AlainHarvey | Houston, TX | 10 Reviews
Bistro Provence is a great little family-owned French restaurant. The owners are French while most of the wait staff are Hispanic. The menu is traditional home cooking with a flair of the cuisine from the south of France. If you've been to France...you'll love it! My first introduction to Bistro Provence occurred one afternoon when my wife Penny and I (both unapologetic Francophiles and fluent) wanted to go out to eat at a good French restaurant. Unfortunately, we had been running errands on the west side of Houston and had arrived at this decision rather late in the day. Using my iPhone, I found a reference to Bistro Provence, looked at the on-line menu which was oddly limited to listing only a very few items. It would turn out that the on-line menu not only does not list many of the current menu items, but it is also sadly out of date. Reflecting on a recent experience of having dined at another untried French restaurant where our meal's price was steep compared to the overall quality of the food, we decided to take another chance. Hope springs eternal, n'est-ce pas? I called the number and inquired as to the possibility of a table at 8:00 p.m. "Certainly, sir," replied the voice in French. The voice that I later would discover belonged to the owner's mother, then explained that they were not taking reservations and were very busy that evening. However, if we arrived after 8 p.m. we shouldn't have a problem obtaining a table. We were hungry and decided to not wait until 8 p.m. and so off we went. The first challenge was finding it. Travelling east on Memorial Drive we passed Yorkchester Drive. I assumed this was going to be a little boutique restaurant on Memorial Drive, when in fact it turned out to be located in a small shopping center. The Bistro appeared somewhat busy when we arrived near 7:15 p.m. with several couples exiting as we approached. The first thing we noticed were several small tables with blue and yellow tablecloths set up along the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. None were occupied at the time due to the lingering heat of the day. We entered and stepped into a very cute little 40-seat restaurant. W was greeted by the owner's mother who offered us our choice of seats -- there were maybe 20 people in the restaurant. We hadn't needed to worry about arriving early after all. The restaurant's kitchen is open to view, and the area is dominated by a giant dome-shaped pizza oven. As soon as you sit down at your table, you are given a piece of hot bread from the wood-fired oven. In keeping with the customs of Provence, the bread comes with olive oil flavored with herbs instead of butter. The menu, although small, included several bistro classics. A chalk board listing several specials of the day was also presented for our consideration. My wife decided to ordered a Salade de Crevettes (mixed greens shrimp salad $10) while I ordered the Escargots À La Provencale (escargots baked with garlic and parsley butter $8) as entrees. I selected the half of a duck in a blood orange sauce (Canard a l'Orange $23) as my main course, and a bottle of Chateau Bellevue Peycharneau 2004 from Bordeaux ($35). "How is the duck prepared?" I asked. Failing the communication test, I tried in French. "C'est du magret?" "Non, monsieur," the waiter replied, and continued in French, "We've had a run on the Canard a l'Orange today. Instead we are serving duck breast. It's a large duck breast cut into several slices, served with spinach and potatoes. How would you like it cooked?" "A point," I said, which is French for "medium" but tends to be more like medium-rare in the US, since the French eat their meat rather rarer than Americans. We had some of the bread baked in the Bistro's wood-fired oven that came to the table. It was very tasty, especially with the application of some olive oil seasoned with herbs. The shrimp were very good -- the mixed greens were paired with mangoes and avocados in a citrus vinaigrette. Penny would have liked the shrimp a bit softer, but that's just us being completely picky. The escargot were delectable as was the bread when dunked in the melted garlic and parsley butter lingering in the bottom of the escargot dish. The duck was a success. The breast came sliced on a plate trickled with blood orange sauce Penny meanwhile was enjoying her ravioli stuffed with goat cheese, served over a garlic and provincial herbs (Ravioles De Chèvre, Avec Brochette De Fruit De Mer in French $20). Eating the ravioli with crusty bread dipped in olive oil, she was all smiles. The Chateau Bellevue Peycharneau was very good, pairing very well with both the duck and ravioli. We ordered a Dame Blanche (hot fudge sundae $8) to split for dessert and it was very, very good -- the ice cream was just soft enough, the whipped cream sweet, the hot fudge chocolate sauce excellent. We each had a shot of espresso with it. The meal was a success. The shrimp were excellent, and the list of main courses, although small, was a hard decision for me. Bistro Provence is definitely a winner. It's a worthy addition in a city that is a bit desperate for good French cooking. Our combined bill with the appetizers, main courses, wine, dessert, coffee and tax was $104. Bistro Provence is as close as you can get to the experience of eating at a French restaurant without leaving town. As mentioned earlier, there are ten or so tables on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant. On a warm night, it's a joy to sit outside and eat a light meal, as we did on our next visit. Bistro Provence isn't perfect, but the food is very, very good. On a dark evening with a bottle of French red wine and the aroma of garlic wafting through the air, I can close my eyes and imagine I'm back in France seated with friends in a cozy rural auberge. Bon appétit! Alain G. Harvey
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