A fun French bistro
Demarchelier is a cute French bistro located on the Upper East Side. The inside of this restaurant is very quaint and cozy, but also has a level of sophistication to it. This family-owned restaurant was a fun place to eat at. Not only did we feel extremely welcomed by the staff and the owner, but we felt comfortable and at ease which definitely made out meal even more enjoyable.
We started off with the fondue because who doesn’t love cheese? They give you a basket a bread to dip into the warm and gooey cheese. We learned that they make their fondue with three different cheese (one of which is gruyere), garlic, salt, pepper, and white wine. For something so simple, this fondue had a lot of flavor. When you take your first bite, you’re hit with a sharp taste in the front of your palette, which will eventually become milder and milder where you can taste the cream and the garlic and the oil in front of you. Be warned, there is a lot of cheese and a lot of bread so it is easy to be filled up on this. We really could’ve eaten this and called it a day but we ordered a lot more food so we couldn’t finish the fondue sadly.
For our other appetizers, we had the escargot and the mesculin salad with warm goat cheese. The escargot came with what could almost be described as a pesto-like sauce. There was oil and a good amount of garlic in it so it’s not that much of a leap. The escargot was delicious and didn’t have an earthy taste to it like I would have imagined (and was not slimy either). It was a task to actually get the meat out of the shell, but that’s most likely because I am a little uncoordinated. The mesculin salad was good too. Our favorite part of that salad was the warm goat cheese served on a sourdough toast. Goat cheese with any sort of salad has a place in my heart so it didn’t take much for me to like it. The goat cheese was creamy and melted in your mouth and the toast paired along with the salad gave a wide range of textures which made it fun to eat (almost as if you added a goat cheese crouton to the salad).
For our main course, we ordered the duck confit and the filet mignon. The duck was extremely juicy and tender. The duck skin was crispy which paired well with how moist the meat of the duck was. It is paired with white beans which gave even more juice and fat to each bite. The filet mignon was really good too. We like our steak medium rare and they cooked it to perfection. We paired our steak with the béarnaise sauce and that added a richness to the fatty steak that we had. The filet was so juicy and flavorful too, but the béarnaise really topped it off for us. We had a side of the mashed potatoes, which were alright. I think that the mash needed a bit more seasoning to it because it ran on the bland side. But that isn’t a deal breaker in the least.
Lastly, we had dessert. We ordered the Tarte fine aux pommes as well as the crepes Suzette. The crepes were fun because they poured the Grand Marnier in front of you and then burned it so you could see the blue flames burn off all the alcohol. When we tried the crepe, we were able to taste that subtle orange in it. What I will say about this is that the crepes did become a little dry after a certain point and became a little one note. I think that’s just because there was no filling in the crepes which could help add a little more depth of flavor. The tarte was delicious and is essentially an upside down apple pie. The crust was flaky and the dried out apples were so good. The vanilla ice cream had such an intense (not in a bad way) vanilla bean flavor that when you pair it with the Tarte, you taste heaven.
Overall, our meal was really good. If you are ever around the Upper East Side and have a cute date, or fun hangout to go to, I would strongly suggest checking out this place. The food felt authentic and was full of flavor. The vibe and atmosphere inside the restaurant is cozy and relaxing. I would highly recommend it.