Feeling A Little Woozy

This is still a perfect menu for meat eaters- Le Bistrot du Sommelier. Unpretentious, casual and relaxed, the restaurant serves up hearty home-style French bistro fare. Good food. Knowing the crowds at the restaurant, we only hopped in at 9.15pm. It was thankfully, a little less busy. Besides the boeuf bourguignon, the table also went crazy over the onglet. The cassoulet was ordered for the specific intention of devouring the hearty contents within- a leg of duck, a slab of pork belly, a lamb shoulder tossed up with cannellini beans.

The generous portion of vegetable soup, cooked in duck stock and chockful of bacon cubes wasn't exactly to my taste. But I understood it was heavenly with the bread, chicken liver pâté and pickles. There was the usual delightful lumps of minced chicken and flour dumpling soaking within the soup. These people clearly love their beef and all manner of meat. The smells, oh the smells. Exhilarating to some, and after a while, very overpowering for me. It was a wise move not to have wine with the meal. It wouldn't have done the headache any good.

Since I knowingly walked into a meat restaurant, I would compromise a little on the food here since the menu only contains about 4 small items for non-meat eaters and if you're vegetarian, don't walk in without prior confirmation of provision of vegetarian items for your party. Even the potatoes would be cooked or fried in duck fat or chicken stock or garnished with brown beef gravy. There'll be absolutely nothing for you to eat and I'm not confident that this kitchen will whip up something for you on the spot.

I had only one miserable choice for my mains- the catch of the day. It was a snapper fillet lightly seared and served with artichoke on a tomato based sauce. The artichokes were tender and tasty. Since this is clearly a meat sort of place, they really had to remind me by over-salting and over-cooking the snapper fillet. They salted the fish like they would do to a piece of steak. It was horrible, and oddly, I wasn't in a cantankerous mood. The fish was fresh, at the least. So it wasn't sent back. I simply poured a little water into the plate. Travesty I know. But it washed the salt off the flesh. The harried look on the servers' faces didn't encourage me to do otherwise.