Recently a friend recommended that my beloved and I check out the small French restaurant Chez Napoleon on 50th street between 8th and 9th avenues. We've been looking for a place with old-fashioned, down home, classic French cooking for a while (not nouvelle cuisine) so we went. And it was great!
First, the decor and atmosphere are awesome. There are lots of historic maps of France on the walls along with pictures and kitch from French history. They also play classic French music but it is very much in the background, it doesn't overwhelm you, just adds to the mood.
Second, this is a family restaurant and the service was beyond good -- it was lovely. The waiters joked with us, kept supplying us with copious amounts of bread and water, and made us feel at home. It was only our first time there but they made us feel like old regulars.
Third, the food: FANTASTIC! Again, the menu is classic French so they have things like onion soup, coq au vin, frogs legs, etc. but they also have lots of other things I'd never heard of. Before we even ordered, they gave us a delicious homemade vinaigrette to dip our bread in. This helped excite the pallet and get the gastric juices flowing. We started our meal with a delicious pork and goose pate along with scallops in a cream sauce. Then, for the entrees, I had a veal sweatbreads (yes, that's brains) in mushroom sauce and my wife had quail wrapped in bacon. Both were succulent and delicious. Then we finished our meal with a miraculous Grand Marnier souffle and coffee. This was easily the best souffle I've ever had and it just makes love to your mouth. Some advice: you need to order your souffle when you order your meal because it takes some time to prepare it. Also, let the waiter put the cream into the center of the souffle (you can put in on yourself), trust me, it's better this way.
I cannot wait to go back to this place and urge you to go too. Just remember: this is not politically correct French food, this isn't the kind of stuff they serve in sleek, ultra-hip places where models and celebrities go and all the waiters are dressed in black. This is exactly the kind of tucked away, secret, super-great restaurant that only a real New Yorker-in-the-know knows about.
So go to Chez Napoleon and have a great dinner and wonderful French New York experience.
Definitely check out the website, for an old-fashioned restaurant they have a very cool, sophisticated site. Also, read this charming article about the place from The New York Times last year. We actually met Grand-mere, the matriarch of Chez Napoleon.
First, the decor and atmosphere are awesome. There are lots of historic maps of France on the walls along with pictures and kitch from French history. They also play classic French music but it is very much in the background, it doesn't overwhelm you, just adds to the mood.
Second, this is a family restaurant and the service was beyond good -- it was lovely. The waiters joked with us, kept supplying us with copious amounts of bread and water, and made us feel at home. It was only our first time there but they made us feel like old regulars.
Third, the food: FANTASTIC! Again, the menu is classic French so they have things like onion soup, coq au vin, frogs legs, etc. but they also have lots of other things I'd never heard of. Before we even ordered, they gave us a delicious homemade vinaigrette to dip our bread in. This helped excite the pallet and get the gastric juices flowing. We started our meal with a delicious pork and goose pate along with scallops in a cream sauce. Then, for the entrees, I had a veal sweatbreads (yes, that's brains) in mushroom sauce and my wife had quail wrapped in bacon. Both were succulent and delicious. Then we finished our meal with a miraculous Grand Marnier souffle and coffee. This was easily the best souffle I've ever had and it just makes love to your mouth. Some advice: you need to order your souffle when you order your meal because it takes some time to prepare it. Also, let the waiter put the cream into the center of the souffle (you can put in on yourself), trust me, it's better this way.
I cannot wait to go back to this place and urge you to go too. Just remember: this is not politically correct French food, this isn't the kind of stuff they serve in sleek, ultra-hip places where models and celebrities go and all the waiters are dressed in black. This is exactly the kind of tucked away, secret, super-great restaurant that only a real New Yorker-in-the-know knows about.
So go to Chez Napoleon and have a great dinner and wonderful French New York experience.
Definitely check out the website, for an old-fashioned restaurant they have a very cool, sophisticated site. Also, read this charming article about the place from The New York Times last year. We actually met Grand-mere, the matriarch of Chez Napoleon.
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