Dinner Review: Encore Bistro

by Paula Eisenberg

(September 6, 2002) In this space recently, Encore's lunch offerings received a rather negative review, based on several meals over a couple of months. The food was disappointingly ordinary, still a cut above other lunch places in the area, but definitely showing slippage from the restaurant's earlier days.

A return visit was in order, this time for dinner. Good news! Encore's chef has returned to earlier glories, producing fine examples of the best of the French bistro tradition.

From the regular menu, assiette de saumon et truite fumés is a flavorful duo of smoked salmon and trout, with a light, garlicky mayonnaise sauce, arranged over mesclun greens. The fish, while pleasantly chewy, was not dried-out, as it was on previous occasion. Mild garlic sausage, a special appetizer, arrived on a bed of mesclun greens.

Sautéed coquilles Saint Jacques, with a light provençale sauce, used fat, juicy sea scallops, cooked perfectly al dente. Encore has always served decorative vegetables with the main course, and these tasted as good as they looked. Small, buttery batons of zucchini and carrot accompanied a timbale of fresh-tasting couscous, always a welcome change from potatoes.

The grilled pork chop, served with cornichons and a Dijon mustard sauce, was plain, but plainly delicious. This is good, solid home cooking, or rather, it's home cooking if your mère happens to be a talented French chef with the freshest ingredients and a professional kitchen at her disposal.

There are few more pleasant ways to spend a warm late-summer evening than sitting at one of Encore's sidewalk tables, enjoying the excellent, simple food.