BAR BOULUD
Two French meals in as many days may have been a bit much for me, but that’s how it played out.
We started with two pates – chicken liver and Normande – both lovely, theres rarely a misstep in that section of their menu.
We also had both the pastas on offer (a lamb ragu that was essentially Bolognese, and a mushroom prep) and the boudin blanc (which is my favorite thing on the menu).
The mushroom pasta was wonderful – garlic, chopped mushrooms, some breadcrumbs for texture, I think, and perfectly cooked pasta.
The ragu was tasty enough, but the pasta with it was completely overcooked (mushy and falling-apart campanelle).
The boudin… this was where I really wanted to scream. I have loved this dish since they opened: gently-cooked sausage laid on a bed of perfectly-seasoned potato puree, that’s all. Well, someone decided to “improve” this by browning the sausage, adding apples, and reducing both the quantity of the potato and its seasoning. (Saving grace is that I can buy the sausage next door and make the potato myself, still annoying because when I mess that up I won’t be able to blame them 
)
Dessert was fine to good – one we couldn’t really identify (complimentary for a birthday) but seemed to be pineapple mousse / gel with paper-thin layers of cake, the other was a lightly-flavored chocolate mousse with some crunchy bits and tiny cubes of brownie, very rich but very tasty.
Those pates, though. Always worth going back for.
