So, if you have never visited Café Provencal, you should know that this charming spot on Thousand Oaks Blvd adjacent to the theatrical and City Plaza and The Lakes offers much more than that old time  conception of French restaurants with  haughtily served, over-priced, over-sauced rich French food that we remember from 15-20  years ago. In contrast Cafe Provencal satisfies today's contemporary palates .Owner Serge Bonnet, in fact, may even know more than UCLA or Chapman because Cafe Provencal now has added some tantalizing offers designed to soften our current economic problems. On Monday BYOB nights, corkage is free. House Wine is $10 a bottle.  On Friday, Saturday and Sunday  nights a glass of wine is on the house if you order one of the weekend specials.

Further, Cafe Provencal  may be one of the three most satisfying restaurants in Southern California that serves a wide range of sophisticated food while very strongly emphasizing seafood. The other two are in downtown Los Angeles and bring with them tabs of $200 a couple. or more. Amazingly, Café Provencal can deliver a complete gourmet meal including either soup or salad starting at about $25….And that‘s the truth.  Oh yeah if you want to upgrade to a very hearty cheese laden French Onion Soup, it is an extra $2.50

You see, the hands on (always present) Bonnet was raised in Marseilles midst its bountiful fresh fish supply of the Mediterranean... ...Thus Serge really knows fish. Every night he offers at least 6 choices of tantalizing and unique denizens of the sea prepared and beautifully presented in a fresh, contemporary manner.

You can choose from Sautéed Sand Dabs with Shrimp Sauce, Filet of Sole with Black Squid Ink Sauce, Poached Salmon with Leek, Carrot, Anis, Clams, Mussels and Shrimp, Seared Tuna over Sweet Chili Plum Sauce. Also nightly there is Bouillabaisse the pride of Marseilles with ½ lb. Maine Lobster. It is $35. Then there are always one or two specials such as the unique whitefish Escolar.

His equally unusual meat dishes also including soup or salad are priced from $24 to $33 and include Three Sauce Filet Mignon, Bison with a Bourbon Sauce, Stuffed Rack of Lamb, Double Deck Pork Chop with Cherries, Free Range Chicken stuffed with Mushrooms, Cheese and Spinach, and of course…….. another take on his  flavor loaded duck dishes. Currently it is Duck Breast with Fermented Figs and Wine Sauce. Oh Boy!!!!!

Wednesday and Thursday nights he also offers a 5 course tasting menu including 2 appetizers, a fish dish a meat dish, dessert and 3 matching wines for an amazing $45.  A meal like this on the “dreaded” Westside could easily be more than $90.

The lunch menu offers 7 salads.  The 3 course “Formule Express” lunch includes soup or salad, special fish or meat, dessert, coffee or iced tea. ($15.95) There is a short, well thought out and fairly priced wine list featuring domestic and French wines.

Service is adult, crisp, helpful, pleasant and professional. Serge is also one of the three great whirling dervishes of The Conejo.  Guess who the other two are?.

Desserts are always a pleasant surprise.

Bon Appetit!

Café Provencal 

          2310 E.Thousand Oaks Blvd    805 496 7121   Most Credit Cards
 

Convenient Free Parking (Walk to the Theater)  -   Reservations Suggested  

                   "Frankly" Noted 

        It's BBQ Time- Read This For the Single Best and Easy BBQ Tip

                Plus This Shocking Expose in the Fast Food Biz

                  Supersizing is Only Part of the Obesity Story 

                       There is a serious scandal of deceit.

First: The BBQ Tip- It is simple but very effective.

As we all know pre-heating the grill is essential for proper cooking. It  takes a lot of briquets or gas. Plus a clean grill is essential. 

This one act does both and costs about 5 cents per BBQ

Activate the grill, briquets or gas.  Tear off a sheet of aluminum foil slightly narrower than the length of the grill. Place it with the reflective side down over the burners or coals. Cover the grill.

This will reduce the preheating time by about half as it drives the heat back down into the body. Further it incinerates any residue left from  previous use. Now comes the only work.

After 10 or 15 minutes, open the grill. It will be preheated. Then pick up the aluminum foil and crumple it. I suggest you use a heat resistant glove. Use this crumpled foil as you would a wire brush to scrape off any previous residue.

Of course if you are among the most meticulous, you may also do this at the end of the previous cooking stint leaving the burners on at the end and placing the foil as described.

The heat does most of the job but the foil is much better than a brush and is thrown away each time so you are effectively using a clean utensil instead of scraping with a brush that has junk on it from years of previous use.

After doing this about 100 times you will have spent the same amount on aluminum foil as you would spend for a wire brush and you will have a much cleaner grill.

That's the good news.

This bad news is disgusting.

As you all know, we refuse to review the "dreaded" chain eateries that have inundated us since none of them offer dining. They only  offer eating and at every level seem to be the top cause of obesity in this country with super-sizing.   At the extreme levels think Cheesecake Factory and Claimjumper.

Well now it gets even worse. Many of them seem to be calorie and fat liars. Scripps Howard Television (which is associated with our own Ventura County Star)  has a vested interest  in fine food since they operate The Food Channel. Well they  recently surveyed 23 supposed diet plates  in places like Applebees, Macaroni Grill, Chili's, Taco Bell (think Westlake Blvd) plus the above,

In 78% of the cases, the fat content exceeded the menu specs ranging from 33% more to in some cases 400% more. Calories exceeded listed diet menu specs in 65% of the cases ranging from 10% to 100%.

Macaroni Grill was the most egregious. It's Skinny Chicken was supposed to have 500 calories but it actually had over 1,000. Fat content was listed as 6 but contained 49.

Brinker's International owns Macaroni Grill and another culprit-On The Border.  The management when confronted apologized and said they strive to make their nutritional information accurate.

Other News

The Four Seasons Hotel - Many folks around town call this "Murdoch's Folly " . It is hard to tell what he was thinking. The hotel that looks like his office building does not seem to be producing any kind of return on investment. His highly touted head chef at Hampton's is gone, replaced by the sous chef.

However they do keep trying. Thus they have reinstated 1/2 price Tuesdays and  Wednesdays  at the Onyx Sushi Bar. You can start out with a drink at the lovely outside patio  and stay there or move inside to watch the sushiyas do their magic or just sit at an inside table. Call to confirm that it is still in effect.

It all may be their misfortune but a fortunate bargain for you to visit a 5 star Hotel and dine in romantic and exquisite surrounding while putting just a small dent in your credit card. There is valet parking (as well as open parking as you enter.

Reservations may be crucial .  805-575-3000.

They validate that valet parking but it still  costs  $5 

Wolfgang Puck has opened a Bistro across from the Four Seasons. Wolfie is a very nice guy and very charitable. But why???

His team seems to be offering the same food court menu that they  had at the dismal Topanga Plaza 20 years ago that then featured Chinese Chicken Salad and Pizza. He may have made the same mistake, in a different way, that Murdoch made.

Can you see the still very limited number of people that are paying the large Four Seasons tab walking across the street to associate with the Mall Pizza eaters of the Conejo and their kids? Even if it is a wood burning oven that may offer the famed  smoked salmon pizza of Sunset Blvd. But maybe he is right. He certainly has to be better by accident  than the dreaded 4 chain joints on the corner of Westlake and Thousand Oaks Blvd.  

The long term owner of The Sagebrush Cantina died recently.