Dallas Food - Upscale Vegetarian: The French Room

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Upscale Vegetarian: The French Room
Posted on Saturday, February 02 @ 11:51:54 PST
Topic: Vegetarian

Jason Weaver has helmed the French Room for over two years now. Though I had generally enjoyed my non-veg meals there since he started, I wasn't sure what to expect when dining as a vegetarian. On to the food...

At the time these reports were prepared, the French Room was the only fine dining restaurant in Dallas with a vegetarian tasting menu. Though I'm sure the kitchen would prepare ala carte courses, if requested, I never had any interest in ordering less than the full ride. In each visit, the vegetarian menu consisted of four full courses, plus an amuse bouche, a palate-cleansing sorbet, a small pre-dessert, mignardises, and a take-away item at the end of the evening (usually a baked good).

Service was attentive, but not fawning. Because I ordered the veg menu every time, there was little opportunity for the waitstaff to make vegetarian-related mistakes. This is not a bad thing.

(Apologies for the poor photo quality, through most of this report. Light was hard to come by.)

My first meal began with an amuse bouche of toasted brioche topped with a white asparagus salad in a creamy, lemony dressing, goat cheese, chives, and fennel frond. Nice.

The first full course in this meal, as in every meal I had at the French Room, was a soup. This was a mushroom and green apple soup with diced apple, chanterelle mushrooms, celery root, and truffle foam. The tart and sweet apples melded well with the mushroom base.

Next came a salad of mixed baby lettuces, goat cheese, red grapefruit supremes, and fried polenta croutons, over a thin layer of shaved baby carrots and red beets. A cool and refreshing salad, with just a little acidity, and a nice temperature contrast from the still hot croutons.

The sorbet arrived. Lemon with a little ginger. The texture of the sorbet was flawless. In keeping with the sorbet's role as palate cleanser, the flavor was deliberately subdued.

The entrée was butternut squash tart, bruleed and crisp on top. On the side were steamed white and green asparagus, marinated baby artichokes, a baby carrot, grilled heart of palm, and green beans, along with a ginger béarnaise. The tart was excellent. Though the produce quality of the side items was good, and the pairing of a sauce was appreciated, the dish felt a little less focused and composed than those in subsequent meals. A good dish, with a great element in the squash tart.

The pre-dessert consisted of a small cup with dark chocolate pot de crème, pistachio mousse, and caramelized pistachios on top. Nothing new, but very nicely done.

I wasn't expecting much from the "fruit soup" described on the menu, but ended up loving it. A chilled, subtly sweet, mixed fruit broth held kiwi, blueberries, pear, and strawberries, topped with a clementine sorbet, and a candied sesame and poppy seed tuile. The sorbet was outstanding--intensely flavored, impeccably textured. The fruits in the soup were all excellent. And the thin tuile, when broken up, added an oddly effective flavor contrast with the fruit, in addition to textural variation. Delicious.

In looking over the vegetarian tasting menu in my second visit, I saw that all items had rotated, except for the dessert (though the fruits had changed). Though I would have been perfectly happy to repeat that dessert, I thought it preferable to try something different from the dessert menu. The waiter was happy to accommodate my request for a substitution.

That meal kicked off with salad of diced mushroom and tomato (yellow and red) atop a slice of cucumber, dressed with chile oil and balsamic reduction. Not unpleasant, though it didn't make much of a splash.

The soup course had a similar presentation to that in the prior meal. This time, it was celery root and green apple soup, with morel mushrooms, stinging nettles, chives, and truffle foam. Sweeter, and with a slight bitterness. A very enjoyable soup, though it was served too hot.

Next came a baby arugula and white asparagus salad, with tomato, brioche croutons, artichoke hearts, tarragon, and Sherry vinaigrette. A decent salad, but probably the weakest course of the evening.

The palate-cleanser was a blanc de blancs Champagne sorbet. Very subtle flavor and, again, perfect texture.

The entrée (a version of which is pictured at the top of this article) was a vegetarian "osso buco." The centerpiece consisted of layers of roasted red pepper, zucchini, yellow squash, and leeks, with heart of palm as the faux bone. This was served over a saffron vegetarian risotto, and sided with some morels sautéed in butter. Perfect execution, great flavors, pleasant textural contrasts, great use of color, substance to satiate, focus in the design, and, to top it all off, wit in the concept. This was, without exception, the most fully realized vegetarian entrée I've had anywhere. (The lighting was poor; so the photo at the top is actually from a subsequent meal where I requested the same entrée, so I could get a photo that would do it better justice.)

The pre-dessert was a small cup of vanilla bean custard topped with a layer of translucent cherry jelly, encasing a single, ripe blackberry. Simple, but enjoyable.

The dessert the kitchen sent out in lieu of the fruit soup was flourless chocolate cake with an almond sorbet. In texture, it was actually (and happily) closer to a barely set chocolate tart, with a fine almond crust beneath, and a fillip of gold foil on the corner. The sorbet, approaching a good ice cream in creaminess, was excellent. A basic dessert, elevated by great execution.

The starter for the next meal was a simple gazpacho with buttery croutons and tomato pâte de fruit. The texture of the tomato cube was much closer to that of a gelatin-based gelee, but the waiter said it was made with pectin. Apart from my suspicions about that element, it was an enjoyable soup.

