French Fries, French Dressing, French Bread, and Perrier

I wish this post was about Better Off Dead.  I can never see it enough.  This line from the movie popped in my head when I was thinking about French food.

Lauri and I went to Picholine for a little French food.  I had never heard of this restaurant until Adam Platt included it in his list of 101 best restaurants in NYC.  I was already in the UWS so we decided to plan a meal around the location.

I feel like we were seated in the less fancy room but we had a great view from the back corner of what was going on the restaurant. We had a lovely view of a couple where the man was touped out.  We also had a group of 3 women near us who used their camera flashes all night.  The service was nice but the back room reminded us of a bad hotel dining room.  We walked through the front room on the way out and felt like we missed something special. 

Lauri started to take pictures with a flash so I followed her lead.  The food really does look better with the extra light.

I started with the House Made Burrata with heirloom tomatoes, compressed watermelon, and anchoiade.  I seek the opportunity to eat watermelon whenever possible.  The burrata was nice and I liked it with the fresh ingredients.

Lauri ate the Vegetable Salad with parmesan textures and a herbal bath.  She wanted something healthy before digging into the Four Story Hills Farm Suckling Pig with kale, cipollini aigre-doux and black garlic coulis.  Her pork was amazing. . It was very rich but incredibly tender.  I was more impressed with the pork than with my dish - the halibut.

The Halibut "en croute" with peas "a la Francaise," onion, and rhubarb-mint jus.  I ordered this purely for the jus.  I really wanted to taste the rhubarb and it was a nice settle accompaniment to the fish.  I could have even used a more sour jus to push the limits a little more.

We split our two desserts but I forgot to take a picture of the Apricot Tart Tatin with blueberry meringue, basil ice cream and almond snow.  The basil ice cream with the tart was incredible.  It was my favorite dessert by far because the flavors were perfect for a summer night.  We chose the Chocolate Textures dessert with milk chocolate flan, bittersweet chocolate mousse, and confiture de lait because we love chocolate.  It was good but not revelatory like the apricot tart.