This restaurant is one of those "America tries to do French" places. It is all dark wood and brilliant white tablecloths and smarmy waiters, but somehow it just doesn't cut it on the atmosphere front. Thankfully this one has got a very good chef, which makes up for the atmosphere.
You can tell that someone hasn't quite got it from the decor. The restaurant is sited in an old building with lots of wooden beams. Some bright spark has decided to cover these with plastic flowers. Can you say "tacky"? Oh dear!
But when the food arrives it is a different matter. Right from the start I was impressed, particularly by the fabulous herb foccacia that was served as part of the bread selection. I was sorely tempted to ask for a loaf of it to take home.
For appetizers, Kevin had a crab cake while I had seared sesame scallops & caviar with Yukon potato cake. Both dishes were very good. For main course Kevin had sea bass and I had halibut. Again both were very well cooked. Kevin, I think, had the better piece of fish, but I had the better jus. And there is something that is worth commenting on. Jus is one of those things that lots of restaurants do these days because it looks pretty on the plate. But most of them don't do it very well; it is just coloured sauce. To make good jus requires a lot of effort to concentrate the flavours. Every single one of the juses that we had at 71 St. Peter was just bursting with taste.
When the waiter offered drinks I asked him what beers he had. He went through he usual list of mass market American beer, and then muttered about something Belgian. After a little questioning I discovered that what he was talking about was Duvel, a rather good high fermentation Belgian beer. The guy clearly had no idea of what he had on offer, and even less idea of how to treat it. He simply upended the bottle over my glass, as a result of which I ended up with about 25% beer and 75% froth. The beer is supposed to froth, but not like that. And if that wasn't enough, every time the froth died down the guy came to top my glass up, giving me a fresh layer of froth. I guess he doesn't have that sort of problem with Bud.
Dessert was also disappointing. We tried the white chocolate cheesecake, which was too much froth and too little cheesecake. I was tempted by their selection of ports, which was excellent, but there was no cheese on offer. It is sad really. This restaurant has many fine qualities, but there are also several areas where they just don't get it.