Today was Ron’s birthday so we went out to dinner at Rue Lepic, a French restaurant that’s only a few blocks from where we live. We walk or drive by regularly (when parking or looking for parking) and have always wondered what the food was like. We were pleasantly surprised.
The staff of the restaurant seemed to only include three people: the chef, the sous chef, and the waiter. There are at least 10 tables with a minimum of 2 people each so it made sense that service was a bit slow. We were a bit disappointed that although I made a reservation for 7pm and arrived a bit before 7pm, the waiter sort of ignored us for about 5 or 10 minutes before seating us. But I’m glad we stayed as it was an enjoyable dinner.
We ordered from the regular menu (rather than the prix fixe chef’s menu) so started out with the esgargots sauteed in garlic butter, parsley, and tomato sauce served with angel hair pasta. The sauce was so good, we sopped it up with the delicious baguette.
The entrees come with the soup of the day, today’s happened to be a corn soup. Ron compared it to a bit like chicken gravy.
I ordered the boneless breast of duck with orange sauce. The duck was nice and tender but the sauce was a bit too bitter for me, it seemed to have more of the rind flavor than I would’ve liked.
Ron ordered the roasted veal with a truffle and mushroom sauce. The veal also was very tender and the mushroom sauce very tasty.
Since the food came out slowly, we were already pretty full but I really wanted to try their passion fruit mousse with strawberry and kiwi sauce. Oh my goodness, so delicious! I really need to learn how to make this. The strawberry and kiwi sauces were so good and went really well with the smooth passion fruit mousse. I could eat this every day…
So although service was a bit slow, it makes for a true European experience where they seem to eat more slowly than we do, in this case, the wait was worth it. I’d go back again for the escargots and the dessert. Plus interestingly enough, a couple who was seated next to us, it was also the guy’s birthday and they were both pharmacists! Small world. It made for enjoyable dinner conversation as they were planning their weekend in the bay area so we had the chance to share a lot of our favorite places to visit and eat.
Happy birthday to my hubby!
Rue Lepic
900 Pine Street