Friday, June 27, 2008

Cafe Alsace

I've wanted to try Cafe Alsace, a little French bistro in Decatur, for a long time and never got around to it. It's not fancy inside, but it's charming and pleasant. There was a lot on the menu that looked good. We decided to split the quiche du jour (salmon, goat cheese, and chives) and the tartines au jambon (two slices of sourdough wheat bread baked with prosciutto ham, caramelized apples, and goat cheese. Lunch comes with soup or salad so we got a cup of the house french onion and of the soup du jour, a cold peach, rosemary, and cranberry soup.



I had mixed feelings about both soups. I haven't had very much french onion soup so I don't have much to compare this one to, but it tasted a whole lot like the gravy that I make. It was disappointing that the cheese was just some cheese on toast instead of being baked on the bowl, and it seems like the soup could have been skimmed of more fat. It still tasted good, but I think there is room for a bit of improvement. The cold peach, rosemary, and cranberry soup tasted like summer. After a bite or two though the rosemary was too powerful. I didn't actually taste the cranberry, which is too bad because the tartness of the cranberry could have cut through the dominating earthiness of the rosemary. This would have been a good palate cleanser if we were eating more. We didn't finish the little cup.



The entrees fared much better than the soups. The quiche had a nice crumbly, almost crispy bottom. I could have eaten a lot more of this, and no doubt at some point will go back and have more.







The tartines au jambon were simple and tasty.






We got two desserts. One was a dense chocolate cake that had a consistency very similar to a flourless cake. I don't if this one had flour or not. This dessert was chosen because it had hot chili in it. In our opinion anything that combines chocolate and hot chili is worth trying. Unfortunately we couldn't detect the chili, which left us with a decent cake and good homemade vanilla ice cream.






The other dessert was an apple and pear upside down pie with caramel ice cream. I preferred this one. It had a nice chewy, but still crunchy crust and the fruit was left fairly plain.





I almost forgot, the coffee was terrible. It tasted like it had been sitting on the burner for hours. Overall, even though there were some misses I enjoyed my meal and would recommend it. It's very inexpensive for French food and some of it was very good, so a few slight misses here and there don't matter so much (except the coffee). I probably won't rush back, but I'll be back at some point.

Katy:
I'd also come back here. It was a great lunch place, and not too expensive for the amount and quality of the food. Dessert was probably not necessary, but I could have eaten the quiche all day and the tartines du jambon had that perfect mix of salty and sweet. I liked the fruit soup, but as Jason said, the rosemary was a bit overpowering. Still and all, a nice tasty lunch and a nice atmosphere right there in downtown Decatur.

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