First, a caveat: It is almost impossible to say anything bad about a dinner where you and your partner, the only patrons in an attractive, romantic restaurant, are served by the charming owner who flambés a good part of your meal tableside, right before your eyes.
While I’d like to wish this lovely, personal experience on other diners it would probably be best for Sam Betraki if he had a few more customers to attend to. Betraki opened Café du France mere weeks ago in the beautiful, 99-year-old Le Marchand Mansion, taking over the space most recently occupied by Tazza Mediterranean Bistro.
On the recent Saturday night we visited, the pretty little café was completely empty at 7 p.m., and remained so until we left more than two hours later, literally shutting the place down, armed with a loaf of fresh baked bread which Betraki insisted we take home.
The experience of eating at Café du France was very much like eating in the home of a friend who likes to cook, and does it well. The food, an unusual mix of Mediterranean and French specialties, was, overall, nicely presented and exceptionally tasty, but in the way of really good home cooking, as opposed to exotic fine dining.
Let it be said, too, that Sam walks that fine line between friendly and too friendly quite well, staying long enough to cook, serve and inform, but not so long for us to wish for some sort of flambé emergency that would pull him away.
Given the setting, we tried to maintain a French flavour to our experience, opting to start with the traditional French onion soup ($7.95), a well-executed version of the classic dish — a piping hot, flavourful broth rich with caramelized onions, topped with thin slices of bread and just the right amount of broiled cheese. The seafood chowder, perhaps because it’s neither French nor Mediterranean, was less successful. It seemed a little bland and insubstantial.
Again in the French vein, the pate ($7.95) was on the mark, served alongside some thin slices of buttery, lightly toasted bread.
Our one Mediterranean indulgence, the fattouche salad, was among the hits of the evening. It was a delicious, wonderfully balanced rendition of the traditional, Middle Eastern mix of lettuce, cucumber, tomato, radish, cilantro, parsley, sumac and other spices, dressed in lemon and olive oil, enlivened by delicate pieces of crisp pita and, surprisingly, pomegranate seeds. Betraki’s trick is to deep fry the flatbread, he says, making it somewhat less healthy, but certainly more yummy.
The mains are a bit of a jumble, quite honestly, running the gamut from filet mignon at $22.50 and “terre et mer” (surf and turf of shrimp and steak) for $19.95, to eggplant parmigiana ($19.95) and Mediterranean pasta ($17.95). Betraki says it’s all essentially a compendium of the foods he likes to eat.
But the menu became secondary when we discovered Saturday is “flambé night” at Cafe du France. Never ones to refuse fireworks, we ordered the Steak Diane — filet mignon sautéed in a buttery brown sauce with mushrooms, then doused in brandy and set alight, all on a gas burner brought on a cart to our table.
The meat was tender and cooked the way we asked, but the sauce would have been better served by a meatier mushroom instead of feathery enokis, which got lost in the rich sauce. For $30, it came with roasted potatoes and a good mix of sautéed vegetables in a portion so large it could have easily served two.
Pyromaniacs take note: Sam will also flambé pepper steak or Chateaubriand for two on Saturday nights. He also reports he’s had some success with his pasta special on Tuesdays and Wednesdays — pasta for two plus a bottle of wine for $30.
We felt obliged to try something from the regular menu as well, choosing the Coquilles St. Jacques ($21.95), a mix of plump scallops and shrimp in a simple, light, white wine sauce served with rice.
The wine selection seemed limited, perhaps due to the newness of the place, but when we asked about white wine Betraki brought a couple of bottles to our table to sample and we chose a serviceable one for $30.
Flambé night would not be complete without some sort of flaming dessert to end the evening, with Cherries Jubilee, Crepes Suzette and pears flambé on offer. We chose the pears, which were first sautéed in butter, brown sugar and lemon juice, then set ablaze with brandy, Grand Marnier and a touch of raspberry liqueur. The sweet, warm, wonderful concoction was then poured over vanilla ice cream. Our second dessert was almost as fabulous — a slice of “sizzling” chocolate pecan pie with caramel sauce, baked in a tiny cast-iron skillet until caramelized into a crun-chewy, sugary, delicious mess. The whole thing was topped with vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.
The café also serves lunch, both in its main restaurant and from a takeout counter at the front. It sounds like it’s drawing a decent crowd from the surrounding businesses and condos, at least during the week. But it would be nice if Betraki and his portable flambé cart were a little less lonely on Saturday nights.
Cafe du France
11523 100th Ave. (Le Marchand Mansion)
780-447-2690
Dinner for two, without wine: About $85
