Le Diplomate

Yes, everyone in the entire city is talking about this place. Good thing I live a few blocks away AND was able to grab a table for a birthday dinner with friends. I had to see this place for myself and what better way. I won’t go into great detail about what we all ate and what I think because frankly I wouldn’t remember that well aside from the photos. We had a very nice meal, I love the space (much larger than expected) and the food is good (but not the over the top greatness most people talk about). I was lucky and was able to enjoy a few bottles of champagne with the group curtsey of my sister – so I’m sure that didn’t hurt my ‘objective’ thoughts on the place (and might have kept the value component reasonable without everyone ordering cocktails…).

A real birthday dinner in my book starts with bubbles, oysters and crab legs (jk jk – sort of). Good thing we had all three to get our night going. The oysters were very nice and the king crab was fantastic as expected. They have a nice seafood program (though I can’t help but think that Bavette’s or Maude’s does a better job…J). We also couldn’t figure out why a French restaurant that bakes bread serves cold bread at the table. Maybe it’s the French way? Would have been better warm.

After getting some good raw bar food we started with the steak tartare, radish crudité (must try) and salade lyonnaise (a very nice rendition of that dish). And if that wasn’t enough food already, we all ordered an entrée. I was highly recommended to try the veal escalope so that’s what I went with. Everyone else ordered something different, which was nice to see many presentations. There was steak frites, soft-shell crab, beef bourguignon and a grilled loup de mer. We also had sides of fries and spinach. Solid dinner, not many complaints around the table. I liked my veal but was not wowed. Nice but not $27 nice. My tastes of other dishes were better so I would try something different next time.

We of course had some sweets to end the night – including apple tarte tatin (AWESOME) and the rum cake (meh). After all that food we still didn’t touch the cheese selections, cocktails, other fruits de mer or other enticing entrees. I’m not surprised Le Diplomate is in high demand because they do many things right and create an environment that is welcoming, fun, lively and tasty.