Le Bilboquet is a terrific new addition to Dallas dining
New Yorkers have long enjoyed the always crowded but exquisite French bistro. the bilboquet on East 63rd Street near Madison on the Upper East Side. He has now come to Dallas, not in name only, but accompanied by his wonderfully gifted chef and some of his New York staff. He occupies that venerable space on Travis in the Knox/Henderson area that has long been dedicated to fine French cuisine, the late and much missed. The Ancient.
When I first saw the dazzling advertisement for those of bilboquet new opening in North Texas in the 2013 Restaurant Edition of modern luxury dallas (ranking it second of the “Five Most Exciting New Restaurants” in Dallas and giving it a breathless review), I didn’t make the New York connection and mistakenly read it as “The Library” French for “library” or sometimes even “bookseller”, or most memorably in “the National Library of France” which is France’s equivalent of our National Archives in Washington.
No, this beautiful new Dallas gem of a restaurant, the bilboquet, It is named after that lovely French childhood game where you try to turn a ball into a string into a cup into a stick, a stick that has one end of the string attached to it. There is an American version of the game in which the string is replaced with a tough elastic band, making the moving ball much more difficult to catch in the cup. So that’s the meaning of bilboquet.
How the restaurant space has changed! And for the better! anyone i remember the ancient you will find inside the bilboquet unrecognizable. Gone are the gruesome images of ancient ancestors on the walls. The walls themselves, in fact, are gone. They have been opened up and replaced with large clear glass windows that allow for wonderful North Texas natural light. Tables are smaller (and perhaps too close together), and the average age of diners has dropped from 70 to 30. In short, everything you can remember about the place in Travis has been transformed, and much for the better.
The interior is as wonderfully classic as the food, and I was pleased to find bright white tablecloths, fresh-cut flowers on every table, and, of course, an unexpected bath of natural light. The chef from New York the bilbouquet, “Momo” Sow, has moved to Dallas with some of his key associates, and the results are spectacular. The food is solid Parisian bistro fare, with a suspicion of Momo’s great appreciation for novelle cuisine and his own distinctive multinational style, but always with a strong French accent.
My partner and I started with a light appetizer, crab and avocado salad, which was delicious and flavorful without being filling. The piece of crab meat fresh from the ocean, tossed with thinly sliced spring onions, a hint of lemon in the whipped mayonnaise, and of course avocado and some greens – chopped lettuce and celery. It was like out of this world.
For the starter we both chose a dish of veal cooked in a light lemon sauce, veal chop with lemon, perhaps the most tender morsels of beef I’ve had in the last year, in a delicate sauce and served with a fresh salad and, of course, properly cooked French fries (I can’t bear to call them “french fries” than in America are usually cooked in vegetable oil, which makes them tasteless, even if they are supposedly “good for your heart”). It was nice to have the salad served with the main course, rather than before. The veal was simply excellent, because Momo understands that the most important thing to remember about tasty veal is what happens to it long before you start cooking it. Cutlets should be pounded until tender and melt in your mouth. They were magnificent.
For dessert we both had a superbly fresh Catalan cream that was clearly made minutes before it was served to us. Outstanding! Then, to wake us both up, my friend had a cappuccino and I had an espresso as we looked out at Highland Park’s elegant crowd of young men and women who seemed to be doing just fine. and happy to spend two or three hours having lunch. Trust funds are a wonderful invention and are not uncommon in Dallas. And they make for lovely diners.
The service was excellent and fast (our young waiter was a bright student finishing his first year at university). A lunch to remember, and to repeat for sure, and soon.
the bilboquet it’s at 4514 Travis Street between Knox and Armstrong. It’s often packed, especially for dinner, so you’ll definitely want to make a reservation by calling (469) 730-2937.