Service was good and waiting staff attentive. But waitresses arrived in pares, with one talking to us and the other bent into a 45 degree angle, which looked strained and uncomfortable. Food wise: BAD! Salad was over-salted with an absence of any other flavor but vinegar. Lamb arrived with fettuccini (a very French offering (!). Pasta was so over-salted that my husband chocked after tasting it and I coughed after taking a bite from his plate. My steak arrived rare instead of med-rare, but the real problem was the under-cooked yucca (another ?great? choice for a French restaurant) that accompanied it. It was like eating under-cocked boiled potatoes that feel crunchy in your mouth. We pointed out to our waitress that the food was un-edible and she took it away returning with the same entrees accompanied with your every-day mashed potatoes and pretty leaky at that. No one asked if we wanted mashed potatoes as a side dish. For dessert, we asked for cheese. Looking at the cheese tray, my husband asked which ones were French - the answer was none, the only imported cheese they had was from Quebec. Sure it is a little closer to the French cuisine than yucca or fettuccini, still one would expect to encounter French cheese in a reputable French restaurant. So it happened that we were sitting close to the door with the cheese tray visible in the entry hall. During all the time we spent there, it has never been covered with a glass dome so when the cheese was served, it tasted stale and musty. That was just enough. We left in disgust. The day was Oct 19, 2006 and I did not know what disaster befallen the L?Espalier on that day but the experience certainly did not fit into any other description of any other L?Espalier review. To end this: we lived in Europe for many years. Presently I work as a personal chef. We know what a good food and a good restaurant mean. What we encountered in L?Espalier was not either of them.
Pros: reputation, good reviews
Cons: bad food
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