Le Grand Bistro and Oyster Bar

Le Grand just opened in June of this year, and soared to the top of my wish list ever since I tasted their pickled oyster and salmon-on-a-potato-chip small bites at 5280 Dines a couple months ago.

Le Grand claims it offers "everyday French comfort food," but it also prides itself on serving a variety of fresh, raw oysters.

Styled like a Parisian brasserie, Le Grand is a large, roomy restaurant, with numerous tables and booths, and a banquet room in back. The interior is a bit darkly lit, with tile floors and deep-red walls decorated by whimsical farm animal drawings.

We arrived with another couple on a Saturday night, with reservations for 6:30 pm. Their dinner menu was extensive. Diners can choose between six different oyster varieties, numerous other seafood bar options, small plates, large plates, charcuterie, and cheeses. Oh, and desserts.

We started with two each of the Kumamotos ($3.5 each) and Malpeque ($2.5 each) oysters.

Oysters: Kumamotos and Malpeque

They were served on the half shell with lemon, horseradish, mignonette sauce, and cocktail sauce. If I were along the coast somewhere, I'd have guessed the oysters were plucked from the ocean earlier that day. But clearly I was actually in Denver, and I just have to marvel at how fresh the oysters tasted that far inland.

We also split three different charcuterie: Head Cheese ($4), Rabbit Rillette ($4), and Foie Gras Mousse ($9).
 

Head Cheese

Cooked from pork cheeks, the head cheese was packed with a multitude of ingredients and flavors. It was flavored with garlic, shallots, and many other herbs and spices, including what tasted like allspice. I am by no means a head cheese expert, but I felt it was just too many flavors in each bite.

Rabbit Rillete

The rabbit rillette was made of rabbit confit and duck fat, and flavored with chives and sea salt. It had a texture like a thick gravy, with tiny pieces of the rabbit confit throughout. Spreading it on the toasted bread made for a rich, satisfying bite of saturated fat.

Foie Gras Mousse

The Foie Gras mousse was made with Hudson Valley foie gras, Sauturnes (yeah I had to look that up, it's a sweet French wine), and heavy cream. Like the rillete, it was extremely rich, with a smooth, velvety texture. More saturated fat heaven.

We split the Jarret D’agneau Braisé ($25), which basically translated to braised lamb shank.

Braised Lamb Shank

The lamb was served alongside parsnip puree, baby carrots, and pearl onions. The meat was cooked perfectly to very tender, and easily fell off the bone with some help from a fork. The lamb was complimented with the flavors of the starchy parsnips and sweet carrots and onions.

Unlike Le Central and Pierre Michel, which both serve giant, American-sized portions, I was pleased that Le Grand stuck to more traditional French serving sizes. The small quantities were perfect for the rich, flavorful food offered.

While the food was very good, service was generally slow and disorganized (I seem to be echoing a million Yelp reviewers on this point). Our waitress was often hard to track down, and we had multiple servers bringing bread, plates, drinks, and food to the table.

We had sat down at 6:30, with plans to head to Comedy Works a couple blocks away for an 8:30 show. Our entrees didn't arrive until about 7:50, and that was after notifying our waitress that we had a dinner deadline. Fortunately the waitstaff kicked into high gear when we told them about the show, and we made it to Comedy Works without issue.

Regretfully, having to rush out for our show meant we couldn't try the intriguing-looking Foie Gras Creme Brulee dessert.

Le Grand was a great spot for authentic French food, but they need to work on the clunky service.

Casual Dining

(7 of 10)

Pros: Excellent food, loved the ambiance and decor. Oysters were extremely fresh.
Cons: Slow, disorganized service

Website:
http://www.legranddenver.com/

Vesta Dipping Grill

Vesta has been a LoDo staple for an extraordinary 14 years, debuting when LoDo was just beginning to carve itself out of an industrial section of downtown Denver, and withstanding constant growth and turnover in the busy area since then. Vesta has long been considered one of Denver's best restaurants, and 5280 Magazine recently put it at the tail end of their 2011 Top 25 Restaurants list.

We made our way through the bar-hopping Lodo crowd to Vesta's location at 18th and Blake last Saturday night. The interior feels very urban and hip, with brick walls, high ceilings, and dark lighting.

