That’s a huitre response if you ask me.
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And happy Father’s Day!
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I prefer an order of huit(re).
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To all you FTCer fathers out there as well…
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Yes indeed!
Well I prefer vingt quatre but that was very clever!
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Quatre vingt… Encore mieux!
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Oui mon ami! Pardon mon syntaxte pauvre.
Bon nuit.
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If anyone is interested, I have a party of 2 reservation for Bicyclette for 7:45 tomorrow evening that I can’t use. First to PM me, I will send you the info.
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the word is out, the place was packed on a friday night. line of 10+ people waiting to get in before the doors opened, every seat at the bar was taken and there were people waiting when I left.
I almost forgot what it felt like being in a full restaurant, the room had a great vibe and energy without being too loud.
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Peony: We were very excited to try Bicyclette. I feel the food at Bicyclette is high quality and well-prepared. Warrior and I both think the duck and melon salad were cooked with very high skill and on par with the Republique level. We need to visit more to decide if we like Republique or Bicyclette better. We always order oysters and cheeses when we get a chance. Bicyclette was serving “fat” oysters today, which were creamier and less mineral and cucumbery than the smaller oysters we have eaten at Republique. These oysters went well with the sauce served, but were not flavorful by themselves if you are into original flavor. The cheeses were tasty, and you get to pick from a selection of 6. Also, excellent service—our very attentive waitress kept us updated about our food status and communicated with us well when we needed to expedite the meal for another event.
Warrior: I have different dish-by-dish opinions than the FTC consensus but the same overall view — very good restaurant. I thought the best dish was the duck breast, which had delicious flavor and immaculately crispy skin. Perfect execution, best duck I’ve had in LA. My second favorite dish was the melon and tomato salad. Perfection again, this time with the ingredient selection and the judicious choice of seasoning (just olive oil and some lemony herb). I thought the baguette and butter were delicious, but the accompanying dish of “2015 vintage sardines” was not. I’ve previously stated my disenchantment with conservas, and I am going to double down here. Preserving seafood makes it taste like canned tuna, not a delicacy. Fresh sardines are way superior to these 2015 sardines. Surprisingly, I didn’t much like the onion tarte tatin. I felt it was too rich and lacked the critical balancing acidity found in apples. I thought the goat cheese was a good idea flavor-wise, but the heat caused it to turn grainy, and it didn’t bring enough sharpness to cut through the butter and sweet onion. The oysters of the day were disappointingly bland. (The waitress, who I agree with Peony was excellent, said they were out of Kumamoto oysters: I forget what she called the substitutes.). Most importantly, the wine was great. The cheese was good but not impressive.
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Pretty sure I was 40% butter after this one. It was super dark, so bear with me on the photos 
Baguette with Rodolphe le Meunier Normandy Butter and Duck Liver Mousse
Show me a better piece of bread.
Soft Egg in the Shell
Fuck yeah.
Burgundy Escargots en Croute
The parsley butter is next level. Pardon my mess–I’ve clearly got a way to go before I’m at @PorkyBelly status.
Mussels a la Marinieres
Delicious–make sure you have more bread for the sauce.
Caramelized Onion Tarte Tatin
Absolutely incredible.
Gnocchi
The mushrooms gave this a pretty decent meatiness. It was good, but also felt a bit lost compared to the other great bites.
Beef Short Rib a la Bourguignonne
Short rib was among the most tender I’ve had, but was tough compared to that silky smooth (probably 70% butter) mashed potatoes.
Fig Tart
A super classy fig newton.
I’m literally going back in a matter of days. Gotta practice my escargot game.
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I went back days later (though now that was awhile ago) and now that I’m finally getting around to reporting on it, I’m going to start looking at resys again…
Baguette with Duck Liver Mousse
No free bread.
Preserved Vintage 2015 Sardines
Fantastic on their own, but even better with the bread I paid for.
Burgundy Escargots en Croute
Getting slightly better at my flipping game. Waiting for it to cool off though is the worst.
Garden of Baby Lettuces
It’s a good salad. Inessential, but good.
Tomato and Melon Salad
The better salad. Highly seasonal, but better. The tomatoes were absolutely bursting with flavor and actually worked really well with the melon.
Caramelized Onion Tarte Tatin
This is probably my favorite item on the menu.
Besides the bread that costs money.
Mary’s Chicken Breast Viennoise
My uneducated brain wasn’t expecting a fried chicken cutlet, but this is what it was and it was great 
Duck Breast
I don’t think I’ve had a better cooked duck breast. This was an absolutely banger. Shout out to the baby beets.
I’ll be back 
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Shouldn’t have ordered it. 
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Wow that duck looks unbelievable.
Tomatoes are on fire right now. Picked up some heirlooms from Gelsons and it may be the best tomatoes I’ve ever had. I love this season for tomatoes.
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no free bread? pass 
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any blackboard specials that night? I’m hoping for a duck pathivier to show up one day 
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Nope, nothing on special that night that I can remember. The tarts were the same though if I recall correctly–fig, chocolate, and berry.
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This is steadily rising to the top of the list.
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We went on Friday. No blackboard specials other than the desserts that don’t make it onto the dessert tray that is brought over to your table after dinner.
Hits:
- Baguette and butter (natch)
- The decadent onion soup
- Caramelized onion tarte tatin—beautiful dish, delicious as expected.
- Chicken Viennoise—I’m a tarragon mark, so the tarragon-forward sauce along with the mushrooms and grapes underneath the perfectly fried chicken breast was a pretty nice bite for me.
- Calvarac cocktail—their take on the Sazerac featuring Calvados and bourbon. Had two, could have had two more. A nice, strong sipper. Spicy, warm, savory, and sweet all at once.
Could have been better:
- Bouillabaisse—a dish very much less than the sum of its parts. Fortunately, the parts here were a nice broth and pieces of perfectly cooked seafood which were wonderful in their own right, but the dish was missing something to truly tie it together. Looked great. Just missing something.
Disappointing:
- Fries—go figure, huh? Too crispy, but not in a good way. Almost hard. Very salty. Thought this would be something they’d hit out of the park.
Ended with a perfectly fine plum crisp with a scoop of ice cream. Wish we had tabbed one of the tarts instead, but we may be swinging by this weekend to grab a slice to go.
Fun spot. Straightforward bistro ambiance. I was a big fan of the Sotto space and enjoyed the vibe here—it’s a still-cozy, high-energy, bustling room that’s a little brighter than its predecessor. And I wholly admire their self-assuredness in including Skid Row (!) on their soundtrack…gets a gold star from me.
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