[Overview]
Restaurant Name: L'Albatros Brasserie + Bar
http://www.albatrosbrasserie.com/
Cuisine Type: French
Price Level: $$$$$
Quantity (Lunch): Medium to large
Date of Visit: Tuesday. June 25th, 2013
Time of Visit: Dinner time
Address: 11401 Bellflower Rd, Cleveland, OH 44106
Number: (216) 791-7880
Hours of Operation: Mon-Wed (11:30am-11pm); Thurs-Sat (11:30am-12pm); Sunday CLOSED
Others: ☞Full bar service
☞ Happy hour (food and drink)
Recommend Items: "French Toast" (Appetizer); Roasted Cod (Entree)
 |
| Sign at the front door of the restaurant |
Every menoversary (Note: 每月的紀念日; monthly recurring date of a past event), Mr. M and I would pick a fancier restaurant to celebrate. Most of the time I picked it because he thinks I am better at it haha. I happened to be at Ohio this time so I did a lot of research especially because I am not familiar with the area. I found out about this restaurant called L'Albatros. It looks really well known and seems like they have delicious French cuisine. It's located in downtown Cleveland and inside the Case Western University. It took us about half an hour drive even if Mr. M lives in Cleveland. It was a little bit frustrating cause the weather got really bad on the way. It started to rain heavily and came with thunderstorm. At the moment, we just hoped that the food was worth it. Talking about the reservation... you definitely need to make a reservation. I strongly recommend it. We did it right in the morning but they were extremely full on a weekday. We managed to get a spot but we had to eat our dinner at 8pm (pretty late). So if you wish to have things go as you planned, definitely make an effort to call at least a couple days in advance. There is valet parking right outside of the restaurant and it's not free. According to Mr. M, I think it's about $3 or so. We didn't want to pay so we parked on the street. Still very close to the restaurant. Your choice.
 |
| There is a bar. The picture only shows half of it. |
The outside appearance of the restaurant is not as obvious, but there is a sign so it shouldn't be too hard to find. When we walked in, on the right side was the kitchen. You can pretty much see everything through the transparent window. Inside the restaurant, it is somehow separated into two different sides. At first, the waiter was gonna take us to the table. But we asked if we could switch to the booth. He told us there is only one kind of smaller booth left. We still decided to sit there, though I do think the table is kind of small. Just felt like the table couldn't fit everything easily. Our waiter was an Asian-looking dude. He was pretty good. He helped us decide one of the entree dishes that I was debating of. We ordered "French Toast" and Onion Soup Gratinee as appetizers, Roasted Cod and Cassoulet for our main dishes, and Chocolate Napoleon and Meyer Lemon Tart for desserts. For your reference, we ended up paying about $90. The entrees are all around $20-30 for dinner. I believe that it's relatively cheap when compared with other higher-end restaurants and/or French restaurant.
 |
| Table is a little small... |
The first thing came to our table was the bread. Different from most of the restaurants that usually bring up a basket to each table, they have a person who's holding a huge basket of bread and distributing it to each table. The bread person gave us 2 or 3 pieces each time. Bread was tasty and the olive oil was great as well. Mr. M ate 6-8 pieces because he helped me and also because he was too starving LOL. After the bread, our appetizers came. At first when I was reading the reviews, I was really doubting that the "French Toast" would be that special (and cost around $9?). I still decided to get it because there was overwhelmingly positive reviews about it. And I am totally not disappointed but more than satisfied! There was only one thicker piece of toast but the sauce and ingredient that came with were simply amazing. I am not gonna lie that this is my favorite dish of this meal. If any of you ever decided to dine at L'Albatros, definitely give it a try. The Onion Soup Gratinee is just the French onion soup. I don't have much past experiences about French onion soup, but I think this soup is way too thick. And we both agreed that it could be more soup-like rather than food-like. They put too much beef in there and we were getting sick of it after half bowl. I think it's a slightly above average dish.
 |
| Bread with Olive Oil |
 |
| "French Toast" |
 |
| Onion Soup Gratinee |
So what's next? Now time to talk about our main entrees... We had Cassoulet and Roasted Cod. I bet some of you would be questions about what is Cassoulet-becasue I was. I picked it at the beginning because there were so many people recommended it online. Basically Cassoulet comes with lamb, dunk confit, and sausages. And yeah, how can I forget that braised white beans. I remembered that (I think...) the lamb tasted great. But I somehow felt like I also tasted some pork....Maybe I think too much?? Not sure. :/ The duck confit was okay and the sausages were above average. I am not particularly satisfying with this dish because I am neither a bean eater nor a sausage fan and this dish is not within my expectation. To be frankly, Mr. M eats everything. He didn't enjoy this dish as much as well. We were a little bit disappointed...but-still didn't want to give up. For the Roasted Cod, it was pretty good but definitely not like "oh I tasted heaven" that kind of feeling. We ate about half of the cod because we were getting too full. I ate the leftover cod for my lunch the next day and it actually surprised me! It tasted much more delicious on my second try! I wasn't sure what was going on. But the sauce is really special. I don't know how to describe it, but the fish (cod) is really tender. I think I would recommend this dish without a doubt.
 |
| Roasted Cod |
 |
| Cassoulet |
Finally get to the desserts... wheww... such a long meal lol. Both the Chocolate Napoleon and the Meyer Lemon Tart are above average desserts! We both liked them, but not loved them to be honest. It's not like that kind of desserts that we would drive 30 minutes under the rain for. I would still recommend to order if you visit this place. The Chocolate Napoleon looks aesthetically appealing! It goes well with the raspberry and the crunchy part (sorry I don't know what's it called XD). The Lemon Tart was great. I tasted some egg-like stuff and I think it's called meringue? And Mr. M thought he tasted something like cinnamon? We had a lot of leftover. I think the service was really good for packing. The boxes are also not just random boxes but in their own design!
 |
| Chocolate Napoleon |
 |
| Meyer Lemon Tart |
 |
| We were too full and had a lot leftover. |
The ambiance is great. A little noisy but it might be because our seats were close to the bar. We wish we were sitting in a different area because the decoration is nicer than where we were at. If we ever return here, I would like to try the Seared Sea Scallops because I ended up taking the waiter's advice and ordered the Roasted Cod. But cod was a great choice so I wasn't regretting at all. I would recommend the dress code to be at least casual chic. I just think it would be more appropriate for this kind of restaurant even if they didn't specially said it. It's also a great place to celebrate special occasions. Hope every of you enjoy the food at this restaurant if you ever choose to take a visit. Bon appéitit!! ^_^
 |
| The dining area that we wish we were at... |
Thanks for reading!! -Mira*
No comments:
Post a Comment