Restaurant Review: Toulouse Café and Bar

It’s way past time for me to review another restaurant! 

Myself and some of the girls who dined at Sissy’s Southern Kitchen & Bar recently visited Toulouse Café and Bar.  Specializing in French cuisine, the restaurant’s décor painted a portrait of what I envision to be a French café, albeit Texas-sized.  Approaching the restaurant, you enter through a grand patio (think outdoor dining room), which is about the same size as their indoor dining room.  We ate inside where the décor was simple but again very French;  understated, dimly lit, tables closely situated and a worldly color scheme of red, browns, off-white, black and gold.  Definitely a cute place! 

We planned a quick dinner so we just stuck with the necessities: cocktails, entrees and dessert.  And here‘s what I had:

Cosmopolitan –Pretty, sexy, smooth and strong, all at the same time; the Cosmo has always been one of my favorite drinks. It’s kinda hard to mess up this drink, though some have.  Fortunately, Toulouse delivered! 

Crispy Duck Confit – I’m a fan of duck, but it’s not something that’s served everywhere so I revel at the opportunity to indulge.  The meat was just as described, crispy on the outside and fall-off-the-bone moist and tender on the inside, and it was very flavorful.  The sides accompanied the duck really well: lyonnais potatoes were well-seasoned, glazed carrots oozed sweetness and were perfectly cut, frise and prunes were great on their own and helped to balance the entire dish.  Overall, I was really pleased with this entrée!

Beignets aux Pommes – So these are not the beignets I grew up on from Café Du Monde but I had to try them.  The beignets were fruity flavored (hence the term ‘pomme’) and that flavor was enhanced when topped with the also fruity coulis (sauce), which looked more like a pudding but had the consistency of a syrup.  In true beignets-and-coffee fashion, I paired mine with a cappuccino, which was quite yummy.  The dessert was good, but honestly not much better than the beignets I’ve had at Grand Lux, Cheesecake Factory’s non-French sister restaurant.  

So all-in-all, I enjoyed Toulouse and look forward to going back one weekend for brunch, which is supposed to be really good.  My final rating … 4/5

Xoxo!