Stick-to-the-bones cassoulet, galettes and crepes are what this French bistro does best.
By: Faith Bahadurian
Café Paris hits the sweet spot as a friendly bistro on Metuchen’s Main Street. Although it is small in space, it is big in Gallic spirit, and boasts a full menu of soups, salads, sandwiches, quiche, savory buckwheat crepes (galettes), classic (in name at least) French entrées, and sweet crepes for dessert.
The interior is light and airy, done up in tile flooring and iron bistro tables with tiled tops and iron chairs with cushions. The walls are covered with pretty murals depicting scenes of Paris, but on a frigid winter night, the room felt chilly until the obliging manager, Jonathan, turned the heat up for us.
Cafe Paris |
Except for another diner or two, we pretty much had the place, and the pleasant staff, to ourselves. We kept our waiter, Dan, on the run, and he took it good-naturedly as he opened our wine, filled water glasses and ground pepper for the three of us. I can imagine the place is much busier at lunch and on warmer nights, given its wide selection of casual fare.
We started off with soups, and they definitely pleased. Onion soup ($4.95) was deeply colored and flavored, with a proper slice of toasted baguette glazed with cheese. I rarely order onion soup anymore, as it tends to be suffocated under a too-thick cloak of heavy cheese. This rendition was near perfect, with its base of onion and shallot, and touch of red wine.
Squash soup ($4.25) was also good, more broth-y than most, and made less sweet by the addition of potato. The asparagus crab soup ($4.95) was a bit of an enigma. It looked like an Asian egg drop soup with pieces of asparagus in it, and while it tasted slightly of crab, no crab was visible. It was good, but not particularly "crabby."
Next we shared a mixed house salad ($5.95), a generous plate of fresh greens ringed with sliced cucumber and winter tomatoes, with house dressing (balsamic) on the side as requested. Dan brought us separate plates for sharing, and offered fresh ground pepper.
Because it was such a frigid evening, we were in the mood for hearty food, but I plan to return to try those galettes for a lighter dinner, as I suspect that is the strength of the menu, rather than the entrées we ordered, which were a mixed bag.
I think my cassoulet ($17.50) was the best entrée, albeit not a strictly traditional rendition. But then, Barron’s Food Lover’s Companion defines cassoulet as "a dish from France’s Languedoc region made of white beans, and various meats sausages, pork and preserved duck or goose… that varies according to regional preference." So the Café Paris’ regional central New Jersey version offers white and red beans, pork, juicy sausage and bacon, but no duck or goose. While I did miss the breadcrumb topping that I thought was "de rigueur" in cassoulet, there were four spears of good potato arrayed around the edges of the dish, instead. And the dish was richly satisfying, stick-to-your-bones good.
Canard (duck) a l’orange ($16.95) was a surprise, as it was not roasted duck on the bone. Instead sliced sautéed or grilled duck breast was displayed under a mantle of orange-flavored brown sauce. While we were glad the sauce was not too sweet, the dish missed the excitement that crisp roast duck would have offered.
Agneau Roti (roast lamb, $15.95) was the least successful entrée. It was ordered medium rare (or pink), but was dry and nearly tasteless under heavy brown gravy. I think this is what happens when a restaurant’s menu overreaches itself in an effort to offer too many items in spite of limited demand. That lamb may have been roasted that morning (it makes an appearance on the sandwich menu), but by the time it is reheated at night, it’s lost its flavor. Mashed potatoes and asparagus on the side were good, but there was no redeeming that lamb.
I suggest it would be better to limit the menu, perhaps offering one classic dish each night of the week, made fresh, and done properly, instead of trying to maintain such an impossibly large range of dishes that can’t possibly be made fresh each night.
The same problem was evident at dessert. We were excited to see le flottante (floating islands of poached meringue on custard sauce) on the menu, and then terribly disappointed to find it was not available (one wonders if it ever is). So we ordered the raspberry tart, not nearly so "esoteric," only to find it was not available either. That diner settled for pecan pie, which turned out to be a chocolate bourbon version. It did not make up for the disappointment of two failed attempts.
Dessert crepes (mostly $8.95) are definitely the way to go here, however. (I have friends who live near owner Marie Fuller’s original Café Paris in Cranford, who are devoted fans of these crepes.) My crepe a la mignon, with pineapple (the one fruit that always seems ripe and full of flavor), caramel sauce, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream was quite good, and crepe marron, with homemade chestnut cream, chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream and whipped cream was luscious. I will definitely return for galettes and crepes at Café Paris, and for more coddling by Jonathan and Dan.