V-Day 2007: Plouf

Last night, QB and I headed out to the city for our Valentine's Day dinner. I had made 8:30 dinner reservations over at Plouf, a cute little French bistro in a Financial District alley. Anyway, we arrived at the restaurant right on time, and to our surprise there was a line of couples waiting outside.

plouf: the sound a stone makes when it
drops into a French stream

We found out that somehow the restaurant was backed up and running about half an hour off schedule due to a number of earlier parties taking a lot longer to finish their meals and leave. As expected, I was not too happy about this. So, there we were along with maybe ten or so others waiting outside. The hostess did her best to keep all of us abreast of the current situation, and checked on us fairly regularly. To her credit, she did go to the bar and bring all of us some complimentary champagne while we waited. Thankfully, the weather was nice.

Here's a picture I took of the restaurant alley while we waited. As you can see, all the restaurants were packed.


Shortly after 9, we were seated at a table inside. We would have been seated sooner, except that we declined an outdoor 'edge' table, which another couple gladly took. We then ordered a couple of drinks and figured out what we wanted. The restaurant had a special Valentine's Day 3-course prix fixe menu, which didn't give us a large selection of choices, but it was adequate.

Before ordering, we were given our amuse bouche, which was a mushroom risotto. Nothing fancy, but it was a nice way to whet the appetite.


For our first course, QB went with some mussels served in a thai coconut broth and I opted for the scallops presented with a tomato confit. Her mussels also came with pomme frites, which were really good. She made the better choice between the two of us. My scallops were delicious, but I only got a couple of pieces. Her order came and the mussels were practically overflowing the bowl. The restaurant is known for their mussels, so I suppose it's not a surprise when I say that the mussels were amazing.




I managed to choose wisely when it came to the main course. I had the grilled swordfish that also came with some chorizo-stuffed calamari. My fish was excellent, and the stuffed calamari, while really quite spicy, blended well with everything. QB ordered the filet mignon, and sadly, it was average at best. I guess you shouldn't really expect a seafood joint to excel in preparing red meat.




For our dessert, we went with the shared selection, which was a pair of chocolate mousse cakes (one was white and the other dark). We enjoyed the cakes quite a bit. They weren't too sweet, but definitely sweet enough to satisfy any sweet tooth.


Oh, and they gave each lady a long-stemmed rose when they brought out the bill, a nice touch I thought. In any case, I'd be willing to go back and try out selections from their normal menu. I'll just be sure to stay away from non-seafood items.