Bistro St. Germaine

Friday, June 13, 2014

Met a friend of mine who is a independent wine rep at the new place in town to check out the food.  In Seal Beach on Main St at Electric Ave., The restaurant took over the space that used to be Main Street Wine Shop. Named Bistro St. Germaine.  website is, www.Bistrostgermaine.com. Run by Pascale Chheng and Armand Chheng. Vietnamese of Chinese ancestry born in France. Hence the Asian / French influence in the food.

This place still has some kinks to work out in the service area and "selling" their products. The waitstaff that we had was the daughter of one of the investors and she had never waited tables before. She also was from France and they do have a different way of taking care of customers. There were no suggestions on food or wine unless you specifically asked. Otherwise not pushy but they still need to work on this. While waiting for Susan to arrive I would have ordered a glass of bubbly 10 minutes before I did if she had suggested it. Wine list was on the back of the menu and it was not pointed out to me

Susan brought about a dozen bottles of wine in various stages of age. What was not in the best shape she gave to the restaurant for cooking. She had a couple of bottles of sparklings which were quite good. I tried to write down the wines but after while it got to be a hassle.

I started out with the French Onion Soup which had excellent flavor but it was warm not hot. Susan had a salad that was good also. Butter lettuce at her request with very fresh cooked shrimp, red grapefruit, teardrop tomatoes and cucumber slices. The dressing was excellent and had a slight touch of a fennel taste.

We both ordered crepes. I am not a crepe fan but the fillings on these were so intriguing I had to try one. The crepes came out on the plate just folded in half. Not rolled. Very large. Mine was the St. Tropez crepe filled with artichokes, sun dried tomatoes, cheese and a basil cream sauce. Asked for a small bowl of extra sauce because I really could not taste it in the crepe itself. We shared a Chocolate Mousse which was very good.

 The food is good, again a few tweaks to be made. But the restaurant has only been open about a month. I would go back and try it a few more times and hope they get the kinks worked out. It has great potential. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.