Le Grand Cafe, Morristown

[Poots]

Possibly going here. Has anyone dined here recently? Any reccomendations on can't miss items on the menu. thanks in advance.

[Rosie]

Have not been here in years and have not heard anything good or bad about this place either. Be sure to give us a report.

[Lady S]

Grand Cafe is very high powered and very expensive. Service should be good (usually is) Back room is pink belle epoque and quite feminine, front room is panelled - has a fireplace and piano on weekends. Very masculine, tables not bad. There are also a few tables in the outside alley (don't know why anyone would want to eat there). Food is unreliable. I have had very good meals (not recently) and very mediocre meals (recently). Go for the atmosphere not for the food. Although if you stay with plain dishes it will probably be allright. Good luck.

[Rosie]

Another suggestion not far from Morristown is The Bernards Inn or The Petit Chateau.

[Jason Perlow]

Also Pierre's.

[coughy]

Went to Pierre's the other night and found the food good but not great. The restaurant is charming and if you can eat outside.

[Rail Paul]

Settebello is often a good choice, and is within two long blocks of Grand Cafe. Tim Schafer's Cuisine, rarely discussed here, is also a delightful place.

Nagano, across the street, has good sushi, not as good as Kyoto or Nikko (IMHO), but is much closer

Mariques in Mendham is well liked, I haven't visited enough to have a serious opinion.

Also, if you're willing to travel to the Bernards Inn, you have to pass Tre Vigne, which is usually excellent. TV has a $9.95 express lunch deal which I've been meaning to try.

[Poots]

Well, i dined at The Grand Cafe last night. A previous manager of mine is leaving to go back to her home in the Netherlands, and so i invited her out to a dinner of her choice. 7:00 reservations were made yesterday early afternoon w/out a problem. We arrived at 5 to 7. My dining companion truly wanted to sit outside and so i hesitantly agreed(i hate heat and worship at the feet of large air conditioners). Luckily it was a nice temperature outside, and the days heat and humidity had mostly dissipated. A not too loud piano played music that ranged from the famous song from the Godfather(don't know the name) to a song that sounded eerily like Danny Boy(the irish classic). Some funny selections for a french restaurant but the music was a nice background to the evening. We ordered a bottle of 97 Pio Cesare Barolo($85) and had a glass of Pinot Grigio and a glass of Chardonnay with our apps and while they decanted the Barolo. Both whites by the glass were $8. Also delivered to our table was a $9 bottle of Pellegrino. Is this a normal price for the larger bottle? I guess i just never paid attention to what they charge for sparkling water.

My companion started off the night with the special of sauteed shrimp and Frog's leg($15). She enjoyed it very much, and offered me a taste of the frog's leg as i had never partaken before....tastes like chicken.....gamy chicken . It didn't taste bad, but it probably wouldn't be something i'd go out of my way to order. I had the Cornmeal dusted sea scallops with a mango jicama salad in a chipotle beurre blanc sauce($12). The scallops were nicely seared, and not overcooked like i always worry about when ordering them. I really enjoyed them and the sauce, but didn't really enjoy the sweetness of the salad alongside the smoky undertones of the scallops(probably just a deficiency in my palate and not their prep ).

The waiter over the course of the evening was very attentive and friendly, however either he was a little unfamiliar with some of the things on the menu, or he didn't think that we'd understand certain small french descriptions such as 'beurre blanc', or 'au poivre'. I say this b/c he referred to them as a white butter sauce and peppered steak after the true names w/out us asking for an explanation. I'll admit, i'm a younger guy, however my companion speaks fluent french and I can get by. This was just something i wondered about whether he does it to everyone or if it was just for us.

Well, back to dinner. Ordered were the grilled rare ahi tuna with Red and Yellow Pear Tomato Escabeche and Angel Hair Pasta($27), and a special of rib eye au poivre(or peppered steak for you members of the unwashed masses ) in a barolo wine sauce($29). I, being the inveterate carnivore that i am, had the ribeye. The steak was a hearty 1 1/2 inch thick medium rare hunk of seared meat. Sorry, that sounds good to me just the way it is. It was served with a generous portion of truffled mashed potatos(delicious), 2 spears of asparagus(bland), and some yellow green beans?. The barolo wine sauce wasn't a large thick part of this dish, but rather a slight soaking of the steak, and a small pool underneath. It complimented the pepper well. Not sure about the classical preparation, but the steak was loosely spotted with peppercorns. Not to say there weren't enough as you got a good taste with each piece, but on a previous order of steak au poivre at another restaurant, the steak was literally crusted with peppercorns almost to an overwhelming amount. I preferred it this way. Did not try the tuna, but it looked rare and my companion liked it very much. To me, if i'm going to eat sushi, i'll eat it at the sushi bar, and not a french restaurant.

There was offered at the start of our meal a souffle for 2 that had to be ordered then which neither of us chose to do. Two espressos were brought to us before we ordered our dessert. Is this normally the order of thngs? I'd prefer to have it at the end of the meal, but this is where they offered it. I don't normally eat dessert and only did so at the behest of my friend. We both had the classic creme brulee with fresh berries. This was a good, normal version, eminently edible, but nothing special.

We finished the meal with some 10 yr old tawny port that was a nice digestiv to finish off with.

Total price for 2 was 255.46 w/out tip. I enjoyed the evening and the food, and would go again.

[Poots]

Menu can be found online at http://www.thegrandcafe.com/dinnermenu.htm

[Lady S]

Great report. Thank you, I think it's time to try it again.