to their often very strong tastes)

---

My father often thought that French nationality was in fact defined by cuisine and cooking. While this theory seems pretty odd at first glance, well, it could explain why Alsatians or Bretons define themselves as Frenchmen (even if French is not their native language), while we rejected the Wallons (Any people with a regional dish as tasteless as the Waterzoie should not be worth being French!).
And any German who would wonder if they eventually crossed the French border should try an Alsatian cheese to get convinced they really did it.

 

[Ferrus]

Ortolans

Can you still buy them? I have always been rather intrigued as to what eating them is like (ever since learning about it in the Three Musketeers).

 

[anii]

Just try one of those restaurant review sites for your city. Like Chowhound or Yelp. If that doesn't help, there's always Citysearch. That's how I located this French restaurant and I wasn't disappointed.