Restaurant Review: Bouchon French Bistro

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by Dik van Meerten
on Thursday, September 24, 2009

One of the surprising things about Bouchon is its size. From the outside, the single storefront with its Chicago-style bar-in-the-window, looks like many other restaurants on Lexington, but when you walk in, the place is surprisingly deep. Additionally, they have a patio in back, and wen you add that to the interior, you have a fairly large restaurant.

Bouchon doesn't take reservations, so when we walked in on a Saturday night at 6:45 (it smelled wonderful) we expected a long wait and indeed we were told it would be 30 to 45 minutes. We ordered drinks and relaxed on the small patio next to the restaurant. The wait was probably less then 30 minutes.

We started with two appetizers: Tomate Bouchon are sliced, fresh, local tomatoes layered with goat cheese and chives and drizzled with olive oil and balsamic reduction. We found the tomatoes a little mealy, so this appetizer was a little disappointing. The other appetizer was the Salade Fume: Local smoked trout tossed with fresh mixed greens and lemon-dill dressing, garnished with fried capers and shaved red onion topped off with croutons made with local goat cheese and a baguette. It was excellent, the dressing and the smoked trout working well together. It made us wonder who in town is smoking this trout so superbly.

Then the main courses: We had Steak Frites, Lobster Ravioli and Bouillabaisse. All were very well prepared and superb in their own way. The steak was tender and the butter had the right balance of garlic. The fries were fresh and wonderfully crispy. I was very pleasantly surprised by the Bouillabaisse. The broth was just piquant enough to be interesting without overwhelming the taste of the fish and seafood. Finally, the Ravioli fillings really tasted like lobster, and the crawfish sauce beautifully complimented this dish.

Deserts of Fruits Melba and Chocolate Crepes rounded out our meal. Both were very good.

The wine list at Bouchon is very interesting and reasonably priced for a restaurant of this caliber. The house wines are especially well priced, and actually quite good. The service was very attentive without being obsequious. The atmosphere at Bouchon is cozy and intimate. At times it can get a bit noisy due to the brick walls, but the noise isn't overwhelming.

This restaurant has a reputation as one of the better restaurants in Asheville. It firmly deserves that reputation and I highly recommend it to anyone who is after a good French meal. 4 1/2 Stars (out of 5).

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