Hits and Misses at a Kirkwood Classic

Café Provencal offers a warm and charming respite from the chain restaurants that dot a stretch of Kirkwood Road north of Interstate 44. Inside the cozy restaurant, the neon signs and blaring billboards fade, and diners feel transported to a cottage sitting atop a little bluff overlooking the coast of southern France. The table is spread with simple, rustic food made with staples from the Provence region: olives, tomatoes, eggplant, garlic, anchovies, herbs and fresh seafood. The wine list is all French, with several options by the glass, and the succinct menu of six or so starters and mains, plus a couple of soups and salads, nods a little to the seasons. From one visit to the next, several autumnal dishes had been added to the menu, but, essentially, it’s not about market-driven fare. It’s more about emulating the cuisine of southern France. And the kitchen has mastered some of those quintessentially Provençal favorites. Escargot, served bubbling-hot, swim in a vibrant green, supergarlicky, buttery, herby pool and are pleasantly tender. Onion soup has a thick and melty Gruyère gratinée. The dish is comforting and rich, and spooning though the gooey cheese to find the velvety broth and tender, sweet onions is satisfying. Nibbling at the crisped Gruyère that has melted down the side of the crock is just as good. The choucroute garni is also a winner. It’s hearty with grilled pork loin, chicken sausage, sauerkraut and potatoes. The loin was perfectly salty, and the sausage made a snapping sound when I bit in. Both were juicy and succulent with yummy charred bits. Other dishes were fine but could be made better with a little salt here, a dash of bright herbs there. Mussels in a garlic, fennel and white-wine broth tasted fresh and were cooked just right – plump and tender. But the broth was too delicate, and I couldn’t taste any fennel. A little more seasoning and a heftier hit of green herbs to finish, and the dish would have been vastly improved. Boeuf en daube, a classic wine-braised beef stew, was full of red-wine flavor. But some chunks of beef were tender, while others erred on the dry side, and the liquid hadn’t been sufficiently reduced. Reducing a braising liquid to order can be tricky: Reduce it too little and it’s watery; too much can mean a salty or burnt braise. It’s even harder when a cook is busy. This was too watery; ordered on a rainy and very slow Tuesday night, it could have been perfect. Other dishes missed the mark completely. A smoked trout starter, served with a traditional garnish of red onion, cornichon, capers and mustard, was very tough and tasted too fishy. A Salade Niçoise entrée seemed about 90 percent lettuce, 5 percent hunk of tuna and 5 percent green beans, potatoes, hard-cooked egg and olives. When you are paying over $130 for dinner for two, excellent service is mandatory. On a Saturday night, we waited more than 30 minutes for a table we had reserved. Our server stopped at our table only once in the half hour after we were seated. While the servers are friendly, they seemed undertrained in fine-dining service and uninformed about the food and wine they were serving. The servers spent a lot of time fraternizing at the server’s station while we sat, waiting. We left disappointed. The cozy atmosphere and generally good food have sustained this place for years. But fine-dining restaurants in St. Louis are stepping up their game, and Café Provencal seems to be lagging behind. Seeking out experienced servers and giving them ongoing training, along with more care and vitality from the kitchen, would bring the restaurant back up to pace. BACK FOR SECONDS Don’t-miss dish: Escargot and onion soup. Vibe: Casually cozy. Average entrée price: $19 Where: Café Provencal, 427 S. Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood, 314.822.5440 When: Lunch: Mon. to Fri. – 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.; Dinner: Mon. to Thu. – 5 to 10 p.m., Fri. and Sat. – 5 to 11 p.m.