 Le
Cafe de Paris
restaurant
is located in
downtown
Fort Lauderdale's
hip Las Olas Boulvard. Located nearby is the beautiful
Riverfront Esplanade, a several mile long walkway along the New
River connecting Las Olas
to the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art at
Huezenga Plaza,
the
Broward Center for the Performing Arts and the Museum of
Science and Discovery.
Louis Flematti opened Le
Cafe de Paris restaurant nearly 50 years ago and it immediately
became one of Fort Lauderdale's most popular restaurants. Since
opening in 1962, the restaurant has grown into three dining
rooms and an outdoor cafe along Las Olas Boulevard. The
atmosphere is completed by the old world French decor, the
superior service and the classic French Cuisine.
Widely
regarded as one of the most authentic French restaurants South
of the Mason-Dixon line, we found the menu to be a cornucopia of
French food. The menu includes Chicken breast Francaise served
in shallot butter with angel hair pasta, Duck a l'orange
with wild rice, Veal Francaise with shallots, lemon butter,
capers and a mushroom risotto, an 8 oz Steak Dianne that is a
butterflied filet mignon served with a bordelaise sour cream
sauce, vegetable, and lyonnaise potatoes,
Filet au poivre,
an 8 ounce filet mignon with black peppers sauce, vegetable,
lyonnaise potatoes and our favorite, Beef Wellington, a nice
sized filet mignon, baked in puff pastry served with bordelaise
sauce, vegetable and lyonnaise potatoes. And of course there is
the famous Chateaubriand bouquetiere.
 The
menu also contains crepes made with vegetables, chicken or
seafood. Most Americans are a unfamiliar with crepes as entrees,
but one crepe is famous, the Crepe Suzette made with bananas,
strawberries or blueberries.
Many of the meals are served
for two and bottle of wine can be purchased for a very
reasonable price.
We have found the Beef Wellington to be one of our favorite
meals in South Florida. The puff pastry surrounding the filet
mignon never ceases to amaze at how dry it stays while
surrounding such a moist and tender piece of meat. I often
wonder if they somehow slip the meat in after the puff pastry is
cooked. The Bordelaise sauce is perfectly seasoned and not too
salty, something I have noticed in other not so fine French
restaurants. The Duck a l'Orange comes in a close second and
offers a lighter meal for those not looking to fill up on red
meat.
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