Les Halles

Les Halles, Anthony Bourdain’s take on a French Brasserie, is situated in midtown and has a very romantic feel when you first step in; dimly lit, cute lamps, and lots of booths for couples or small groups. It’s a very informal restaurant and serves a lot of different types of beef and other Parisian cuisine. Chris and I have been meaning to check this place out for their steak frites (I read that their French fries are really special because of their shape/taste). The menu has a lot of offerings and we knew that we were definitely going to order the steak frites, but we were going back and forth on our second entrée…I finally decided to order the coq au vin (a very typical French dish meaning “rooster with wine”):

The chicken was very tender and they definitely don’t skimp on the portions (I felt like they gave me an entire chicken!) but it was a little salty. Chris said it reminded him of the coq au vin he used to eat when he was studying abroad and said it evoked memories of the Oxford dining hall (apparently, the dining halls abroad serve much better food than the colleges in the US and they have a formal meal once a month).

Chris ordered the steak frites with French fries and salad:

Les Halles has a little butcher shop in the front so you KNOW that you have to order beef; steak frites was the default because it’s a European staple and who doesn’t like steak with French fries? The steak was very tender and well cooked; juicy, slightly pink inside (the good kind of medium rare) and very flavorful. I didn’t see what was special about the French fries (people say the shape is interesting…but they looked like regular pieces of fries) and the salad had too much onion.

The service at Les Halles was quite slow and we were seated in an area that had a lot of bugs flying around (Chris actually killed one with a napkin) but it was a good (not great) meal.