Title: Metro Lafayette
Author: GCS
Last saved by: Owner

Executive Chef Steve Jaramillo, formerly of Lalime/Berkeley, has left the Metro restaurants as of October 2014 

Metro Lafayette in Lafayette, CA – update, lunch
Sample menus only: http://www.metrolafayette.com/grafix/lunchMenu.pdf 
Review date: May 2014
(previous review appended below)

Metro Lafayette was one of the early new bistros to open in this Contra Costa County suburb, which has somehow become the best restaurant town on the northern side of CCCty. 

We first visited in February 2009 and again in January 2010. Our initial visit was excellent, but a gradual decline took Metro Lafayette down a full level. We decided we weren't interested in returning again; there were more interesting restaurants in the area to try.

Metro opened a branch, Metro Oakland, near our house. We tried them in July 2012 but didn't find it remarkable. 

But in Sept 2012 new exec chef Steve Jaramillo came on board. He revamped the menus to be more French oriented. When we tried Metro Oakland in revisits January and February 2014, we liked the new menu much better.

This put Metro Lafayette back on our radar, and with my MIL Inez along, we drove through the Caldecott Tunnel to try lunch. It was positively cold in Oakland, which meant the temperature was actually on the slightly cool side for Lafayette. Metro has a good patio area – not as secluded as Chevalier/Lafayette, but nonetheless a pleasant place in good weather. Almost everyone was sitting outside.

Carlos and I each chose a starter. I began with the carrot soup, drizzled with tarragon oil. The soup was very good, mild and not as sweet as some are. I shared some with Inez, who said she liked it.

Carlos chose the peach bruschetta. Four baguette toasts were spread with fresh chevre, then topped with caramelized onions and grilled slices of a Frog Hollow Farms peach. This was a good idea but in need of refinement. The bread was too thickly cut, which muted the good combination of flavors. The sprinkling of hazelnuts wasn't needed and the nuts would have been better finely chopped, instead of being left whole. As the nuts were untoasted, they also lacked the flavor they should have had. It was a shame, as the combination of mild goat cheese, sweet onions, and richly flavored tart-sweet peach was very tasty as a toast topping.

Inez decided on the fried chicken sandwich. She asked for the bread to be lightly toasted, and to our surprise the chicken was a pan-fried cutlet, not the currently popular batter-crusted cutlet. The menu listed fries and a cabbage-apple slaw, which instead was replaced by small thick slices of spiced apple, which Inez enjoyed as she loves fruit. She left off the top of the bun, but finished all the chicken, the lower half of the bun, and about a third of the fries. Living at Mercy Retirement Center has made a tremendous difference in improving her appetite and relieving depression.

I ordered the burger with Gruyere. Although I specified medium-rare, the burger was a definite medium. This was 5 Dot Ranch ground beef, which I find to be too lean unless mixed with additional fat. That wasn't the case here, and with the negative of not salting the mix before or after cooking, the burger was a hefty but tasteless and dry patty. The Gruyere was a good quality. The fries are excellent, another simple pleasure that makes us wonder why Tribune Tavern/Oakland makes such a good burger yet such hideously awful fries. 

Carlos had the fettuccine Bolognese, whose ragú was made with beef, pork, and prosciutto. It was very tasty and there was a generous amount of crumbled meat in it. One can always tell when Carlos really enjoys a pasta sauce; he doesn't bother putting any cheese on it. He liked this very much and said he would be happy to return for it.

We all shared the banana bread pudding with walnuts. It was one of the least sweet bread puddings we've ever had, and was a good accompaniment to good coffee. It doesn't rank with Pican's version, however, which jumped to first place the moment we put the first spoonful in our mouths.

Service was cheerful and reasonably efficient. We found Metro Lafayette to be worth coming back and trying dinner. It wasn't perfect, but it looks like chef Jaramillo is prodding it back in the right direction.

Three people, lunch: two starters, three entrées, one dessert, two beverages, with tip was $107.

Metro Lafayette (update, lunch) in Lafayette
Review date:  January 2010
(previous review appended below)

In February 2009 we reviewed Metro Lafayette for dinner, when Carlos and I stopped in on the way home after shopping in Concord. This time we were in the area and wanted to try lunch, so Inez, Carlos and I exited Hwy 24 at Lafayette’s tiny downtown.

Portions used to be surprisingly large here. They’ve trimmed them down a little, but the salads and soups are still very good. A little bit of the edge seems to have either faded, or perhaps they have a different cook at lunch. 

Still, it’s a nice bistro with good service, so they’re still on our list of preferred places.

Metro Lafayette
3524 Mount Diablo Blvd. (near First and Moraga Blvd.; in the Plaza Center), Lafayette
www.metrolafayette.com 
Review date:  February 2009

Metro was reviewed by Michael Bauer last year (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/28/CM58117EIV.DTL) so we were eager to try it. Bistros are a dime a dozen these days, even in the East Bay, but his review praised this place. We were off to Concord for a visit to Fry’s and Black Diamond Games (a must if you’re a wargamer, BTW) anyway, so Metro is right on the way home, off Hwy 24 in downtown Lafayette.

