Le Relais de l'Entrecôte

Going back to French food, we did a touristy thing and decided to check out Le Relais de l'Entrecôte.  You might of heard of it, you know, the place where they only serve one thing - Steak Frites.  Also, you can get more if you finish your plate, at no extra charge!  No, they do not take resos, so you'll have to go at opening to snag yourself a table.  We decided to take a chance at the Montparnasse location since it was further away from the busy areas.  It also helped that the metro station was right in front too.  Our plan worked as we got a table no problem at opening.

So with every meal, it starts with a Walnut Green Salad with a classic Dijon vinaigrette dressing.   Nothing complex with this as it featured fresh leafy greens with nutty walnuts.  A few slices of radish added some colour.  As for the dressing, it was sweet, tangy and a touch creamy.  This was a light start to our meat-focused meal.  In addition to this, we were also served a sliced baguette and butter.

So onto the one and only main course - Steak Frites.  The medium-rare sirloin was quite tender.  This was true for all of our plates.  I've read reviews about it being chewy and that was not the case with our steaks.  It was drenched in their famous Café de Paris sauce.  I think their version has a combination of chicken livers, butter, cream, Dijon and other seasonings.  Hence, the richness of the sauce coated each piece of the tender meat.  It createed an umaminess that further enhanced the beef.  As for the frites, they were super crispy but still had some potatoness left.  We ended up getting 2 orders each and really that was enough.

Onto dessert, we ordered 2 including the Sévigné and Crème Brûlée.  The former is a chocolate cake served with vanilla ice-cream, hot chocolate sauce and Chantilly cream while the latter is the classic custard topped with burnt (torched) sugar.  We really enjoyed the chocolate cake as it was rich and definitely chocolatey but not overly sweet.  That sauce was a bit sweet though.  The crème brûlée was also really good where the sugar topping was torched expertly being crunchy, sweet and smoky.  Upon cracking it with our spoon, it revealed a creamy custard that wasn't too heavy but was rather sweet.  Could definitely taste the vanilla essence.  So in the end, the meal was about the steak frites and it was good in our opinion.  Sure, the place is a bit touristy, but worth a visit still.

The Good:
- Solid steak frites
- You can have more if you want!
- Desserts pretty good

The Bad:
- No resos, have to lineup
- Service was decent, but rather hurried