Author: jean komatsu
Last saved by: ENU

La Sen Bistro
2002 Salvio St., Concord, CA
http://www.lasenbistro.com/menu.html
Review date: April 2014

La Sen Bistro of Concord is the former Rose Bistro of Berkeley, relocated through the Caldecott Tunnel into Contra Costa County where diners are (slightly) less price-sensitive. It is so discreetly signed we had to park the car, get out and walk down the street counting store addresses to find it. It's a short half block from Todos Santos Plaza, not far from the Fry's Electronics in Concord (which immediately locates it in the minds of every geek we know).

Surprisingly small but with a big bar in the open rectangular floor plan, I'd imagine the noise level must be deafening after work or on weekends. It's clean-lined contemporary, all fashionable ebony wood with handsome uncomfortable chairs and surprisingly spacious tables.

La Sen is French food interpreted by Vietnamese. It's almost more Continental than French – I certainly can't think of any other French restaurant we've gone to where beef lasagne and a prosciutto sandwich would be on the lunch menu. 

Free bread is brought to the table. It's a soft-crumbed, medium-crisp crusted baguette, served with what tastes like a combination of mayonnaise and chimichurri. It's tart and refreshing, and we enjoyed it. 

I started with the Salade de Crabe - Dungeness crab cake with mixed greens, cherry tomatoes & honey vinaigrette. This was a small, creamy crabcake, breadcrumbed and deep-fried. The crab was good, not great; it had everything from chopped olives to red bell peppers added, along with a lot of mayonnaise, so it was really more a fried patty of crab salad than crabmeat filling. 

Still, it was a tasty little addition to a small mixed green salad with a honey mustard dressing. It all made for a delicious, properly sized salad for one. I would be happy to order this again.

Carlos chose two starters: the Caesar and the French onion soup. A demerit to La Sen for bringing him both at once, but the soup stays hot in its casserole. He started with the Caesar, which he liked very much. He said for once he could actually taste the anchovies, which is a rare enough event to be worth noting. None of this nonsense of lemon juice being viewed as a substitute for those tasty little salted fish!

The French onion soup was the classic style, although La Sen uses Emmentaler cheese instead of Gruyere. Carlos said the cheese was excellent, and the broth was as good as the recent version served to us by French Garden/Sebastopol. He really liked the balance of this soup, saying the onions were good but not overpowering, and the salt level was just right. 

For my entrée, I chose the Entrecôte Frite, a Rib-Eye Steak with shallot sauce served with garlic pommes frites. For the price I assumed this was a small steak, and what came was a very thin, boneless rib-eye. I was surprised, in fact, that they managed to get it a perfect medium-rare with a good crust, when it was less than 1/2" thick. The French fries were good although not great, but the sauce made this dish. 

The dark sauce was easy to overlook at first, although it lightly coated the plate underneath the steak. It wasn't salted, and the French fries actually overwhelmed it. But the sauce showed much better with the rib-eye, and it really came out with plain bread. It was a very fine, subtle (maybe too much so) red-wine shallot sauce, and by the time I finished this dish I was enjoying it. The steak wasn't remarkable, but in combination with the bread and sauce it was very satisfying.

Carlos debated over the "lambwich" sandwich, but eventually chose the prosciutto sandwich. Although listed as prosciutto with goat cheese, avocado spread, lettuce & tomato on a thin whole-grain bun with choice of mixed green salad or garlic fries, he received something different. The raw prosciutto was layered with a melted cheese, something mild like a Jack, the avocado spread tasted more like a pesto aioli, and the whole-grain bun had turned into a white bun which seemed identical to the Mexican telera we enjoy with La Calacas Loca's/Oakland excellent burger.

He felt the bun was too heavy for the prosciutto, which was a very good quality. He liked the sandwich, but thought that because the prosciutto wasn't salty, the heartiness of the bread – which works fine with a spicy burger – overwhelmed the filling.

Inez was with us as we planned to run some errands on this side of the Tunnel. We skipped ordering any starter for her, but chose the Gâteau de Crabe entrée as it has everything she enjoys most. This plate had two good-sized crab cakes with roasted sweet potato, seasonal vegetables served with tartar sauce. The menu listed it as "drizzled with balsamic reduction" but we saw no evidence of it, nor was it needed. The veggies were fresh haricot verts and sliced carrots, with the sweet potatoes in quartered chunks. This was a sizable plate, but she finished almost all of it. Her appetite has improved tremendously since her move to Mercy Retirement Center, which we are happy to see.

Carlos finished with an excellent cappuccino, which tasted similar to Flying Goat although not quite the same. I had the decaf coffee, which was strong if not especially fresh, and we shared the espresso custard.

The custard wasn't a great dessert. Set in a small gratin cup, it was a thin layer of bittersweet dark chocolate that was more to the sweet side. Neither of us liked the texture of this; it was more a disk of soft chocolate than a custard. It was also too cold out of the refrigerator, topped with a pouf of light whipped cream, a sliced strawberry and a few fresh blueberries. Inez was happy to eat the whipped cream and fruit, and Carlos and I shared the chocolate.

We liked La Sen, and will put it on our list to try for dinner. Carlos doesn't think it ranks as well as Chapeau!, but the food was good Cal-French and worth exploring further. 

Three people, lunch: three starters, three entrées, one dessert, three beverages, with tip was $97.