One great thing about living in Orange City, Iowa is that we are only two hours away from Omaha, my future home. I love Omaha and hope to be living there by this time next year or sooner, but I have some serious issues with a lot of there so-called good restaurants. For instance, yesterday on an excursion to Omaha, my friends and I dined at the French Café for dinner. This is rated as being one of the best restaurants in Omaha, but besides having a completely disappointing experience for the third time now, I believe the restaurant has an identity crisis.
As mentioned this was the third time I have dined at the French Café in the Old Market area of Omaha and the third time that I was highly disappointed. I know most of you are thinking, why would you go back to a place if it is not any good? Well for one it seems that there really are not many good restaurants in the Old Market of Omaha, even though they may claim to be, the disappointment seems to be widespread. I enjoy La Buvette, Vivace, and M's Pub, but I think they all have the same problem; they lack standard flavors, depth, and excitement. I know we are in the midwest here, but when you choose to go back to a restaurant that you know is not good, something is wrong, but I digress. French Café, It seems like it would be so easy, I mean classic french food has been around for centuries and not much has changed. Honestly my whole heritage is based around the French culture and French food and it is not that difficult; garlic, butter, salt, and pepper, some cream, and maybe a few herbs, but I guess the Chef at French Café doesn't know much about french food, considering that he had Thai dishes, Greek dishes, and Iowa Berkshire pork on the menu, and so many other atrocities. Lets begin dish by dish with what was wrong this time:
First- Cheese Plate.... How can you fuck up a cheese plate...no cooking even involved. Well this guy either doesn't know what a french cheese is or he doesn't care and just went to the average grocery store that day and picked up some Kraft specials. Honestly there was Dill Havarti, Cheddar, a fruit and nut cheese (disgusting), and finally a french cheese- but a bad brie none the less, and then the ultimate puzzlement, Hummus. Hummus on the French Cheese Plate. And you would think maybe this would at least all be served with a crusty french baguette and some nice herbed butter, but no. Wafer thin crackers with land-o-lakes margarine in their wrappers. So elegant. Seriously a disaster.
Second- Even though it is the French Cafe, I was in the mood for something a bit lighter, so I actually tried the Salad Argentine with Lamb Chops. I also chose this, because the last two times I was there I had the lackluster Steak Tartare, Smoked Salmon, and the Escargot. The lamb salad was supposed to come with a chimichurri sauce over greens, feta cheese, and Kalamata olives. Well the chimichurri was completely absent, leaving only the naked lamb, and I mean naked, no salt or pepper or butter, nothing. The olives were not good at all, literally I think they were old and over brined, and the feta cheese lacked flavor.
Third- As mentioned, all of the French Appetizers I had already tried and found them to lack flavor, so again I went with something a little different, the seared Tuna appetizer with a ginger cabbage and cilantro oil. Again, I know I ordered it, but are we in a sushi restaurant or a french one? I felt totally confused and after trying it, completely done with the food at French Café.
On a positive note I can say that the French Onion Soup and the Pommes Frites are exceptional there, but all of the other menu items are a failure. Now if service had been great maybe I would not have realized how my friends mussels were old, how the dill Havarti had no place on a cheese plate, and how the wine list lacked almost any french brands or names (pinot grigios?), but unfortunately the service is worse than the food. Literally I don't know if our waiter was stoned, hung over, or sniffing paint fumes in the back, but his lackadaisical attitude and lack of knowledge on how to even make a martini made me want to get up and leave at the drink orders, but none the less I gave the French Café its last chance, and my consensus is it is a confused mess and will never see me again.
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