Rochambeau: You should go!

Earlier this month, we had dinner at Rochambeau. Rochambeau is a French restaurant that opened in October. I had already been there before, and my parents have been there a bunch, but we didn't have time to blog about it after my first visit.

The restaurant space is very big. There is a bar downstairs and a dining room upstairs. We ate upstairs. The room is very pretty and is designed to look like a French brasserie, which is a not fancy French restaurant.

The hostesses and servers are always very nice. My parents have only taken me on Sunday nights when it hasn't been too busy, and we've had great service. They said that when they went without me and it was busier, they weren't seated until over an hour after their reservation and that the food was still good and the servers were still very nice, but it took a long time to get the food and there didn't seem to be enough staff. But we didn't have any problems when I went.

Once we ordered, our server brought us a baguette. The bread is one of the only things that they don't cook in the kitchen. It comes from Iggy's, but it was still good. It is served with butter, mustard and little pickles. My brother makes butter and pickle sandwiches with it.

I like how the baguette comes in a bag, like it does in France!

Then we had raw bar. We had Island Creek oysters, shrimp and we also got bluefish pate. I really liked the mignonette that came with the oysters.

The shrimp was good and I loved the cocktail sauce.

The bluefish pate came with more pickles and crackers. I only got to have a taste because bluefish has a lot of mercury in it, and that's bad for kids' brains. Everybody liked it, but my dad still thinks that my mom's bluefish pate is the best!

My brother doesn't like raw bar very much, so he ordered the wood fired meatballs with tomato and basil. He said that the sauce was very good, but that it didn't overpower the flavor of the meat, which was very meaty!

I thought it was nice that the meatballs came with bread for dipping.

My parents and sisters and I all had the Boston lettuce salad, which came with with crispy shallots, fine herbs, radishes, and dijon vinaigrette. The fried shallots were like baby fried onion rings and added nice crunch. The dressing was good and the lettuce was crisp and refreshing.

Alec was with us and he had the lamb shank pie with seasonal root vegetables. He said that the lamb was excellent and that he would order it again next time, but that he could have skipped a starter because it was very big.

I liked how the lid had a hole and the lamb shank poked out!

The lid popped off though and the lamb and vegetables were hiding underneath.

We also had wood grilled carrots, with sorrel, chili and quinoa. Even though they had chili, the carrots weren't too spicy. They were beloved!!!!

My mom and I got chermoula seared skate with cauliflower and golden raisins. Chermoula is a marinade that is used in Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan cooking, traditionally to flavor seafood. A lot of the time it has cumin in it, which we really like. The fish was very flavorful, and I liked the accompaniments.

My brother got rotisserie chicken. He liked the way that it was presented on top of mashed potatoes and served on the bone. He said that the skin was very crispy and even the white meat was moist.

Every day of the week has a plat du jour, which means plate of the day and is something that is only served on that day of the week. Sunday is cassoulet, and my dad got that. It comes with duck confit, garlic sausage, and tarbais. Tarbais is a cassoulet bean. He said that it was very savory and he thought that the beans were very well cooked. He thought that the duck was very good too and that it all must have been cooked for a very long time to get everything so tender and flavorful.

My sister got chicken off the kids' menu. A really good thing about Rochambeau is that the kids' menu has some options that are healthy and real food! She got chicken, mashed potatoes and green beans. All were very well cooked and delicious.

I loved Rochambeau and I want to go back there soon! But if you go, maybe try to go at a less busy time so that you get good service!!