“Tired” is the word that comes to mind when I think about my evening spent at Le Perigord, which is nestled in the heart of Sutton Place. Every thing about the evening was just so pathetically dreary and tiring.

There was no real “welcome” when we entered the restaurant. We were ushered to our table and just kind of left there for quite some time  with the menus till we asked for someone to come and take our order. The general air of all the servers was brusque. And even the little charm that I thought the place had in its simple table setting wore off by the time the appetizers were done. For the rest of the meal – I just kept hearing the “tick-tock” of a clock….when will this be done?

Obviously at Le Perigord, all customers are not treated the same. There were warm welcomes for the older clientele that kept rolling in and minimal greetings for any younger ‘uns’ who chanced to walk in. For the rest of the evening we were practically ignored. Graciousness and charm are two words that just do not apply to this restaurant.

The food was good in spurts but just not very creative and the presentation was terrible. The highlight of my meal was the garnish – yes the GARNISH of salad that came with my appetizer and entree. It was very tasty and it woke my palate up, but alas only for a moment till that tick-tock clock started again.

Thankfully, we went during Restaurant week as I would not recommend wasting your money at this has-been French restaurant. A city like New York offers you so much more in it’s every nook and cranny! Believe me, I spent the whole evening wishing we had just eaten at the friendly neighborhood Shwarma cart!!

Here is some of what we ate:

VEGETABLE TARTE

This vegetable tarte with tangy butter sauce was very light and airy – kind of like a crustless quiche but it got quite monotonous by the time I finished the dish. I didn’t like the crust at the end – it was chewy and tasteless.

COUNTRY PATE

I thought their country pate du chef with celeri remoulade and ratatouille was pretty bad. They did have a soup that might have been a much better option.

FILET OF SALMON

The filet of salmon baked in puff pastry with tomato tarragon sauce “Choron” sounded delicious and the salmon was very nicely cooked. The tomato tarragon sauce was not very good though and the spinach that accompanied the dish was bitter.

BAY SCALLOP RISOTTO

We tried the bay scallops with vegetable risotto. I thought the scallops themselves were very good but the risotto was inedible. It tasted undercooked – almost raw to me.

DESSERTS

There is nothing worse than going to a french restaurant and ending your meal with bad dessert. Their floating island with vanilla “crème anglaise” sauce sounded interesting and the “crème anglaise” sauce was quite good – but the  island they created in middle of the plate couldn’t float my boat!

The Chocolate mousse with Grand Marnier sauce was quite nice. I thought the Grand Marnier sauce was very good  but I felt that it would have been nice to dress this dessert up a little.

My ratings for this meal:

Food: ☆☆1/2

Ambiance: ☆☆

Service: ☆

Price: $$$$

Overall experience: ☆☆

I recommend: Filet of salmon baked in puff pastry with tomato tarragon sauce “Choron”, Chocolate Mousse with Grand Marnier sauce