Brasserie Les Halles

I had no idea this place existed outside of NYC. Part 2 of 2 of an 'appetizers in the gables' day. The goal was to meander the Mile, shop, nibble. I was not impressed by the Miracle Mile in general--I'm guessing the 'miracle' is how 575 bridal spots exist cheek-by-jowl in a one-mile strip. It was a nice day to walk around, though.

What we had:

Appetizers only.

Croutons de Coulommiers rotis eu miel et poivre: Honey-roasted peppered Brie on croutons with salad.

Too-sweet Brie on slightly burnt baguette with a nice light mixed salad. There was no real balance to this dish. The honey was a bit cloying--the pepper didn't balance it right. And, the crouton was pretty burnt.

Frites.

My DH makes great fries, so i'm a bit biased there. They were good, but I didn't want to lay down & die.

We got bread here, too. I'm pretty sure it wasn't baked on site.

Décor:

Dark burgundy paint--the latest layer of what looked like years and years of color-changes. Very French posters on the wall.

Service:

Decent.

Overall impressions:

We were excited to try this place because we love Tony Bourdain, and we're food geeks. Having said that, my objective opinion is meh. The place seems to be in love with its own mythos--Les Halle posters and all--and I'm hoping that their classic dinner of steak & frites will be better. The logo is great--french-kissing cows--hard to go wrong there.

Company website; what Google says

Rating:

2 out of 5 salamanders-- we have a difference of opinion here. My DH says 2--I was leaning toward a 3--but that's not objective. Ok, if you factor in the price ($10 for the brie appetizer worth half that at best) it's a solid 2. Hopefully we can bump that up after going back for dinner.