My husband and I met up with a couple of friends (ok yes the same bunch we keep eating out with). We started off with drinks and complimentary bread served with roasted garlic; the garlic was an unexpected and unique touch.

If you're wondering about the restaurant's name, Vesta refers to itself as a "dipping grill" because all entrees come with three of Vesta's signature sauces.

But before jumping into entrees, the four of us started with several appetizers and small bites.

First up was the Vesta Roll ($12):

Vesta Roll

The menu claims the tuna is "sesame seared", but it tasted completely raw to me (which was fine). I enjoyed the large chunks of tuna in each bite and the crunchy exterior.

Their appetizer special of the day, Scallop Ceviche ($10):

Scallop Ceviche

The scallops were served with heirloom cherry tomatoes and saltines for serving. I wasn't totally impressed with the saltines, but apparently it is a traditional ceviche accompaniment. Otherwise, the scallops had a wonderful firm texture and citrus bite.

Next up were the Superior Farms Lamb Ribs ($10):

Superior Farms Lamb Ribs

The ribs were coated in a tangy yogurt sauce and a pistachio-mint rub that I absolutely loved.

We also had the Chinese BBQ Pork Belly (each $2):

Chinese BBQ Pork Belly

The belly pieces were topped with orange slices, yuzu mayonnaise, and sisho. The small portion made for a very tasty small bite, which was balanced out by the tangy citrus flavors.

As an entree, I ordered the Sofrito Braised Short Rib ($26):

Sofrito Braised Short Rib

The Southern-inspired dish included garlic rainbow chard, manchego polenta (in layman's terms, cheesy grits), and a bath of smoked paprika jus. The ribs were perfectly cooked to fork-tender.

The suggested sauces, which I had with the dish (not pictured), were green chili gastrique, bacon aioli, and Steuben's chimichurri. The aioli had all the creamy, smoky goodness you would expected from something called "bacon aioli"; the chimichurri was traditional and my favorite accompaniment to the meat. The gastrique had an unusual sweet-and-spicy flavor profile, but I felt it was just too sweet.

My husband ordered the Boneless Berkshire Pork Chop ($24):

Boneless Berkshire Pork Chop

This Southwest-style plate contained adobada pork chop served with pulled pork chilaquiles and jalapeno cabbage slaw. Every bite was just as good as it looks.

The chilaquiles had a very different flavor and texture profile than my chilaquiles at Salt a few weeks back, but it tasted even better. It included a base of soft corn tortillas instead of crispy corn chips. Like my short ribs, the pulled pork was incredibly tender.

The pork chop was very well cooked, and seasoned to allow the natural pork flavor to come through. The colorful accompanying sauces were the suggested salsa verde, mango poblano salsa, and roasted corn.

To finish off all that protein, we ordered the French Toast ($7) and the Dark Chocolate Boca Negra ($8) for desserts.

French Toast

The French Toast came with cinnamon ice cream, whipped cream, and fresh raspberries. The accompanying sauces were strawberry cointreau, hot fudge, and creme anglaise.  It was a disappointing dessert. The French Toast was soggy and bland, made with a plain white bread. The ice cream had an icy texture.

Dark Chocolate Boca Negra

The intimidating-sounding Dark Chocolate Boca Negra - a rich, dense dark chocolate cake - was outstanding. Every bite was decadent hyperglycemic bliss. The cake came with the same dipping sauces as the French Toast, which were all very good but not necessary with the cake.

The only problem with the sauces for all our entrees and desserts? The dishes were already so well seasoned that they didn't need a lot of extra punch; I felt a little overwhelmed with the flavors of so many sauces.

With all the dishes we tried, every bite of meat or seafood at Vesta was high quality, perfectly cooked and expertly seasoned. Keep in mind, however, that between all the food we ordered and the various drinks we washed it down with, our meal at Vesta ended up being fairly expensive.

Vesta seems to suffer from a perception of becoming outmoded among a burgeoning Denver restaurant scene, but their fantastic food should withstand the test of time.


Casual Dining

 (8 of 10)

Pros: Overall great food
Cons: Didn't care for one of the desserts, expensive


Website:
http://www.vestagrill.com