[Alhambra] [French] Bistro 39

Bistro 39
39 W Main St
Alhambra, CA 91801
(626) 282-0600
http://www.bistro39.com

上周五是好朋友Sybil的生日，我們在Alhambra一家新開不久的法國餐廳Bistro 39幫Sybil慶生，餐點算是很平價，味道則還需要進步，不過服務很不錯，尤其是老闆非常平易近人，所以我和公園先生決定再給這家餐廳一次機會，以後再去嚐嚐。

Last Friday was Sybil's birthday. Sybil picked a new French restaurant in Alhambra to celebrate. The name of the restaurant is Bistro 39. There used to be another French restaurant before in the same location. Sadly it closed down due to lack of business. I read some good review on Yelp and Chowhound about this new Bistro 39 and was very looking forward to Sybil's birthday dinner.


2005 Chateau Haut Nadeau Bordeaux ($40.00)

Since Dr. Park is the wine expert among us, we asked him to pick the wine for the night. The owner recommended this 2005 Bordeaux. He said that he had to order 3 years ago to get the wine now. He just received two cases and now there were only about 10 bottles left. He even took Dr. Park to the wine cellar to take a look. They chatted about wine for quite a while. I could tell the owner is very much into wine.



The Bordeaux was $50/bottle. I think the owner was very excited to talk about wine with Dr. Park so he gave the two bottles to us for $40 each. The red wine was good in my opinion. It went really well with meat dishes.


Bread

The bread was cut into half. It was crusty and warm.


escargots de bourgogne ($8.00)

For starter, Dr. Park and I got escargots to share. A dozen shelled escargots perfectly done in butter and garlic. It was so good. The the garlic butter was perfect to dip the bread in.

We had a chat about escargots while eating. Where did these snails come from? Were they just regular snails that you can get in the garden? Or were they special kind of snails that people raised for food purpose only? Hmmm.... does anyone know the answer?


la gratinee a'loignon ($7.00)

We also ordered a French Onion Soup to share. The soup was very flavorful. The layer of gruyere cheese on top of the soup was delicious.


la cote de boeuf braisee ($17.00)

For main course, I ordered Braised Short Ribs. The short ribs was simmered in a cabernet sauvignon sauce. The meat was really tender. The red wine sauce was good at first, but it became salty the more I ate. I still like the dish, just wish the sauce wasn't as salty.


le jarret d agneau ($17)

Dr. Park ordered Braised Lamb Shank. It was tender, juicy, very tasty. Dr. Park really liked it. It came with a serving of pasta. Pasta was yummy with the sauce.


la bisque de homard ($10.00)

The rest were my friends' food. I passed around my camera and asked friends to take pictures of their own food. I really want to thank my patient friends for not touching their food until a picture was taken. Awww.... all my friends are so nice! I didn't taste all the dishes, but tried to ask friends' for their opinion. Enjoy the pictures!

This one was Andy's Lobster Bisque soup. The people who sat around Andy all commented how good the soup smelt when he took off the lid of the bowl.


la salade de poulet au sesame ($12.00)

Julie and Annie shared a grilled chicken salad. They finished all the salad but left the chicken. Hmmm.... I didn't ask why. But perhaps the chicken wasn't good?


le filet de porc a l'ancienne ($14.00)

This was pork loin with mustard sauce. Didn't know who had this. Didn't know how it tasted. The table was too long and I couldn't see the other side.... I had trouble talking to people from the other end of the table, too. Sharon even jokingly yelled from the other end of the table, "call me or text me, ok?"


le poisson du jour ($32.00)

Fish of the day was seabass. Again, didn't know who ordered it and didn't know if it was good or not. Though I was a little surprised that they paired fish with what looked like a red wine sauce. I thought fish always goes with white wine sauce? But it looked good in picture.


le napoleon ($11.00)

The birthday girl ordered Le Napoleon. It's layers of portabella mushrooms, herbs, tomatoes & spinach with balsamic glaze. Sybil doesn't eat meat on Friday so she ordered a vegetarian dish. She said the dish was very good.


le chaveux d anges auz crevettes ($16.00)

I had a bite of the shrimp angel hair pasta. It tasted kinda bland. The garlic cream sauce didn't have much taste. This dish definately need more flavor.


le steak au poivre ($19.00)

The two guys who sat accross from me both ordered this dish. Both guys said the grilled prime black angus sirloin tasted bitter. Then they both cut a little piece and asked me to taste it. Yes, it was bitter. The bitterness came from the dark burnt outer skin. The inner part of the steak was really good, but the bitter burn ruined it.


Bone-In Rib Eye ($35.00)

Bone-in rib eye was huge. It was tender, but had the same problem as the grilled sirloin. It wasn't as burnt as the sirloin though. So it tasted better.


le filet de sole aux amandes ($15.00)

Filet of Sole. Didn't know how it tasted like. Looked good though.


Chocolate Cake

Sybil loves chocolate. So of course the birthday cake was chocolate cake. This cake was from Porto's Bakery.



The chocolate mousse cake was divine. Sweet creamy smooth chocolate mousse. I took a bite and made me go "mmmmmmmmm ohhhhhhh ahhhhhhh woooooo yummmmm". All the girls seemed to react the same way with the cake. But all the guys took a bite and said "this is too sweet." I guess guys just don't know how to enjoy chocolate.

We brought our own cake. Later I saw on the bill that the restaurant charged $20 cake cutting fee. That was sorta expansive, no?



The meal came to about $45 per person. The restaurant was charming. Service was great. The owner was very friendly and attentive. Very nice and funny guy. And the price is reasonable. However, I felt the food still needs improvement. But we had a great time at the restaurant. Considering the restaurant was only opened for 2 months, we are willing to give it another try. Dr. Park and I will be back soon.



Awwww.... Sybil looks so pretty. Happy birthday, Sybil. I hope you like the dress. Take a picture with it and show me, yeah? ^_^



Finally got to see all my girl friends at Sybil's birthday dinner. Now everyone's so busy with our life that we hardly see each other like the old time. So good to see all of them. I knew these girls for as long as 13 years! Looking at this picture, I just wanna say "damn, all my friends look good!" Let's get together again soon, girls.

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