Bar Lesieur: A delightful dinner review!
Bonjour mes amies! As most of you are all coming to realize, Eric and I love French food. Escargot, chicken liver parfait, steak au poivre, and soufflé’s, we love it all. Finding a good quality French restaurant in Philly is fairly easy. Regardless of what other food critics, Instagram influencers, and other blogger’s say, recommend, or experience themselves, should never factor in to your experience. Bar Lesieur is currently the only Schulson Collective French restaurant in their arsenal of deliciousness. I have previously posted my reviews on Pearl and Mary, and have never had a bad experience at any of Schulson’s restaurants, which include, Prunella, Sampan, Double Knot, and Giuseppe and Sons.
If you haven’t gone to Bar Lesieur yet, no worries. They quietly opened last fall, and we’ve only been a handful of times. However, this last dinner certainly won’t be the last. Thank you in advance to the lovely Dawn Parker, General Manager of Bar Lesieur, along with our two main bartender’s, Sarah and Gabe, as well as all the staff. Our dinner was fantastic, and a special thank you to the chef’s that prepared our meal.
We started off with a lovely nicoise octopus, with frisee, green beans, and a lemon vinaigrette. It was fantastic! It is a newer item on their dinner menu, and as long as you’re not allergic to seafood, I highly recommend you order it. I loved the contrast of temperatures in this dish. The octopus was warm, while the salad of frisee, freshly sliced tomatoes, and lemon vinaigrette gave an acidic and bitter bite. The olives were the thing that brought the whole dish together.
Our next course was our entree’s. Dawn mentioned that they were doing a different version of their lamb entree, and since it’s been a little while since I’ve had lamb, I tried it. It was beautifully cooked lamb chops, with a cauliflower puree, and date relish. A very interesting dish, especially since anytime I normally have lamb, it is generally a shank, shoulder, or leg cut that I’ll cook myself or order at a restaurant. The lamb was delicious, juicy, tender, but needed just a touch of acidity because of how rich the puree and relish were.
Eric ordered what I would consider the best prepared branzino in Philadelphia. The skin was incredibly crispy, and it had a moist interior. It was served with sliced grape tomatoes, red wine vinaigrette, and mache. Incredibly simple, but fantastic! That skin could have been an appetizer by itself, and Eric would’ve been a happy camper. I probably would have stolen a few pieces myself.
Paired with all of this deliciousness, were some of the best cocktails from the lovely hands of Sarah and Gabe. Even if you’re not hungry for food, watching these two behind the bar will leave you brimming with happiness, and visions of cocktails to pair with happy hour, brunch, and dinner. I may have misbehaved partially, but please remember my drinking notes from my binge fest at Royal Boucherie, Philadelphia Distilling, and Writer’s Block Rehab. Drink plenty of water, eat a balanced meal, or snack, and listen to your body.
I started with the Bourbon Beurre Blanc, which was a brown butter infused bourbon, apple cider bitters, and orange peel. It was rich, smooth, and delicious. It paired very well with our appetizer. Next, I had a gin-based original creation from Sarah. It had a lovely bite of acidity from the raspberries, richness from the egg whites, and was a lovely palate cleanser. Eric ordered the passionfruit paloma, comprising of tequila, passionfruit, lime, and grapefruit soda. That was nice. He then ordered the margarita vert. That had mezcal, tequila, genepy, basil, and lavender salt. I had two sips, and he finished the rest. Our final cocktail was the espresso Martinique. This was nice. It had coconut rhum agricole, kahlua, and espresso. It was rich, but it had a definite Caribbean vibe as well. We thought that was our dessert, but it wasn’t.
Once again, thank you to Sarah for ordering that amazing chocolate cake. If you still have a little room in your stomach, it is worth the added calories to have this cake. Beautifully baked, it is light despite having a rich chocolate outer layer, and the sour cherry compote was the perfect foil to this dessert. If your mouth isn’t salivating after this review, then I haven’t done my job properly. Also, in case you’re wondering, Bar Lesieur has a happy hour! 4-6 pm at the bar and lounge, Tuesday-Saturday. Enjoy my darlings, it’ll be worth it!
