Talk about old school... I have not been here in years but I keep driving by it every now and then and always wonder how it was these days. We all know French restos suck hard in this town... There isn't a real one in the entire city, just a handful of wannabes with subpar techniques and bad accents. French cuisine requires precision and attention to detail, the mise en place is time consuming and you need to have excellent reflexes to dodge all the pots and pans the chef throws at you if you fuck up. Too many places take too many shortcuts and call it Fronch food... It's ok, it's Atlanta, these mountain goats and woodchucks wouldn't know the difference no how... But the pouch does know that the french fries at McDonald's ain't authentic. Let's go see what these bullfrogs have been up to these days...
Walked in and it was geezer central... I can smell the baby powder from all the Depends. I also smelled skank and there it was sitting alone at the bar tucked away on the side waiting patiently for a hunky animal control officer to release her inner cougar into the wild of Clairmont Road. No amount of alcohol would get me near that vicious and catty beast, it had giant Lee press on claws. They don't have a great selection of booze but a decent enough wine selection that would get you through dinner.
C'mon, let's just get on with the Fronch food, yo...
Standard dinnah rolls. A little filler to pad the pouch. There is a lot of butter grease underneath the buns.
Les escargots nouveaux. Sounds fancy doesn't it? So is taking a dump in a pool in French... These plump-ish slugs woulda been better if they were warmed through but they were tender, had a nice bite and weren't gritty at all. The puff pastry shell coulda used more color but it was fine. Nothing really stunning about the dish but worth a try once.
Foie gras aux pommes. This was kinda impressive with a lobe of foie gras on either side and a bunch of gibberish in the middle. For the price this was a very decent portion. Both were seared spot on and melted in my booze guzzling mouth. It's not the prettiest presentation but they nailed it on taste.
Crepe d'homard. You ain't gonna find this at Taco Bell at 2AM but you can find it here nightly.. It's basically a lobster burrito. And this crepe was pretty much stuffed with lobster chunks. Not bad at all.
Choux de bruxelle. Even French restos have given into this pervasive dish. Flash fried brussels sprouts are found everywhere... But who doesn't like that shit? These were pretty damn good with the sun dried tomato remoulade.
Canard. I had written that this was rabbit, I'm a fucking retard... Musta been that fucking 8-ball I inhaled at 2AM and trying to write this shit up... The things you see and think you ate while on dope is friggin unreal and it's fan-fucking-tastic! This was a nice classic presentation but this quacker was pretty much undercooked, wait, barely cooked. I asked for mid-rare but it was like blue-rare to bleu blue... I actually didn't have a problem with it, they went well with my blue balls. The haricot verts were spot-on with the color and snap. That sweet tater cake thinger tasted like it was sitting around for hours and tasteless.
Cotes d'agneau a la provencale. When people think of rack of lamb, they imagine the cartoon version with the little toque blanche on each of the Frenched rib bones... Well, at least I do and we all know that I'm a fucking retarded freak. But this version was more of a classic frog dish with the standard 3 lamb chops and it was not too shabby. The lamb meat was tender and rosy but there were a bit too much of gristle and fat... I get it, trimming it down will make it look more petite and I know I don't like a lot of trim on my meat flaps. The truffled mash taters were dry and kinda grainy, shit needed a a lot more butter. The truffle flavoring tasted off like it was old and expired... Kinda like my fungus in my pants.
Nouilles a l'homard. Lobster noodles... Sounds like a Chino dish. Shit, robsta noodres is so fucking good at chino joints, except the ones in PCM, don't eat those it's full of MSG. These froggiestyle noodles with chunks of lobsta were real good, the cream sauce wasn't thick and nasty, it dressed the noods and bottom feeder with a thin coat. Just enough sauce and flavor to eat bite. I don't know why people like thick heavy Alfredo sauce drowning their pasta, if you're gonna do that then put it in a soup bowl and eat it with a spoon. This was just the right amount of sauce. Was it a great dish? Fuck no, but it had lobsta in it so that makes the world a better place inside da pouch.
Boeuf bourguignon. Oh, great, just fucking great... A meteorite landed on my plate. This ginormous hunk of man meat is not Henry Cavill but this shit was like kryptonite to me... Look at that girth, I couldn't stop eating it... I wanted more and more of it in my mouth, in and out. It was fork tender, flavorful and savory as fuck. It was just a nicely prepared piece of hulking man meat. The mashed taters were dry here as well but the savory demi-glace camouflaged it just enough to taste good.
Creme brulee. Most places whether Fronch or not always have these premade way in advance and stored in the coldest goddamn fridge known on this planet... The custard comes out solidified and the brulee sugar crust is like the earth's crust, thick and unbreakable. But this version was fucking spot on... I couldn't believe it. The ramekin was almost room temp and no condensation was spotted. The sugar crust broke with ease and the custard was creamy... This is how a creme brulee should be. Nice job, fuckers, I wanted so badly to break your balls on this dessert. But I can't, tis was guud.
As one of only a few remaining old school joints around town, this place still has what it takes to stay relevant in the sea of modern concepts and theme restos with their savvy menus filled with smoke and mirrors and subpar food... This resto may not be 100% French but their dishes and execution was far more superior than the other fancypants Fronch restos around town that is all show and no substance. I would come back here.
2948 Clairmont Rd
Atlanta, GA 30329
http://violetterestaurant.com/
5 comments:
hmm, might have to get over there. Was at Petite Auberge not long ago because they could give us something like a party room. PA was alright but sounds like Violette could be a tad better. Lots of blue-hairs at PA, in case you want to hang out with some more of them.
~mindspringyahoo
Dude, "canard" is duck, and thats what you ate. "Lapin" is wabbit.
you are right, i had a major brain fart... correction in effect. thanks pal!
Ha! Your blow reference made me laugh. Im just keepin you real. I'd love to buy you a beer sometime. Unless that would queer your undercover food blogger bs.
Just wanted to note that Magret de Canard usually comes bleu like that in France, so I think this is actually a plus that they are serving it traditionally.
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