La Voile

If I could I would give this restaurant a score of 4.5, so don’t be turned away by the score. If you are looking for an authentic French cuisine experience, I think this is your bet and my dad who I ate with was blown away by the restaurant and will definitely eat there again. I ordered the escargot, the basil soup, and the duck. My dad ordered the tuna tar tar and the Sole. I’ll get the two bad things out of the way: I did not care for my soup, at all. But also I wasn’t expecting it to be chilled which may have been a product of my poor reading skills on the menu and the anticipation of a warm savory pesto soup and then confronted with a chilled grainy mush. I feel like I didn’t meet this dish where it was at and I do think I judged it unfairly and it wasn’t terrible by any stretch, I just didn’t care for it very much which was surprising as I love all the ingredients. What is probably the biggest black mark was the complimentary bread, which seems like such a pedantic thing to poke holes about but French cuisine is known for the quality of their bread and the bread was extremely basic, not a crisp baguette crust, no delicious window-pane gluten strands. I wouldn’t ordinarily care so much but I feel that bread is such a quintessential stable of Italian and French cuisine that to offer frankly subpar bread is a bit of a blemish. But on the good stuff. I quite enjoyed my escargot. Some of them were particularly meaty and juicy. I also greatly enjoyed the fact that it came with some slivers of other toasted bread (much better than the bread basket) that I could dip into the sauce once I’d eaten the mollusks. It was also very hot (temperature wise) which I enjoyed as a contrast to my cold soup. The duck was very good. Very well cooked and served with a particularly tasty sweet potato (I think? It was orange) spread which was by far the tastiest thing I had during the meal. I also had half of my father’s Sole dish which is apparently their signature dish and it was also quite good, extremely tender and delicate though essentially tasting of mostly butter, which frankly went for the escargot as well. So I struggle with reviewing this restaurant because I walked away thinking that a good deal of the food was quite well made and served and I actually think it’s pretty reasonably priced for a high end meal. But there were two things that I struggled with and one them is just a personal preference thing with me: 1) Portions I had soup, an appetizer and a main course, plus half of my father’s sole and once leaving I still felt hungry (I’m not really a dessert guy). And I’m not a big eater either. I usually walk away from restaurants with a to go bag, so that felt disappointing. 2) I mostly eat Asian, Indian, and Central American cuisine and I think I really missed the big bold flavors. French cooking is very subtle and uses richness and butter in lieu of spice and flavor (in my very pedestrian opinion). I don’t think I would eat here again, but that’s not really the fault of the restaurant. I think overall things were cooked and presented very nicely and both the service and ambience were lovely (very reminiscent of the close quarters of a genuine French restaurant). I think I just might have been so saturated with different types of cuisine that I found it challenging to truly enjoy what was being offered. If you’re looking for an authentic French dining experience I think this is your go to, but for me, I think I’m going to stick to spicier options.

We had a lovely dinner at La Voile. They were very accommodating of my wife’s celiac disease. They had some of the best gluten-free bread she’s had - ever. And they provided it to pair with the appetizers. Our entrees were very solid. The service was one of the highlights. Overall, I’d recommend it!