Good things come in small packages
Petit Robert Bistro
South End / Boston
Dinner: hors d’oeuvres, soups, salads $4.50-$17.50;
entrees $13.50-$19.25.
Desserts: $4.50-$8. Express lunch: daily 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Dinner: daily 11 a.m.-11 p.m. No reservations. Visa, MasterCard, American Express Fully accessible
If you’re wondering whether success can be replicated, all you have to do is to step into Petit Robert Bistro, No.2. Actually you probably will just be able to squeeze into the packed bar area most nights as patrons jockey for the few seats. And then with others, you’ll wait, maybe patiently, maybe not, for seats in the cramped dining room. As you wait, you can ponder the menu: Will it be homemade pates or a thick French onion soup to start? Are we in the mood for salmon with sorrel nage or bouillabaisse; tripe Provencale or grilled skirt steak? Or shall we go light to save room for ile flottante or an apple tart tatin.
The menu is the same as that at Petit Robert Bistro, No.1 in Kenmore Square. But it’s difficult to be bored by bistro cuisine when created by Jacky Robert and his daughter, Iris, who is chef de cuisine. In fact, says Jacky Robert in a phone conversation, some people come to eat there every day. Robert and his partner Loic Le Garrec opened their first bistro April 1, 2005. After many years of haute cuisine, Robert, who was classically trained in France and was chef at Ernie’s in San Francisco and at Maison Robert in Boston, speculated that diners would like a bistro model — offering a broad menu, open all day, and serving a menu at very reasonable prices. His hunch paid off, and Petit Robert was an instant success in Kenmore.
No reservations means the place can get crowded at peak times, he admits, but it also means local people have a shot at getting in, even on busy nights. And Iris Robert, who he says went into his kitchen at Ernie’s ‘‘before she could walk,’’ helps make Petit Robert a typically French family venture.
This restaurant space, which has had many faces from Southern-style Rouge to nuevo Italian La Bettola to an upscale pizza joint and more (I can count five reviews I’ve done), has always been a tight squeeze. It’s also oddly arranged with the kitchen in between the bar area and the dining room; you have to watch your step rounding the corner so that you don’t end up amid the pots and pans. The noise level can drown out conversation but doesn’t seem to dampen the conviviality. Nor does the sometimes ragged waitstaff, seemingly disorganized one night, but much smoother on a later visit.
Next to us one evening, a family with two young girls chats about schoolwork; friends laugh loudly while sharing a bottle of wine; two older couples discuss their menu choices, and though the evening has turned chilly, several tables are filled outside with people bundled up in sweaters.
We’re feeling very French this evening and start with escargot, nuggets of snail swimming in butter and garlic. Even the wary among us gingerly picks the snail out with a tiny fork and declares it good. Onion soup has a heady, sinus-clearing broth, onions sweetened by long cooking, and just enough cheese to round the flavors without being gluey.
Petit Robert does a great job with pates. A chicken liver mousse, a coarse pork slab, and another smooth textured version are all served with cornichons and a little pot of mustard. It’s a classic, and one we know well, but so satisfying when well-executed. A salad of tiny green lentils, frisee, and a slice of Cavaillon melon is a lovely summer composition, but Robert says it’s about to disappear in a fall menu change. Another of Romaine with a vaguely Caesar-salad like Roquefort dressing is much less satisfying in taste and appearance.
The term ‘‘bistro’’ is carefully defined by the owner as meaning moderately priced, something many American restaurateurs throw by the wayside when they adopt the word but not the spirit. And that means that the entrees are all under $20 and don’t include the luxury cuts of meat. But that means culinary skills are often more apparent, too. Instead of a great slab of thick salmon fillet, ‘‘legs’’ (two pieces that slightly resemble those appendages) are served over a thick nage, or soup-like sauce, of intensely herbal sorrel and other vegetables. A French restaurant has to have steak frites, but here the cut is a skirt steak, really much more traditional and actually tastier than some cuts used for the dish. A good Bordelaise sauce adds to the pleasure. Saddle of lamb is roasted instead of more expensive lamb rack, and the combination of white wine, tomatoes, mushrooms, and tender lamb gives an early hint of winter stews.
Some of the same ingredients distinguish seafood dishes, such as a special of haddock in a Mediterranean melange of tomatoes, red peppers, and shallots. Bluefish makes a last appearance of the summer, beautifully complemented by the tastes of sweet creamed corn and bacon.
A big bowl of bouillabaisse leans more toward the extravagant, and does climb over $20 if you opt for lobster along with mussels, clams, shrimp, and white fish. But it’s rich, slightly oily, and delicious. As is the way with the best seafood stews, there’s never enough toasted bread to dip into the thick broth, making it necessary to resort to the bread basket.
Vegetarian options aren’t excluded. Although the vegan pate with tomato concasse is striking to see and to eat, a risotto with mild soft cheese and a stew of mushrooms needs something more, maybe just salt. Robert says the autumn menu will have an Asian-influenced fried rice with celery root, which sounds more interesting. (He’s also bringing back his fantastic cassoulet.)
Skipping dessert isn’t wise at a good French restaurant, especially here, where young pastry chef Kristen Lawson obviously has great fun building on her repertoire of classics. She’s good at meringue, and a vacherin with ice cream and strawberries is just right on a warm night. Macaroons have just the right crunch, and the meringue floating in a sea of vanilla custard, the ile flottante, is almost too good for my companions to let me have a taste.
In fact, the food at Petit Robert is good enough to make me a little jealous of those diners who stop by every day.