Went here last night with two friends. This week is Sonoma Country Restaurant Week and Bistro des Copains was taking part. They were offering a special 3 course prie frix menu for the week.
We had looked at several different menus online and Bistro des Copains stood way out of the pack. We made reservations for 6:30 but were running late and didn’t get to the restaurant until 6:45. The host was very understanding and we were seated immediately.
When we arrived the restaurant was mostly empty and this worried me a little bit, however the place filled steadily and was packed by the time we left.
As you walk in you can see into the kitchen and it was pretty impressive with a beautiful lay out and wood burning oven. Overall I liked the decor, I found it to be bright and classy. It was however not very french. I didn’t really get the french bistro vibe, but I did like the vibe it did have. Even with all the tables full the volume never got too high to have a comfortable conversation.
The tables were covered in butcher paper and each had a small dish of fluer de sel with a little spoon in it, as well as a baby pepper grinder. Good food should not need either pepper or salt added, but I really like that they offered the best should you choose to add it. So many good restaurants totally miss this and put iodized salt and ground pepper on the table.
Even though I did not order off it I did look over the regular menu and it was really impressive, its not often that I want to eat almost everything on the menu, but here there were so many things I wanted I was glad that the prie frix menu limited my choices a bit.
We brought a bottle of wine and the server opened and served it well, but no offer of a decanter. This isn’t unusual, but when you are charging corkage I like to see it at least offered. However as corkage was only $10 i can’t complain too much.
The bread was a thick sliced french loaf served hot and served with a diced olive spread. I usually prefer butter, but the olive spread was amazing. I was totally taken aback by this and was very excited for the rest of the meal.
For my app/salad course I ordered the “Crispy hot purse of Gruyere cheese with mesclun greens, sun-dried cherries and citrus vinaigrette”. I really liked this dish though it really was two dishes in one. The gruyere purse was very good, though its hard to mess up deep fried pastry wrapped cheese. I enjoyed the salad under the purse even more than the purse oddly, this is not to say the purse was bad in any way just that the salad was so good. The mesclun greens were dressed perfectly and the slight tartness of the citrus vinaigrette was matched perfectly with the sweetness of the dried cherries.
My friends both ordered the “Roasted beet salad, micro greens, almonds, feta cheese and sherry vinaigrette”. I didn’t get to try this, but it looked very good. A nice sized serving piled high with lots of almonds and feta. Lots of altitude and very appealing to the eyes. They both loved it and all but licked their plates clean.
My main course was Pan roasted Liberty duck breast with blueberry sauce, baby turnips, and carrots with red rice from Camargue. I love duck, and duck with any fruit based sauce is always a winner in my book therefore ordering this entree was a no brainer. My faith was rewarded with an exceptional dish. I ordered the duck medium rare and it came out cooked perfectly. The skin was crispy and the thin layer of fat just below the skin was just starting to render and was just awesomely flavorful. The sauce was good, but if I hadn’t known it was a blueberry based sauce I would not have guessed it to be. The duck was served on a bed of red rice. The rice was well seasoned and properly toothsome. I had never had red rice before and would compare it to wild rice. Maybe not the best description, but close enough to pass along the idea.
The only part of this dish which really fell down in my opinion were the side veggies. The plate came with two baby carrots and 4 baby turnips. They were well seasoned, but undercooked to my tastes, The turnips were right on the edge and if the carrots had been more done i probably would not have noticed their rawness. However the carrots were basically raw. This is not to say they were gross or anything, I just feel that if your going to serve them warm as a side they should be cooked and not just warmed raw carrots.
One friend ordered the “Fish of the day bouillabaisse style, PEI mussels and rouille sauce”. Luckily both my friends in a sharing mood so we all got to try everything. The fish of the day happened to be cod, which I am a big fan of. The bouillabaisse was well flavored and rich. At first my friend wasn’t sure about pouring the rouille sauce into her bouillabaisse but I talked her into it. The sauce really accented the bouillabaisse and made the dish. The fish and mussels were perfectly cooked and the broth was so good it demanded bread to soak it all up. My friend is notorious for saving part of her meal to take to lunch the next day but this time her willpower failed and she finished the whole bowl.
My other friend got the “Roasted butternut squash risotto with asparagus, braised chard, parmesan cheese and herbs.” This dish was sublime, I know its cliche to say that, but there just isn’t a better way to say it. Risotto is so good when cooked correctly and yet so many places over cook it. Here the rice was flat out perfect and the flavor was just wonderful. I don’t think it was named correctly however. There were pieces of butternut squash in the risotto and they were very good, however the did not really share their flavor with the risotto. With the given title I was expecting a butternut squash flavored risotto, not a risotto with butternut squash pieces in it. Regardless this dish was easily the best of our three exceptional entrees.
For dessert we were given the whole dessert menu to choose from. I felt this was a nice touch and it was totally unexpected as most of the prie frix menus for restaurant week had a single set dessert from what i saw. I would have been happy with literally anything on the dessert menu but I ended up ordering the house made giant chocolate truffle. It came with a rasberry coulis, fresh berries and housemade whipped cream.
The truffle was so dense and rich it was hard to finish, but it was so good i powered through it… This dessert was five stars all the way, so decadent it should be illegal. The housemade whipped cream was divine too. Why do so many places mess this up?
My friends ordered the “Pear Tart Tatin”, and the Hazelnut Torte”. Both of these were very good, but my truffle just blew them away. The tart was cooked just right with the pears still having a little bite to them and the pastry being slightly doughy and wonderful. The torte looked like they had just chopped up a ton of hazelnut and stuffed them into a pastry shell. At a glance it was so tightly packed it looked like there was nothing binding it together. It tasted great, but due to the density was a little tough to get a fork through. Not really an issue except for the funny looks you get when your fork continually crashes into your plate.
Service was good. Our server was attentive and knowledgable. Our empty plates were cleared in a timely fashion, and our wine and water glasses were filled quickly. Bread was brought out and refilled several times.
Overall I would highly recommend Bistro des Copains. I can’t wait to come back and try the regular menu.
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