La Moulerie

Sep
15
2009

La Moulerie – Back To Bernard Street

The 411

A while ago I made a claim that I had been to all of the brunch places on Bernard, but it turns out that I was wrong. I discovered that not only did other places decide to serve brunch since my statement but I had also actually missed some. One of which was La Moulerie, a popular place for dinner that everyone with whom I have spoken with who has eaten dinner there was very satisfied. Plus, the bonus that they do sea food and the thought of combining it with brunch made my mouth water. So making sure to not to let a chance like this pass me by, a decision to check out La Moulerie was made and the question would be, will it’s reputation for a good meal apply to brunch?

At 1st glance

Situated at the corner of Bernard and Champagneur, La Moulerie is on the other corner of one the busier strips of restaurants offering brunch. You can’t miss it with its larger green façade as well as it’s outdoor terrace and chalkboard menu outside. The inside is glassed off and well lit, but we ended up staying on the terrace since it was sunny.

Food

The menu is a one-page sheet that has some basic choices covering some options. The egg section ranges from $11 to $13 and will have options such as a basic egg dish ($11) any style, eggs Benedict ($13) and four choices of omelettes ($13). The crepe section has three options priced between $10 to $13; the plain crepe option ($10) comes with 5 crepes and for $10 that’s a decent price; and the fruit crepe and cheese crepe has ham and béchamel sauce on it for $13. There is also an option of having real maple syrup for $3.

Lastly there is a bagel section with plain bagels priced at $3, bagels with cream cheese and jam for $8, bagels & cream cheese dish ($15). The California bagel dish ($14) seems interesting since it comes served with avocados. There is also a Greenwich village plate ($17) which is comprised of a bagel, smoked salmon, cream cheese, olives, Spanish onions, tomatoes and capers. This last dish is very similar to the smoked salmon dish which is 2 dollars cheaper and is only missing capers, onions and olives and if you think about it its not really worth the extra two dollars. I feel these items to be redundant.

To be honest, I think this menu is too limited being that there’s no waffles, no smoked salmon eggs benedict,, no health menu and the crepe option only has 3 items and at 4 omelette choices, I consider it to be the bare minimum. In fact, the image in the top left is the size of the egg section, and I would have preferred that they spent their efforts in putting some food choices in there as opposed to an image.

Now that menu has been judged, let’s see what our plates have to offer. My friend had the basic egg dish ($11) which came with 2 eggs, sausage, baguette sliced bread, cubed potatoes, and a side dish of salad. The bread was different and was a nice touch, the eggs were ok and the sausage was good. I did not like the potatoes because they were not tasty at all and in fact, were flat out bland. I would also like to mention that I have learned that when they give you a side of salad for brunch there is a good chance they are using it to make up for a lack of something else and in this plate it seemed that the salad was used to justify the price which, if it was a dollar or two less maybe people would not mind passing up on the salad. Plus, to be honest, it wasn’t that good anyways. I ordered the fruit crepe dish ($13) which came with a half dozen thin crepes that looked nice and golden with slightly crispened edges (ok I’m impressed…continue) and a side of mixed fruit with watermelon, red and green grape, strawberries, cantaloupe, banana, pineapple, mango and peeled oranges. The fruit selection was varied and it was fresh and tasty although I would have liked a little more fruit, I mean I counted four green grapes and four banana slices, would it have killed someone to pile it up nice and tall? I tried the crepes both with and without the maple syrup and trust me the maple syrup is necessary- the crêpes alone were bland and desperately lacking in the taste department which is a real shame because they looked so good and there were six of them.

Service

The service was mediocre. There were small things like our table not being cleaned until after we were seated, some cutlery was missing, our waitress did not stay outside long and failed to check up on us which made the service less than acceptable. It may have been because it was cold that morning but if you have a terrace and people sit on it, then please check up on them.

Vegetarian

There are a handful of vegetarian option especially in the crepe section and there are a few dishes with smoked salmon if you eat fish. Although, as for vegan options you’re out of luck

Wrap up

I was disappointed with La Moulerie. I felt the plates were un-inspiring, the plating was normal and overall not worth what they were charging. I was expecting something more impressive because of the hype built up around it’s dining experience and for plates priced at $13 and $14 I felt they could have tried harder. They could have made the fruit presentation fancier, offering more than a bit of lettuce with a plate and have fancier potatoes… I mean the taste was average, but it could have done so much more and when looking at the bill I felt that I paid too much for what I got.