Le Chat Noir, Washington, D.C.

Monday is Bastille Day and I'm still trying to get inspiration for my menu for dinner that night. The quest for inspiration is requiring me to eat some French food this week, and last night we sought our muse by venturing over to Le Chat Noir, a little French place over in Tenleytown. Well, I thought it was Tenleytown; as it turned out, it was half way between the Tenleytown and Friendship Heights Metro stops.

"The Black Cat" is almost a suburban restaurant, sitting in an area that is essentially residential. A large covered porch is open to the air, but we chose to eat inside where the air conditioning was. Robert's subway train took a lot longer than expected to get to Tenleytown, so it was half past ten when we walked in the door. Even though they are open until eleven on weekends, they were already starting to close down, so we were a bit more rushed than we would have liked for our dinner experience. And, they were out of the duck special I had wanted. But, we managed to put together a very palatable meal.

Robert started with the terrine de canard, a slice of a loaf of fruited duck liver pâté served with little French cornichon pickles and some fig compote and garnished with a little pile of frisée.


I got one of the daily specials, the quenelles de saumon sauce poireaux. Quenelles are sort of poached, egg-shaped dumplings made from ground seafood, and these delicate dumplings were sauced with a traditional green leek sauce and garnished with diced cucumber and sprigs of fresh dill. I thought it a nice, light, summery dish.


For his plat principau, Robert got the old standard, steak frites. He reported it good, and I noted that the steak was thicker than most of the steaks we see around here at restaurants with a similar offering.


My plat was the noix de Saint-Jacques, three big, juicy scallops split into six medallions and sautéed until just done, then served on a mirror of gingered cream sauce. The ginger gave the sauce ever so slightly a bit of a spicy bite. Accompanying the scallops were a half broiled tomato topped with duxelles and a little mélange of sauteed seasonal vegetables, including celery root and leeks. Everything together made a beautiful combination.


To accompany our meal, Robert had a glass of the house Côtes du Rhône and I had a glass of the house white bordeaux.

The dessert list was typical French classics, although they did offer a patisserie tray we didn't inspect and a trio of different flavored crèmes brulees. I selected the classic upside-down, caramelized apple tart, the tarte tatin. Their version uses hearty chunks of apples instead of carefully arranged, thin slices of apple often seen at other local places. Both whipped cream and a little tiny bowl of vanilla ice cream accompanied the tart.


We enjoyed our meal at Le Chat Noir, even though the staff clearly was anxious to close up and go home. I thought the food was good and artfully presented. Perhaps soon we can go back, as there were a number of things on the menu I'd like to try, including the crêpes made of buckwheat flour, which are one of their specialty items. I also would like to look more closely at their wine list, which I didn't really peruse in our haste to order.