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“Bar Breton”

Occasion:	Cuisine:	Area:	Cost:	Rating:
Night Out	French	Flatiron	Moderate	Good

d fennel ($12). The salmon rivals the ham and cheese for Best Galette.

But Renaud’s menu offers much more than just buckwheat crepes. An entire section of the menu is dedicated to Niacs—snacks or small plates as they are more commonly known in these parts. Unfortunately, I found these suffered from inconsistencies in temperature and taste. A salt-roasted potato stuffed with braised veal cheeks and topped off with a crispy hat of Parmesan looked lovely ($8), but it was a snore. The potato tasted boiled, not salt roasted, and the dish was bland, like a miniature Shepherd’s Pie made by a very lazy Shepherd without access to seasoning, or apparently a hot stove. The dish was barely room temperature both times I ordered it. It just didn’t deliver what I was expecting (which would have involved a hot dish with flavor and texture).

The potato leek soup was also tepid, and quite thin, as if it had been treated to a cold shower before making it to the table. Similarly, a platter of golden baccala croquettes were pretty to look at but were cold, chewy and dense. But another night, the chicken croquettes were piping hot with béchamel and bacon spilling out of golden crunchy shells. The salad of warm French beans—skinny and tender—tossed with toasted hazelnuts, fresh mint, and sweet roasted tomatoes in a zippy creamy dressing was terrific—just as perfect for a picnic in the park as for dinner.

A small point here about bread service relates to a pet peeve of mine: cold (freezing cold) butter. As their bread service, Bar Breton serves thick slices of rustic country bread along with little pots of butter kept so cold that they might have been be chipped from a glacier. Why keep butter (especially such delicious butter from Brittany) at such a frigid temperature that one must use a steak knife to cut into it? It's not usable at this temperature and just tears up the bread anyway. Leave the butter out. Let it warm up. Please?

Moving on, entrees are divided into two sections: From the Grill and From the Plancha. A striped bass ($25) cooked on the plancha that was served over a sort of ragout of endive, bacon and chervil, was overcooked and had an oddly bitter and smoky flavor that was not at all pleasant. But the house burger ($16) was quite good, an ample round of well-seasoned beef set on a sesame bun topped with tomatoes, pickles and red onion and your choice of cheese with a tin ... [more, click below]

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Posted: January 14, 2009

Other restaurants in Flatiron :
+ Suenos   + Amuse-- Closed   + Dos Caminos   + Lucy-- Closed   + Gramercy Taver   + Veritas   + Fleur De Sel   + Bolo -- CLosed   + City Bakery   + Shake Shack   + Kalustyan's Cafe   + Devi   + BLT Fish   + Sugarcane   + BLT Prime   + Barca 18-- CLOSED   + Beppe   + Barbounia   + Boqueria   + Eleven Madison   + Lonesome Dove-- CLOSED   + Hill Country   + Olana   + Wildwood   + Primehouse   + Allegretti   + Bar Breton   + Aldea   + SD26 by Bao Ong   + ABC Kitchen   + Ciano   + The NoMad   

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