Petit Louis for Mother's Day
This place is one of my favorites. Food is always great. Atmosphere is very relaxed and comfortable. Prices are reasonable. You just can't go wrong.
I decided to take my Mom to Petit Louis for Mother's day brunch. Never been there for brunch, but as I mentioned above, it's never a bad time to go. We shot the works...a bottle of wine, both ordered the always delicious French onion soup. We shared 2 appetizers...the frisee salad. (I've had better at other french restaurants, but it was still good) and the smoked salmon which is always tasty. My Mother decided to try something new as I talked her into trying the Duck Leg Confit. I love this and she enjoyed it as well. As for me, I had the Steak which was basically like an eggs benedict with steak and minus the muffin...It was 2 steak medallions, a poached egg and hollandaise sauce with potato gratin. For dessert we both had the crepe which was filled with vanilla pastry cream and topped with raspberry's.
Everything was fabulous, but I was uncomfortably full for well over an hour after the meal. But it was well worth it. I highly recommend!
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Petit Louis
4800 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, MD 21210
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I’m glad to hear that you and your mother had a nice time at your Sunday brunch. Comically, my parents were in town and I also took my mother to Petit Louis for mother’s day, though we did not go on the actual mother’s day. We went on Friday instead and had dinner. I hadn’t been to the place in quite some time. Unfortunately, I have to say that there were some highs and lows to our experience. I’ve been meaning to write this report up, so your OP gave me the perfect excuse to stop being lazy.
Atmosphere – It’s a nice place to eat; the décor is neither particularly warm nor inviting, but it doesn’t feel stagnant. The shared-back booth seat (which we requested NOT to be sat at) can be extremely uncomfortable to maneuver in when the place gets crowded (note: it always gets crowded). The crowd does tend to have a slight ‘Roland Park-esque’ feel to it sometimes, and it can get quite loud in the area.
Server – Our server was excellent: professional, attentive, and knowledgeable of his menu. (He also had this cool twirled mustache). I’ve had bad luck with obvious college-aged servers with more than lackluster care about the dining experience in the past and still saw a few of those servers when we were there that night.
Food – Appetizers were excellent. I do happen to love their FO soup: good strong onion flavor without being overly salty (with the small caveat that I wish they served the bread piece more crispy and allow the customer to decided if he/she wanted it soggy or not). The special appetizer of the day was a partially deboned quail, I believe pan seared, with a reduction mixed with a bit of honey. It was fantastic, perfectly cooked quail with a great sauce. We also got escargot in garlic and butter sauce which was exactly as expected (yummy but nothing thrilling)
Entrées were a mixed bag. I had the sweetbreads, and I really enjoyed them. They came with a great Madeira reduction with mushrooms. The scallops were seared and cooked perfectly, but the spinach flan that came with seemed a bit of an afterthought – really almost no spinach flavor. The rainbow trout was again cooked perfectly but underwhelming; although it came with a very nice and flavorful side of rice. The big clunker was the special of the night: their lamb. Cut into small kabob-like pieces and served over couscous, the lamb lacked flavor and tenderness and the couscous was almost completely overdone.
Desserts were for a most part disappointing. Nothing was done poorly, but nothing really felt worth the order. The best out of the three we ordered was a caramel crème. The other two (a chocolate cake like dessert and a ganache, I believe) were very forgettable.
Overall, it wasn’t a terrible meal. I think they do some things very well, and I believe their overall technique is extremely high in the sense that all their food usually comes out perfectly cooked. It’s just disappointing to find a dish that fell so flat as the lamb or their desserts be so bland (I kinda wish I had those crepes you mentioned … though I bet they were a brunch/mother’s day thing).
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re: Wangus
Thanks for the reply. Sorry your meal wasn't exactly a hit. I agree with everything you said...atmosphere, crowdedness/booths, servers...but I have always liked this place. As we both said, they do things well, but some things do fall short. I've definitely ordered a few misses over the years, but found some fabulous stuff in between. Generally, I would say this place is a safe bet for anyone, but sometimes things aren't perfect.
Hope you had a nice Mother's day with your parents!
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