Comme Ca

If I had a way with words like Diana, I would have a really great opening line here. Alas, my mind has drawn a complete blank on how to put into words how wonderful my dinner was last Thursday night, but I am going to try. As part of DineLA Restaurant Week (which is actually two weeks), my friends and I made plans at the beginning of the month to have a special dinner out. Many restaurants were offering dinners ranging from 26-44 dollars for three courses. Most of the time, dinners at these places would cost much, much more so we couldn't pass up this deal. After looking through several menus, we all settled on Comme Ca.

At long last the 29th arrived. We had all been talking about this day for weeks. The restaurant is a French bistro with lots of small tables placed in close proximity of each other. I was a little worried that our party of six would be squeezed into a small table where we would have to shout to be heard over the noise...but then our waitress led us to the back of the restaurant. Waiting for us was a decent sized table in a corner with plenty of space for all of us, just enough of the restaurant noise to be lively without us all losing our voices so we could hold a conversation. Since we all had ample time to review the special DineLA menu, we all pretty much knew what we would be ordering, but we still spent some time looking through the regular menu, and asking our very helpful and knowledgeable waitress for suggestions.

Most of us started with the Salad Frisee Aux Lardons. Dan had the Salmon Tartare and JenFinn had the Soup Du Jour which was a roasted tomato soup with a drizzle of basil infused oil. The salad was wonderful, it had a tangy warm bacon dressing and was topped with a perfectly poached egg. I didn't try the soup, but my bite of the salmon tartare was delicious. The salmon was well seasoned and was perched on top of a crispy potato.




The main course was the stuff that hopes and dreams are made of. All of us (except JenFinn) had the Paleron of Beef Bourguignon. It perched on top of a potato puree and topped with baby carrots and a luscious wine sauce. We all whipped out our knives to cut into the beef which ended up being completely unnecessary. It was the most tender meat I have ever had and even though I am not normally a potato fan, it went perfectly well with the horseradish tinge and wine sauce. Every mouthful was like a party in my mouth. Long after I was full, I kept on eating. Ms. Finn opted for the Scottish Salmon which was served with roasted fennel, melted tomatoes, and a bearnaise sauce.



I managed to save a bit of room for dessert. Chef Meyers also owns Boule Bakery which is where the desserts come from. I opted for the Brioche Chocolate Pudding which was served with a vanilla ice cream. The deep chocolate flavor was perfect with the melting ice cream. Chris had the Profiteroles which were served with pistachio and vanilla ice cream and JenFinn had the Cookie plate which consisted of vanilla and chocolate sables.




All of the food was so delicious, I didn't want to stop eating although my stomach was so full. The experience was made better by the fact that our servers were attentive and knowledgeable. We never felt ignored or that our service was lacking in any respect. Of course the company and conversation were excellent too which made this an exceptional dining experience that lived up to the hype.