Restaurant in South Orange

[Guest johnh91011]

New restaurant opened in South Orange on Valley Street (where Niecy's used to be). It is called Papillon. Heard good buzz. Haven't tried it yet. Restaurant run by Yannicks (used to have a small restaurant a few blocks away and a catering service). The bar is run by the wine store next door.

Hope to try it real soon

[Rosie]

Haven't been. Heard it's upscale. Will try to find out more info.

[thereuare]

Any relation to Papillon in Nutley?

[Poots]

I went to the bar Friday Night, and had dinner on Tuesday. It is a little upscale. 23 and up at the bar. I recall people being asked to remove hats when going to the bar. The dinner menu is quite long. I have a feeling that it'll slim down once they get established what sells. I don't think Pappilon is related to any other place of the same name. The owner of the building is the owner of the liquor store next door. He uses the liquor license for both enterprises. I've been going to the Liquor store for many years so i know him pretty well. He runs the bar and as has been said the former owners of Yanicks run the kitchen.

The place is very nice looking and modern. A black marble(?) floor covers the bar area. There is a metal sculpture of a butterfly that looms over the bar area. Martinis are $7(one dollar less than the Martinis at Martinis in Milburn). There is a large martini menu(i can hear the groans from all those cocktail classicists that say they're not martinis);). They have no taps. There is a very large assortment of liquors available(thanks to the attached liquor store). The bar area is actually pretty small for a bar in this town, and so on the weekend was filled quite fast. There was an abundance of servers on the two nights i was there. On Friday there were around 4 bartenders(all female). On Tuesday we had at least 4-5 people come to our table at some point during the meal.

Dinner. Orderded a bottle of Chateau du Trignon Gigondas($36, i think). Checked next door at the liquor store after dinner, and this wine was available for 21.99 i think. Not too bad an increase i don't think. Wine service was decent as the waitress seemed a little apprehensive, but she was very nice and this was the first week. Shared were Chicken and Vegetable Dumplings served with some soy sauce(maybe soy sauce, perhaps something like it) dipping sauce. These were somewhat like Gyozas(?) i've had and quite tasty. Not crispy as they were steamed, but a good filling to outside proportion. A bowl of White Bean and Spinach(may have been escarole...) soup was thick, creamy and enjoyable. Also shared was a Caesar salad which was large for one and enough to split for two(with 2 others getting a forkful). Somewhat bland in my opinion but it seemed acceptable. Main courses were Chix Francaise served with Roasted Garlic mashed potatos. The chick(which i did not try) was thouroughly enjoyed by someone who often orders it out and thought this was a very good preparation. The mashed tators were quite good as well(these i did try). Papillon's Crab cakes with wasabi something or other and wild mushroom and garlic risotto. Two nice sized crab cakes a little unusually shaped tasted great with readily identified pieces of crab and not too much filler. The risotto(which also came with my meal Coq au vin) was much drier than i like(very dry) and very cheesy with not much garlic and not much mushroom to my taste. Coq au Vin was 4-5 boneless slices chix breasts in a wine sauce. As i'd not had this before i have nothing to compare it to, but it's not exactly what i expected. However it was okay, and it rapidly found it's way down my non-E-gullet ;). Last dish was Penne Vodka which a picky person ordered even though i recommended against it(she's my sister and i know her idiosyncrasies and knew the dish had chance of pleasing her). Penne was cooked al dente, and sauced a little skimpily. Neither she nor I am big fans of sun dried tomatos, so they did nothing to add to the dish. The vodka sauce however Was quite good, and i wouldn't be averse to ordering it for myself(although i don't usually order pasta outside of Italian restaurants). No dessert and since they didn't have an espresso machine(it's coming i think they told me) we had no coffee.

Dinner for 4 with lots of food, 1 bottle of wine, 1 martini, and a few sodas was $152 before tip. Water glasses were filled often. Courses were a little slow, but nothing i would complain about. Servers were very friendly and helpful. There was also a Host who walked around asking tables if they were doing ok and/or needed anything.

This will probably be a place i'm going to frequent as i live locally...at least until i move to Copenhagen in Jan...:) and i'm planning on bringing my brother to dinner there when he comes home for Xmas. I have a paper copy of the menu at home and will try to put prices to meals later.

[Rosie]

Thanks for info. Do you have the phone #?

[Guest johnh91011]

Pappillon 25 (whole name and how they spell it)

25 Valley Street

South Orange, NJ 07070

973 761 5299

Looks great

[Rosie]

Thanks. Sounds like it is worth a trip.

[scarlet knight]

We had an 8:30 reservation this past Saturday at Terra. They offered us a table that was right where people walk in. It was cold and I wasn't in the mood to be the unofficial host for the evening. It appeared that there were 1 or 2 open tables, but the hostess said they were not available. She said that the table that we didn't want was fine. Wrong answer. We chose to leave. I try hard to behave and to be accomodating, but since I'm laying down my Franklins, I would have appreciated some help (another table will open up in 10 minutes, etc.).

Well this was a fortuitous event, because we tried Pappillon 25 for the first time.

Initially, the prices struck me as high (typical entree: $28), but after eating the food, we realized it was worth it.

We enjoyed: Mesclun salad with goat cheese, corn and crab croquettes, whole grilled red snapper and grilled shrimp with mango. All excellent! We also were able to eat half of a key lime tart and we finished it the next day at home.

We were traveling with our red burgundy from Terra. We told the hostess we didn't know in advance that P-25 had a liquor license. She conspired with our waiter to allow us to have our wine without the owner noticing--we left a third of the bottle for them. The hostess and the waiter were extremely nice and were very gratified to see us happy. Surrounding diners were kvelling over their food, too. This is a must-try in South Orange.