The winter menu has seen some changes from Bauer’s favs: the Provencal fish stew has given way to short ribs and petrale sole. A nice addition is that the pre fixe menu is a generous bargain of three courses for $35. This may not sound different than other places, but turned out to be a surprise.

Carlos and I both opted for the pre fixe, but we also wanted to try additional starters. He is a lover of soup, so he added the mushroom bisque with Port reduction along with a Caesar salad to his pre fix of duck spring rolls, black cod with rice cake, and chocolate cake.

Me being a beet lover, I opted for the extra of beet salad to go along with the pre fixe of shrimp cocktail, short ribs, and caramel pot de crème.

Mistake! Well, not from the tastebud point of view – everything ranged from good to excellent. The mistake was that we didn’t know the portions were extremely large for a bistro restaurant; this totally caught us by surprise!

Yes, it looks like just another bistro – albeit one that holds 300 people if you count the large terrace seating – but those small plate/appetizers verge on the heroic size that could easily be shared by two people. If we’d known the portions were so large, we wouldn’t have ordered anything extra…but then we would have missed some good food, so maybe it all evens out (we ended up taking food home, which doesn’t happen often when it’s just the two of us).

Mushroom bisque: lovely rendition, and the Port reduction was just right to give it a little lift out of the ordinary. I was afraid it would be too sweet, but it was just a light swirl on top, and thus perfect.

Caesar salad: a true housemade dressing, heavy on the garlic with a whisper of real anchovy. It has an extra filet placed on top, and Carlos, who is an anchovy lover, will next time ask for an second one! For me, grabbing a few bites off his plate, it was fine. The romaine was young, but also cut – not traditional, but easier to eat.

Chiogga and golden beet salad with goat cheese: the beets were perfect small quarters, roasted to sweetness and unencumbered by any dressing. The goat cheese was soft and plentiful, but I could have done without the sliced radishes. I couldn’t taste any dressing on them, and radishes to me are tasteless and uninteresting without any. The serving was really, truly generous – at most bistros the serving is half this size.

Shrimp cocktail: this was five very large, chilled shrimp with a simple but tasty cocktail sauce. Again, a larger serving than I was expecting!

Duck confit spring rolls with spicy lime dipping sauce: twice as thick as the ones served at Miss Pearl’s Jam House but similar in style, these are stuffed full of finely minced duck, greaselessly fried, and served with a couple of butter lettuce leaves and the dip. The dip is nicely tart and only mildly spicy. Consisting of two huge rolls cut in half, they are a substantial plate in themselves, and would be a generous appetizer for two people or a nice share for four!

Black cod with tempura mushrooms, scallion rice cake, and mizuna: Metro has changed the black cod dish, perhaps due to Bauer’s review. It is still a nice-sized, crisp-skinned piece. Now the rice cake is a substantial triangle; and the mizuna greens, if anything, had a bit too much ponzu dressing. I think the quality of Mua’s black cod is better, but Metro’s version is satisfying overall, and noticeably bigger than Mua’s.

Short ribs with horseradish mashed potatoes and crispy brussel sprouts: I love short ribs but Carlos doesn’t, so this is one of the things I’ll always order in restaurants. It was a good version, not great – could have used just a touch more cooking to go from tender to melting, but heated up as leftovers, it was sublime. The mashed potatoes only had the faintest touch of horseradish (good, in my view). The brussel sprouts were shredded and pan-fried with lots of diced pancetta. Even Carlos liked them, and usually I can’t get him to eat another of my favorite things. This entree was normal-sized, but I still had to take half of it home as I was too full.

Desserts are a weak point. They’re good, but somewhat heavy. Since the portions here are large, Metro could easily reduce the size and lighten up the recipes without offending anyone. 

The Valhrona chocolate cake was a nice moist cupcake which needed something more than the swirl of heavy peanut frosting spiraled atop. A dollop of whipped cream really would have been better and airier.

The caramel pot du crème even defeated me, and I usually yield to no one in my love for butterscotch pudding (which, despite the lovely name, is all this dessert really is). Sprinkled with fleur de sel (sea salt), it was divine, but just too large and rich to eat by oneself.

But we can’t complain about being served too much food for the price. And it was good food, good quality, beautifully presented, with wonderful service and attractive surroundings. I hated the chairs, but I always hate bistro chairs, so there’s nothing new about that, LOL.

Metro is a keeper. And if you are in the area, it deserves your business. It ain’t Boulevard, but honestly, nobody else is either. If we hadn’t over-ordered we would have gotten out of here for a dirt-cheap price, and these days, a great value is worth your patronage. This one, as Carlos said, stays on the list for repeats.

Dinner for two: two pre fixe (3 course), 3 starters, two beverages, with tip cost us $135. This would have easily fed three people, maybe even four!