beXnlog

Without Concern

be's been having stressful times at work. He also loves French things - food, art, film, way of life. We'd been meaning to try Le Sans Souci for a while, plus it's Queens Restaurant Week so it all added up tonight.

It's only a few blocks from us in Astoria on Broadway at 44th Street. It opened earlier this year and seems to be doing well in terms of business. We were surprised to mainly hear conversations in French all over the front dining area. There's also a back garden and a seating area on the sidewalk. The overall feel is warm and casual and it didn't seem like we were in New York at all!

Earlier today i had called to check on their vegetarian options. I love menupages.com for this particular reason but unfortunately they don't cover the boroughs yet. I was told they could make me a vegetarian version of tonight's prix fixe, which happened to be a shrimp-filled pastry appetizer, grilled swordfish over cous cous for the main and an apple tart for dessert. Usually most restaurants are more than willing to make a special dish if you request it, especially in advance.

The service was very friendly and unrushed, but i couldn't say our dinner experience was great. We aren't demanding customers and be even goes out of his way to give people the benefit of the doubt when we come across bad service. For a few key reasons our dinner took a longass time: 1) Our self-admittedly new server forgot to give our order to the kitchen, so people who arrived after us finished dessert before be got his appetizer. 2) I assumed our dinner was taking longer to prepare because i requested a vegetarian prix fixe, but was told 1/2 hour later that our order was lost AND they couldn't make me a vegetarian prix fixe! even though i called ahead to ask! 3) Since our order was lost and a long time had passed, they ran out of the shrimp pastry but replaced be's appetizer with crab cakes. 4) For the same reason as 3, they replaced be's tarte tatin with a chocolate cake and ice cream.

I ended up getting a "vegetarian plate" which consisted of assorted heaps of vegetables and mushrooms, surrounding a seared portabella mushroom cap filled with peas. It was simple and tasty but not worth $18.00 in my opinion. be's dinner of crab cakes, a generous piece of swordfish over cous cous and the cake dessert was $19.64 - much more affordable. He told me all his seafood dishes were excellent and that he'd definitely order them again. As for me however, i don't think i'd go for dinner but brunch. At least then i could have an omelet or a cheese plate, salad or French toast. One noteworthy item was the bread offered when we sat down: a delicious rosemary and olive "baguette" served with a creamy sweet unsalted butter.

The bottom line is: food at Le Sans Souci = very good, atmosphere = friendly, service = needs improvement. I'll certainly go again for brunch. But as we're now on the subject of cheese plates, i'm drooling thinking about the Dejeuner aux Fromages at Artisanal!

posted by beXn @ 12:01 AM