The third comer of the W 4th trifecta (Fuel, Gastropod, Bistrot) is a comfy little room represented by the green and white colours of their bizarrely pedestrian street sign. Inside is a world of difference – a room softly lit by tea lights, it’s packed house of diners quietly enjoying their warming French countryside fare. We were a fairly large party of 18 folk and that they managed to fit us in, and impeccably serve us was not a feat to be discounted by any means.

Dinner was started with a freshly baked and toasty warm baguette served on a long wooden plank, with a small ramekin of olive tapenade. The tapenade was too lightly flavoured and finely textured to be memorable, but the baguette exuded hints of creamy butter with each delightful bite amidst the mesmerizing crunch of the crust. It was magnificent, and I purposely hoarded so I had some to use for the rest of the meal. It’s telling that we had 2 insanely long baguettes (maybe 2 1/2 feet in length each?) between 9 people and it was gone before the entrees came to play.

The meals were served family style in cast-iron skillets which was both efficiently brilliant, and just added to the atmosphere of the entire meal. First plate was an appetizer of various forcemeats – a pork rilette, a foie pate, a pork/chicken pate whose name escapes me (tastes VERY similar to Filipino empotido/meatloaf), some proscuitto, and a small thing of grainy mustard. I’ll admit that I’m not the biggest fan of forcemeat so I will take a pass on this review. I ate it though, and ironically really enjoyed the immemorable one ha ha. Next were moules frites – the fries were nicely seasoned and shoestring style – very nice. The mussels I took a pass on – sorry, not a shellfish fan. A baked brie with phyllo topped with bacon, and mesclun greens with a balsamic topping came next. Sadly this one was just forgettable. Very little flavour to it

Now the mains started to arrive. A chicken breast on the bone with a creamy mushroom sauce; a steak in butter sauce; and a halibut with watercress emulsion sauce. The chicken was nicely tender – smart move doing it on the bone, and just lightly and perfectly flavoured. The steak was generally forgettable – it was what it was. The halibut was very nice – the watercress sauce added a nice creamy bitterness to the firmness of the fish – a very complete dish.

Desserts came and it was a lemon tart with blueberries and fresh whipped cream, and what I could only describe as a big bowlful of chocolate mousse goodness. Seriously. The waitress came by holding a gimongous white bowl just filled with chocolate mousse. She asked me if I wanted some and all I could mutter was “I love you chocolate goddess.” And yeah. It delivered on expectations. Very creamy — almost gooey and pudding-ey in the middle to a certain extent.

I’m not a fan of lemon tart, but all the flavours on the plate worked perfectly. The fresh whipped cream balanced out the tartness of the lemon, and the blueberries were a nice hint of sweetness. Very nice.

All in all, I was very impressed with how the waitstaff handled the absolutely packed room, as well as our little wall of rowdiness. I had enough of a taste of their food to know that I would most certainly be back (if I can pull myself away from Fuel that is ;-D) – and I encourage you to give them a try as well. Perhaps on my next, more calm visit, I can raise that rating to 4 stars.

Had dinner at Bistrot Bistro last night. Started with a huge, freshly baked baguette with a teeny tiny serving of olive tapenade. Then Jitka had some seafood in a lobster saffron broth. I had halibut w/ a watercress emulsion, and Dan had pork medallions in a mustard sauce. We shared Alumettes pommes, glazed carrots, and ratatouille as sides. Overall the food had good flavour, and big portions (1 main between 2 plus 2 sides is plenty). Most dishes were nicely presented in little le creuset dishes. Dan felt the carrots lacked flavour and were mushy. He also felt all the dishes were too buttery, even for a French restaurant. I think the bread and alumettes were the highlights. Overall, good restaurant, worth a visit, but not overly memorable.