Next came one of my favorite soups of this series. Sweet corn soup with chanterelles and coffee oil foam. The mushrooms were nice, but really superfluous. This was all about the peak-of-season corn, the silky texture of the soup, and the subtle, roasted almond character of the foam. Tasteful and delicious.

When tomatoes are at their peak, any restaurant that follows the seasons will have a tomato salad, and the French Room was no exception. Red, green, and yellow heirloom tomatoes were drizzled with lavender and vanilla oil, topped with a dollop of whipped goat cheese, and garnished with some diced white peach and microgreens. Could've done without the microgreens. But, apart from that, it was a fine salad, with the peaches rounding out the tomatoes' sweetness in an interesting way.

The sorbet this time was tangerine. Sweetness and intensity were once again on a tight leash, and texture was textbook.

Though not as focused as the osso buco, this vegetarian "Tarte Tatin" was enjoyable enough. The sides of baby carrots, green beans, and asparagus were okay individually, but not particularly interesting or coordinated with the focal point of the plate--the combination of tart and a quenelle of pureed smoked potatoes, tied together by a squiggly fried potato garnish. The tart was very nice. The top (or bottom, I guess) was covered with piquillo peppers, enclosing a mixture of diced chanterelle mushrooms, minced asparagus, and a light, creamy dressing to loosely bind the filling. The crust was light and flaky. The smoked potatoes were outstanding--extremely smooth and creamy (without being overloaded with dairy), with just the faintest hint of smoke. I just wish the superfluous side veggies had been dispensed with, in order to make room for slightly larger portions of the tart and potatoes.

The pre-dessert was a parfait of coffee ganache, vanilla custard, and Kahlua syrup, topped with flecks of chocolate. Good enough.

This meal ended with another fine dessert. Kaffir lime tart with coconut sorbet. The tart was outstanding. Light, thin crust; smooth, zingy, extremely tart curd; and meringue that was crisp on the outside and still creamy inside. The coconut sorbet was extraordinary. The natural fattiness of the coconut milk or cream kept the sorbet smooth and rich, and it was flecked with toasted coconut bits. Intense flavor and perfect texture. Probably my favorite sorbet of 2007. Garnishing the plate were dots of mango puree with vanilla bean, adding a slight complementary nudge to the coconut and lime. A great way to end the meal.

My last vegetarian meal at the French Room came shortly after the third. The menu had not fully rotated yet, though some items had evolved.

The gazpacho, pictured above, was now smoother in texture, garnished with chile oil, and served without the gelee.

The soup was corn with chanterelles and coffee oil, again. A little more buttery this time, and not as intensely sweet from the corn. Still, very good.

Very similar presentation on the tomato salad. The tomatoes were even better, this time around.

Cherry sorbet with a touch of Champagne. Though the flavor was good, the sorbet was a little soft and mushy. An anomaly, given the consistent excellence of the sorbets and ice creams at the French Room.

As previously noted, the reason for this repeat visit was to grab better pictures of the vegetarian osso buco. The concept was the same in this version, but with different produce. Piquillo pepper (instead of red bell pepper), and the layers beneath included zucchini, potato, sautéed onion, and chanterelle mushrooms. The risotto was a little sticky this time, though not enough to derail the dish. Excellent, again.

The kitchen accommodated a request for a cheese course with Petit Basque, caramelized plantain, a thin plantain crisp, and a smear of dark chocolate. The mild, bordering on bland, sheep's milk cheese ended up playing a supporting role to the starchy sweetness of plantain. Not a bad plate, though I would've preferred an arrangement that showcased the cheese better.

As the warm-up dessert, the waiter presented a tiny, dark chocolate ice cream cone, sprinkled with some candied peanut and held upright by a thin chocolate shell. The major flaw was that there was only one cone. I could've eaten twenty of these and still wanted a pint of that ice cream to take home with me. Delicious.

The main dessert was a slice of Valrhona chocolate tart, topped with lemongrass ice cream. The tart was silky smooth, intensely chocolaty, and, though slightly cool, not at all firm under the fork. The crust was very thin, crisp, and buttery. A thin tuile with salted peanut held the ice cream above the tart. The ice cream was exceptional. Dense and not at all airy, yet the texture was soft and yielding--so much so, that I was able to cut through the ice cream, tuile, and tart with the edge of a fork, without squishing or displacing the tart below or the ice cream behind the fork. Garnishing the plate were lemon gastrique and vanilla bean. Another fine dessert.

Jason Weaver is a talented chef with a sound palate. But perhaps his greatest strength is preparation. By making a vegetarian tasting menu available every night, the need for improvisation is limited. Mistakes and miscommunications are reduced. A vegetarian feels like a welcome guest, rather than a burden on the kitchen. In sum, a vegetarian gets an overall experience comparable to that of non-vegetarian guests at the French Room.

Rating for The French Room: Recommended.

Pros: Excellent preparation, in the form of a vegetarian tasting menu. Above average creativity and dish integrity, particularly for entrée courses. Polished service. Kitchen was flexible on requests for additional courses and reasonable substitutions. Produce quality good to great, and generally seasonal. Best sorbets and ice creams of any restaurant in Dallas. Very good value, given quality of veg menu and overall experience.

Cons: Vegetarian tasting menu does not rotate as aggressively as the non-veg ala carte and tasting menus. A possible gelatin-based gelee made it to the table in an amuse bouche in one visit.