El Francés

French — By DiegoM on May 7, 2010 at 1:52 am

It was a Friday night and we were craving French food – we were hoping for fondue, but to my dismay found that our local fondue favorite had shut down…so we decided to try El Francés, a small bistro style French restaurant in Palermo SoHo. The atmosphere is nice, it is very spacious, large windows, and lots of white – white tables, white walls, white chairs, etc. The restaurant is tastefully lit by dozens of simple metal lights hanging from the high ceiling.

To start, we were brought some fresh bread and pate. Both were excellent, there were two types of bread and the pate was made in house. We were then brought our main courses – a beef bourguignon made with beef tenderloin and vegetables. Very nice, though I would have liked a slightly stronger flavor in the sauce. However, having tenderloin as the meat was a nice touch (as opposed to stewing meat), it was very tender. We also had giant ravioles stuffed with goat cheese, mozzarella, and walnuts with a mushroom, blue cheese and cherry tomato cream sauce. The ravioles were amazing, some of the best I’ve had in BA. All the flavors mixed together perfectly, there was just enough blue cheese t give it a nice kick…very very nice. Portions for both were small, though both plates were very filling so it didn´t matter.

Service started off great – we were served quickly, she was very friendly, and also surprisingly attentive. Without asking, she brought us more bread with main courses, and checked multiple times if we needed anything. Unfortunately, by the end, she forgot to bring us the dessert menu, and later forgot to bring us the bill.

All in all, it was a very enjoyable meal. Service and atmosphere were good, but the food was definitely the highlight.

Bottom Line: A nice place to go for very good food, a mix of traditional and contemporary French dishes.