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Much ado about nothing

Perplexing questions at a popular Vinohrady brasserie
Restaurant Review | Search restaurants | Archives

By Dave Faries
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
June 20th, 2007 issue

L'Ardoise

Bruselská 7
Prague 2–Vinohrady
Tel. 222 524 102
Open Mon.–Fri. 8 a.m.–11 p.m., Sat.–Sun. 9 a.m.–11 p.m.

Food *
Service **
Atmosphere ***
Overall **

Jan Přerovský/THE PRAGUE POST
Empty promises: A Popular restaurant falls short.
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FROM THE MENU

Pumpkin soup 70 Kč
Gazpacho 70 Kč
White asparagus 145 Kč
Chicken Basquais 190 Kč
Veal filet 360 Kč
Roasted lamb 440 Kč
O.5 L Bernard 50 Kč

What accounts for all the fuss about L’Ardoise, the unpretentious French corner spot in Vinohrady?
The restaurant has a strong following and solid reputation as a place that even French expats gather for lunch or dinner. Food is served without affectation. And the owners spend just about all their waking hours presiding over the operation.
My three meals did little to explain those steady crowds. Many of the dishes I sampled instead contradicted the positive word-of-mouth refrain. In many ways, it was like arriving at a Jean-Luc Ponty concert only to find Yanni on stage. So, I’m curious: Did a recent change in menu items throw L’Ardoise temporarily off-kilter?
Not that everything has tumbled into the pub-fare abyss. A seasonal offering of white asparagus is drizzled with perfect Hollandaise. Delicate veal, cooked medium-rare, discovers a husky depth in the accompanying sauce, a reduction based on morel mushrooms. The combination is meaty but slightly sweet, musky with frivolous touches.
Seven-hour roasted lamb, macerated and formed into a neat fez, tastes of the outdoors — at once rustic and heavenly. Slow roasting lends the pleasingly tender meat a tacky residue, allowing rich flavors to linger. But an overly eager kitchen hand had, on one occasion, poured an excess of salt into an otherwise beautifully supportive sauce. Even the slightest dab threatened to wrestle forkfuls of intricate lamb to the floor.
The chef’s obvious flair for good brasserie fare would make the rest seem like one-off mistakes, the result of a really bad day in the kitchen — except the problems recurred, again and again.
Let’s start with the pumpkin soup, a daily special. Perhaps it’s a starter only Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David can adequately describe, for those two once excelled in the art of writing something about nothing. A quick nod of flavor fades almost instantly, ducking out of sight forever. You’re left with a feeble orange puree and a bunch of questions of the “Is it thinner than Gerber’s, I can’t remember?” variety.
The kitchen’s take on gazpacho is equally vacant: watered down and frapped with a vengeance, until gurgling and bubbly. Drizzled olive oil bounces off the empty sweet foam without effect. Clusters of finely chopped vegetables suspended in the frappe are fresh and expressive. Unfortunately, with nothing to counter but froth, the bright taste seems abrupt and raspy, as if a bit miffed at having to share the limelight with such a dullard.
Chicken a la Basque is merely white noise on a plate — very dry white noise — sitting atop a bed of peppers drenched in a piquant sauce. And by “piquant,” I mean something synonymous with “I’m eating facial cleanser.”
The vegetal base stands out: explosively fresh, sharp and stinging, with an earthy depth that rolls on and on, growing more robust until every part of your palate joins in the chorus of delight. But reduction into a sauce burns away all but the most astringent flavors. At that point, enjoying dinner becomes near-impossible … unless you have a fondness for the taste of soap.
Not the smooth, milky softness of Dove, mind you, but the nasty, acrid, lingering bite of Shield or Irish Spring.
In the end, the discrepancy between L’Ardoise’s reputation, along with its wonderful duck and veal entrees, and the dishes just described leaves me puzzled. The owners clearly put a lot of thought into the restaurant. The room and patio are handsome spaces. Daily menus scratched out on chalkboards wink at the art of rough translations, and service is languidly pleasant.
So my inclination to blame poor performance on new recipes not yet assimilated by kitchen staff may be right. Give L’Ardoise a try yourself and hope it measures up to the hype.

Dave Faries can be reached at dfaries@praguepost.com


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